While working in Asia, dendrologist Brendan Buckley was haunted by water. In the central highlands of Vietnam,  a rogue dry-season deluge caused Brendan and his team to leave 5 motorcycles stranded at the Bidoup Nui Ba National Park ranger station while they swam a river that is normally crossed on a small wooden bridge or by a cable-pulled raft. To add to the adventure, one of the motorbikes had a broken rear axle, necessitating having to push it out on slippery, washed out roads for more than 6 km before leaving it with the rest at the station. Along the way the team crossed one raging waist-deep torrent of a stream and had to hand-carry each bike across on a makeshift litter. After all this, Brendan is not ashamed to say, in spite of a complete failure of getting any of their intended work done, it was the most fun he's had in years.

For more about Brendan's "excellent adventure" read his blog, Tree Stories: A River Rages Through It.