mojo
21st November 2007, 02:41 PM
We went to Fraser for a few days a little while ago - my first time there, it was great!:BigThumb: We were staying at the Yidney Rocks beachfront units (fantastic spot, can highly recomend them if you are not going to camp), and got to know the people in the units next to us - 4 brothers and their 8 or so kids (their wifes were left behind for this trip, I suspect so they could onsume the desired amounts of alcohol in a hassle free environment :twisted:).
Anyway, one morning we got up and decided the east coast of the island was just to windy to be enjoyable, so we took a drive over to Moons Point for the afternoon. Had a fun day fishing, kayaking and hooning on their jet ski, then set off back to the other side of the island again. They pulled over in their 2 cars to stuff around with seating arrangements for the kids, so we continued on. After a while we found a spot to pull over and stretch the legs while we waited for them - half an hour later they still hadn't appeared - we started to suspect they might be stuck somewhere, particularly as one of their cars was towing the jet ski and there were a few boggy stretches of sand that could have caused problems for them. We also knew they didn't have any recovery gear with them.
So we decided to go back and see if they needed any help - bad move :o We had back tracked maybe 2 k's when they came tearing around a corner. Anyone who's been on the Fraser tracks knows they're only wide enough for 1 car. My old man was driving and came to a stop pretty much straight away, but when the other guys slammed on their brakes the lead car, towing the jet ski, just kept plowing through the sand. Luckily he was able to steer of to the side and instead of a head on with us he had a head on with a tree. He hit hard enough to bend his bull bar back on the front right side - his bull bar, grill, front right panel, lights and spotties were all stuffed. Surpisingly his airbags didn't go off, but thankfully no-one was hurt - I don't think all the kids had belts on so they were very lucky.
The car was still driveable, and we all went back to the Happy Valley pub to sooth the nerves - my parents were particularly shaken even though we were untouched. It turned out that they had in fact been stuck while we had been waiting for them, and a tour bus had ended up pulling them out. The driver of the car that crashed said he hadn't been expecting anyone heading the other way at that time (late afternoon), so was obviously surprised to see us coming around a corner - they weren't upset though, we had been going back to help them out afer all.
Maybe we should have just adopted a "don't give a stuff" attitude and not gone back looking for them ...
Anyway, one morning we got up and decided the east coast of the island was just to windy to be enjoyable, so we took a drive over to Moons Point for the afternoon. Had a fun day fishing, kayaking and hooning on their jet ski, then set off back to the other side of the island again. They pulled over in their 2 cars to stuff around with seating arrangements for the kids, so we continued on. After a while we found a spot to pull over and stretch the legs while we waited for them - half an hour later they still hadn't appeared - we started to suspect they might be stuck somewhere, particularly as one of their cars was towing the jet ski and there were a few boggy stretches of sand that could have caused problems for them. We also knew they didn't have any recovery gear with them.
So we decided to go back and see if they needed any help - bad move :o We had back tracked maybe 2 k's when they came tearing around a corner. Anyone who's been on the Fraser tracks knows they're only wide enough for 1 car. My old man was driving and came to a stop pretty much straight away, but when the other guys slammed on their brakes the lead car, towing the jet ski, just kept plowing through the sand. Luckily he was able to steer of to the side and instead of a head on with us he had a head on with a tree. He hit hard enough to bend his bull bar back on the front right side - his bull bar, grill, front right panel, lights and spotties were all stuffed. Surpisingly his airbags didn't go off, but thankfully no-one was hurt - I don't think all the kids had belts on so they were very lucky.
The car was still driveable, and we all went back to the Happy Valley pub to sooth the nerves - my parents were particularly shaken even though we were untouched. It turned out that they had in fact been stuck while we had been waiting for them, and a tour bus had ended up pulling them out. The driver of the car that crashed said he hadn't been expecting anyone heading the other way at that time (late afternoon), so was obviously surprised to see us coming around a corner - they weren't upset though, we had been going back to help them out afer all.
Maybe we should have just adopted a "don't give a stuff" attitude and not gone back looking for them ...