GPS artist's epic large-scale sketch of Lionel Messi ends in disaster after king tide swallows his car

News.com.au

2 days ago

A fitness enthusiast who creates large scale digital sketches using GPS and a run tracking app copped a messy surprise after completing his latest creation.
Peter Mitchell spent most of Friday running and jogging to a specific set of coordinates along a stretch of remote sand dunes near Sandy Point, about three hours from Melbourne.
After five hours and some 15 kilometres of distance covered, his epic drawing of football legend Lionel Messi was complete.
The feeling of satisfaction was short-lived, after he returned to his red Toyota Yaris parked on the sand and found an unusually high king tide had swallowed it.
'I came around the corner and saw it, and I thought: 'Oh no, how am I going to get out of here? How am I going to get home?' Mr Mitchell told news.com.au.
'It's quite remote out there and there's not a lot around.'
Dusk was rapidly approaching, the mercury had dropped significantly, and the 50-year-old was drenched from wading through the water. The nearest town was about a 30-minute drive away and Mr Mitchell faced the prospect of having to walk there.
He grabbed a few essentials from his submerged car, including his diabetes medication, and ventured to the road.
'My hands were going blue because I'd been standing around in the water for so long. I thought maybe I'd be best to go for a bit of a jog to get down to the town. And then I saw this lady and asked for her help.'
Ironically, the woman had come down to the beach to check out the king tide, which she'd heard was a sight to see that day.
She drove Mr Mitchell to the town of Forster, which is a thriving hub in warmer months but slows right down over winter.
'I had a few wee dramas there because I was soaked right through. I had to get food into me because I hadn't had lunch – it was in the car and all wet. I went down to the pub, but I'm like, I can't go in bare feet, but my shoes and socks were absolutely soaking.
'I used a few tea towels, wrapped them around my feet as socks to absorb some of the water, and rocked into the pub and had a meal.'
Warm and with a full belly, Mr Mitchell turned his mind to how he was going to salvage his beloved little car – and get home to the Mornington Peninsula.
'I spoke to a mechanic, who put me onto a few other people, they'd give me numbers, and it went around in circles. Finally, I got a hold of a guy with a tractor and he said he'd pull it out for $500.'
A few friends from Melbourne were prepared to hire a trailer, drive to Sandy Point, and take Mr Mitchell and the Yaris home.
'I thought, OK, I'll go down to the beach as early as I can to check out the situation and see how bad it looks before I ring this guy with the tractor. But there's no taxis. I rang the one place, and it went to their answer machine, because it's the off-season.
'I'm just about to try hitchhiking when the taxi lady rang me back. So, she drove me there. We had an interesting conversation on the way.'
In the bright light of day, and with the tide out, his car 'didn't look too bad' and Mr Mitchell had expected it to sink into the wet sand overnight.
He sat inside it to survey the damage. It was full of water. But out of interest, he tried to turn it over – and it started.
'I thought, there's no way in hell. I literally closed my eyes and prayed. It started. Then I thought, this thing isn't going to move, but it did, and I drove straight off the beach.
'I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to turn it off again, but I phoned a mate who knows a bit about cars and asked what I should do. He said I should have a go driving it home. At least if it died, I'd be on the side of a road and could get help.'
Miraculously, Mr Mitchell made it all the way to his house – about 155 kilometres away.
'Every time I stopped or went around a corner, all the water inside the car would slosh around. It was splishing and splashing all over the place.'
The entire ordeal stretched for more than 24 hours and he described it as 'a rollercoaster' of emotions.
'It went from doing a really good Strava and feeling good about that to seeing the car and worrying, then being stranded and wondering if I was going to get hypothermia, to the car starting and actually working, then next thing I'm home.
'It was a relief. My car is pretty old anyway, it's got 240,000 kilometres on it, so I'm pretty amazed. But it was a long day. I'm still kind of unpacking it.'
Mr Mitchell shared a video clip of the saga to his social media channels, where he has built a loyal global following over the past several months.
To mark his 50th birthday last year, he created a large-scale map of the world by doing 170 kilometres of running through inner-city Melbourne and shared it on Strava, the run tracking app, and it went viral.
After that, he started posting his creations to Instagram and later TikTok, receiving millions of views and occasionally generating international media buzz.
For example, his sketch of LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant saw him interviewed on ESPN and CBS News in the United States.
'I've been working more on the high precision stuff at parks or the beach with smaller detailed elements. Using street routing, you can't get that same level of detail and there are lots of constraints.
'But if you're doing it in a big open area, you can do almost anything. It's amazing. I enjoy everything about it.'
What started out as a bit of fun and a way of adding an additional challenge to his regular running regimen has taken Mr Mitchell somewhere he never imagined.
'I'm new to social media. I hadn't really used it before this. It's incredible to see how people respond to them. It's just nuts.'
He has partnered with Strava and Telstra on a few projects and has a few more lined up with Foot Looker and the Melbourne Marathon.
'I would never have believed any of this happening in my wildest dreams.'
While it's far from big bucks, it's a sign that Mr Mitchell has found a strong niche and could turn his burgeoning brand into something special.
Until then, he's now wondering how he will go about replacing his Yaris. While it got him home, it's almost certainly a write-off.
A friend from his running club started a Go Fund Me appeal on his behalf, calling for fans and supporters to chip in a few bucks to help ease the financial burden.
'I told them, there are a million good causes out there and people have got better things to spend their money on, but they insisted and set it up. It's nice, but I was reluctant. I'm just rolling with it.'
When he has enough to buy himself a new car, there's no doubt what brand he'll consider.
'A second-hand Toyota, I think,' he laughed. 'I mean, it's proven to be pretty reliable and resilient.'