ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Sunday, January 06, 2008
bogged & towed out - 06:26 AM
(filed under 'general')
i mentioned briefly here about being bogged in the mud at woodford after i'd packed up & was ready to go.
so many people were getting bogged from the major rain, that after a few days, they had to close the festival car parking for day visitors & opened up the car park at the woodford showgrounds, instead. they then had free shuttle buses going from there to the festival.
when it was time for season campers to leave, heaps of people around me were getting bogged as soon as they tried to shift their cars. i suspected that i'd have the same problem. once i'd finished packing up (nine hours it took me!! that includes two stops for breakfast & lunch, but still, that's a long time. you don't realise how many things that you need to pack up at a camp site are so much easier & quicker to do with two people), i tried to start moving the car.
despite my best intentions, even trying to back down the hill instead of going uphill in the slush, immediately the back tyre got bogged in the soft soil near the base of a tree. i wasn't moving anywhere. i saw an racq man across the road from us so i ran over with smiley to catch him before he left & ask if he could please add us to the end of his queue of people to help.
it turned out that i had to ring in anyway to log the call with racq, but he told me to let them know that steve would be helping me out. i did so to the man on the end of the phone, but he didn't seem to want to acknowledge it, even though i said it about three times.
no matter, because as soon as steve had finished with the people he was helping out, he came across to where we were, as promised. i only had to wait about half an hour at the most. earlier in the day, i'd heard of people waiting up to four hours! there were that many people bogged that it was simply taking that long to get around to everyone. i figured that since there weren't many people left around me (it was already about 4.00 in the afternoon), that most of them had already been taken care of.
first he hooked us up to his truck & tried pulling us up the hill, the shortest route to solid (dirt) road. it was so slippery (& i guess mum's biggish car was also heavy with gear) that he just slid around, even in his four-wheel-drive ute. after several tries, he moved his car & tried from the side, which would have been pulling me across the hill, instead.
that was a better option & some movement occurred, but again, his tyres were spinning in the mud, with no traction whatsoever, just a foot or two from the road. i suggested that if he had another towing strap, his ute would reach the road & get some traction to pull me out. so he got out a second long strap & looped it around the fist one. he got it! woohoo!
we got mum's car as far as sitting across the dirt road & then he gave me some advice on where to go from there. i still had to drive across some slippery mush, but this time forwards & downhill towards the road. it was a bit mushy at the bottom of the road, too, but was still more solid than on the grassy camping areas.
having never driven on mud before, i was a bit worried about getting through it & asked if he'd watch me for a few minutes to make sure i didn't get bogged again. he ummed & ahhed for a moment before asking if i'd like him to drive through it, instead. i jumped at the chance!
mum's car seat is pushed right forward since she's just over five foot. i'm five foot on the dot, so i hadn't moved it from where she uses the seat. aside from that, everything's electric in her car & i couldn't find the thing for adjusting the seat! mind you, the car was packed full & even if if i could find it, i'm not sure it would have moved back, anyway. despite this, steve managed to squeeze his full-sized male body behind the wheel. i was quite impressed. there really wasn't much room in there!
despite being squished up like a sardine, he managed to drive out across the mud, down the hill, through the muddy section of the road & up onto relatively dry land where i caught up with him & gave him a huge hug because i was so excited to be out of there. lol! 
it took only half an hour to get me out. if it wasn't for him, i would have been stuck there for a very, very long time: later on that night, after dropping smiley off at rudi & audrey's & going to mum's to take everything out of her car, i got a call on my mobile at around 8 pm from another racq guy who told me he was waiting for me at the toilet blocks near where i'd been stuck. somehow, the completed job hadn't been logged in so he'd turned up to get me out. when i'd initially called, they did say there could be a long wait, but far out, i'm so glad i didn't have to wait that long! we had nothing left to eat (or else i would have had to unpack the car to dig out some stale bread or something) & nowhere to go to get any food. i would have had to keep smiley amused for that long, as well.
it was an adventure, that's for sure! 
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