Fortunately nobody was hurt. The only people in my G were my friend Pedro (the guy with the blue jumper in the pic) and myself.
No matter how carefully you drive offroad, there is always a degree of risk of being involved in a serious accident. Photos are typically no good at showing the actual gradient of those hills and IMO the only thing that prevented us from rolling over down that very steep hill was that I was driving extremely slowly (Manual gearbox in first gear and transfer in low, centre and rear diffs locked and foot just caressing the brake to prevent from wheels locking).
When the incident happened, I was returning to where other colleagues were, helping one of them who had just had a flat tyre. See how steep it is:
This is just before I started driving downhill (notice tiny Gs in the bottom/centre of the picture) :
There was a deep gully in the middle of the track that somebody had filled with rocks to assist the climbing of the hill. I decided to drive leaving the gully in the middle of my wheels but the terrain was clay and it was very slippery after a week's worth of rains. Notice the rocks in the gully between the two Gs in the pic:
My left front wheel slid straight on to the rocks in the gully and my rear right wheel was already dancing in the air, with the G threatening to tilt over. At that point I was completely stationary and it was decision time: should I turn the steering to the left and floor the throttle to try to get my front left wheel out of the gully, but risking failing the latter and provoking the G to slingshot and violently tipping over so that I could end up rolling over down the hill or should I just be conservative as ever, let the car slowly go down the gully by pointing the steering straight on to it, to where it was less deep so that I could then try to get out of my predicament?
I obviously chose this latter option. Unfortunately, I did not remember about those rocks I mentioned before and as soon as mi LF wheel had passed the last of them, it when deeper down the gully, meking the G tilt over. Thank goodness this was done ever so slowly that the G came to rest on its LH side, refusing to roll over. I was so shocked to suddenly (but provisionally) saved my life that I kept the engine running for a few seconds.... until I stopped it. The oil pressure lamp never lit.
My friend Pedro was by then hanging from the passenger handle, having failed (again) to follow my advice to sit at all times with his safety belt buckled. At that point I could not move a muscle even in my face, given that, after my whole life had passed before my very eyes, the only thing that I could think of was the last scene of that Michael Caine's cult cinematic masterpiece "The Italian Job", fearing that any movement would destroy the precarious balance of the G and send it us down the hill.....
We started to frantically honk to our colleagues down the hill for help but though we were sure that they could hear us, it was unlikely that they could see us because there was a tree (the one you see in the fourth picture above) between us and them.
Eventually, we managed to climb out of the G just in time to see that the first of our colleagues was driving up the hill to us. After some deliberation about the safest recovery method for both men and G, we decided that I should go back to the cockpit and hold the brakes safely while the winching line was attached to the passenger's seat belt securing point. We decided against using the roof of the G to avoid damaging it and against the frame because we considered this would reduce the torque and make the recovery more difficult.
Once the G was upside down, we allowed some time for the fluids to settle. We checked engine oil, cooling fluid and looked for diesel leaks. I checked the exit of the breathers for the axles, transfer and main gearbox. Everything OK. The only thing that leaked was the screenwash liquid, that did it through the two breathing holes in the lid of the reservoir.
As for the damages: A panel and driver's door slightly dented, driver's mirror arm broken (the glass was intact), small A panel marker broken and driver's door plastic trim bent. No glass was damaged and the windscreen frame was intact. And thanks to the dog guard no one was hurt with any of the toolboxes.
Moreover, after the incident, we continued with the trail as planned. And after that, I drove 60 miles on the motorway back home and everything was as good as usual.
Another day, another adventure....
All the pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mortinson3/Tamajon
