31 January 2007..................Phone rings at 4.15am....
“What the.....?”
“Yeaaaahrr……..”
“Mate I'm in the chit! We have two vehicles bogged to the west of
Hawker”
“Yeaaahrrrr.....”…Half asleep
“Can you help?”
“Yeaaaaahrrrr...............”
'Twas me neighbour down the road. He does contract cleaning of ETSA facilities in the state. To gain access to these facilities he needs to have an ETSA contracted leccy to accompany him. They go clean the place. To save 140km return trip to
Port Augusta they decide to go straight down the old road to PA.
Wrong move!!!!
Road is graded after rains. Yippeee........but only up to some shearing sheds. No worries. They carry on. Neighbour mate drives a Yota Commuter Bus weighing in at around 3.9ton. Leccy has a hired Mazda Bravo 4x4.
Creek is washed out big time but they make it through. Road in good condition for 1km and then deteriorates. Serious washouts. They pick their way around these obstacles. Then they find a ‘ponded’ stretch of road around 250metres in length.
Both the vehicles go down at around 5pm. They stuff around till about 9pm and then give up. No EPIRB(was going to get one, but.....), no CDMA service(wrong side of range), no Satphone.....CHITTT!!!!
They are stuck between Southern
Flinders Ranges and
Lake Torrens. You might as
well be on the moon. NO stations, NO nothing(except the lonely
Leigh Creek railway line).....but they can see the lights of PA. Good!!!
They start walking. GPS in hand, phone, water bottles, torches. It’s a warm night. Sheep and cattle follow them out of curiosity.
12.10am and they get CDMA reception. Ring
home. Ring
Port Augusta Police on 000. Police not responsive. Ring SES. They say Tough!!! Ring CFS…Double tough!!! Ring Police again…..Triple tough!!! But Police do alert
Breakdown service and bloke comes out in a 2wd recovery vehicle. He meets them after they have walked 20km.
“Chitt mate, nearly got bogged in the sand meself”
My phone rings. Mate and his chaperone are at PA in motel. I leave at 6.15am after throwing some recovery gear in GQ. Luckily I have a full tank of diesel. Missus’ throws in sandwiches, thermos’ and fruit.
Meet them at around 8am. Then we drive to
Quorn and visit me mate Noel, and grab more Snatchem Straps, a Stretch Rope(new) and a Tirfor. Four of us hit the road and arrive at scene of the crime at 10am.
I edge as close as to Commuter bus, attach winch cable through snatch block and start winching. Move Commuter about 10 metres and Brawn winch slips out of gear. F……!!!!!!! Wrap cable around bulbar and attach Snatchem Strap to vehicles On 6th snatch I get the bus on its way and we retrieve it. Good!!!
Now for the Bravo. It’s a lot further into the slime. I edge forward and get to within snatch range. First, second, third snatch and GQ breaks the surface and bogs big time. And I only have my plurry Eldorados on.(There wasn’t time to swap tyres around,eh?). Drop tyres pressures from 25 to 15 in the water, slush and mudddddd!
Not going anywhere!
Out comes the trusty Tirfor. As much as I hate working with them they get one out of trouble at a critical time. Much sweat and we move the GQ whilst attached to bogged Bravo. Get on to firmer ground and reverse out of trouble.
Well not quite. Slip off edge of road into ooze. Slam into first high range and flatten it. I get out….Whew!!
On hard ground we attach 2 x Snatchem Straps, 1 x 1mm x 10m winch cable, 1 x Stretch Rope, 1 x Trifor and I x Tree trunk protector. About 80 metres all up. Nothing is by the book. Bow shackles, U bolts and D shackles hold everything together. Bravo driver has no idea what to do but we yell instructions to him. Her complies to the best of his ability.
As luck would have it I get him moving and retrieve the vehicle.
By now the water we are standing in is hot! The mud is hot! The vehicles are hot!! One can feel the sun burning into ones skin. Time to put muddy boots on again.
Its 2pm. We make for the creek for lunch. Both Bus and Bravo get stuck in the sand......twice......... and I have to snatch them out.
We have lunch and then drive to
Hawker,
Quorn and
home, pumping up tyres along the way
Arrive
home at 7.30pm. 610km driven. Out with the Karcher in the street, using rain water and blast the oodles of mud off.
Home by 8.30pm
And tomorrow I have to go to
Adelaide!!!!
Never a dull moment.
Cheers