Bugger bugger bugger. This is turning out to one hell of a day and I don’t know how it will end yet – by the time this is posted I will and hopefully it’s a good one so we can laugh about this story…
I’m currently in Namibia towards the end of my holiday, 4 nights to go to be precise. At this exact moment I am sitting in our hire car on the skeleton coast stuck. In the mud. Alone. DH had tried valiantly to put rocks under the wheels and I’ve felt in danger of burning the engine out as we’ve tried to get the car to MOVE in either direction to no avail.
We knew it was going to be tricky – there is already a car stuck on the other side most of the way through but we picked what looked to be the most promising route. There is no other road we can take, it’s a single track unpaved road and for the past 150km plus we have seen not one other car, apart from the one which is also stuck in the mud.
We’re in a 4×4 but it’s made no difference. The morning started with a challenge when about 80km into our 350km ish journey we got a puncture, just before driving on the most remote road in Namibia. Happily for us some very competent South Africans were passing not 5 minutes after it happened and helped to really speed the tyre changing process along. But now no spare and rough roads for 280km ish means that the drive really is squeaky bum time.
Still with only 76km to our hotel to go we were approaching the only settlement we’ve seen (about a km or so from it I think) which we think is a potentially abandoned camp site. We hope it’s not abandoned and that we can get some help and that’s where a very muddy DH has walked to around 1km away.
Oh, and did I fail to mention our mobile phones don’t work here? At all. Deep joy.
So I am currently sitting in the car hoping to see a truck coming that can pull us out so we can continue our journey and finish the day with lots and lots of wine. And I’m also hoping the desert adapted lions don’t live near here…
I see a truck!
It’s for the other car. 😭
They keep trying to attach the rope and it keeps pinging off. 3rd go… And he’s out!
Think I see OH walking back. A second car has just made it through dead centre of the track through all the wet mud. That’s obviously the only way to do it.
The truck is coming across…
So, OH and the truck come across and attach the rope to the back of the car. It pings off first attempt. Second attempt he finally pulls me out! Whoop! OH empties his wallet in gratitude – the guy is just meant to be delivering a tractor not fishing people out of the mud!
Unfortunately he has pulled me back onto a bit that looks solid but isn’t so I spend another 5 minutes thinking I am stuck yet again. Finally though I manage to back up far enough on the dry ground for a run up to the mud pan.
The first part is OK, mud sprays everywhere but it’s not too deep. The second bit… The mud is deeper, the car is fishtailing, it’s screaming at 7000 plus revs and starting to smell of burning and it’s moving slower and slower. I am pressing the accelerator through the floor (it’s an automatic 4×4) and turning into the skids to keep it going forwards… And finally we’re out in dry land fist pumping with the other guys whose car got stuck.
We head to the collection of buildings – which it turns out is the exit from the park, so close! – and OH hoses himself down and we try to clean the worst of the mud off the car so we can at least see out of it. It’ll need a full valet though as it looks like a child’s nappy has exploded in the front of the car, although it thankfully doesn’t smell like that!
We cancel the rescue truck – which was coming from the closest place a 3 hour drive away – and head to our hotel. After a hot shower, hot food and lovely lovely wine it’s now turned into the ridiculous story I hoped it would! So fingers crossed that tomorrow’s 150km ish drive is significantly less eventful.
Oh, and did I mention that the mud we got stuck in was in the desert where it hasn’t rained for years. Only we could do that…