Ashley Judd takes first walk in Swiss mountains six months after shattering leg in four places

Ashley Judd is walking again, more than six months after a harrowing rainforest accident in February shattered her leg in four places.

After months of chronicling her rehabilitation from the potentially fatal incident, Judd announced on Instagram Sunday that she marked a major recovery milestone by strolling across the verdant meadow of a Swiss national park.

"Dear Friends, It is with reverence and quiet awe I offer this update. Today, five months and three weeks after the accident in the Congolese rainforest, I walked again, and in what fashion! I hiked in the #SwissNationalPark," Judd, 53, wrote alongside an Instagram gallery of photos and videos showing the actress walking on her own again.

"Stepping in, I felt in my ease, my natural garment of self, at home in my spirit. My leg and foot, worked beautifully," Judd wrote, explaining she walked up the uneven hill in the mountainous region for an hour and "came down carefully and easily."

The next day, Judd said she walked on another Alps trail and carried firewood to her hut. "I have to rebuild," she wrote. "This is the road ahead. But I am up to the daily tasks."

The February accident: Ashley Judd provides health updates after shattering leg in rainforest

Judd was deep in the Congo rainforest researching endangered bonobo apes in February when she tripped over a fallen tree and seriously injured her right leg.

On Feb. 17, Judd first shared photos on Instagram from her "grueling 55 hour odyssey" – from the floor of the rainforest to care — in which she was carried by six men.

Ultimately, Judd was flown to a South African hospital, where she was in surgery for eight hours.

"Friends. Without my Congolese brothers and sisters, my internal bleeding would have likely killed me, and I would have lost my leg," she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Judd has shared photos and videos of her recovery since the accident.

"Now, after crying while trying to spell the ABCs with a paralyzed foot….well, you see!" Judd wrote Sunday as she reflected on her progress, adding that she and her medical team "expected my foot – if ever – to begin to move in one year."

"My leg will never be the same," Judd wrote. "She is a new leg. And I love her… We have come a long way and have a fabulous life ahead."

Ashley Judd: Fight against sexual misconduct is about 'ending impunity' for offenders

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ashley Judd is walking again six months after shattering her leg