im in a lot of pain...
firstly, this is a lesson to other people, it shows a lot about how stupid i can be, and what can happen when you dont use ur own common sense.. im an idiot, and i dont need to be told a lot more.. im already limping, and things coulda been a lot worse...
story starts at 7pm last nite.. when it was clear whether and went on some of my usual tracks which are for reasonaly competant 4wd's and drivers. That is, when its not pouring rain.. then its a diff kettle of fish..
my 4wd mate and i went on a treck not far from his house, generally we dont go too far from his house in the mountains without second vehicles or specific plans, since were not complete idiots, but we knew we were not too far away, and the walks not impossible, and the tracks usually arent too hard to follow.. Started to drizzle a bit and turned some of the roads into a mud patch. rather steep inclines with a ravine on one side.
and one point i got a little bit of a slide happening, got out and assessed the situation:
decided i needed to slowly creep out of this one once i got the front wheel on some rocks..
being that the gearing on the pajero isnt particularly low, and the larger tyres dont help this fact, i was trying to go fairly easy on the throttle.. and i managed to stall it..
didnt think twice since i run dual truck batteries.. but.... i spoke too soon..
somehow (this is my only theory), during the rather severe angles, something came loose and shorted the dual battery isolator perhaps fried and killed it, and both batteries some how, and the car refused to start again. just clicked.. had multimeter, and voltage was way low..
tried all the tricks in the book, from hand cranking, roll starting (too slippery muddy to work), even tried spraying flamable gas into the throttle boddy to try get the car to spark enuf to kick over (was using fly spray, had to improvise), but alas, battery no go. both truck batteries were toast (didnt see that coming!). even tried to use tyre iron to get the car back up the hill a little so i could roll start forwards.. but of course, to turn backwards, u end up just undoing the wheel nuts... ARGHHH..
decided we needed to get back to the house.. it wasnt that far so figured id just go back grab spare battery and fix it..was around 930pm now..
called friend and asked to meet at road, and come get us. went the long route but it got us there in around 8km to the road, Got to simons house and stole his 300c battery (uses a fullsize 4wd battery), tied an old seat belt around it then wrapped it in bubble wrap to make it easier to carry.
also went armed with multiple torches, water, a mobile phone and thick pants.
My mate unfortunately sustained an injury sliding and falling on his hip on a steep incline on the way back, so he had to remain home. i wish we had of set him up at the road with a UHF, but he didnt have one handy :(
Got a lift to where we emerged on the road, and walked 8km back to the car (it really didnt seem that far when i didnt have the batter!), lugging a 25kg truck battery in pouring rain up and down nasty terrain with dingo's following me. I tell u truck batteries are hard to carry up 30 degree hills with runners on :(
got to the car, fitted the battery, had to improvise and pull apart some of my amplifier wiring to bridge the gap (300c battery has terminals in wrong spot).. got car started... then it started bucketing down... i wish i'd tied the car off cos it started to slide, even with the handbrake, in gear and all diff locks engaged.. it slid backwards down towards a ravine.. i walked around behind me to sus out whether i could reverse and join back to a track, i slid down the ravine, and copped some kind of super strength vine with thorns all over it (waitawhile ive been told they are known as), some of it got my eye and destroyed my contact lens, which limited my vision *sigh*, now i knew i was in trouble) i managed to wedge the rear of the car against a tree to stop it moving further.
by now i was pretty exhausted and realised i had to leave the car..
stupidly the park i was in is never frequented by other cars, rangers or any bushwalkers (yes im an idiot, and i have no excuse besides being young and stupid).
tried my UHF (big mofo) radio, no response, mobile phone went flat due to everyone calling asking what was going on, tried to sus out using my ixus digicam battery and rewire it to power up the mobile phone, but couldnt work out what the third pin on the phones do, and wasnt sure if they run a regulator (ixus is 4.6v, motorola is 3.2v), and i didnt want to toast the phone.
had a big bottle of drink and a chocolate bar in the car, and set back on foot.
walked 15kms the wrong way, partly due to a LOT of fog, the fact i could only see out of one eye due to a torn contact lens and some thorny thing that i copped in the eye, alo part due to some of the tracks being very rocky so u dont see tyre trails that id left on the way there, and some freshly fallen trees which i hadnt assumed were so fresh that they werent there when i drove past them the first time.. in the end, i got very lost (running water and bucketing rain covered a lot of my tracks, and this process so far had taken hours, the torch was getting low), i was also getting very concerned. decided i was going back DOWN faster than i was trekking, up, indicating i was going to wind up in totally the wrong place.
