Raft across the river

We took off for northern Mongolia, traveling through the lands where Chinggis Khan grew up. As we tried to follow the trail, we ended up at a river crossing. This river crossing is like none you have ever seen before. Most rivers you simply ford but this one was a bit too deep, meaning you needed either a raft or a bridge. Lacking a bridge, the raft was going to have to do.
The raft…it was not very large…it was powered by hand. Quite literally – you grabbed hold of the cable and pulled and if one couldn’t do it, someone else added their hand, and someone else and someone else until you finally were on your way across the river. Doesn’t sound too bad, after all , it wasn’t a very big raft, maybe 12’ by 14’ give or take a foot. It held all of us just fine. The only issue was the car. Yes, the car was going to cross on the same raft. Three boards, ¾ in boards, were place from the dirt road to the raft in front of each tire (boy did Jack make sure they were lined up right). Jack drove the car onto the raft – it fit but you couldn’t put 2 cars on it. Then we pulled, and pulled and pulled and finally the raft moved towards the other side. But now, we had to get the car off. The sawhorse in the water did not look all that stable and while the boards on it were hefty lumber, it was a steep angle that he had to go down. With much moving and grunting and lining up, Jack was finally satisfied and he slowly took off down the ramp. Let me tell you, my breath was held the whole time. Whew! He made it. The good news…we had to do it again when we returned from our drive.
Check out the next entry for pictures of the car getting off.