I looked for the "what did you do to your Navara today" section but couldn't find it, so posted here. What I almost did to my Nav recently is drown it in a river crossing. A very close thing and entirely driver error. Stalled it while crossing a river with water level up over the flares on the gaurds.
I decided to have a look at a couple of campsites shown on the map and marked simply "*4wd only" (which could mean anything lol) in a reasonably remote valley, which required a series of river crossings. The first site involved inching down a precarious, steep slippery and rutted, off camber section and then across the river which had water lapping up over the bonnet. No real problem though. While looking around for a campsite the track was flat with tight turns, so I took it out of 4wd and into high range 2wd as it made negotiating the tight track easier.
The campsites weren't much good so decided to cross back over the river and continue another 10kms or so to the next one. Into second gear and into the river, ute laden with full camping gear, fresh water, extra fuel and so on, basically about as heavy as it is going to get. I noticed the old nav struggling somewhat against the flow and having trouble making its way through the largish river stone base. As I was about to head into the deepest part and back up the steep bank I put the foot down only for it to stall. Not a good scenario for a crossing. Luckily I started it straight back up again, threw it into 1st, but it just sat there spinning wheels. Thankfully I got some purchase in reverse and backed out of it with wheels spinning all the way.
While sitting there wondering wtf just happened, the wife pointed to the general region of the gear stick and asked "that range selector thingy you talk about, is that in the right position, I notice you don't normally have it there"? Of course it wasn't, it was still in high range 2wd lol. I had just tried to cross a reasonably wide and deep river with large stones on the bottom (that can take a bit to power through) in second gear high range 2wd lol. I might have made it in 1st, but second gear? lol. Senility?
Once into low range 4wd second gear that I normally use, we crossed and got up the bank easily. Then I realised that if I taken my time and looked around (as I normally do, there's usually more than one crossing in places like this) there was a much better crossing only 50 metres away lol.
To make it worse the sun level made it difficult to see the bottom on the next crossing so I decided to walk out into it to get an idea. Just as I was getting on tippy toes with water level reaching the height where it causes shrinkage (lol) I slipped arse over head. Anyone who has tried to right themselves on large slippery river stones will understand the difficulty there, and this was followed by quite a few more episodes of going arse over head before I was able to get back up lol. The wife's concern gave way to no small amount of laughter once I got back, as she explained her concern was more about how she could reach Greenpeace to perform a rescue, I was flailing around that much lol.
If there ever was an illusion with the Mrs that I was a competent 4w driver (which itself is unlikely after so long), it had surely evaporated by this point lol.
Got to a glorious and secluded camp in the end though, and had a lovely dinner. I knew there was a tradition of letting cattle graze in these valleys in the warmer months, and this valley in particular, as I talked to the fella who owned them earlier in the day and had quite a few "somewhere in that valley". No problem, I've camped many times amongst such cattle.
Wasn't prepared for what a pita this lot were though. Took a walk along the river bank after tea and noticed a small herd with a couple of suckling calves grazing, in fact I walked through them without a problem. It seems they followed me back. Sitting there having a cold relaxing brew I noticed they were drinking the water the Mrs had warmed up for a wash which gave me a chuckle. It's not like they didn't have a beautiful mountain stream metres away to drink from or anything lol.
When the wife tried to shoo them away the reaction was unexpected to say the least. Lots of snorting, jumping around and shaking the head wildly had her racing to the safety of the car. I thought the air horn might scatter them and while it made the Mrs jump and bump her head on the door frame, the cows just looked at us with a "that all you got?" and no fecks to give. In fact they all moved in closer and got even more obstinate lol.
Wouldn't have thought it possible but these things were coordinated and going out of there way to annoy us. A couple of them took turns passing through under the awning between our table (where were seated) and the vehicle about a metre away to intentionally give us the sh-ts. Thought about a swift uppercut followed by a well timed left hook for the next one that did this, but have been too long out of the ring and would have been fighting well out of my weight lol.
On one occasion when they had the wife racing to the safety of the car, one of them thought her camp chair might be tasty but after chewing it for a while, decided to slobber all over it instead. Absolutely saturated it lol. Trying to move them on sent them all queer again, jumping around snorting and shaking the head. Tried to just ignore them which they made impossible and anyway, I was at the stage where wasn't game to sit with my back to them as they would then move in and surround me (seriously, close enough that I could pat them), they were that much of a pita.
They left eventually, but later that night I thought they were going to trample the tent with us in it. Sounded like a stampede that stopped just short of our tent with noses pushing in the sides, sounds of cattle scratching their arse on the bull bar, knocking stuff over and generally being a pest. Didn't get a lot of sleep and woke in the morning to a minefield of fresh cow patties ringing our camp lol.
Gotta say these little Angus are a different proposition to your average dairy cattle. Very flighty. Thank Christ there were no bulls with them, and they don't have horns.
All in good fun in the end though.
I guess the moral is never get complacent with river crossings. Take your time with each one and gauge it carefully. Don't necessarily take the fist one you see either, there are often better crossings if you look around first. If in any doubt don't bother, particularly if you are on your own, there'll always be a next time that way. Never take cattle for granted either. If I could find where the meat patties were going from these lot I would definitely go buy a hamburger lol.
