Travelling down Cape York 5-9-22

[Big Red]

Not long after I drove through the Lagoon Crossing, the bonnet dipped under at the other side and luckily I was going slow in first low as there is a very steep sharp jump up that you cannot see under the water.

After crossing some washouts a little further on the gearstick fell out … bugger, I was stuck in second gear so I pulled up at the next clear section.
I tried to take the console out but it didn’t want to come out without removing half the dash so I removed the fabric insert, cut the rubber flexy bit, moved the rubber grommet up the gearstick, ripped the rubber cover and then accessed the top of the gearbox.
I figured out that the Circlip had come out allowing the whole assembly to pop out so I lined it all up and slipped the mechanism back into place before reinserting the circlip.
All the rubber seals and fabrics are now just sitting there in place sort of but the heat coming up is pretty full on now and deep water crossings are gunna be bad.

I crossed in a straight line across Cockatoo Creek with no hassles as the water was not too deep.

[Big Red]

I arrived at Gunshot Creek but there were cars everywhere stuck in the bottom and waiting on the other side for their turn, I was going to be ages to wait so I decided to head out to Captain Billy’s Landing and drove back up the Tele to the north Gunshot Bypass track and headed out to the PDR then north up to the turn off.
I followed 3 caravans for about 15 Kms as they either didn’t see me behind them or were just inconsiderate so when they stopped to check out a creek crossing I pushed past two of them and followed the first one through then before he had a chance to get moving I pushed past him as well .

Arriving at Captain Billy’s Landing I camped up, made a coffee then got some pics of whats left of the concrete loading ramp and as it was low tide I then walked south to check out the Bat Caves on the headland before heading back for another coffee.
The caravans arrived and I fully expected someone to abuse me for having the audacity to pass them but they kept to themselves.
I left the camera as the tide was coming in and walked south to check out the next headland and the creek just past it, as I returned I had to wade through some waist deep water around the headland to get back.

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

Thursday 8-9-22:

It was near High Tide when I grabbed my first coffee so I decided to walk North up the beach to check out a couple of headlands as South was blocked.
I found one creek filled with floating rock and an interesting headland before turning back as my internal coffee supply was running short.

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

[Big Red]

A bit before lunch I walked South finding some more Bat Caves as well as a sus looking salty creek, I kept going to the next headland before turning back as I was getting a bit sunburned by this time.
I packed and headed back across to the Telegraph track via the south Gunshot bypass track missing Gunshot and Chalmondeley creeks.

[Big Red]