Old Telegraph Track (OTL)

We left Weipa and headed to the start of the Old Telegraph Track (OTL).  As we came across Batavia Downs track, Steve stopped as he had lost his bearing cap on his Camper trailer wheel. We put another one on to prevent the bearing siezing up and camper wheel from coming off.  

Further on we stopped at Bramwell Junction for lunch and asked the usual questions of the owner, how many trucks have been stuck,  how far will we make it today etc. It was all positive, except for a tour group of 11 cars that left only half hour prior to our arrival. It could be a long wait at the first creek.

We drove an excited few kilometres out to Palm Creek to find a stack of vehicles crossing Palm Creek with one vehicle ‘broken’in the bottom of the creek with mechanical problems. The tour group had moved it to one side.  We watched and waited, when the tour leader, asked if we wanted to go before the rest of the group. To that Steve and I said,”Yes”. We also met up with another couple from Deniliquin, Hoody and his wife, who were by themselves, doing the track. They tagged along with us.

A quick air down of the tyres, for more traction and I was first to attempt the creek.  To my surprise the Patrol crawled down the bank and with a bit of gusto, made it up the other side without a winch or snatch. One down many to go.

Steve's vehicle crawling down the bank.

Steve was up next and nailed it. Wasn’t a problem for him.  Kids all jumped in and we were off, so we thought.  Steve gave he a call on the 2 way, saying his 4WD system was not disengaging properly.  A stop of the side of the track, a little CRC, and things worked out. We were off again.

We headed of to Ducie  Creek. This was a nice little creek, but the entrance and exit, weren’t straight forward, you had to almost do a hair pin turn to get around a deep hole in the middle of the creek. On the way out Steve came up the undulating bank and popped his front wheel in the air. I could have laid under it to inspect his CV joints, he got that much air.

We continued on crossing the two Alice Creeks, before arriving at Dulhunty, just on twilight.  This creek was beautiful.

A quick one night erection, camp set up and it was down the creek with a few beers and time to wash the dust from our mouths and bodies.  The kids played in the creek and on its banks. 

Soon after it was a bite to eat, a few more beers and off to bed. Next morning, we were up and packed with Steve & Viv, before continuing North.

We cross another pretty Creek, Bertie Creek. Crystal clear water. At this creek there were a few people sitting on the banks, just watching life go by, not a care in the world.

Having the camper trailers on, it was a mutual decision to take the bypass road, for Gunshot Creek and head for Cockatoo Creek.  This was a steep banked creek with plenty of rocks in the middle of the creek.  Steve and I walked the creek to make sure things were okay and we could get through. Water blind on and off we go.  The track was a figure 'S' and no problems.  We got to the other side and parked the campers on the bluff overlooking the creek. The idea was to head back to Gunshot and watch others come through.

Cockatoo Creek

We arrived at Gunshot with some young guys just getting across, so we missed the fun stuff. At that point were was nobody else there. We settled down to some lunch, just as we were finishing lunch, we heard vehicles from the south. We all ran down to see what was going to happen and then the fun began.  Within 10 minutes 40-15 people with possibly 15 or more vehicles, circled around the creek.

Entrance to Gunshot

The shrine tree of damaged items

 The kids sliding down one of the old Gunshot Entrances

Well for the next few hours, Steve and I laughed, cringed, got dirty and just watched people, winching, being pulled through Gunshot Creek.

Some other friends, that we kept meeting along the way, Barry, Kerri, Shad and Natasha came down Gunshot towing their Campers.  A little push and shove, they made it around the corner.

After a few hours, we headed back to Cockatoo Creek, where we set up camp, started the fire and had a awesome bath in the creek.  We sat around the fire talking about the days events, washed down with a few ales.

I could have stayed another night at Cockatoo creek, it was very pretty and I am sure there would have been fish in those holes down stream. Maybe next time

The following morning, packed up and head off, we decided to make bea line for Sam's Creek to set up.  We were told about Sam's and how good it is. We underestimated, how good it was going to be.

On the way, we passed Fruit Bat falls, Elliot Falls and Twin Falls, but were planning on coming back and doing a day here.

We arrived at Canal Creek, the sand and clay was white, with this crystal clear stream running  towards us. This was another stunning creek along the OTL.  Both Steve and I made it across the creek with no troubles. We then climbed up the creek bank, which was interesting. I broke a tail light, which was quickly fixed.

 Steve crossing Canal Creek.

