Just written my car off.
Not on the road, off road at work.
I've been doing some landscape work in a steep valley a mile or so from home. It's chalk grassland, very steep and pretty rough. The car was parked high up on the side of the valley and I was ready to go home when I found the battery was flat. I'd been listening to the news on the radio and winding the window up and down scanning with the bins for deer (this ground is also my shooting ground) and I'd killed the battery.
I had the .308 with me because I was planning to sit out for a Sika stag after work and I wanted to get the car started and run some life back into the battery again beforehand otherwise the stalking was off.
There was enough life left in it to work the fuel solenoid so I thought feck it, I'll bump it. I've had this happen before when I've been hedgelaying in the middle of nowhere and I've had the radio on and the interior light on for too long over the course of the day in the middle of winter and flattened the battery. It starts really easily.
Now it sounds stupid, and in retrospect it was, but though the valley is very steep there was an easy route up it at an oblique angle which was reasonable level and an easy drive. I'd been driving up and down it for several days. There were clear tracks where I'd gone and it didn't even need low box to get up. I'd trundled up easy in high first without much revs and back down again in high first without the brakes and it hadn't run away so the actual route up and down wasn't that steep at all. I was facing the way I needed to go so I thought I'd just run down my own tracks dip the clutch and it would start in about ten feet. And if it wouldn't start at least I'd have it off the hill and I could take the battery out and go and get it charged.
Anyway... gave it a push, jumped in and we set off barely moving at first because the ground it was parked on was almost level. Started to speed up, not enough to get it in gear and dump the clutch yet but all was well. Any second now I'd shove it into gear and let the clutch go and it would fire into life.
And then the nearside front wheel hit a rabbit hole... The steering was snatched to the left and without the engine running I had no power steering to correct it so the car was pulled round 90 degrees and was now careering directly down the valley side on one of the steepest section. It was a good 40, maybe 45 degree slope, with no brakes and no steering. It was only about 60 or 70 yards to the bottom but the last bit steepened up to about 50 degrees and dropped onto a level trackway. The car hit the track nose first and I thought it was going to snap in half. I flew out of the seat and face-butted the windscreen (it seems airbags don't work with a flat battery) and tools, lunch bag, boots, helmet, petrol cans, strimmer and chainsaw flew around the car like it had been picked up and shaken. Across the track was another bank. I reckon I'd gone past 30 mph by this stage. I took another nose-dive down that one then came to an instant stop against a felled tree and that put my face through the windscreen again.
Anyway the upshot is my car is written off and with it my livelihood, my nosed is smashed and my face full of stitches. My head feels like it's going to burst, I can't breath through my nose and it won't stop bleeding.
I started walking home with my face covered in claret and leaving a trail behind me. I wanted to get the rifle back safely under lock and key. An exceptionally kind lady who was driving home from work saw the state of me, stopped, took me home so I could get the rifle put away and then took me to casualty. I owe her big time.
I know it was a stupid thing to do but I've just got too many things to worry about at the moment and my mind wasn't on the job. I was desperate to get my car off the hill and go stalking to take my mind off things and not thinking straight I made the wrong call. And now I've really got something to worry about..
The rifle was in the car down beside the passenger seat and it was about the only thing in the car that got away unscathed. And I bet the old Duralyt hasn't even lost zero.
At least I have a deer hanging up because I got there early this morning and shot a roe doe. I took it home and hung it up and went back to work hoping to pair it with a Sika stag this evening. I guess that'll have to wait.
Mind how you go out there.
Not on the road, off road at work.
I've been doing some landscape work in a steep valley a mile or so from home. It's chalk grassland, very steep and pretty rough. The car was parked high up on the side of the valley and I was ready to go home when I found the battery was flat. I'd been listening to the news on the radio and winding the window up and down scanning with the bins for deer (this ground is also my shooting ground) and I'd killed the battery.
I had the .308 with me because I was planning to sit out for a Sika stag after work and I wanted to get the car started and run some life back into the battery again beforehand otherwise the stalking was off.
There was enough life left in it to work the fuel solenoid so I thought feck it, I'll bump it. I've had this happen before when I've been hedgelaying in the middle of nowhere and I've had the radio on and the interior light on for too long over the course of the day in the middle of winter and flattened the battery. It starts really easily.
Now it sounds stupid, and in retrospect it was, but though the valley is very steep there was an easy route up it at an oblique angle which was reasonable level and an easy drive. I'd been driving up and down it for several days. There were clear tracks where I'd gone and it didn't even need low box to get up. I'd trundled up easy in high first without much revs and back down again in high first without the brakes and it hadn't run away so the actual route up and down wasn't that steep at all. I was facing the way I needed to go so I thought I'd just run down my own tracks dip the clutch and it would start in about ten feet. And if it wouldn't start at least I'd have it off the hill and I could take the battery out and go and get it charged.
Anyway... gave it a push, jumped in and we set off barely moving at first because the ground it was parked on was almost level. Started to speed up, not enough to get it in gear and dump the clutch yet but all was well. Any second now I'd shove it into gear and let the clutch go and it would fire into life.
And then the nearside front wheel hit a rabbit hole... The steering was snatched to the left and without the engine running I had no power steering to correct it so the car was pulled round 90 degrees and was now careering directly down the valley side on one of the steepest section. It was a good 40, maybe 45 degree slope, with no brakes and no steering. It was only about 60 or 70 yards to the bottom but the last bit steepened up to about 50 degrees and dropped onto a level trackway. The car hit the track nose first and I thought it was going to snap in half. I flew out of the seat and face-butted the windscreen (it seems airbags don't work with a flat battery) and tools, lunch bag, boots, helmet, petrol cans, strimmer and chainsaw flew around the car like it had been picked up and shaken. Across the track was another bank. I reckon I'd gone past 30 mph by this stage. I took another nose-dive down that one then came to an instant stop against a felled tree and that put my face through the windscreen again.
Anyway the upshot is my car is written off and with it my livelihood, my nosed is smashed and my face full of stitches. My head feels like it's going to burst, I can't breath through my nose and it won't stop bleeding.
I started walking home with my face covered in claret and leaving a trail behind me. I wanted to get the rifle back safely under lock and key. An exceptionally kind lady who was driving home from work saw the state of me, stopped, took me home so I could get the rifle put away and then took me to casualty. I owe her big time.
I know it was a stupid thing to do but I've just got too many things to worry about at the moment and my mind wasn't on the job. I was desperate to get my car off the hill and go stalking to take my mind off things and not thinking straight I made the wrong call. And now I've really got something to worry about..
The rifle was in the car down beside the passenger seat and it was about the only thing in the car that got away unscathed. And I bet the old Duralyt hasn't even lost zero.
At least I have a deer hanging up because I got there early this morning and shot a roe doe. I took it home and hung it up and went back to work hoping to pair it with a Sika stag this evening. I guess that'll have to wait.
Mind how you go out there.
~Muir
