Thread: Heart starter/pucker factor.....

or how much volume/velocity of water does it to pick a Defender up and move it sideways off a farm river crossing ??

I found out this morning......
It only moved me half a car sideways, but geez, it got the bloody adrenaline going.

Had some work to do on a farm near here up in the hills.
We've had an inch of rain overnight, but the river here wasn't too bad. I was going to ring, but thought naa, it'll be ok, so over the hills and up the valley I went.
About 10km from here it started to pour again, and even with the wipers on high they struggled. Great.
Once I got to where i had to go, a nice even 40km from home, their river crossing (and different river) was just after a bend in the nice little mountain stream and it was roaring. There was a hell of a wake just after the crossing, which meant there was a reasonable drop off it, so if I went sideways, it could get a bit dicey.....
There was heaps of crap coming down too, but nothing too big.
Damn thing looked ok just 10km downstream...... (the road follows the river up the valley)
Geez these little rivers come up quickly.

I stopped and waited for ten minutes, letting the diffs etc, cool off and watched a stick on the other bank. Within ten minutes it had risen the 3" or so to the stick.
Bugger. If I did get across OK, I may end up being stuck here overnight.
I backed off the crossing and went downstream to their cattle yard crossing, a bit wider and flatter, and hopefully a bit safer. Looking at the fence just downstream it looked like it was only 18" or so, (i hoped) so low second, and in we went.
The bow wave came up to the top of the bonnet, then half way across the right front dipped, traction was momentarily lost and sideways we went
Kept the foot into it and it scrabbled up the other side, just a touch downstream of the track.
No easy way up to the house without really cutting up their track, it looked too damned steep and slippery, and with the river still coming up, off I went back through the river, but made sure I was on the upstream side going in, and I ended up on the downstream side coming out.....
No one told me Defender 130's float........

Sorry, no pics, I didn't even think of it, the old ticker was still going half way down the valley.

When I got back here, the RH headlight has about 15mm of water in it, and there is a load of crap in the grill and condenser. Oops.

Sounds like you were pretty lucky. As you didn't mention it I bet you're glad you had the front vents shut!