This time of year the road that goes past my in-laws' house is busy, traffic both ways. It’s a narrowish road, packed with cars parked outside all the B&B properties, and busy with tourists taking the scenic route. So when I am asked to help move something via a trailer, managing a turn in the available space is pretty stressful.

What I have done before is drive past their place, up the hill to where the houses fade and farmland and forest take over. Near the top of the hill is a wide side-of-the-road area. If I slow down, drop into 4-wheel drive, I can do a u-turn on the slope beside the road, and then go bacl downhill and park in front of the in-laws, facing the right way.

But it didn't work out that way. The undelaying soil is clay, and it was slick and saturated after the heavy rain we had receive. My car didn't just lose traction, it started sliding sideways, downhill, the trailer slowly jackknifing as we travelled.

I stopped, went into low drive, and tried again. Slipped, and slid further sideways.

Sliding ever sideways.

Wow.

I checked the tyres….a solid, glistening crust of greasy clay completely encased them. They had zero traction.

OK. It was a long way to the nearest tree, but I had some long trucking straps in the car. I managed to create a 30 metre pull line, winched it tight, and tried to create some traction with the tyres with bracken under the gouge, and scraping off layers of clay.

Ever so gently I tried to ease us out, and I slid in an arc, restrained by the tie line but still slipping sideways.

I tried other things…unhitched the trailer, backed up a bit to try and find clear ground.

Standing next to my car, scratching my head I noticed two things….

1. Two other people had recently had a similar journey to me, looking at the skid marks gouged in the grass.
2. Downhill from me there was another four metres of scrub, then a three metre drop into a creek bed.

No fixing this by myself. I am in the RACV, and rang for assistance. It was complicated…my new (to me) car had not been added to my support account. Which was unexpected, as I insured it with the RACV. But in fact it was still covered by the previous owner, and they sent a truck out to help me.

So, I sat down and waited an hour for a tow to arrive. It was complicated…a straight line to pull me out was a long diagonal, and we had to winch and then relocate his vehicle a couple of times. My car came out in a long arc, always wanting to slide sideways. His winch was playing up and kept jamming, and a metal thread on his cable spiked his hand.

Luckily my trailer is pretty light, and while he was winching the car out I manually dragged the trailer back up the hill.

I showed up two hours late, covered in mud.. Next time I'm doing a 7-point turn in the road and the impatient tourists can wait