The mighty Cruiser worked hard these past few days.

There’s an oasis or two on the long tough road. They attract travellers from the north and the south. I speak of Fruit Bat Falls, which is accessible from the “good” road (that means more visitors) and Eliot/Twin Falls, which is nearby but much harder to reach.

We put the kayak in at Fruit Bat Falls. This place is straight off a post card. Just amazingly clear water. Refreshing, but not cold. No crocs here – there are none at any of the creeks along the Tele Track. What a welcome relief from staring at gorgeous beaches and not being able to swim.

Fruit Bat Falls

The boys put the kayak in and tried to head upstream to see what was around the bend. But it was too shallow, so they headed downstream to Eliot Falls while I drove the car, negotiating the deepest ford of the trip (head light high) with the help of one of the many fellow travellers.

Eliot Creek

I hear there was a wee bit of portaging before arriving downstream at Eliot Falls. I enjoyed a swim or two here. It was another sensational spot to spend some time and wonder if you really are such a long way from anywhere.

Eliot Falls with the boys arriving at the top of the falls

And below is the spot that I spent some time cooling off. Life was tough today.

Twin Falls

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

The roads are pretty remote out here, but every now and then there’s something you don’t expect.

What the?

Miles from anywhere.

Next stop was Coen. This is a small place of about 300 people. It used to be a service centre for gold miners and pastoralists, then it also got a telegraph station. Today it was a good spot for lunch. Then we headed off to the west to the mining town of Weipa and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The road gradually improved the closer we got and then we hit the bitumen. Just in case you weren’t sure you were in a mining town, we came across the only set of traffic lights since Cairns.

This must be Weipa.

There’s a great camping ground right on the beach you can’t swim in. The crocs spoil all the fun up here. John went for a run and ran into (not literally) a bloke he knew from a couple of decades ago (apparently John’s running style hasn’t changed) so we had a nice cuppa with a local before heading up the coast a bit to a place called Pennefather. The track is soft sand along the dunes until you arrive at a bunch of shacks and tents filled with fishing enthusiasts. The boys fed the fish again just to make the drive worthwhile and then we headed back to Weipa. We had “Harry’s good school report” dinner out at the local Albatross Resort (it’s a pub) that night. No cooking. Yay!

Before leaving Weipa we did the town and mine tour. They took us out to see how the bauxite is mined and watched a fair bit of the process. Rio Tinto has been mining here since the 60s (formerly as Comalco) and they say there’s another 50 years left here at this site. It’s an enormous project and the environmental protection measures are extensive.

A hauling truck filled with bauxite

It’s a “live in” mining town – no Fly In Fly Outs work here. It can take months to years to get a job here, working your way up the ladder. You have to wait till some one retires or dies apparently. There’s a bloke driving one of the water trucks who is 83. He loves it! This is considered one of the best jobs at the mine. And that might be the reason why I didn’t become a miner.

Did I mention it was a lovely 30 degrees today?

Travelling in the bush means you meet many like-minded people. And then there’s the peculiar ones. We met such a fellow the other night camped by the North Kennedy River at Saltwater Creek in the Lakefield National Park. It was a bush camp and no one was around – or so we thought. Out of the bush come a late model converted Holden Colorado (very clean) driven by a character who stopped to say G’day. By the time he left 45 minutes later we knew all about everything he owned. Although his trailer was unhitched back at his camp further down the river, he showed us photos. Great. Even better, he showed us his fishing photos. Then we got to hear all about the boat. Horsepower, stuff like that. He told us how much he’d increased his GVM (gross vehicle mass) by doing the conversion to 6 wheels. He knew the Torque on his engine, how many kilowatts of power he has. He recited his fuel capacity, water capacity, solar panel set up and maximum amp hours he achieves, ground clearance, towing capacity and stuff I can’t even remember. Did I mention the Croc safety briefing? We got a good 10 minutes on winch maintenance then he gave us the full run down on why we should boycott Big4 caravan parks. He had the latest dash mounted GPS and a rear reversing camera so big he could see better out the back than the front. A man and his castle. He and the wife are doing the Big Lap. Planning to take 5-10 years. They’ve spent 18 months just getting from Sunshine Coast (or Sunny Coast as he calls it) to here.

It was an entertaining interlude.