Australia: Finke River Sent in by Francesco Germi (28/03/2006)
'We didn't make it!'
Australia: Gulf Savannah Sent in by Francesco Germi (02/04/2000)
'Picture of my Land
Cruiser HJ47 in Australia. It was in the year 2000. The picture "SUB" was
the crossing of the Leichhardt River (Gulf Savannah, North Queensland) the
2/4/00.'
Australia: Hells Gate Roadhouse Sent in by Francesco Germi (02/04/2000)
'The picture was in proximity of the Hells Gate Roadhouse, NW of
Doomadgee Aboriginal Reserve, during the "wet" (rain season), Gulf Savannah,
North Queensland, April 2000.'
Australia: Iron Range National Park Sent in by Francesco Germi (16/08/2000)
'The picture is at the crossing of the Pascoe River (Iron
Range National Park, Cape York, North Queensland).'
Belgium: Solwater Sent in by Kees van Koevorden (01/05/2007)
'A great ford in Belgium, near the circuit of Francorschamps. The ford is on a
dead end street called Roguez leading to a parking lot.
The ford is located on the road to a parking lot where you can start a
terrific walk along a 5 km long path meandering along a stream called
the hoegne with wooden bridges crossing the river.
The depth is 1 feet deep with a loose gravel bedding, easy also for
normal saloon cars.'
Bolivia: Potosi Sent in by John Brown
Botswana Sent in By John Brown (18/07/2005)
Image 1: Sand Ridge Road in the rainy season, Chobe National Park.
Canada, New Brunswick: St Andrews Sent in by John Brown
'This site refers to "the Very Cool Tidal Road (at low tide
you can cross the road to Minister's Island for a guided tour of the
huge palace of van Horne, builder of the CP Railway). At high tide
the road is gone. So check tide schedules.'
Canada, Nova Scotia: Charlos Cove Sent in by John Brown
'A photo of the tidal causeway to Forster Island can be seen here'
Canada: Black Diamond Sent in by Jeff ? (06/10/2005)
'It is located on a well travelled country road, between Black Diamond
and Calgary Alberta. The water was about 6 inches deep, and very fast
moving, It hasnt rained up here for atleast a week, so I can only
imagine that in spring and times of heavy rain fall the road is
impassable.'
Central African Republic Image sent in by Alexander 'Sacza' Hinks showing a ford is on the main road running east-west through the Central African Republic.
At Mandø, near Ribe (Jutland). This island (or peninsula?), with
its village, is one of the northernmost of the Frisians. It can be
reached only by tidal road; a photo can be seen (with Acrobat
Reader) by going to here
and then opening successively (i) Lancewad Project Report (October
2001); (ii) Contents and Download (pdf); (iii) chap4.1_DK.pdf; then
scrolling to Fig 4.23. The caption says that the tidal road is
called the Ebbevej.
The Ebbevej is shown on the attached map of the island as the
dotted black line, south of the isthmus. This would make sense if
the tidal sea bed offers firmer going for wheeled traffic than the
soft dry sand of the spit.
However, the local tourist website
says: "Mandø is a marsh island surrounded by sands which are
submerged at high tide. The distance from Vester Vedsted on the
mainland to Mandø village is 11 km, of which some 6 km are actually
in the Wadden Sea. All traffic to Mandø runs along Låningsvejen, a
low dike in the Wadden Sea. The road is usually submerged twice a
day by the tide. Under normal wind and weather conditions,
Låningsvejen is passable some 15-18 hours a day during the summer.
Tide tables are available from Mandø Brugs (the shop on the
island)
Finland: Kemijoki River Sent in by Rupert Caplat (19/02/2004)
'The image shows an ice bridge over the Kemijoki River near Rovaniemi on the Arctice Circle in Finland. That's me driving the JCB over it whilst doing some cold climate testing in 2003. The locals told me the water was about 5m deep at that point but the ice was 1m thick and the weight limit is variable (17tonnes at the time) depending on ice thickness. There's normally a ferry at that point which they winch up onto the bank as the river starts to freeze. Little nervous as I drove on for the first time seeing cracks in the ice and hearing creaking noises but after the first crossing I just had to have another go or four. It was probably 200 to 300m across.
