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Published: July 27th 2012
Fruit bat falls
The kids loved swimming here.Did the Telegraph Track and we are now at Seisia.
The track was awesome and some of the best (and most challenging) 4wding we have ever done! The track begins atBramwell Junction and about 4ks into it you came to the first crossing, Palm Creek. Palm Creek isn't deep but the entry and exits are abit tricky. The entry had a large step down and a boggy mud hole at the bottom. When we arrived there a car was stuck trying to exit. These blokes had been pig shooting and had been stuck there since 12am the night before. They had tried to winch themselves out but their winch had snapped. Gav used our car and winch to help them out. I might just point out that their car was a Toyota - no wonder they got stuck - just as well a Nissan was around to pull them out (hahaha).
Anyway with them out of the way we all set about getting ready to do the crossing. We were traveling with two other cars. Gav met these guys the night before and we all decided to travel together to help each other out. Dad decided that he wasn't
confident at doing the crossing (he is driving a standard Pajero with not a lot of ground clearance) so mum and dad stayed to watch and then drove up the developmental road to meet up with us later that day.
Gav absolutely nailed the crossing (diff lockers helped) and made it down, across and up the other side with no worries. (go the nissan lol). You could hear the kids cheering him on from outside the car it was hilarious!
With the first crossing done we continued on down the track. The track itselfisn't too rough, it's mainly the water crossings that are the biggest challenge. Most of them have steep entries (usually with a big step down) and the exits tend to be abit slippery at times. We managed them all with no issues, Gav crossing in low first and using lockers when needed. I am telling you what gear he ALWAYS crosses water in for a reason, but that will become clearer later down the track (at the infamous Nolan's Brook crossing!).
Anyway, by the end of the first day we had completed the southern section of The Telegraph Track and arrived at Fruit Bat
and Twin falls where we met up with mum and dad again. We decided to stay here and tackle the northern section of the track the next day.
Fruit Bat falls is just stunning and the kids enjoyed a swim. Twin Falls is just as nice and we all had a really nice swim in the crystal clear water.
Day two we began the northern section of the track and mum and dad decided to join us for this part. I'm so glad they did, the driving was great and dad had a ball!
Day two we only drove 20ks in about 4hrs so that gives you some indication of how challenging the driving was! The log bridge was abit scary but everyone got across and Dad spent more time on 3 wheels than 4! I have never seen anyone with so much air time before! Lol
We camped the night on the southern side of Nolan's Brook. Ahh Nolan's! We had heard many stories about it on the track - 30 cars having to be pulled out, 6 cars drowned, we're some of the rumours. There were people camped on the other side and they
Sunset at Weipa
We enjoyed this view every night during our stay at Weipa told us their experiences crossing. Some made it, some drowned and some were snatched strapped across. The crossing isn't that long, it has a good entry and exit but it was quite deep. Dad took one look and said no way. (his car is petrol and doesn't have a lift or anything and he was worried about the electrics or water in the motor). So the decision was made to camp the night and go back the way we had come to a detour. However, fate intervened and along came four cars. They did the crossing - first car got stuck and was winched out, second car made it look easy, third car not too bad got himself through, fourth car needed snatch strapping.
As we watched we noticed that really if you chose the correct line through the water it wasn't too bad and to our surprise (and relief) dad said "I think I can do this" (Mum turned white and we said awesome we will do it in the morning).
The morning came and everyone got ready. (there was WD40 being sprayed all over the place! Lol) Dad wanted to go first before the other cars
Exit of Palm Creek
Gavin going up the exit of The Palm Creek crossing. churned it all up. Mum stayed out of the car because she was delivering a litter of kittens! Haha
Dad absolutely nailed that crossing and made it look soooo easy. The line he picked was perfect and no snatch strap was needed. Well he was so pleased with himself and everyone cheered him on and the kids were high fiving him telling him how awesome he was!
Now you would think if a 71 year old man in a stock standard Pajero with very little driving experience and towing a trailer can easily do it, then surely Gavin in a Nissan patrol with a lift, diff lockers, member of a 4wd club who cruised through every other water crossing including Palm Creek can surely do it easy to - right - wrong!!
Remember I told you earlier how Gav had done EVERY water crossing in low 1st and just cruised through? Well some bloke said to him "no mate I did it in low 2nd" so instead of trusting himself and doing what he has ALWAYS done, Gav made the fatal error of tackling Nolan's Brook in low 2nd.
I was on the other side taking
photos and Olivia was videoing (yep we have video evidence of how ugly it was! Lol). The second the front end of the car hit the water it was obvious that he entered too hard and too fast. He got about half way across and the car stalled (I'm on the other side thinking omg what is he doing to my truck!) there was a flurry of people running around to hook up the snatch strap but Gav restarted the car put it into first and tried to get going, it nearly stalled a second time, so he put the clutch in, gave it a few hard revs and he was off again, hand on the horn telling everyone to get out of the way he was coming through! There was black smoke going everywhere, the smell of my poor clutch (still dirty that he had to put the clutch in twice while under water) but he got through on his own. I don't think he could live with himself if a Pajero pulled him out and I told him I would tell everyone at the club if he had to be rescued by a Pajero lol!
Gav was
Jack and Luke
Swimming at Twin Falls not happy with himself - that simple decision to use 2nd instead of 1st low was what nearly caused him to come completely unstuck. After opening the car doors and the trailer tailgate to let all the water out we stopped to catch our breath and have a cuppa before moving on. Dad definitely has bragging rights where Nolan's is concerned and it more than made up for his disappointment at missing out on the first half of the track.
Just a footnote. What about gunshot? We did do gunshot but don't worry Andrew you can keep your thousand dollars, we took one of the "chicken" tracks. Gunshot now has four entries, two of them are just plain stupid, one is not too bad but has a big boggy mud hole at the bottom and the one we took was steep but not difficult.
We are now relaxing st Seisia for five nights and I think I have foundalittle slice of heaven.....
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Andrew and Katrina
non-member comment
thats a great blog, saw recent photos of shot gun and i would have taken the chicken track too haha