Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Hi All,

Was not sure if we were going to do this or not, still don't actually until we get to the staging point and find out the decision, but we were invited to attend tonights night run through Owen Springs. we just had 2 mm of rain this afternoon so that should settle the dust down. I rerouted me HID spotlight wiring this afternoon in readiness, so now my cabling goes through the bulbar instaed of laying on top and letting the bonnet bump up and down on it.

Anyway we are meeting at the staging point at 18:30 CST and then traveling down to the southern end of Owen Springs then stopping for a bit of supper just inside the reserve before heading through it to reach the northern end and come back to town via Larapinta drive. I think there are around 15 cars attending so should be a good meet up with some new folks. This is not a PP outing but an Alice Springs 4X4 club outing. But it is something a bit different to do on a Saturday night.

[zookcubr Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zookcubr]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Gee Mav thanks for the early warning. A few days notice would have helped, although with that many vehicles attending it would have been a bit of a chore. Anyhow Fergs and I are in with Outback ATM, we also have some drives organized like today if you get this in time that is.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Well what an experience we had. Where do I start? Well our adventure will probably make it to all the news networks either today or tomorrow.

I have never in my life of driving been in such a life and death situation, yep it was that bad. In fact we have only just arrived home as of 10:30 this morning. One comment I made to the group as our collective courage was waning was that I had the theme to Gilligans Island runing through my head.

We had bolt lightning, we had sheet lightning and the heavens opened up on Owen Springs to the tune of 120 mm in about 3 hours. Without a word of a lie it was as though we were travelling in a river for the whole time we were in the reserve. I have never seen flooding going up a hill until last night and what did we have to rely on - bloody Grandtreks! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: Another first was to completely submerge the Prado with water over the bonnet, coming out the other side was sheer wall of clay. We made half way and that was it, all forward motion ceased and it was replaced with sideways movement towards a major drop off. Luckily I was able to hold the Prado long enough to secure a snatch strap to an 80 series and the rescue was performed.

Little did we know what lay ahead of us once we left Owen Springs reserve to head back to town. The weather was absolutely out of this world, we were dodging large debris on the tar along with massive amounts of water covering the road. We were doing okay until we got to Jay Creek crossing and then it all went to hell in a handbag. We could see the water was moving very fast but it was decided that someone would walk it to see if it was still passable. The deepest part was knee high but by the time the person came back to shore and the decision was made to try a crossing too much time had passed and nobody noticed that the water height had increased dramatically.

Well one person in a Troopy set off to forge the creek crossing and he was doing really well, even though I had already decided that we were not going to cross even if he made it, when bang - he was hit broadside by a large piece of debris infact it was a massive tree limb. The tree limb was easily the size of a moderate gum tree, well the force of the water and the limb against the troopy was too much for it and our hearts sank into a bottomless pit as we stood and watched helplessly as the Troopy was swept away.

Luckily the Troopy went side on to a very broad ghost gum trunk and it stayed pinned against it long enough for the driver to escape through the drivers door window. He managed to get on top of the Troopy before it again succumbed to the raging waters, the driver now on the roof clung to the ghost gum until he could no longer hold on then he went into the water and swept away. Again luckily he was swept towards a small sapling in the middle of a now raging river and his leg became wedged in a fork of the sapling. He then had no other option but to cling to this lifeline until he was either rescued or he was swept away for good.

This all occured at 11:30 pm last night, it took us to 3 am to eventually rescue the driver from the sapling, with great personal risk to all invovled from our group I might add. The amount of debris that was hitting us in the water it is amazing that there are not reports of multiple fatalities this morning. It was extremely lucky that we had enough snatch straps between us including normal nylon rope and 5 litre containers to act as floatation devices to enable us to pull off this rescue. Hours in cold raging water, cold winds and torrential rain certainly took its toll on us for a while I seriously did not believe that it was going to have a happy ending.

To top this off we all only took snacks and drinks to last for a couple of hours, not 16 hours. Nobody had changes of clothing, the driver had hyperthermia and I think so did the rescuers once we had finished 3 or more hours in the river. I know we are all very happy to be back in town after NTES managed to get to the other side of Jay Creek at 7:30 am this morning. It still took another 2.5 hours of waiting till it was semi safe to get us all across.