I decided to have a look at a couple of campsites shown on the map and marked simply "*4wd only" (which could mean anything lol) in a reasonably remote valley, which required a series of river crossings. The first site involved inching down a precarious, steep slippery and rutted, off camber section and then across the river which had water lapping up over the bonnet. No real problem though. While looking around for a campsite the track was flat with tight turns, so I took it out of 4wd and into high range 2wd as it made negotiating the tight track easier.
The campsites weren't much good so decided to cross back over the river and continue another 10kms or so to the next one. Into second gear and into the river, ute laden with full camping gear, fresh water, extra fuel and so on, basically about as heavy as it is going to get. I noticed the old nav struggling somewhat against the flow and having trouble making its way through the largish river stone base. As I was about to head into the deepest part and back up the steep bank I put the foot down only for it to stall. Not a good scenario for a crossing. Luckily I started it straight back up again, threw it into 1st, but it just sat there spinning wheels. Thankfully I got some purchase in reverse and backed out of it with wheels spinning all the way.
While sitting there wondering wtf just happened, the wife pointed to the general region of the gear stick and asked "that range selector thingy you talk about, is that in the right position, I notice you don't normally have it there"? Of course it wasn't, it was still in high range 2wd lol. I had just tried to cross a reasonably wide and deep river with large stones on the bottom (that can take a bit to power through) in second gear high range 2wd lol. I might have made it in 1st, but second gear? lol. Senility?
Once into low range 4wd second gear that I normally use, we crossed and got up the bank easily. Then I realised that if I taken my time and looked around (as I normally do, there's usually more than one crossing in places like this) there was a much better crossing only 50 metres away lol.
To make it worse the sun level made it difficult to see the bottom on the next crossing so I decided to walk out into it to get an idea. Just as I was getting on tippy toes with water level reaching the height where it causes shrinkage (lol) I slipped arse over head. Anyone who has tried to right themselves on large slippery river stones will understand the difficulty there, and this was followed by quite a few more episodes of going arse over head before I was able to get back up lol. The wife's concern gave way to no small amount of laughter once I got back, as she explained her concern was more about how she could reach Greenpeace to perform a rescue, I was flailing around that much lol.
If there ever was an illusion with the Mrs that I was a competent 4w driver (which itself is unlikely after so long), it had surely evaporated by this point lol.
Got to a glorious and secluded camp in the end though, and had a lovely dinner. I knew there was a tradition of letting cattle graze in these valleys in the warmer months, and this valley in particular, as I talked to the fella who owned them earlier in the day and had quite a few "somewhere in that valley". No problem, I've camped many times amongst such cattle.
Wasn't prepared for what a pita this lot were though. Took a walk along the river bank after tea and noticed a small herd with a couple of suckling calves grazing, in fact I walked through them without a problem. It seems they followed me back. Sitting there having a cold relaxing brew I noticed they were drinking the water the Mrs had warmed up for a wash which gave me a chuckle. It's not like they didn't have a beautiful mountain stream metres away to drink from or anything lol.
When the wife tried to shoo them away the reaction was unexpected to say the least. Lots of snorting, jumping around and shaking the head wildly had her racing to the safety of the car. I thought the air horn might scatter them and while it made the Mrs jump and bump her head on the door frame, the cows just looked at us with a "that all you got?" and no fecks to give. In fact they all moved in closer and got even more obstinate lol.
Wouldn't have thought it possible but these things were coordinated and going out of there way to annoy us. A couple of them took turns passing through under the awning between our table (where were seated) and the vehicle about a metre away to intentionally give us the sh-ts. Thought about a swift uppercut followed by a well timed left hook for the next one that did this, but have been too long out of the ring and would have been fighting well out of my weight lol.
On one occasion when they had the wife racing to the safety of the car, one of them thought her camp chair might be tasty but after chewing it for a while, decided to slobber all over it instead. Absolutely saturated it lol. Trying to move them on sent them all queer again, jumping around snorting and shaking the head. Tried to just ignore them which they made impossible and anyway, I was at the stage where wasn't game to sit with my back to them as they would then move in and surround me (seriously, close enough that I could pat them), they were that much of a pita.
They left eventually, but later that night I thought they were going to trample the tent with us in it. Sounded like a stampede that stopped just short of our tent with noses pushing in the sides, sounds of cattle scratching their arse on the bull bar, knocking stuff over and generally being a pest. Didn't get a lot of sleep and woke in the morning to a minefield of fresh cow patties ringing our camp lol.
Gotta say these little Angus are a different proposition to your average dairy cattle. Very flighty. Thank Christ there were no bulls with them, and they don't have horns.
All in good fun in the end though.
I guess the moral is never get complacent with river crossings. Take your time with each one and gauge it carefully. Don't necessarily take the fist one you see either, there are often better crossings if you look around first. If in any doubt don't bother, particularly if you are on your own, there'll always be a next time that way. Never take cattle for granted either. If I could find where the meat patties were going from these lot I would definitely go buy a hamburger lol.
