The next big route decision is north of Moreton Telegraph station at Bramwell Junction. It’s either the graded unsealed road to the top (Bamaga) or the completely unmaintained track known as the Overland Telegraph Track where the wheel ruts can resemble bottomless crevasses and the creek crossing are many, deep and have made many a mechanic rich. And yes, of course we are taking the latter.

It starts with the toughest crossing, Palm Creek, just 4 kilometres into the 100km of challenges. Having dropped into the creek bed down a steep sandy decline, we appeared at the proper water course and made a left turn.

Entering Palm Creek

After about 30m of creek, we turn right and head up the steep, muddy slope to the north bank. There was a huge rock on the way that caused us a spot of bother.

Creek exit.

With the trailer in tow, we weigh a fair bit. We winched off a tree for the last pinch and left behind the hoards who decided to tackle it the morning. This was great news as we took on the next creek by ourselves and camped solo at a perfect site on the north bank of Ducie Creek. It was definitely in the top three camps we’ve ever had. Not hot, not cold, no wind, no flies, no mozzies, no noisy crowds. Having no power doesn’t matter as our batteries last for many days, and no water? We camped right on a clear creek and cooled off at the end of a long day right next to our tent. Our private pool. Then Harry set a fire….

Ready to light

And the bush telly was on.

The Telegraph Track is a mixture of rocky wash outs, ruts, corrugations and of course the many creeks. We saw a snake on the track, a huge wild pig run across the road in front of us, heaps of small kangaroos and a billion termite hills. Grass trees went past in huge patches, then yellow flowering grevilleas, then paper barks. And despite the large number of vehicles on the track, there were still many peaceful times.

Telegraph Track