I am very happy to report that everyone returned back to their homes and only the Troopy was lost. The amount of water was frighteningly impressive and something I have no desire to experience again.

I can tell you that I was sh!t scared forging the reserve and Jay Creek with my children and wife in the car with me, had the worst occured it would have been disasterous for everone.

To give you an idea of how wild this river was during the height of the rescue, in the folowing photos the Troopy you can see was completely submerged in the raging torrents.

The first is the intial sweeping away:



It stayed on this snag briefly before it succumbed to the strength of the river torrents:



The final sweeping away:



The next photo shows how it ended up, I obviously was not able to take photos of the rescue operation as I was involved with it being in the river with 3 other guys.



In the previous shot the Troopy was not visible during the rescue op. which gives you an idea of how high the river rose in lightning speed.

Fortunately for everyone involved this outing did not end in tragic circumstances but it just goes to show how a simple little drive can go so massively wrong and end up with near fatalities.

This next shot shows what our journey through Owen Springs was like pretty much the whole way:



The next is the shot of the debris we had to deal with whilst we were in the river, this stuff was hitting us constantly.




Motto of this story is simply "Always go prepared for an extended trip"

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Bloody Hell, Mav.

That must've been as scarey as hell for you and your family :!: :!: :!:

Thankfully everyone's okay!

I recall a similar situation when once taking the family on a 4wd outing around the West MacDonnells when the weather turned nasty quickly and we were forced to make a hasty retreat to Glen Helen trying to beat heavy rain and rapidly rising dry river beds. We were forced to make a few wet crossings knowing that the river levels were rising fast and to stay and wait only meant more danger. I am glad you and your family are alright and the Prado survived okay.

Gees... it sounded like such a good idea at the time, huh. Some strong lessons to be learned here. Hopefully Pradopoint 2009 GTG won't have this much drama!!!

[Chuck Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chuck]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Glad you got home safely, having seen a car washed away it is a scary experience even if your just watching....

Looks like its time for the fun tyres..... :lol:

Chuck

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Glad you got home safely, having seen a car washed away it is a scary experience even if your just watching....

Looks like its time for the fun tyres..... :lol:

Chuck

Yep that was too close for my liking, Mickeys will be on very soon. By By Grandcraps :wink:

I had a bow wave for most of the trip through Owen Springs.

[fergs Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fergs]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Hello Mav,

Well mate all can say is I'm glad that you and the family are alright after this ordeal.
I was the boss at the station last night and we got this rescue call from you guys around 2345 hrs last night, The info we first recieved was that u all were at Rowe creek and one person traped on top of 4WD in the flooded crossing. Little did we know that it was actualy Jay creek as we found out later. :evil:
We set off with full swift water rescue cashe and our largest heavy 4WD pump appliance with clearance of around 2.2mtres,
As soon as we were past Flyns grave things started to go pear shaped at a rapid rate. :shock:

The first two crossing we came across were two vehicles stuck in the middle of each crossing, So for us trying to come to your guys aid it was a very slow process, recovered these cars and kept going. we got as far as the Rowe creek crossing and it was not safe for us to continue as even the 4WD appliance the water was lapping at the doors edge which I might add is at my chin height and I"m over 6/2 in height.

We returned to flyns grave and made plans with NTES for your guys rescue this moning at first light. So good to see every body is alright Deeply Sorry that we could not reach you guys I did the best we could under the circumstances.

Cheers Mate

Nathan

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Hello Mav,

Well mate all can say is I'm glad that you and the family are alright after this ordeal.
I was the boss at the station last night and we got this rescue call from you guys around 2345 hrs last night, The info we first recieved was that u all were at Rowe creek and one person traped on top of 4WD in the flooded crossing. Little did we know that it was actualy Jay creek as we found out later. :evil:
We set off with full swift water rescue cashe and our largest heavy 4WD pump appliance with clearance of around 2.2mtres,
As soon as we were past Flyns grave things started to go pear shaped at a rapid rate. :shock:

The first two crossing we came across were two vehicles stuck in the middle of each crossing, So for us trying to come to your guys aid it was a very slow process, recovered these cars and kept going. we got as far as the Rowe creek crossing and it was not safe for us to continue as even the 4WD appliance the water was lapping at the doors edge which I might add is at my chin height and I"m over 6/2 in height.