 Climbing the Northern Bank of Canal Creek

We headed off to Sam's Creek, which was only 10 minutes down the road.  We drove in to the so called camp area and set up, whilst the kids went swimming down in the creek.  Afterwards, Steve, showing his chain sawing skills, cutting up a stack of timber for the fire.  We were staying here for three nights.

We headed down to the creek. Upstream was a crystal clear water hole, about 5 feet deep, with piture Plants over hanging the bank, down stream from the crossing was a beautiful little water fall, that if you layed back, gave you a great shoulder and and neck massage.

After a wash, it was back up to have dinner and settle in for the night.  The kids decided to make there own fire and worked as a team to look after it.

The following morning, we headed to the Fruit Bat, Elliot and Twin Falls.  What a top spot. Fruit bat, was a little cool, but still nice. We headed over to Elliott and Twin Fall, where he had lunch, before going to have play.  The kids were first in at Twin Falls with their wahoo's.  I then saw Steve and said, let get the kids and float down from the large falls at Elliot. With a grin from ear to ear, the men were boys again. Rounded up the kids and down to the falls. A bit of coaxing for the kids and were were off, floating down the stream. Brought back memories of floating down the Macquarie River at Dubbo.  The kids and us, played there for an hour of so, whilst the ladies watched on.

Back to camp. Everybody was tired, so dinner, some laughs and into bed. 

The next morning, we headed North along the OTL, this time without the campers.  We came to Mistake Creek, which was steep and sandy, but again crystal clear.  No problems for either Steve or I.  Next was the famous Cypress Creek with the log Bridge. This was a little disappointing, as it was very stable and wide, nothing like the TV shows i had seen it in.
Mistake Creek

Cypress Creek

We arrived at Logans Creek, where we met up with Shad, Barry and Brett.  They had just arrived, but were no keen on walking the creek as it was murky and said to have crocs in it. I had been given some inside information, to hug the left hand bank, heading south to north, which they did. The water went up to the bonnet, with Brett loosing his nuts, coconuts from his roof.  So, we were on one side of the creek and Brett was on the other. He wanted his nuts and we were wanting to know the price.

Steve and I set up with the Water blind and away we went, by now it was a bit of fun, with all care taken. Both Steve and I made it without any problems, carrying Bretts's nuts with us.

On the other side, we found a large colony of piture plants, these flourish around this area.

Barry, Shad and Brett headed off, with us following. We were headed to the infamous Nolans Brook.  This creek had claimed many dozens of vehicles this dry season.  Both Steve and I had not made a decision, one way or another to drive the creek.  But on arrival and walking the creek, finding a hard bottom, I was confident we could do, but Barry, Shad and Brett were in front, towing their Campers.  We gave them a hand to set up and away they went. We all made it through without any problems, followed a celebratory beer in the creek.

Terry & Steve contemplating Nolans Brook

Terry entering Nolans

 Steve heading into Nolans and he did come out the other side, lucky for the snorkel

After lunch we headed back to Sam's Creek, where the Campers were set up.  The following morning, we headed for the Jardine Ferry, via the Development Road.

Weipa

The day before we were to tackle the OTL, we all drove up to Bramwell Junction for lunch, then a short trip to the first creek on the OTL, Palm Creek.  We were excited at the prospect of doing the track the following day. 

We arrived and found a group of people watching as a troopie was being winched up the other side of the creek.  Not good, as Steve’s winch was still not working.  A quick discussion and it was decided to postpone the OTL and head for Weipa to get the winched fixed, in case we need it on the OTL. 

The following morning, we left Bramwell station and heading towards Weipa, this is a larger mining town on the West coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria.  It was a two hour trip and as we drove into the town we notice straight away the large ocean port, which is used to load the bauxite onto ships, which is transported to processing plants on the East Coast. 

We pull into the camp ground and book in for a night. Our first job is to find a mechanic to fix Steve’s winch. We find the auto electrician can fix it in two days time so we proceed back to camp and book a further two nights.

Once we know the agenda, the next few days are spent unwinding and trying to keep the kids entertained.  First we take the kids fishing on the mission river where they all caught a few nice bream and we had a couple of keepers for lunch the next day.

While fishing we spotted a large croc on the water line sunning himself, he must have been at least three and a half metres long. 

The photo is a bit hazy, but the shape in the middle of the photo was the croc, between 400-500 metres away.

After all the bait had been used we headed back to camp for the night. The next day was spent stocking up the food supplies and an afternoon mine tour.  We toured a local Bauxite mine and saw firsthand the massive amounts of bauxite moved in the area.  The kids(and adults) loved the huge machinery.

