River Escapades
Back in 2006 I was doing a field ecology project for Cabi in Devon & Cornwall. I was working on plants by rivers for a period of 10 weeks. During this time, on a particular location, there were lots of nettles growing (larger every visit) by the route I took to the site where my experiments were.

I know, I’ll walk along the river further down and bypass all the shitty stinging nettles!

Walking along the shallow river in my wellies with my huge rucksack (with all my notes, samples, GPS and other gear) I come to a large opening with lots of swirling water. I thought for a second and chose (what I thought to be the best route) a path along the edge. Carefully walking through the water (up to my knee height) I stepped on a low tree branch which was just over the water.

SNAAAPPP!

Up to my fucking neck in water! I just about managed to lift my bag over my head in time to save the contents. I had a nice walk back to the car, soaking wet and covered in stings from the nettles. My car also stank of river water. What a dumbass!

On another note, I did something very similar to this last year. That time it involved a river and a deep area of mud (which didn't look deep).
(RJWEcology is just sharpening his axe on, Fri 28 Jan 2011, 11:38, Reply)