OK, Mrs Creepers said, you can't tell the full story, as the folks concerned may read it on here.
Well, she's gone out, so now you'll get the full story of us getting bogged in the soft stuff.
We arrived at Inskip at about 6:15 on the day in question and spent a few minutes dropping some air out.
Now, for those that know Inskip, two vehicles and trailers parked say 50 metres short of the barge, from back at the dirt, would appear to have arrived at the barge, would they not?
Once you start onto the sand, your head turns immediately to the right, thus allowing the driver and crew, a decent look at Fraser and with the water sparkling clean and with a gentle ripple on it from the north/west breezes, it sort of takes your attention briefly.
It however, did not take long, before we realised just how soft the sand was that fatefull Friday. We were plugging through and going good as we came up on the right hand side of a stricken early model Nissan Patrol and the 4wd in front of it preparing to give him some snatch.
Oh Sh1t, i mumbled to myself, as we were slowing down now at a decent rate until a bit past the Nissan, we became stationary.
I jumped out, mentioned to the guy with the snatch, if we could be next and looked at me like I'd just been given his missus one.
Oh well, dig, dig dig, drop into low range, a few inches back and blast off.
Ha, we're moving and got a bit of a run on too, until it was stopsville again.
Same trick again, we're off again, but a shorter gain this time.
This happened a few times, so i wont bore you with every minute detail
By now, we've all but caught up with the other two stationary 4wd's, and it was obvious, that at least one of them was stuck and still with a bit to go to get to the barge.
Oh well, so now it was time to pool resources.
The bloke that came around the front of the nearest 4wd, was sort of side on to me, but as he turned, i thought OH MY BLOODY GOD.
He looked like he had two frying pans for ears.
I kid you not, a Volkswagen with the doors open had nothing on this bloke, so i nick named him Panhead and not because he had a Harley either.
Panhead has asked his mate, could he snatch him out and his mate goes off. I've already done it once, I've gotta drop the trailer off again and stormed over to his Toyota and drove it up the barge waiting area.
I thought to myself, at least he isn't bogged, but what a unit.
I said to Panhead, mate of yours? and he replied, brother-in-law.
Mrs Panhead was starting to whine now about being "over it" and i thought, what a lemon she was. No help, stand around bitching about being bogged. Wheres a good bird dropping when ya need it.
We were all pitching in to help Panhead and not going too bad.
For some reason, only known to him, his dopey brother-in-law who we might nick name Dufus, decides to drive his 4wd and trailer back from the barge area, bringing it around in a huge circle anticlockwise to come back to left side of Panheads 4wd, only to get his bogged as well.
So, now we have 3 to dig out. I couldn't believe it, he was fine, all we had to do, was all pitch in, but no, Dufus Donelittle decides to bog his as well. No sense being left out of the fun now, is there Dufus.
Then we all turned, as the first old Nissan has come to life back along the sand.
This thing sounded like it had pretty stout small block Chev in it and in low range, at about 9,000 rpm, its come flogging past, rooster tails of sand going everywhere, followed by his mate.
They drove straight onto the waiting barge, never to be seen again. Didn't think they looked like they wanted to help.
I should've got Mrs Jeepers to drop her cans out and see if it would've helped.
Wouldn't hurt, that's for sure.
Ya still with me? Hang in there.....
A fellow working on the second barge, carried over 4 Max Traks and i was so happy at the sight of ém, i wanted to root him then and there on the sand.
We got stuck into getting Panheads ready, with the plan to have one under each wheel. You see, when Panhead bogs something, he really bogs it
Dufus wonders off with 2 and starts working on his own and I'm now starting to get the sh1ts good and proper, as no-one seems to be working towards a common result.
Dufus wedges 2 Max Traks under his front wheels and gives it the berries.
All you hear, is the tyres spinning on the plastic. Yep, has ém upside down. Old Einstein can't ever get a frigging Max trak up the correct way. He should donate his brain to science, they wouldn't get too many that are brand new and still in the wrapper.
It was around then, another 4wd got stuck to the right of us and not long after that, a landcruiser got stuck back behind us and to one side.
With this many people, i told Panhead, yell out when you give it the berries, we'll all push from the trailer and don't lift until you get to the hard sand by the barge.
He yells, we push, back wheels trying to pull it out, front one sitting there.
You sure you're in 4 wheel drive i bellow and everyone in a 5 klm radius checked if they were in or not.
A very sheepish, yes came from Panhead and all of a sudden, bugger me, it drove out and we got it sorted.
Dufus was next, at least he was in 4 wheel drive.
Then Panheads wife says, oh look, the barge is nearly back.
I very politely, but forcefully said, yeah, forget that, no ones getting on unless we are all out of here. We leave no one behind.
The last bloke who got bogged sighed a bit of relief, as i think he thought he was going to left behind.
We came out next, and we were right.
Then the next one, and then the next one.
One fellow made sure the Max Traks went back to the right person.
Once i was on the barge, i went to check everybody was on and all good.
All up, about an hour and twenty i think it was, which wasn't too bad, all things considered.
One thing i can tell you, last time I'll ever leave the tyre pump at home. I was reluctant to drop the pressures any more than i had, as i knew we'd be right, once on the island.
