Landy Stuck

ihana.com - big trip - landy stuck - salt flats

August 30th 2001

After the injected delays we were keen to see the desolate Peninsula de Vizcaino and still make it to civilisation in time for the weekend parties, so we took a short cut through the salt ponds, ignoring the signs telling us not to enter. As the sun was setting we thought that we'd make it to Malarrimo Beach before dark.

At one point half of the track was covered by the sea and we couldn't resist pitting the landy against the mud. Driving into the wet bit we immediately ground to a halt. We couldn't move forwards or backwards and the landy was starting to list alarmingly! Diving into the back we retrieved the winching stakes and started hammering them into the ground while taking it in turns to dig the thick mud from under the wheels to lay the sand ladders down. The sun was setting rapidly, we were at least 20kms from the nearest road, there was frothy minging stuff blowing around from the water and the landy was up to its axles in sticky wet stuff. We had to take out half of the contents to get to the hand winch. Once the winch was in place we had a go at extracting the landy but the first stake was being pulled out so it had to be hammered in again. By this time it was almost pitch dark but we had the sand ladders well under the seaward wheels and the stake buried better and out it popped!

The worst was not over as we repacked and wiped off the foamy stuff which was now blowing all over the place in the darkness and wiped the worst of the mud from ourselves. One kilometer further on, the road had simply disappeared into the sea so we had to turn back anyway! Driving back through alternate clouds of froth and thick clouds of flies while balancing on the knife edge of the track, surrounded by sea was an experience to remember - the next morning the entire front of the landy was literally coated with dead flies.

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