Powerlines in the dark

The Jimny in the image is John's (see previous posts) and the Sieria belongs to Rob. No pic of my Jimny this time. Both of these cars have more fruit than mine; John now sporting both front and back lockers and Rob well renowned for the rear LSD and front locker combination.
This trip was just a normal run up the powerline track out of Munadring into the Sayer's Valley district. Although most of the fourteen participating cars found the going pretty easy with some reasonable challenges, the XL7 and standard Grand Vitaras gave up half way along. I didn't bother putting on the mud terain tyres and consequantly found the first challenge of two bolders set one on each side of the track and half a Jimny apart just to much without risking the sills. So I went around after a couple of half hearted attempts.
The climb out of the big hole was not even attempted as I did not have lockers - John showed how to do it with both front and back lockers active and followed by a strong burnt clutch smell.
My major thrill for the night was when I went to pass Rob on the way home only to find I no longer could engage fifth gear. Earlier as I was going along the track, I noticed some difficulty in engaging first gear to the point where Eugene had to take preventative action from running into me. After struggling with the gear stick, I eventually got it into gear and dared not to stop until closer to civilization. The first set of traffic lights back in the city proved my nightmare true - no first gear any more. I managed to limp the cripled beast back to home where investigations indicated something loose inside the gearbox preventing the selection of first, third and fifth gear without a lot of frustration and jiggling.
I have take the Jimny to the mechanic - it is quite difficult driving in traffic with only second and fourth gear, and a tendancy to jam into gear as well. I now have to wait for the diagnosis .....