After an afternoon swim and watching the sun go down, we had dinner were we made plans for the trip north to Palm Creek.  The winch was ready for action and the jockey wheel had been repaired, which Terry damaged, when the trailer came off.  All that was left was to pack up in the morning and head out.

Chilli Beach to Bramwell Station

We arrived at Chilli Beach on 30 June in anticipation for a two night stay. We found a great camp on the beach and proceeded to set up for the stay.  It was a great afternoon with a slight breeze, and at this point we were wondering why everyone had warned us about staying as the winds were really bad.  We had unpacked the campers and settled in for happy hour when the wind started to pick up and a few drops of rain started to fall. At this point we were still happy with no signs of what we were in stall for.  The rain began to fall and sausage sandwiches were on the menu for dinner. The winds howled and we bunkered in for the night.  Once we were tucked up in our camper we realised why we were warned, a sleepless night and the morning bought another day and more adventure.

The following day we headed into Lockhart River (an aboriginal community) where we stocked up on groceries at the local IGA. The young aboriginal kids were laughing at Melissa and Nat because they were so white,  it was cute to watch them following them around the shop. We stopped at the Gordon Air Strip which was used by the US in WWII.  It now used as a commercial air strip to bring in locals and supplies for the small town. While waiting we watched a plane land and bring in more workers.

We than drove out to Portland Roads for a look at the old port used to bring in supplies for the Gordon Air Base, this was a beautiful bay and nowhere as windy as Chilli Beach. Once back at the camp we took a walk over to a close by island, only accessible at low tide. Here we were able to fossic for oysters and crabs. The bet was on, with Terry betting Melissa and Nat to eat a black lipped oyster for ten dollars. Well, Melissa had three tries. Holding the oyster in her mouth, before spitting it out, but Nat, one go and down it went. Terry has to pay up now!

This bought us to our last night at Chilli Beach and once dinner was eaten we armed ourselves with our kitchen tongs, torches and a bucket and headed down toward the beach for a ghost crabbing adventure.  Here we started down the beach and the kids were darting in and out of the waves snapping at the crabs with their tongs before they headed back into the beach. Another windy night and we were ready to pack up and head toward Bramwell Station.

This part of our trip north had us heading on a track known as  the Frenchmans Track. This was a track for experienced 4WD’s and we were not long into the journey to see that not too many people had travelled it before us. It was a long slow trip compares to some of the other roads we had previously travelled and we weaved our way back towards the Telegraph Road. Our first stop was the renowned Pascoe River, which we had been warned was a steep incline followed by a water crossing and a steep climb out the other side, we had been preparing for this one since we left Cairns, our first big test.  On arrival, we found two Brtiz hire 4WD were parked on the track as if they were going to cross. They had no recovery gear and decided not to tackle the crossing.

The boys went down to the edge of the river and proceeded to walk across to find the easiest and safest route for the trucks and trailers to travel. Once we had a good look at the water it was then onto the climb on the other side. After a good half hour of walk and talk we decided it was time to get the cars ready for their first big river crossing. Out came the tarps to form water blinds, so water doesn’t get in the engine bay, out came the winching gear in case of emergency and again we were walking the river to locate the correct winching points if needed. Once we had all the gear set up it was time for the boys to prepare for the crossing.

Our vehicle crossing the Pascoe River, Cape York

 

Steve and Viv's Paj crossing the Pascoe.

Steve was the first to set off across the mighty Pascoe, we all took our places, Viv on video, Terry on river watch and myself on camera.  The truck looked mean as it pushed its way through the water and up onto the rocky climb out. He seemed to be jumping around like a matchbox car as he climbed the rocky passage out. Yeh he made it we let out a cheer and watched him walk back down the hill with a smile of accomplishment.  Next it was Terry’s turn, again we all took our places, this time Steve was on river watch. The truck pulled around the corner and he was ploughing his way through the water and onto the rocky climb, again the truck bobbed and jerked its way up the hill. Before we knew it he too was at the top of the hill and we all let out another shout of yeh. He then appeared with a grin from ear to ear and had bought the celebratory drinks with him.  Our boys had conquered the river and had turned into men. 

