The Old Telegraph Track Day 2:- Tackling Gunshot Creek
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
We got up at a reasonable hour and had some breakfast; we were all talking about the previous day and how much fun this old road was. After packing up we pulled the cars up to the river and looked for the best route to cross. On the other side we noticed to old exit route from the river, it was seriously eroded and if you were to drive a car over there now you would do serious damage! At the bottom of the exit route on the opposite bank was some white mud that had the same consistency as a sort of smooth porridge. Sandy and Elliott had great fun playing, kicking, and throwing it at each other – we stayed well out of the way!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Almost immediately after Dalhunty crossing came Bertie Creek. This crossing was quite tricky, we had read in the guide that if you just drive straight for the exit on the other side you were in big trouble. We parked up and had a look at what faced us. The river bed was stone but in it were big potholes deep enough to swallow a tyre and leave the 4x4 on it's chassis!! We decided to position 3 people in the creek where the holes were and drive between them. This worked well and no damage was done. It was clear when looking at the holes that others had not been so fortunate. - There were big scrape marks in some of the deep holes, bet that made a mess!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Next was long winding and rough road to the infamous crossing Gunshot Creek. Gunshot as it is known is notorious for breaking cars and ruining trips, we were only initially going there to have a look at it as there is a bypass around it – Yes it can be that bad!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
We arrived at Gunshot to a few parked Fourbies and a large crowd of spectators. We surveyed all of the ways down into the water (I have to say the water was only knee deep, this is not the challenge at Gunshot – it is the eroded banks). There must have been 5 or 6 different ways to get down to water level and none of them looked particularly appealing! One of them would have been like driving your car off a cliff into a muddy grave!! One was very narrow and next to the cliff, the fear of falling off was too great.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
There were 2 that were just too steep for comfort and the mud at the bottom was sticky and deep. We just weren’t that confident. Then there was ‘The Chicken Run’, this was a lot less steep than the others however it was much, much longer. Whilst the others were a 2 second hope and pray job this was 15-20 seconds with a little less praying and a little more precision.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Elliott decided that he had not come all this way to turn around and that he was going to tackle ‘The Chicken Run’, we were not about to drive all the way back and around to meet them so we agreed to go that way too. Much to our relief Elliott kindly offered to go first and Heidi who really seemed pumped for this was going to just after with a little instruction from Elliott after he walked back up.
So Heidi and Sandy joined the large crowd at the bottom with their cameras and Carl was about halfway up the Run just off the track watching things like wheel placement.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Things didn’t go too well at the start when Elliott hit the tree stump he was meant to just ‘stay close to’! After that though what followed was amazing, half way down the car runs out of traction and basically becomes a 4 wheeled toboggan as it slides into a muddy pool, lurches hard over to the right – nearly toppling, then at the right moment you have to get on the power again to get through the mud and across the clean running river. I have to say he made it seem easy and he emerged from the car with a big beaming smile on his face!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Next was Heidi, after some re-arranging of a tyre and some logs that had been placed at the bottom to aid traction and avoid punctures (these had clearly been there a while and Elliott had obviously moved them again.) Heidi was ready to get in the car. We were both very nervous, Carl was in charge of pictures and Heidi was in charge of keeping the car in one piece! After some pointers to Heidi from our co-traveller he jumped in the car with her and said he wanted to do it again – this time as a passenger!
I (Carl) waited nervously at the bottom listening to murmurs in the crowd that they couldn’t believe that a girl was going to do it! One girl even said “come on girl, do it for us!” Just as Heidi started on her way down a 4x4 coming from the other side was powering across the river. In a moment of panic and able to see what could happen I stopped taking photos and waved frantically at the driver in the offending 4x4 to stop and wait his turn (impatient idiot). As I turned back it was nearly all over with and Heidi was crashing through the muddy pool toward the finish.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
There was a loud roar from the crowd (particularly the girls) and Heidi’s face was a picture of relief and happiness. I was so proud of her, I gave her a big kiss and thanked her and the car for getting each other down safely – I was so very proud of them both!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
We took some celebratory pics and headed off, but not before having a good laugh at the guy that stopped me seeing Heidi come down the hill get seriously stuck. He needed to be winched out in the end, he is just lucky that there are people out there willing to risk their gear to help a fool.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Oh and Sandy also hung a pair of Elliott’s Boxer Shorts in the tree after the crossing, this was sort of a “so and so woz ‘ere” sort of a tree. Elliott had his pic taken in front of the tree but didn’t notice them until our giggling had become uncontrollable! V Funny!
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
Gunshot completed and all full of beans we headed on just a little further and Elliott found a pool of mud to play in. The mud looked soft and pretty deep and there was a track around it, but he said “what were we here for if not to give it a shot?” In he went and unfortunately not out the other side! He gave it a bloody good go but the old Toyota was not getting through that and he got bogged.
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| From Old Telegraph Track - Day 2 |
OJ to the rescue!! We had to snatch (kind of like towing with a big rubber band) them out of their little mud pit and after seeing their attempt and the mud all over everything we decided to give it a miss – we’d had enough excitement with Gunshot!!
We spent the night camped up at Cockatoo Creek, it was a nice spot, this time we had some fellow over-nighters near by. We had a little go at fishing but nothing was happening so we went back up to camp and into the Gazebo (away from the bugs!) for a beer and some food.