'
France: Bricqueville-sur-Mer Sent in by John Brown
A tidal road, on the west coast of the
Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula, in Normandy. It crosses an estuary
rather than linking to an island. There are some excellent images on this school trip website.
France: Ile Callot Sent in by John Brown & Andy Kelly (22/08/2007)
A French tidal road, 700m
long, links Carantec, near Roscoff in north Brittany, with the Île
Callot.
Until 1971 (when a majestic and
expensive new bridge was built), the principal vehicular link from Ile de Noirmoutier in the Bay of Biscay to the mainland was by the
grandaddy of proper tidal roads, the 4,150m Passage du Gois. This
was built between 1922 and 1924 and remains in use today (now as the D948), partly as a popular tourist
attraction in its own right, and partly because it is free whereas
the bridge charges a hefty toll - being stingy, we naturally crossed
by this route. The 80 year old road surface is large stone or
concrete blocks or slabs, and a bit bumpy, but perfectly driveable.
At low tide, there are places where you can drive off on to the
sand. It is passable for three hours at low tide. There are refuge
towers at regular intervals, as at Holy Island.
Greece: Skiathos Sent in by Neil Farmer (02/04/2006)
'Whilst on holiday in Skiathos, Greece, 2003, we hired a Suzuki
jeep for a couple of days to explore the island. Apart from one paved road
which runs the full length of the island the rest of the roads are dirt
tracks. The island is almost entirely pine forest, very scenic mountainous
and unspoilt. Driving around the forests was great fun and there was only a
few bits where you really needed four wheel drive. The two fords are on or around the road to Kechria.'
Greece: Thassos Sent in by Gary Coles (09/08/2006)
'A couple of greek fords. The ford in Image 1 was encountered when we drove from Limenaria towards Kastro, it can be found on the junction of the roads which go to Thassos town and Kastro and is basically dry for most of the year I would presume until heavy rain or snowfall, it was on the junction of a fairly busy road with no signs or depth gauge (as if!!) in fact i drove through it before i realised what it was. Length of the ford is a couple of car lengths and depth is probably anything up to 3 feet.
Ford 2 is on the same road and also it has a concrete base and is about two car lengths long. I would imagine any of these fords to be impassible after heavy rain with their strong currents and depth (Image 2).'
Guernsey: Lihou Causeway Sent in by Nicholas Woollett (10/05/2004)
'The Lithou causeway on Guernsey cannot be used by motors but is worthy of a mention on wetroads. The pictures would look better from a helicopter and you would appreciate the twisty nature and ever changing surfaces.
This causeway connects Lihou island with Guernsey mainland. It is unusual
because it is quite twisty and the surface changes from cobbles to rocky to
stoney beach at the far end.
Permission must be sought beforehand and in any case access is limited
because of the large tides in that part of the world. Having said that, we
enjoyed the walk across and most vehicles would have no difficulty iif a
lttle care is excercised but the exit at Lihou is up a steep beach and would
be difficult without 4 x 4.
It is supposed to have been built in the 12th century by monks.'
Iceland Sent in by Paul Manners (24/08/2004)
A selection of Icelandic fords from the 100's of pictures sent to me by Paul!
Indonesia: Sangihe Island Sent in by Francesco Germi
'The bridge went down and then public transport (blue minibuses) had to go through the river (dry at the moment...). October 2007.'
Italy: Forni di Sotto Image sent in by Ian Morrissey showing a series of fords (Guado) formed by the road crossing the braided Tagliamento in the Dolomites, NE Italy.
Mexico: La Aventura Panamericana Sent in by John Brown (15/12/2006)
'These are some slected images of a series of fords across a minor classified highway in the state of Baja California Sur, Mexico, between Loreto and Ciudad Insurgentes, via the lovely mission village of San Javier. All but the one are where the road criss-crosses the same river about eight times. The torrential rainstorms that occur in the rainy season wash down a great burden of heavy round rocks, which have to be bulldozed aside to create a rough way through motorable by trucks and 4x4s. This is something like the Mexican equivalent of the Strata Florida road in Powys.'