keep in mind this park is a few thousand square km, so its very very easy to lose your bearings, especially when tired, sore, one eye, dying torch, stressing about animals, pouring rain and fog...
after 3 hrs, i decided to turn around, walked 15km back the other way with a dying torch, fell down a ravine, got tangled in thorn bushes and crushed my finger under a tree, broke a bit of another finger off, all the while hearing dogs following me waiting or me to keel over haha, 4 hours later (around 10hrs after the initial ordeal - by now it was getting light at least), i found a gate, which lead to a road (i was quite close for some of the journey, but the torch was failing and i couldnt see the reflectors and there was no cars to hear at that hour).
I had been doing -some- smart stuff such as leaving items as i walked, so i knew how to backtrack. Unfortunately my navigation unit decided it didnt want to work either.
got onto the main road after the sun rose, and walked 10kms to simons house, got there at around 730am,had shower, soaked in disinfectant, used about 50 bandages and patches, had a nap.
woke up, and my mate had bought me a hand recovery winch, and two heavy duty 10meter tow straps and some recovery shackles before i woke up, and rented one of our other employees for the day to help me.
im very thankful to this.
My mate george and i walked the way we KNEW to the car (the way i took the battery) and eventually found it.. it had kinda slid its way down a bit further.
what was scary, on the way back, following my foot prints in the deeper mud, i saw every one of my prints was several dingo/wild dog foot prints following me basically every where i went.. nasty!
deflated tyres to around 10psi (made a MASSIVE difference in traction, and luckily my car has twin under bonnet bushranger air compressors that i can use to reinflate, and id bought all the air tools and attachments the week prior)..
slowly but surely:
After much messing around with the hand winch (haha 1 meter of movement every 45 minutes of mucking around)we finally got it out. Got car back to solid road at around 8pm, 24hrs after the ordeal started, no panel damage, just very sore legs, arms and every a realisation im a complete idiot (so i dont need everyone flaming me, ive learned my lesson, and wont be doing it again).
finally out:
even the arb air lockers, the center diff lock and 33" mud tyres were useless in the situation. was like skating on ice, car went wherever gravity took it.
There would have been zero point getting a recovery vehicle down there as some of the tracks were way more hardcore than anyone else i know in qld with a 4wd. would have needed big fat mud tyres, twin lockers, big lift, and a winch to be of any help, else we would both have been stuck.
moral of story...
1) im stupid, and ive learned my lesson. ive never been so lost in my life, nor been persued by wild animals before!
2) i didnt realise i was fit enough to accomplish this, im in the army reserves and this was more gruelling than ANYTHING i have ever done before
3) im a complete idiot
4) im a complete idiot
5) carry a hand winch, if you dont get an electric one.. a bumper mount winch would have taken me 3 minutes to tow myself out, it wasnt even much on an incline!
6) lockers are awesome!
7) mud tyres are basically pointless once they are chockers of mud and act like slicks
8) dont attempt already difficult tracks if theres a chance of rain (this was sposed only to be a 45 min round trip in clear weather)
9) im going to carry fluro paint to use to trace my route on tree in case of emergency..
10) being fit, or at least not out of shape goes a long long way to survival if you ever put yourself in a questionable situation.
11) chocolate and fresh water - most definate!
this is all pretty much common sense when you think about it, and a lot of those points id already covered, but hey it was supposed to only be a short adventure, never thought itd happen :S
on another note...
Has anyone tried to loop a recovery strap around a front wheel, and get it to coil up like a winch? ive heard of it, and i noticed some "bolt on hub" kinda winch systems, but in an emergency can u use a long tow strap, and the fact i have an air locker to kinda use the wheel to winch me out?
i know there is no excuse for what i did, and i went against better judgement, its up there with the most irresponsible things ive ever done, and could have ended real badly, just wanted to share my experience. I think ive copped enough damage, and im wearing about 40 elastoplast strips and bandages.
thats about it.. i know im going to have a lot of people shake their head and say 'this is an irresponsible 4wder', but hey at least im willing to admit it, and just kinda trying to help people out.
im now buying two brand new truck batteries, a new isolator and a bar mount electric winch..
hope everyone else had a better night, im having to type with 2 fingers due to all my injuries
mark
Even when I was stripin the interior out to clean it!!! 
