Why do people take chance ??

Is this the norm for most outback travelling or are these people going overboard with trying to outdo each other ?? And write at the end you have a child standing on the dirt wall on the passengers side ?? Bit dangerous in my books ???.............

Which "chance" is that? The "chance" to accomplish someone one sets out to achieve.
I was expecting something much more extreme with your description. I think this website has a wide cross section of people and many are not black toppers.
Gunshot creek is far from a chance encounter, rather it's one of the luring features of Cape York.
Tim

Its all about egos mate. Some peoples egos need a lot of maintenance and will take "chances " when ever. Others prefer to keep theirs in check and limit the amount of chances they take. Risk is a better word. The world needs all sorts to make life interesting. What you would consider very risky may be considered a piece of cake by another. It would a very boring old you-tube with pictures of 4wds travelling at 80 kph on the bituman. Some people go overboard and are just plain stupid. Thes people are normally the ones brought to our attention.

Hi Kimba, In both those videos the only thing I saw that was questionable was the kid standing on the bank at the end.
It would appear you have not driven a lot of tracks like those in the videos and that's fine.
We often had people say to us on our trip around oz about how rough or bad a track was. I never had any issues with any track we did. Our vehicle was set up for it.
We had a guy tell us not to do the Gibb River rd unless we wanted to wreck our vehicle. Well we were greatly disappointed. We sat on 80-100 km/hr and it was like a dirt hwy. We even got over taken by a commadore on it. In his opinion we were idiots for doing the Gibb but it was nothing in our opinion as we were prepared for it.
I personally don't consider cape york remote anymore. To others it's the end of the known civilised world. We did Gunshot and although we got stuck, I didn't think it was taking a chance or a risk. It was just a track that was rough and needed care. Yes I could've driven around it and gone up the development rd but that could be done in a normal car so what's the point.
In the second video I would say the only thing is they needed diff locks to help not damaged the tracks.
Our vehicle was well set up. It had a lift kit, big tyres, diff locks front and rear, wheel carriers, winch ect. We were parked in a car park one day and I over heard a couple of people talking about our car. It went like this..."Have a look at this d**khead, bet he thinks he's a hero having a car like this. Bet he gets out in the bush a rips up the tracks and wrecks it for other people".
Well it was the exact opposite for us. We were travelling by our selves so we had all the gear and was set up to do extreme tracks, not because we were heading out to find the toughest, hardest tracks but because if we got stuck we had to get ourselves out. Also we wanted to be able to do some harder tracks without chewing them up by going to hard. There were some tracks we choose not to do cause the risk was to great, there were some tracks we did that others thought we were stupid for doing but we never did a track that I thought was dangerous by my expirience.
Your expirience on these sort of tracks seems limited but that doesn't make it wrong, stupid or dangerous for some else with more expirience to do it. I had people have a go at me for taking my kids into really remote areas with us. What if something goes wrong, your on your own. Yes we were but we were set up for it.
At the age of 5 and 6 our girls were jumping of high rocks into rivers in the Kimberlies, they were diving down real deep, sitting on the edge of jetties ect. We had people have a go at us for letting them do it. These people had no idea what our girls had done or were they had been. It was normal to them.
I grew up swimming in rivers and dams, My brother inlaw thought it was disgusting swimming in a river cause it has no chlorine in it and has logs ect. Mmmmm
It's funny I'm just watching a show about people who work with dangerous animals. I admire them for what they do, other people would think they are stupid risking their lives. Comes down to your expirience.
I hope you have the opotunity to get into some of these areas and expirience them.

Josh

This is one way to find out what your limits are.
When I was a kid skating about on a dewey grass paddock and belonging to a car club and going to Gymkanas were the best driving lessons you could imagine.
As for risks, try being a passenger in a bus in India ... no chance of sleeping there !

Its a special of kind of person who takes $50,000 worth of vehicles through situations like that just to say they did it.
Then they get to camp in the bush in the middle of now where and tell each other tall tales of their daring exploits.
Was anyone mindful of the damage being done to the tracks which pretty soon will be impassable even to those guys?
One of the best You Tube videos I have seen was one where the group repaired the track after they had finished their days fun. Well at least they filled in the holes and laid water traps to stop their work being washed away.

Can't see the fun but ....

Bill

An interesting post Kimba. Yes of course there was another way around but in the end it comes down to the fact that some drive these tracks to get to the destination while for others it's the challenge of the journey.
Personally I think life would be pretty boring if everytime a challenge was put before me I took the chicken track & really in this case on Cape York if you've taken the easy route including the ferry then you've not REALLY driven to the Tip ;-)
Cheers Craig............

Gday,

Why?
The same reason people use the GCR instead of the black top........climb a hill......go camping.
Because they can! Its fun....exciting.....challenging. Havent you ever done something just because it was fun.....not 100% necessary......just fun? Its probably what they were doing.

Cheers

Kimba,

I think that video clip shows what can happen when one or more of the three golden questions are not answered.

1. Can my vehicle do it?
2. Can I do it,as the driver?
3. What if, what if it goes not to plan?

In this clip, yes the vehicle is capable of the decent, is the driver capable, well the fact that he did not haveing a back up plan in place or take precautions before hand would suggest that he was not capable.

The vehicle got stuck with the recovery points and winch buried and the vehicle not going forward of back.

One way out is to be dragged backwards. Did he have another vehicle ready to assist or just wait until another vehicle came along? The video does not show how the vehicle got out.

If he had put a strap on the front before the decent would have meant that a tow forward would have been possible.

Asking your self these questions before any obstacle will make the trip far more pleasurable.
As for pressure from others to do things that you are not comfortable with, are they going to be there to help if it does not to plan and pay for any repairs or recovery?

There is another way around, but I would suggest that you go and have a look at Gunshot creek crossing and make the assessment your self. Don't be forced into doing some ting that you don't want to do. The tour company that you are going with should allow you the option.
Just remember it is your family, vehicle, and holiday and you have driven to the tip your way.


Wayne

G'day Kimba,

Great post and certainly got the crew talking! In a few visits there I have always gone round (yes I know I'm a woos) but seen both sides of the story. Watched a guy with a very well set up toymota do all the crossings there both down and up - most impressive. He mentioned that his goal was to do the whole OTL, we did notice that the Jardine crossing was not on the list. He had a great set up including front and rear lockers, big wheels and adequate ramp up and down. On other visits I have seen a guy ruin his front end, not sure what hurt most, the damage or the tongue lashing he was getting from the missus. Another fella I watched backing down only to plant his exhaust in the mud - this was duly left behind when his mate pulled him out.

There is no doubt the Gunshot provides plenty of entertainment and I wouldn't miss it for quids.

Kind regards

Hi Kimba10,

I watched the videos.... I haven't read the replies etc... I can imagine what others have said.
I have mixed feelings about it though. On the one hand it's a long way from help if something goes wrong, be it mechanical or medical help. On the other hand it's a long way to go to not experience it all!
We were destined to be leaving for the Cape this weekend, but had to pull out thanks to my injuries suffered early this year. I had always said that I would take the easy way around Gunshot. Until I get there, who knows? If I choose the easy way, I can live with that, same as I can live with doing damage the hard way. The second video of the Frenchmans Track looks a lot of fun though. And although I believe the spectators are way too close, it's all part of it. I have found that it's almost as big a thrill watching someone get "up-that-track" as it is actually doing it!

I think it's a matter of employing the first two rules of 4WD'ing....

1) Stop, Get Out, Look

2) Think, Assess, Decide.


Cheers

Brian