You can never be too careful!

On Thursday, 3rd September, in the evening at 20:54, I received the following message via the forum and WhatsApp:

"Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, I’m stuck in the mud in Croatia. I’ve tried using branches, stones, and recovery boards to get out, but it didn’t help (lifting the vehicle with a jack as much as possible and placing things underneath). My friends who have relatives in Croatia unfortunately don’t know anyone nearby. Is there anyone here who could offer advice (on how to get help) or knows someone nearby who could assist? The nearest houses are 6-7 km away on foot, and I’m apparently in bear territory (there were fresh droppings on the path). At this hour, walking isn’t really an option.

My coordinates are:

XXXXXX, YYYYYY

Near Kaluđerovac (close to the dam upstream).

The vehicle, if it matters: T3 Syncro.

Looking forward to your help! Responses may take some time as I have very weak signal. I’m trying to send a picture(s) and location, but it might not go through due to the weak signal mentioned.

Best regards,
Simon"

I called him and asked how serious it was. He said he’s fine and the water isn’t rising. He’ll be okay with me coming on Friday afternoon (around 2-3 PM) to pull him out.

On Friday morning, shortly after half past seven, I received a call saying that the water level in the lake had started rising. Could I come earlier? I replied that, in that case, I’d be on my way in a few minutes. However, it would take me a little over three hours to drive to the lake.

While I was on the way, a picture of the car arrived.

Fifteen minutes before I arrived at the location, I received another call with the following words: "My car is already more than 1 meter under water." I thought he must be exaggerating; that couldn't happen so quickly.

I arrived at the spot where the car was at 11:15, and I was in for a shock.

Five minutes later, we were both already in action.

After that, I had to take a new position to pull him out because I could no longer tow him straight from the same spot – my vehicle was also slowly starting to sink into the water. Once I chose a new pulling point, we had to cut a few branches and bushes that were between our vehicles.

Two hours later, the car was pulled out of the water. I had to tie my vehicle to a tree because during the recovery, it kept sliding towards the VW.

How and why did this happen?

He wanted to turn around and spend the night there, but got stuck in the mud. We can say he wasn’t careful enough because he tried to turn at the edge of the lake despite the ground being soft. This is a reservoir, and it’s been raining a lot in the past few days. The people who control the dam at the lake closed it early on Friday morning, unaware that someone was stuck in the mud right at the edge of the lake. As a result, the water level was rising by more than 0.5 meters per hour.

The following photos were taken on Sunday morning, when the water level had already dropped somewhat (0.5–1 meter lower than on Saturday).