We headed out again on the bumpy dirt road and were cruising along quite nicely until we came upon a road block. You see we are dealing with nature's roads here and nature had dumped quite a bit of rain the night before. What we ran into was a bit of a flowing river, a river bed that had been completely dry the day before that was now gently flowing with calf deep water. With two 4x4s and a 2x4 we had to investigate further before a decision could be made as to if our vehicles would make it across or not. Jan volunteered to check it out and pulled up her shorts and waded into the water bare foot. She made it all the way across with the water coming up to her mid calf at its deepest point. It wasn't really the depth of the water however that was the issue, it was the squishiness of the mud underneath. After a few minutes however, it was decided that we would go for it.
So the 4x4 driven by the friend of Peter's went first...Success! Then the car I was in with Helen that just had two wheel drive...Success! Then it was Paula's turn. She was a little nervous, but she knew she had four wheel drive and a lot of cheering on her side....Success! It was a crazy trip, but all three cars were across (see videos of Paula's mad driving skills below) We were on our way again, but not for long. After about ten more minutes of traveling, we came upon the ultimate road block. The water had rushed so much over night in the next river bed that it eroded the side of the bed and created a small cliff that we could not concur. It was decided by the older and wiser that this was not a good idea for us to attempt, so we had to turn back. Paula's first thought at this time was, "I have to do that river again?" She did great though and we were on our way again, but our "short" way had turned into the long way as we had used up 2 extra hours with this adventure.
We did okay on the ride home though as we had our trusty driver Helen to entertain us. She told us countless stories and answered all the questions we tossed her way. You see Helen is a really great and fun lady. She is retired and she lived in the UK most her life. She used to be a lawyer and she loves to travel. She is a spunky/spicy type and very fun to chat with. She got us back to Casa Blanca in no time (relatively), and had called ahead to have a nice lunch of sandwiches and salad arranged for us which was much appreciated.
The rest of the day was spent hanging around Casa Blanca getting ready for the week, chillin', and catching up on the internet world. I decided to do some laundry in the sink with hand soap which was quite the experience, but very cost effective :) All in all, a good Sunday.
Jan wading through the river to see how deep and soft it is
All of us watching in great anticipation
The approach
The action
Watch the link...view from inside the car
Check it out from Kari's perspective outside the car. Pretty epic.
This is what caused us to have to turn back, if you click on it to make it larger you can see how there is a mini cliff we would have had to jump to make it up to the road
Lizard crossing
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