The Old Telegraph Track Day 3:- Water World
We awoke to another glorious day up the Cape, the sun was shining and the temps were good. We packed up camp and carried on our leisurely way up the OTL; first up we had to cross the creek we had camped next to all night. Cockatoo Creek is a tricky little bugger with many large and often deep stone potholes. These would not be kind to the underside of OJ if we fell into one!
After safe and careful negotiation we found the surprising Sheldon Lagoon. This picturesque body of water was crystal clear, had trees standing in it and had many turtles swimming around. They were obviously used to being fed because they came right up to us.
Keeping with the water theme we headed up the track, over the main “Northern Bypass Road” and into Fruit Bat Falls. (More importantly for Carl there was a pit toilet – the first for nearly 3 days, he never thought he’d be glad to see one but going outside in the middle of nowhere was far less appealing!!) Anyway…….
We had heard a bit about Fruit Bat but nothing could have prepared us for how stunning it was. The falls were not high but very wide, they had red rock behind them and the pools around were very clear.
It was the perfect place to cool off and we spent a while swimming and marvelling at how amazing a place this was – So Beautiful!
Sandy and Elliott have an underwater camera so we were able to get some good shots of us all.
Yet more water awaited us on our next stop – Eliot, Twin and Indian Head Falls. Not to be outdone by the awesome Fruit Bat these falls were also magnificent in their own way. Indian Head falls was like a mini Fruit Bat falls only a little higher. You could walk in the very shallow water right to the edge of the falls and look right over.
The water was much deeper under the falls here though and touching the bottom was not an option.
Elliott and I (Carl) had a go at jumping in off the side, it was probably 3-4 meters up and great fun. Heidi and Sandy weren’t quite so brave and were happy to spectate.
SPLASH!!
Around the corner was Twin and Indian Head falls they flowed from the same stream but Indian Head was downstream from Twin falls. We all jumped into the pool in front of twin falls and had a great time playing in the water.
All good things must come to an end though and we had to head onward up the Old Telegraph Track.
Just down the track was Canal Creek, this crossing wasn’t too tough once you determined the correct route as it was very deep in places. We had to approach the crossing by driving along the bank a while and then through the deepish water diagonally and out the other side.
Once across the creek you are greeted with a very steep ascent to get back up and onto the track again. Heidi and Sandy both negotiated this with ease (these girls can really drive!).
After a very rutted track which caused the 4x4 to lean over a long way we arrived at the beautiful Sam Creek. The water was so clear and there was a small waterfall just by the side of the track – you couldn’t make this stuff up, just gorgeous!
It was here we decided to set up camp for the night, once more retreating to the shelter of the netted Gazebo to escape the buzzies! We chatted again about how awesome this place was and the amazing watery venues we had seen during the day.
