Caught with my pants down

One of my many responsibilities is to advise Police and government agencies about the condition of the roads so twice each day during this high alert situation I go around checking that all essential services are operational and accessible so I go the 5km to the Finke river crossing on the Titjikala Road to check whether the river is passable or not. Well it has been passable this week except that this poor prick got caught taking an unofficial bush track along the banks of the Finke.  I had no option other than to dig as calling for the rescue team was out of the question because the Telstra tower five ks away was out of action so the choices were: (a) Walk the 5k through slippery, boggy sand (b) Pray (c) Keep digging I chose the third option which just wasn't working.  The harder I dug the deeper the hole got until the car was suspended with 3 of the 4 wheels out of contact with terra firma.  

I was absolutely stuffed - no hope of digging it out.  So, I tried option 2 and bugger me dead it worked! I am sitting on the shovel, hands clasped to my chin when I heard voices coming from the clouds - or maybe coming from the bushes further along the river bank and lo and behold it was my team from the "office"!  The boys had wondered where I was because I hadn't bobbed at the usual 7:30 am staff meeting which I conduct and they knew something was wrong because I NEVER miss the morning meeting.  I had been spotted by one of the lads doing his essential service inspections at 6:30am and they knew that I was "doing my rounds" so they got out, into the Ranger and went looking for tracks - which is what the indigenous guys are really good at.  They found my tracks and followed them the 5k until they saw a bogged Ford SUV up to its armpits in mud.  Now that saved me a bugger of a walk and got me back to base 14 minutes before an ALL-IN staff compulsory tele- conference mandated by the CEO.  Now how bloody good was that?  The second option actually brought home the goods! Well, another day's adventures in the Simpson Desert. 

The car is a loaner while my Ranger is with Ford in Alice to get a new air conditioner blower. Fun doing so much driving in mud but you can take it a little bit too far - this time about 5 kilometres too far!