Click on any photo to see a larger image.
I decided to take the photos when I accidently got my car bogged in my back yard.


The rear left wheel
In this photo you can see that the back left hand rear wheel has spun and dug itself a hole. The river gravel is very soft (especially after rain when wet), and only a small amount of wheel spin will dig you in.

The problem
In this picture you can see why I got bogged. I was driving across a section of my yard that I usually drive through, except this time the water had changed things a little. It had made a hole that I'd never seen before. My front wheel fell into the hole then became half submerged and was no longer on the ground. This made the floor pan rest on the ground. Once you get too much weight resting on the pan, you aint goin' nowhere.

Rear right view
To make things worse, the back wheel fell into a hole at the same time as the front wheel. The back rear right wheel in also half submerged in water.

Front view
This shot gives you a better view of the water on the left, and the ground on the right. I should just stayed further to the right, and I wouldn't have gotten bogged. But that would have been as much fun as driving through the water.

Recovery
Luckily vw's are relatively easy to recover. All I did was jack up the wheels (one by one) and put some fresh gravel under them with a shovel. The ground looks just like new again. I repeat this process on the front and rear right-hand wheels (but forgot to take photos), until the floor pan was no longer on the ground, and I thought I could drive out.
Before and after.
It doesn't look like much difference, but it's all I needed.


Free at last
After I thought I was ready to try to get out, I cleared my jack and shovel out the way, and gave it a go. I reversed a little, turned to the left a little, and then gunned it! There was lots of noise, lots of mud and grass flying, but I was out (see the grass for evidence).

 

I will try to grab some screen shots off of one of my beach trip videos, and write a quick story on beach recovery techiques. It's much the same. Australian beach sand is very very soft and very easy to get bogged in.