After wondering whether we had made a
wise decision, our spirits rose as we saw
a formed gravel road appear 100m ahead.
However, as the tracks became ever boggier,
we soon realised that this was 30m further
than our momentum and all our Cruiser’s
offroad smarts would carry us. We slowly
came to a wheel-churning halt, with hard-
surface salvation clearly in sight.
“No problem,” I reassured my doubting wife,
recalling my list of fixes for this sort of situation.
I considered the options: improved traction was
the first. I had a long-handled shovel and two
pairs of MaxTrax, one on the roof rack of our
Land Cruiser and the other that were part of my
Trakmaster Pilbara Extreme’s standard gear.
It didn’t start well. As I stepped from the
Toyota, my feet stuck deep in the surrounding
mud to the point where I couldn’t lift them
and fell backwards into the morass. I realised
that I had lost the meagre moral authority
I had summoned to convince my wife that
everything was under control.
After getting upright, I found the shovel
that I carried in the back of the Toyota and
laboriously dug out a path in front of each
of the Cruiser’s four wheels. I then stuck a
MaxTrax there. No go. The Toyota’s wheels
were already deeper than I was able to dig
and each attempt to engage the MaxTrax
drove the tyres deeper.
Michael Browning has travelled Australia
with his Trakmaster Pilbara Extreme.
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