This was something different from the day before's driving. You definitely use the 4WD in these conditions. You speed up to dampen the impact of the ruts, but you have to be very careful not to hit a pothole, a wash-out, an anthill, a tree in the middle of the road or any other obstacle. The side-tracks are interesting. The Gunbarrel has only been graded twice, once in 1958 when Len built the road, once in the '70s.
People go off the road and make a side-track in the scrub .
When that becomes too badly rutted, they make a new side-track. A big cause of the ruts is from the 2WD machos who refuse to use the 4WD transmission, and chop up the roads unnecessarily. The para-militaries with their huge trucks and monster 4WD buses are another cause. Road signs are improvised out here. At some places people had set up little warning triangles that alerted you about a pothole or some other obstacle.