The Old Telegraph Track & The Falls
See how the journey continues for David Cook on his Cape York Adventure. Make sure you check out Blog 1, Blog 2, Blog 3, Blog 4, Blog 5 & Blog 6.
After a full day behind the wheel in Low Range, we knocked it back a gear for a relaxing day hopping from one waterfall to the next. In contrast to the relatively dry southern section of the OTT, the Northern Section (after the intersection of the Telegraph Road) had far more water in all the crossings.
Fruit Bat Falls
First up was the scenic Fruit Bat Falls, which would fit the description of ‘high end resort pool’ just as well as ‘remote wilderness oasis’ The great difference of course is this one is completely free! The waters of Fruit Bat Falls, Elliot Falls and Twin Falls all comes from soak water. The Sandstone base of the ground absorbs huge volumes of rainwater from the wet season, and then continuously releases that water through the dry season. This keeps the falls flowing year round and is an absolute must see for anyone travelling in Cape York regardless of when you come through. While Fruit Bat is a gem in its own right, the spectacle of Elliot falls is unparalleled.
Elliot Falls Swimming Hole
The falls cascade off the rock shelf on three sides of a narrow erosion hole in the rock, that opens up to a deep & clear gorge surrounded by sheer rock walls. Its tempting to jump from the edge, but the constant erosion forces huge chunks of rock into the gorge which is great for a seat in this natural aquatic amphitheatre, but not great for thrill seekers looking for a jump-rock.
Its hard to pull yourself from the waters of this pristine oasis, but the rest of the trip North awaited us, so we had to pull up stumps at some point. Begrudgingly we heading back to the vehicles and turned the bonnets North again to cover the few KM’s north to Canal Creek, which was to be our camp for the night. Just north of Canal Creek though, we came across a deep and long crossing filled with brown, murcky water. We hadn’t been warned about this, nor was it marked as a deep crossing on the maps. After walking the crossing though the bottom was found to be very firm. The crossing did hide a very deep hole on the left hand bank (heading north) which we found out had been fatal for an 80 series we found temporarily abandoned on the Northern side of the crossing.
Deep Muddy Water North of Elliot Falls
We passed through without issue and continued North to Canal Creek where we were rewarded with a campsite just metres from a natural spa bath carved from the sandstone by the creek. There aren’t many better ways to spend an afternoon than with friends watching the sun go down in a place like this.
Canal Creek Natural Spa
The best of the Tele Track is yet to come though, follow the action on our Facebook page.