Once we had drank our beers we all walked up the hill to assess the trucks and trailers to see how they had fared.  The water level marks were quite staggering when we stopped and looked.  We both had water in the trailers, ours not too bad, Steve and Viv a bit more, but all good.  We were all quite happy that none of the recovery gear was needed and quite chuffed that we had passed the first major crossing without any real problems.  We were now looking forward to making our way to the next challenge of the Wenlock.

We had previously been told that the Pascoe was the harder of the two river crossings and were looking forward to getting the cars wet again. The Frenchman track was proving to be harder than first thought and we were making slow progress. When we finally hit the Wenlock we could see that the river was a lot shallower and there was a nice easy sandy spot to stop on the other side. We once again set of to walk the river to make sure there were no nasty surprises waiting underneath the water.  Once the boys (I mean men) were happy, we set about crossing the river to the base of the climb out.  As legend would have it the river was easier to cross and no recovery required here either.  We then proceeded to assess the climb up the hill.  We could see the original track hadn’t been used for some time and there was a whopping big tree that had fallen across the top of the track, obviously this track was not an option. The other track which now looked like the most used track was the only option we had left.  This track was very boggy with mud and was quite a bit of an incline which turned a bend to reach the top.  Once again the men walked and talked, which line would be taken to reach the top.

Again Steve went first, he put the truck into 4WD and we all took our places to get video and photo’s.  He hit the hill and was doing fine until he hit the bank and started to slide into the mud.  Once in the mud the trailer followed him in and he was stuck hard up against the bank with nowhere to go.  Once he climbed out the passenger side door, we all assessed the situation, took some photos and start to set up the winch to get him out.  We all shook our heads and said this was supposed to be the easy crossing.

Out came the winch attached to a large tree. Steve started the winch and after 10-15 seconds, nothing. For some reason the winch had stopped working. Re-assess. Out came the hand winch and we set up to hand winch Steve out. While slowly winching we heard the noise of approaching  4WDs. To our surprise two older gentlemen headed our way to see what the hold up was. They advised us they were here to cut up the big tree blocking the track, this was the track we assumed was the old track, to our surprise this in fact was the track and they proceeded with chainsaw and chains to clear the way. Meanwhile the hand winching continued. This was a mightly task, as Steve Paj and Trailer weighed a few tonne. After about 2 hours, Steve was out of the boggy mess and sitting at the top of the climb.

It was Terry’s turn. We dug out a corner of the track to allow for more space to drive up the track. And away he went. Around the corner he came, all was going well, until the rear of our trailer, slipped into the bog, he gave it everything but was going nowhere.  He reversed and tried a different line but the trailer was playing no part in the effort to proceed up the hill. Once we knew there was no getting out we proceeded to access the situation.  As Terry we further down the hill than Steve we had to work out the beat angle for the winching, we knew we in for a long afternoon, as another 2 hour winching episode was about to start.  From the top of the hill 2 young blokes appeared travelling south to chilli Beach, they told us they would help winch us out. So the fun was about to begin. Dennis proceeded to bring the Prado down the hill and prepare the gear for the winching.  He proceeded to tell us that this was the first time the winch would be used.  As we prepared to winch his Prado started to slip down the hill, his hand brake wasn’t working since crossing Nolans Brook (a creek further north). As Terry hadn’t budged at all we needed a plan B.  Steve positioned the Paj at the top of the hill and stretched his winch and attached it to Dennis’s tow bar, this was to support Dennis from being sucked into the mud with Terry.  As the sun set we knew this was going to be an a story to tell around the camp fire. We continues to winch until Steve thought the winch was going to fail, at this moment Terry yelled “keep going” as he felt the patrol finally let go of the sucking mud and start crawling up the hill. Bit by bit he crawled until we could see his headlights at the top of the hill.  By eight o’clock he was safe at the top.

We thanked the boys for pulling us out and proceeded to crack a beer to salute the day that had just unfolded.  We set up camp and had a feed of noodle cups and cup a soup for dinner.  We all headed to bed for a well earn’t sleep and dreams of knee deep mud and winching in the dark.

The next morning we woke to a new day and shaking of our heads that the previous day wasn’t a dream. After collecting all the winching gear, maxx tracks and shovels we proceeded to pack up camp and with one more huge thanks to Dennis and Bryce. We proceed to head for the previous days pit stop of Bramwell Station. After finally reaching the OTL (Old Telegraph Line) we headed north again to find Morton Station, our only mission was that this stay must include a washing machine, as we were running out of clothes.  On arrival at Morton it was a beautiful station with camping facilities but unfortunately no washing machines.  We had a quick discussion and all agreed that we would head to Bramwell.