# Friday 13th and other cock-ups!



## highcannons (Jan 14, 2012)

We all have 'those days' and I should have known better it being Friday 13th but the sun was out and so I drove up the road to Davidstow Airfield to take some pictures.  Pulled just off the hard stuff and sunk into the ground. Ah well, just as well I was in a 4x4. Or not, as it turned out as for some reason the front axle decided not to engage. Well stuck,after an hour of struggling a friendly farmer pulled me out after lecturing me on going off road. Then the plod turned up, bloody hell I didn't think we had any in this part of Cornwall. So it was then their turn to lecture me on going off road.  
By now it's dark, and I am fed up and covered in mud. Could have been worse I suppose....So now it's your turn to tell your disaster or hard luck story......


----------



## mookster (Jan 14, 2012)

It all comes with the territory, sometimes you just have the days you'd rather forget (or the days that you look back on and laugh)

My yardstick for judging days you wish you'd never gotten out of bed goes back to June 2010, me and my friend had big plans for a trip around various local and non-local sites on a lovely summer's day. First site, Carmel College was locked up tighter than the nun's proverbial. OK we thought, consult the list of sites within easy-ish reach and we settled on Elizabeth Shaw in Bristol so an hour or so down the M4 we pull up near the factory, walk down to the front gates and just as we're about to climb over a man appears in a doorway of the factory and he walks over, we explain we just wanted some photos but he appears unsure, at this time another man appears up on the exterior fire escape and shouts down to him 'tell them to fuck off' now these guys were obviously pikeys so we decided to cut our losses and leave. Consulting the map again, we headed up to the Coal Research Establishment in Cheltenham. Another site that was easy to access but every single building was sealed tight. We came back to Oxford along the A40, and stopped off at the infamous half-built hotel which is literally just a shell.

Bad, bad day.

Honourable mentions go to accessing the Millenium Mills site and literally running right into Security on the access road, and travelling from Redhill in Surrey to Colindale Hospital in North London only to find the place being demolished and swarming with workers.


----------



## flyboys90 (Jan 14, 2012)

Cracking photo of the controltower.


----------



## strider8173 (Apr 15, 2012)

i remember taking my corsa over here a few years back. its was a rainny evening and the tower was ful of sheep shit.



2069_129535055640_534045640_5505165_674_n by SMCGILL09, on Flickr
thanks for the memory.


----------



## Derelict-UK (Apr 15, 2012)

no pictures of 4x4 stuck?


----------



## highcannons (Apr 15, 2012)

It's still full of sheep shit! And I was more interested in getting the 4x4 out than taking a picture! This Friday 13th passed without a mishap in spite of being out exploring.....


----------



## Pincheck (Apr 15, 2012)

highcannons said:


> It's still full of sheep shit! And I was more interested in getting the 4x4 out than taking a picture! This Friday 13th passed without a mishap in spite of being out exploring.....



no sheep shit for me or trouble


----------



## strider8173 (Apr 15, 2012)

Derelict-UK said:


> no pictures of 4x4 stuck?



i didnt get my landy till about 3 years later....i got that stuck every weekend


----------



## Captain-Slow (Apr 15, 2012)

Check the oil in the front diff & the transfer box.






I had no problems on the 13th, no doubt this was due to me hiding in the corner of the room wearing my tin hat. Again.


----------



## Flexible (Apr 15, 2012)

I was recce-ing a particular site (which was a little bit naughty as it's on private land)  and the objective was across a field which contained about 20 mean-looking horses. Don't laugh, I'm serious. They were bad-ass horses. After I'd scrambled up a steep embankment and fell over the fence at the top, all the horses looked up in unison and started ambling over to see what the fuss was about. Seeing what was happening, I made a sharp exit back over the barbed wire fence, had a fag and waited for the horses to lose interest and go back to their grass. It took about 15 - 20 minutes for the damn things to wander off to the other side of the field so that I was able to safely get to where I wanted to be. So over the fence again and I ripped the arse pocket off my combats.

After treading in a massive horse-turd, due to constantly checking that the coast was clear (remember this was private land) I was on final approach to the 'building' when I found myself shin-deep in a bog! So, stuck and wondering whether to press on, go back, have another fag, Oh Christ I heard a deep grunting emanating from a nearby barn. I looked and caught a glimpse through slats in the barn door of one of the biggest pigs I've ever seen. I quickly decided it was by then best to postpone the recce, and managed to get unstuck and squelched back across the field. I wobbled back over the wire fence, held onto a branch, slipped, let go of the branch - which was spring-loaded to Nm factor of about 25,000 - which quite accurately whacked me right in the wotsits. 

Yeah, that was disastrous.


----------



## highcannons (Apr 15, 2012)

Captain-Slow said:


> Check the oil in the front diff & the transfer box.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I have to admit, I was a bit pre-occupied - I didn't know it was Friday, let alone the 13th!


----------



## highcannons (Apr 15, 2012)

Flexible said:


> I was recce-ing a particular site (which was a little bit naughty as it's on private land)  and the objective was across a field which contained about 20 mean-looking horses. Don't laugh, I'm serious. They were bad-ass horses. After I'd scrambled up a steep embankment and fell over the fence at the top, all the horses looked up in unison and started ambling over to see what the fuss was about. Seeing what was happening, I made a sharp exit back over the barbed wire fence, had a fag and waited for the horses to lose interest and go back to their grass. It took about 15 - 20 minutes for the damn things to wander off to the other side of the field so that I was able to safely get to where I wanted to be. So over the fence again and I ripped the arse pocket off my combats.
> 
> After treading in a massive horse-turd, due to constantly checking that the coast was clear (remember this was private land) I was on final approach to the 'building' when I found myself shin-deep in a bog! So, stuck and wondering whether to press on, go back, have another fag, Oh Christ I heard a deep grunting emanating from a nearby barn. I looked and caught a glimpse through slats in the barn door of one of the biggest pigs I've ever seen. I quickly decided it was by then best to postpone the recce, and managed to get unstuck and squelched back across the field. I wobbled back over the wire fence, held onto a branch, slipped, let go of the branch - which was spring-loaded to Nm factor of about 25,000 - which quite accurately whacked me right in the wotsits.
> 
> Yeah, that was disastrous.



That gets the 'best laugh at someone else's expense award'....I did laugh too - the missus gave me a funny look.


----------