Namibia Sent in By John Brown (18/07/2005)
Image 1: Road out on to the bed of Etosha Pan salt lake.
Image 2: Sculpted bedrock of dry riverbed, Damaraland.
Image 3: Petrified waterfall, Damaraland.
Image 4: Watersplash on back road near Keetmanshoop.
Image 5: Between Keetmanshoop and Fish River Canyon.
Peru: Nazca Sent in by John Brown
South Africa Sent in By John Brown
Image 1: Irish bridge in Kruger National Park.
Image 2: In Baviaanskloof, a remote valley of Eastern Cape province.
Image 3: Swollen ford in Eastern Cape province.
Image 4: Watersplash near Lady Frere, Eastern Cape province.
Image 5: Watersplash in Drakensberg.
Image 6: Near Wupperthal.
Image 7: In the Cederberg mountains.
South Africa and Botswana Border Sent in By John Brown (18/07/2005)
Image 1: Dry crossing of the River Limpopo and in spate (mouseover).
Image 2: Irish bridge over River Limpopo, Platjan.
Southern Tanzania Sent in by Alexander 'Sacza' Hinks
'This Land Rover made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the main road running through southern Tanzania. The vehicle was not fitted with a snorkel and had to be pulled back out to the bank of the river.'
In the second picture, 'this 'International' oil field truck is just a few feet away from a ten foot hollow in the river bed. The water is over four feet deep.'
Spain: Costas Sent in by Paul Devall (15/10/2007)
All along the Spanish Costas, yopu can find features such as this. They are effectively storm drains taking the winter run-off straight to the sea, but they can make for some pretty good fording action! Image 1 shows the feature on the beach at La Cala de Mijas.
Sweden: Ostersund Sent in by John Brown
'An unusual entry for wetroads - an ice road across a frozen lake near Östersund, Sweden, which operates every year from late October to late March. The ice is kept clear of snow, which means that it freezes to a greater thickness (about two metres). The road is needless to say very slippery, but most locals have winter tyres fitted with metal studs which give much better grip than pure rubber. Wisely, they create a dual carriageway, each side about 50 metres wise and separated by a reservation of roughly the same width from which the snow is not cleared. As one of the photos shows, there is also a speed limit of only 30 km/h, and vehicles must run 50m apart.'
Tibet and China Sent in by John Brown (14/06/2004)
'Herewith some fords on HERO's Great Tour of China - none very challenging, I'm afraid. This event took 35 crews from all over the world, in their own 4x4s shipped in for the occasion, on a 9,000 km month long adventure drive around some of China's remotest regions - in many cases to places where westerners are seldom seen. This was the first time an event of this kind had been permitted by the Chinese authorities.
All but the last of the fords are in Tibet. The first one shows a local taxi blithely wading across a river, the others are of various 4x4s on the-event tackling some easy but spectacular watersplashes. The last pic (559) was taken in the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper Yangtse. More abour the event on our website'
Uruquay: Punta del Este A nicely bowed Irish bridge with a bit of wet in it sent in by John Brown (Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation)
USA, California: Ole Hernandez Sent in by Mike Andrews
'here is a picture of the TRC crossing Old Hernandez. The picture was taken on the Iron Bottom rally through central California. It takes place in April so we never quite know what the water level will be . We did have to push one car out of the creek on old Hernadez road as the air intake was below the bumper.'
USA, California: Sonora Sent in by Dave Gearhart
'Near Sonora - Ford on Red Hills Road. It is a short county road that connects state route J59 to Hwy 49, the state hwy that links many of the Gold Rush towns . Hwy 49 is at least 250 miles long , linking old mining towns, ghost towns , mines, and sites of old towns. The road crosses the stream about 4 times in 3-4. Hwy 49 is called the Gold Chain Hwy because of linking the mines and towns.'
