Thursday, March 15, 2012

Doofus Of The Day #578


Courtesy of a link provided by Australian reader Snoggeramus, today's award goes to three Japanese tourists in Australia.

Three Japanese tourists came unstuck on their planned Australian holiday on Thursday when they abandoned their hire car in Moreton Bay after they tried to "drive" to North Stradbroke Island.

The low tide and a GPS navigation system lured them into the bay at Oyster Point at Cleveland.

A firm gravel surface quickly gave way to the renowned bay mangrove mud and the Hyundai Getz was soon up to its axles, but not before they managed to travel about 500 metres [about 550 yards].

Their planned adventure to Straddie ended at 11am and the incoming tide soon forced them to seek help and abandon the vehicle.

By 3pm the car was stranded in two metres [just over 6 feet] of water and the subject of much amusement from onlookers on the shore and passing boat and ferry traffic.




The Tokyo students had wanted to take a day trip to Straddie and believed their GPS unit would be able to guide them there. The GPS forgot to mention the 15 kilometres [about 9.3 miles] of water and mud between the mainland and the island.


There's more at the link.

And they didn't look out of the window, see miles and miles of water ahead of them, and think twice before driving into it??? Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .





Peter

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

QUESTION: "And they didn't look out of the window, see miles and miles of water ahead of them, and think twice before driving into it???"


ANSWER: Students!


Toejam

zdogk9 said...

People can drive on the beach where I live, come Spring Break we've a pool as to how many surf their cars.

Don said...

Japanese place an undue amount of trust in technology (and government).

DaddyBear said...

"I don't care what you see, the GPS says there's a road going between here and there, and I'm not waiting on the ferry."