Das ist Kaputt - Scrubby Creek Disaster

Scrubbly Bubbly the trip becomes murkier at Scrubby Creek on the Old Telegraph Track.  We stop to fit the GoPro onto the number plate and Gen walks the crossing.

Gen sees bubbles and circles in the chocolatey water. Croc? She ventures in, walking across on the left with water up to her thighs and shaking her head at the deep potholes in the riverbed which are a big no no. Robert stays in the 4wd at the creek entry whilst Gen ventures to the right where she makes better progress through soft bottom and comes out on firm rock, three quarters of the way across.

Indecision reigns, Robert thinks it looks good on the right, better than the left, and drives in getting traction at first, then ...that sinking sensation...feels the wheels sink into a mud hole where the car remains trapped.

Gen as usual, saves her photo gear first. Through the window, she manages to reach for the snatch straps still in their boxes with labels. She dived up to her neck in the muddy water, feeling the back of the car for a point to attach it. Not having found the D-shackle, she just made a loop, big mistake as later it will prove impossible to loosen it and we will finish the trip with its end in the bin attached to the spare wheel.

She then races up the entry point to find help. An older man appears and Gen ties our snatch strap to the rear recovery point and runs the strap to the bank. There the supposed helper seems incapable of doing anything, clearly unwilling to get his white gym shoes wet. He dithers, clearly hasn't a clue, and finally disappears from the scene after wasting precious minutes. Meanwhile, Robert is in the driver's seat, engine running, whilst water rapidly rises over the pedals and up from the footwell to just below the seat.

At this point help arrives as a 4wd with a winch straps up to our tow and has a go. The winch won't work. Then it does, but fails to budge our bogged car. Even worse it is pulling in the recovery vehicle.

Next, our saviour attaches a second snatch strap and attempts to jerk us backwards with Robert helping by engaging reverse. This budges a bit backwards, then on the second try with an almighty jerk the car surges back and lands in the dry. We open the front doors and gallons of muddy river water surge out. We give our hero recoverer a bottle of wine and survey the soggy mass of items in the car. Another helpful bystander was trying his satphone to get a recovery service, but couldn't get a signal. After surveying our dripping vehicle, he turned to Gen, thinking her accent was German, and sighed: Das ist kaputt!

When we first arrived at Scrubby creek, we saw a track to the right that seemed to end in a dead end crescent. Whilst Robert was in the water, slowly sinking, he saw cars entering the Creek, but doing a dog leg. The crescent had an exit after all, which served as a chicken run to avoid our disastrous route. With our tail between our legs we took the chicken run and continued to Eliot Falls to camp in a wonderful spot. There we made a fire, hung our sleeping bags out to dry, put the tent up, and why not? Opened a bottle of cool white wine.

Next morning we had a refreshing swim in the clear waters of Eliot Falls and Twin Falls - bliss and beauty.

By now we thought we should retrace our steps and head North. The car certainly started, but lights were showing malfunction and it wasn't pulling as usual. From the Jardine River ferry, the road corrugations were hairy.

On arrival at the mechanic in Bamaga, the news was a hammer blow. His verdict was that electronics nowadays can't cope with water, there is no real hope of repair, only years of erratic faults. It's a write off he said, call the insurance.

Cape York