Thread: Vegetation's calling to Quicksand

So this weekend I went for a nice little walk on some private land, followed the exact directions of the cocky and didn't seem to raise an eyebrow when he said "...and if you can get past the second creek.." If? Yeah. Hmm.

This was on a dairy block with a wide, shallow (appearing!) stream that didn't have a bridge. I did all my usual little MSC taught before you cross a river things and decided yep I was going to cross right here where the banks weren't too steep and the water looked about knee deep. It was a nice hot day and my feet were already wet so here goes!

One step, all good. Two steps....I started sinking and before I could even turn around or do anything, no shit I was up to my waist and getting pulled down by these fuckin' gremlin green hands!!! Of course I had my cell phone in my side pocket as well as my car keys, complete with electronic remote. Luckily the rifle stayed well above my head but I would be lying if I said I didn't start panicking for a few seconds. I stopped moving completely which seemed to help for a little bit and after a few minutes I managed to get one leg semi-free and sort of leopard crawled out, using the butt of the rifle as a kind of paddle.

I wonder how many dead cows/dogs/children are at the bottom of that creek.

Has anyone come across this stuff before? The vegetation looked solid as, I was completely surprised that it turned into such a fickle quick sand. I swear I could see the bottom of the creek in the middle too!!! Covered in mud, green slime and completely satched I wandered back to a sunny spot and lay in the sun (at a safe distance from the creek of course) and sort of had a little sulk and a sleep and decided I should harden up and not go home. I did end up crossing that creek, kind of, via a much longer time in the water but in the safety of the lake that it fed. I had an awesome day after that despite frying my cellphone and performing emergency surgery on the car alarm to make it home again.

Phew

Whoa Dougie, you did the correct action by keeping calm (almost) and not squirming around and panicking, so well done in getting out.....dont freak out on your next river/creek crossing as its always a lottery what the bottom is like!

always laugh when doing a course/reading a book about a particular activity when they say 'dont panic' as thats usually the first thing you do......

Shit Dougie that was a close call by the sounds of it.

Sooner or later you will run into clearings that aren't clearings. If your lucky they just wobble when you walk on them, if your unlucky . . . very messy.

Yea we had some swamps with hydroponic grass growing on them when i was a kid. You could walk out on it and it would wave and ripple as it floated on the stinky sticky mud underneath, and if and when you broke threw it was tricky to get out and you stink of swamp.

I'm bloody glad I didn't have the dog as I'm sure that would have been the end of him.

You're not along Dougie. The damned stinking mud gets everywhere when you crawl out.

Did you have a heavy pack on Dougie? You would be light enough to just about walk on water.

We have an area upstream of our creek that sounds just like what VC described.

The main river has got some very soft metal after the floods,you can feel youself sinking when you are in it will take time to settle I think.

Nope, I'm rocking 61kg at the moment, just belt no pack. Btw whoever it was that I got my Binos from - they are bloody great!!! Submerged them and they didn't skip a beat if only my phone was the same!

With pins like yours, your lucky you didn't sink like hot knitting needles into icecream

I used to play on that stuff on the farm when I was a kid. That mud STINKS!!! You did well to get yourself out Dougie, don't blame ya for having a moment afterwards.

i like it when the water blisters under the edges of dams
aparently if you fall thru it gets serious, I never did