Hi all, just a note to remind you to always carry your recovery gear.
Picture the scene:
My spanish other half and her family are having a siesta on Sunday afternoon, I still cannot get into sleeping halfway through the day (essex boy) so I decided to kill a couple of hours in the Disco.
Now I never go 'proper' off roading unless I am carrying all the kit so decided to run along a dry river bed used by the locals every day. I mean, no rain for months ect. Poodling along as you do recently repaired air con doing it's stuff and all of a sudden the front of the car drop and stopped, if I had not had a seat belt on I may have tested the strength of the windscreen with my face.
The car had gone through the hard crust and I was stuck proper, it was so sudden I never even touch the brake pedal, I tried to reverse no luck, lockers front and rear ect and nothing. I have a winch (front) but nothing to winch from. I decided digging was the way to go, I have one of those little shovels that fits across the back door......forget it, that will be replaced asap with a proper shovel. The main thing worrying me was the car was continuing to sink albeit very slowly.
Now Sunday in this area it was like a ghost town, 40 + degrees I gave in trying to dig it out and summoned help from the missus who stopped someone for help, ended up being towed out by a Ford Maverick after the brother in laws Honda just did not move
I had even tried walking forward a few yards to try and bury the spare wheel and use the winch to pull it out but the crust further forward was solid, I had found an area about 10 feet wide that was fragile, the rest was like concrete!
I was in Sunday best up to my arse in the stickiest clay you can imagine, missus peed off for ruining her siesta, we were late home for the evening meal it seems that the last heavy rains had washed out an area and made the crust above the underground river network very thin, apparently they have lost diggers, tractors and all sorts here in the past but all many years ago.
Now it seems the are going to replace the warning signs for this part of the river that were taken down about ten years ago, so they should be back up in a couple of years or so
Now if I had been carrying my ground anchors/high lift/chains/blah blah blah, but I did have fresh water with me (always) and in the two hours trying to dig it out I drank about 3 litres!!
I have attached couple of pics for a laugh, I know it does not look deep but that car was glued to the river bed by clay/suction ect.
regards
Dave
Picture the scene:
My spanish other half and her family are having a siesta on Sunday afternoon, I still cannot get into sleeping halfway through the day (essex boy) so I decided to kill a couple of hours in the Disco.
Now I never go 'proper' off roading unless I am carrying all the kit so decided to run along a dry river bed used by the locals every day. I mean, no rain for months ect. Poodling along as you do recently repaired air con doing it's stuff and all of a sudden the front of the car drop and stopped, if I had not had a seat belt on I may have tested the strength of the windscreen with my face.
The car had gone through the hard crust and I was stuck proper, it was so sudden I never even touch the brake pedal, I tried to reverse no luck, lockers front and rear ect and nothing. I have a winch (front) but nothing to winch from. I decided digging was the way to go, I have one of those little shovels that fits across the back door......forget it, that will be replaced asap with a proper shovel. The main thing worrying me was the car was continuing to sink albeit very slowly.
Now Sunday in this area it was like a ghost town, 40 + degrees I gave in trying to dig it out and summoned help from the missus who stopped someone for help, ended up being towed out by a Ford Maverick after the brother in laws Honda just did not move
I had even tried walking forward a few yards to try and bury the spare wheel and use the winch to pull it out but the crust further forward was solid, I had found an area about 10 feet wide that was fragile, the rest was like concrete!
I was in Sunday best up to my arse in the stickiest clay you can imagine, missus peed off for ruining her siesta, we were late home for the evening meal
it seems that the last heavy rains had washed out an area and made the crust above the underground river network very thin, apparently they have lost diggers, tractors and all sorts here in the past but all many years ago.Now it seems the are going to replace the warning signs for this part of the river that were taken down about ten years ago, so they should be back up in a couple of years or so
Now if I had been carrying my ground anchors/high lift/chains/blah blah blah, but I did have fresh water with me (always) and in the two hours trying to dig it out I drank about 3 litres!!
I have attached couple of pics for a laugh, I know it does not look deep but that car was glued to the river bed by clay/suction ect.
regards
Dave
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