Get Me Out of Here!

A recent incident caused me to remember a piece of good advice I was once given: "What you pray yourself into you do not normally have to pray yourself out of!" The incident was almost getting my car stuck in a river!

My satellite navigation system (Navman F20) has served me very well - until today. I was travelling from Harrogate to a Yorkshire village called Harden. The journey had already taken longer than the time that friends had suggested and we should have been at our destination (the church) five minute ago when the voice from the navigation system instructed me to turn left. I checked the diagram on the screen and there was no doubt I was to take the turn immediately before the river. I turned and the satellite system confirmed that was the correct turning. But a few yards further on and what was a road turned into a very narrow single track lane with high walls on either side. Again the screen illustrated that we were perfectly on track.

Moments later I braked to a halt a few feet from a shallow river with the lane we were travelling on clearly continuing from the far side. There was nowhere to turn but two young men and a dog were handy and assured my passengers and me that provided we could get across the water we were on course for Harden.

So, always up for a challenge, and having come such a long way down this narrow lane, and being already late, I decided to have a go. The first half was OK but then the bow wave (I really wasn't going fast!) washed over the bonnet, something clonked underneath and the car refused to mount the extremely steep exit from the river. I tried again but frankly I knew that a 14 year old Vauxhall Astra is not designed to move from the horizontal to the almost vertical without at least some kind of a run at it!

There was nothing for it but to either do a three point turn in the river or reverse. The latter seemed to be the best solution. I had kept the revs high in the hope of avoiding water up the exhaust pipe but backing was bound to be a challenge both to the engine and my driving skills.

Moments later we were out of the river and up the steep incline we had previously driven down, though now a large amount of steam was billowing from under the bonnet (did I say this car is not diesel which made the exercise all the more dodgy!).

Happily a few more yards of reversing with the stone walls of the lane mere inches from either side and I was able to turn in the driveway of a house. Annoyingly, as we emerged from the lane at the far end my satellite system immediately offered an alternative route and we turned up at church 15 minutes late.

As we drove out of the lane I was reflecting on how amazing it was that we had got into and out of a mess without any apparent damage, with the engine still running perfectly and without the passengers becoming hysterical. It was then that Janet murmured from the back seat, "Well I was praying rather hard".

Later today I recalled that I had deliberately - and possibly carelessly - programmed the navigation system to include rough lanes. If only!

Of course it could have been a different story and we might have all got wet feet and worse. A little more care in venturing forward would have been wise. We can be so easily and confidently led down a path into problems where more care earlier would avoid it. Or as my friend so wisely said, "What you pray yourself into you do not normally have to pray yourself out of"!