Lessons learned. The importance of not driving alone.
I've preached it plenty of times. But finally learned the importance of the words I was saying - and was truly lucky it didn't end up a lot worse.
Saturday evening I decided to (stupidly) go for a little bit of a wheel solo. Twin locked. Good tyres. Good clearance. 12,000lb winch. I'll be fine, right?
Wrong.
I was reversing to get a better run up at a steep climb in deep and slippery mud. Windows and reversing camera were covered in sludge. In the dark I misjudged where I was and my rear right dropped off a log edging and the whole rear end followed, dropping me into a shallow creek, seriously hung up on the sills. I couldn't see how badly I was hung up, and jumped out, running the winch out through thigh deep mud and muck which I fell over in several times trying to get the rope out to a solid tree.
Drenched, freezing cold with the temperatures at nearly zero, the winch was set, and despite valiant attempts the rope snapped. This was at around midnight.
I was stranded. Couldn't even find my phone in the dark as it had dropped out of my pocket - I thought into the mud.
I gave up. Climbed into the back seat, saturated, and tried to sleep till the morning in the hope that in daylight someone would find me.
Around 9am I was found by another driver heading through the forest. He attempted a snatch but soon realised we needed more pull and went to get more help.
He returned with another vehicle, then another turned up, then another and another. It ended up requiring 2 winches - one on a double pull - to get me out.
What if I'd rolled? Had been seriously injured?
Not worth it. No matter what, please give this story some thought before you think about heading out alone.
I was lucky. My family were lucky. My friends were lucky.
It could've been very different.