Thread: Why you don't drive on the mudflats

"We couldn't afford the cost of the commercial recovery service from Weston, so brought our own tractor across from Caerphilly to do the job. It was a 140 mile trip to get here, which took seven hours, because we had to use lots of minor roads, not motorways"




These were the scenes on Brean beach on Monday afternoon (May 11th) when the owners of a vehicle that had become stranded in mud at the weekend managed to retrieve it.

Burnham-On-Sea.com first reported on Sunday how the Nissan Patrol 4x4 got into difficulty after being driven approximately half a mile out from the beach near Brean Down. Its owners, who are on holiday from South Wales, managed to escape from the vehicle but there was no time to retrieve the vehicle from the rapidly-incoming tide.

Once the tide had receded, the owners used spades to try and loosen the mud-plugged vehicle - before a tractor was brought in to help.

A tractor was especially driven over from Wales by the vehicle's owners to help. Owner Chris Jones explained to Burnham-On-Sea.com: "We couldn't afford the cost of the commercial recovery service from Weston, so brought our own tractor across from Caerphilly to do the job. It was a 140 mile trip to get here, which took seven hours, because we had to use lots of minor roads, not motorways."

The vehicle finally started to move, with the help of a long tractor rope, a short time later and within minutes it was finally inched out of the hole.

While the car was successfully pulled free from the mud, the inside of the vehicle, its electronics and engine will all need extensive work after two tides passed over it.

At least now it was back on dry land, away from further incoming tides...

Click here to see online video and photos of Sunday's incident on Brean beach


In photos: Stranded 4x4 car retrieved from mud on Brean beach


Looks like quite a few cars get stuck there:



Burnham-On-Sea rescue hovercraft called to car stranded in mud

One of Burnham-On-Sea's rescue hovercrafts was called to Brean on Saturday morning (March 21st) after this vehicle became trapped in mud almost a mile from the shore.
A local resident raised the alarm at 7am after spotting the Vauxhall Corsa, pictured here, stuck on the mudflats near Brean Down.
The Light Of Elizabeth hovercraft, operated by Burnham rescue charity BARB, was launched with two crewmembers onboard to check that no-one was still inside the car.
BARB Operations Manager Steve Perks told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "There had been some concern that someone could still be inside because no-one could get close enough to check from the beach."
"We flew out to the vehicle and were able to quickly confirm that the occupants had escaped from the car and this was relayed to Coastguards."
The car was pulled out of the mud by a commercial vehicle recovery service from Weston-super-Mare later on Saturday morning.
It was later understood that the car had been driven out into the mud by several holidaymakers late on Friday, unaware of the dangers. The vehicle had been inundated by the incoming tide overnight.

Interesting, white number plate at the front and yellow at the back
Driving that amount of miles on the tractor without load it is not very good for the engine