As a kid, getting swallowed whole by sludge was the stuff of nightmares, quite literally.
But thankfully, we don’t all have to go out like Mario did in Shifting Sand Land, as one Redditor recently proved when he posted a video of a wetsuit-clad man demonstrating how to safely escape a big pile of mud.
The clip’s narrator can be heard explaining: “Chris is just potentially getting stuck in that mud,” as his pal tried to jam his legs in and out of the slush.
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Watch the clip below:
They added: “Generally speaking, if you go down past your knee, depending on [the mud’s] consistency, you could be there permanently. So don’t wiggle from leg to leg, trying to pull one leg out and then shoving the other leg in.”
As for what you should do, well, we were a tad surprised to watch as the man in the wetsuit flopped onto his back as the narrator said: “Fall onto your back, spread all the way onto your back.”
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He added: “Now wiggle your legs out and work them upwards. If you ever find yourself stuck in mud, that’s the only way to get them out.”
Celebrity survivalist Bear Grylls has also previously shared his tips for not dying in a muddy sinkhole, explaining in his show Man Vs Wild: “[A] muddy bog is a place where the earth will literally suck you in.”
Grylls continued: “These holes have been known to swallow entire small off-road vehicles. The reason they are so dangerous is because if you go into them, the more you struggle, the more it sucks you into it.
“If you come across this, you’ve got to retrace your steps and back out. But what I’m going to do is jump in and show you how to get out of it.” Nice one, Grylls.
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Hopping into the sinkhole, Grylls was immediately immersed in sludge up to his hips.
“If I try and struggle a bit, you’ll see how it begins to bring me down into it,” he explained.
“Each muscle I pull creates suction that pulls me down deeper. A technique for getting out of this, if you’ve got a stick, is to use that to create more surface area to be able to put your weight on and try and wriggle your chest onto it.”
Grylls continued: “Once you’re on the surface, just monkey crawl until you hit solid ground.”
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Topics: Reddit, Environment, Travel