Offroading on the highway
Sometimes our work requires trips between towns. In this case, we needed to drive our vehicle from Wewak to Vanimo to avoid the cost of shipping it. There are 2 highways going in that direction. The coastal highway is not an option during the rainy season because there are large rivers with no bridges. The rivers are currently high, making fording them very difficult to impossible. The other highway goes through the mountains . . . also a challenge in the rainy season, lol. We chose the mountain route. We were told it was open and in reasonably good condition. We discovered it was barely passable. It was about 270 miles but it ended up taking 16 hours. For most of the way, the road was built with large rock, making it impossible to go fast. Then we hit the muddy section where they just hadn't put any rock or gravel. We also had some rivers to ford, but thankfully they were small. We praise God that we made it safely. After dark, when we were still about 3 hours from our destination, the drive shaft for the front differential (making 4x4 possible) dropped down. The bolts holding it had broken due to the roughness of the road. When it fell, it cut the brake line. So we had to travel in low range 4x4 (even though it wasn't connected so we didn't have 4x4 capability). The low range 4x4 gear allowed us to safely drive in spite of no brakes. But we didn't arrive until close to midnight. Thankfully the majority of the muddy sections were done so 4x4 wasn't needed. This video is pretty long, but I didn't have time to spend editing it more. Its a last minute thing that I'm hoping will upload before we head back out to Tipas tomorrow morning.
Wow! What a muddy Bumpy ride! 💞
Yikes! That looks really bad. So glad you are safe. Praying for you daily!
That would be exhausting!
Now I'm really confused!
Wow, what a fun, exciting drive! Did you ever get stuck? Sorry to hear about the broken driveshaft bolts and brake line damage. How and where will you get parts for the repairs? Did your dad ever get to eat any of his lunch that your mom appeared ready to feed him?
Well, we didn't really get stuck . . . there was one place we had to reverse and then take a different track through the mud. It worked so we weren't really stuck. Then after the breakdown, we needed to cross a bridge that was not fully intact. Getting off the bridge required a steep climb with a turn and it was a little slick and we were high centering in the tracks made by previous traffic. Since 4x4 was not operational, we didn't make it at first. We used some small logs/sticks in front of the tires to give some added traction and that did the trick. As far as the repairs, thankfully this vehicle is the most common type of vehicle in the country so every little autoparts store has pretty much everything you need. Dad was able to get the parts the next day and fixed it himself. We drove it on our way out to Tipas just 2 days later.
where is this? which part of sepik
WOW ... is this your I5? LOL
Something like that, LOL!!! It is part of the coastal highway. Often roads get put in and then no one wants to maintain them, lol.