Adventures in Oz

I was 25. A quarter of a century old and reflecting on what I had achieved in that time. Most of the friends I had gone to school with were either married, had children, or were living in far off exotic locations. So I decided that I wanted adventure. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. So I quit my job and applied to work as a governess out in rural Australia. And that is how I found myself, 3 weeks later having driven halfway across the country over 3 days. It was just me, my blue heeler Bonnie and my incredibly dirty Toyota Yaris filled to the brim with my possessions.
So this is how we found ourself at the beginning of a dirt road, 50kms from our destination, where the real adventure began. A massive truck full on livestock had just blustered past at high speed and up ahead I could see part of the road had become a bit messed up in it's wake. I was aware that cars can get stuck in mud so I put my foot on the accelerator and..... got stuck halfway though. This can't be happening, I tried to tell myself while slamming my foot repeatedly on the accelerator, further jamming my car deeper and deeper into the mud. I tried pushing, I tried placing a piece of wood under the wheel (though it is outback Australia so finding a decent size bit of wood was quite a challenge). But it was all in vain. All that was achieve was that the car, and myself were now covered in a thick layer of red mud. Don't panic, I told myself, just call the family, explain what has happened and they will come pick you up. There was just one problem - I was in the middle of nowhere and unfortunately Vodaphone do not supply cover for that area. So I was covered with mud, in the middle of nowhere, baking in the summer heat, stranded by the side of the road wondering how long it would take for them to realise that I hadn't shown up. It was also at this point that I realised I had a very limited supply of water left. This grandmother of the family ended up arriving after around an hour sitting out in the sun. I was so relieved to be rescued that I completely forgot how immensely embarrassing the situation was and set about the next hurdle I faced. Convincing Bonnie to abandon our car and hop into the ute. I ended up having to pick her up and sit with her on my lap for the remainder of the trip. It only took about 20 minutes but in that time the grandmother managed to consume 3 cigarettes and 2 cans of JD and coke. This was going to be interesting.