We returned to flyns grave and made plans with NTES for your guys rescue this moning at first light. So good to see every body is alright Deeply Sorry that we could not reach you guys I did the best we could under the circumstances.

Cheers Mate

Nathan

No problems Nathan, we knew that it was going to be an impossible task for anyone to get to us which is why we did the rescue, it took 3 hours to perform it but it ended for the best which is all we could possible hope for given the conditions.

I am one utterly tuckered out boy at the moment I can tell you.

One of the big problems was the lack of comms, we had a satelite phone that failed repeatedly to maintian a connection long enough to get a call out. In fact the only call we were able to make was the inital one to alert whoever we could. But we then lost connection and we were not sure it had been taken seriously when nobody showed after two hours, we later know why and that was simply you guys could not reach us.

We had HF radios but could not raise anyone till about 3 am when we got through to Adelaide briefly.

We tried sending two cars to see if we could get to Hermmansburg but the roads were cut in that direction too, so we knew we were isolated.

My only real regret is that I have only just purchased a SPOT satelite emergency messenger system and I failed to take it with us cause we were only going for a short trip. :roll: I seemed to be the only one able to get good gps satelite reception, in fact I had 9 satelites locked on and no bloody way to use them. :x I will never leave the SPOT at home again no matter how short the trip.

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

One of the big problems was the lack of comms, we had a satelite phone that failed repeatedly to maintian a connection long enough to get a call out. In fact the only call we were able to make was the inital one to alert whoever we could. But we then lost connection and we were not sure it had been taken seriously when nobody showed after two hours, we later know why and that was simply you guys could not reach us.

We had HF radios but could not raise anyone till about 3 am when we got through to Adelaide briefly.

We tried sending two cars to see if we could get to Hermmansburg but the roads were cut in that direction too, so we knew we were isolated.

My only real regret is that I have only just purchased a SPOT satelite emergency messenger system and I failed to take it with us cause we were only going for a short trip. :roll: I seemed to be the only one able to get good gps satelite reception, in fact I had 9 satelites locked on and no bloody way to use them. :x I will never leave the SPOT at home again no matter how short the trip.

Pity... it would've been interesting to see how the SPOT performed, especially the help function (see: Emergency UHF comms...)

(Help) Push this on and your predefined set of contacts will get a message saying you need help. This does not go to any search and rescue resources... It's good for things like flat tires, where someone on your list can actually do something to help you again via sms or email.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

OMG !! :shock:

Truly glad you and your family are OK. I hope the guy in/on the troopy is OK also.
Huge storm... bad enough. During a night run ... :shock: :shock:

Don't know why but when I go 4WD'ing I tend to take a change of clothes. No real reason except in case I need to walk a creek or something like that I'll still have dry clothes. After reading that I think I might do it for safetys sake and add some extra food while I'm at it.

We set off with ... our largest heavy 4WD pump appliance with clearance of around 2.2mtres,

Would be interested to see what that looks like.

[Hutch Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hutch]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Geez Mav, good to see everyone is alright, that would have been bad enough but with the family in toe, i can imagine how you were sh*ting yourself.

Good to see only a car was lost.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Speaking of cars mav... how did yours fair? Reading that it sounds like you were snatched/recovered from the water. Any water damage?

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Geez Mav, good to see everyone is alright, that would have been bad enough but with the family in toe, i can imagine how you were sh*ting yourself.

Good to see only a car was lost.

I tell you that when it came to our turn to cross Jay Creek this morning I had windows wound down, nobody wearing seatbelts, just in case we had to get out in a hurry.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Speaking of cars mav... how did yours fair? Reading that it sounds like you were snatched/recovered from the water. Any water damage?

Besides the woeful Grandcraps the car did fine, no water ingress. We managed to get half way up the exit slope from the creek when all forward motion ceased. So we were clear of the water for the snatch which went well.

Everyone should carry, at the minimum, a good snatch strap and shackles. In this instance it was what saved a mans life literally.

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Night run through Owen Springs Reserve

Mav... just saw all the aftermath pics of the storm on the ABC News. It looks pretty bad... and you guys were facing the storm during its worse and at night!!!

A sobering reminder to all never to underestimate the power of mother nature and how quickly things can change, and to always be prepared for an emergency recovery or being trapped for a little longer than anticipated, especially when carrying very special cargo (ie your family).