An Author’s View on … Ambulances.

My view on ambulances is that they are big and heavy – and I should know as I recently had to rescue one that was stuck in a muddy verge! I described the use I get, as an author, from walking my Schnauzer, Smudge, in an earlier blog, but I wonder how many people can claim that they have rescued an ambulance while out walking their dog?

First a bit of context: near where I live there is a care home. It has two entrances – the proper entrance and a second one along a single-track lane through some fields. It would be possible to get to the home along the second route, but for one thing – a very securely locked gate! It was down this route that the unfortunate ambulance crew had been directed by their GPS. This is not the first time this has happened – I once saw a very posh Rolls Royce using the same route – a very incongruous thing to see driving down a bumpy country lane!

Unfortunately for the ambulance crew, we’d had a lot of rain recently and (as I discovered) ambulances are very heavy, so when the driver reversed onto the grassy verge to turn the ambulance around, things started to go wrong. By the time Smudge and I came across it one of the front wheels had spun itself into a nice deep hole. It must have been very frustrating for the crew, because up a small slope, less than half a minute walk from where they were “parked”, was the care home – a great Victorian edifice that must have seemed to be smirking down at them. But never mind they now had a knight in shining armour coming to their rescue!

Having secured Smudge to a nearby gate post with her lead, the crew and I got down to rescuing the ambulance. We started with the usual trick of stuffing branches and twigs in front and then behind the wheel. But to no avail. Not having a shovel to hand (why is there never one around when you need one) it was not possible to get the branches and twigs under the wheel properly.

Eventually the driver’s colleague phoned home-base to admit they were stuck in the mud, while the driver and I persevered with the rescue. Having been showered by mud by the spinning front wheel, I suggested she turned the wheel in the opposite direction. Then with the engine rhythmically revving and decelerating we managed to rock the vehicle gently backwards and forwards and it slowly and inextricably clawed itself out of the hole and back onto the lane. Hoorah!!

There was great relief all around, the ambulance crew were free and I had a story for my blog!

Who would have thought that a dog-walk could be so interesting?