A couple of years ago I was driving my Volkswagen Touareg to work and was faced with a flooded road en route.
The extra water came from an adjacent river that had filled and overspilled. A detour seemed like a mission of working out what villages I would have to pass through to progress my route. So I took a gamble and the easy option. I proceeded through the deep water. I knew from reading somewhere previously about my SUV, it had approximately half a metre of wading clearance. Being familiar with the road and remembering where the kerbs and pavements were, I drove cautiously forward.
My aim was to avoid creating a bow wave which could cause the water to enter the engine bay and damage any electrics. After a minute or two, I reached dry tarmac – the engine had not stalled and no error lights displayed on the dash. A feeling of successfully landing on the moon came over me. I had done it and survived. For the return journey in the evening, I was confident that I could overcome this challenge again. And as expected, on the return journey, the water had not receded but looked no higher, so another successful voyage crossing was achieved. ©
