The OTL Track – Day 2 to Canal Creek

By this stage, we had clicked into the tent camping mode totally, without missing a beat.  The years of tent camping prior came back to us, and we didn’t want for anything.  The other element that we leveraged past experience of was the ability to get away from camp very quickly in the mornings.  We did EVERYTHING we could to be prepared for the next morning.  We pre-poured the cereals into bowls and Glad Wrapped them, we packed up all chairs, we put away all dinner dishes, we laid out the coffee, we left out just the clothes we would put on.  Everything was geared to be as quick as possible.

Day 2 morning was no exception.  We got up quite early (5.30ish), and started the process, including getting the kids dressed, fed, and ready.  We were pretty much in the first batch of cars that left that day. 

Nerves were pretty high again, notably added to by the light drizzle that had greeted us when we woke.  ‘What, the OTL isn’t hard ENOUGH??? You have to add slippery tracks to the mix??  Sheesh!!’.  Amy also enjoyed beyond belief, even revelled in her overwhelming feelings of butterflies that set upon her each morning, thinking about what the day would bring.  Strangely, as a result, she often had trouble even eating breakfast.  What a way to enjoy the holidays!!

Straight out of the campsite, we had to immediately cross Dalhunty River.  This was an easy crossing, and we hooked up into our early convoy.  The track twisted through the bush, and had a fair pace to it.  Nothing ridiculous, but Amy definitely had to concentrate, and in a small way, ‘push’ to keep the momentum up.  We reached Bertie Creek (which we would later cross more than 5 times during a subsequent visit).  This was interesting in that it dropped down a little bank, ran along one side, and finally crossed a fast flowing, but shallow stream.

From there, it was another push, along a track that at times caused the car to be on a very nice lean to one side given the wash-aways on one wheel.  All this was as a lead-up to the legendary and infamous ‘Gunshot’.

Gunshot is a well captured and renowned component of the Old Telegraph Track.  There are many, many YouTube clips dedicated to watching 4WD’s dropping down near vertical banks, near rolling, smashing bull bars, etc etc.  We knew of some potential ‘chicken tracks’, but the anticipation was high regardless.

In arriving, we were in a huge queue, understandably given all in our convoy, as well as the others on the track.  We didn’t really get time to get out, walk down, have a look around, and take it all in (one of those small downsides of being part of such a large group).  The recovery team had quickly sussed out the track, and it was reported to all be quite easy.  We rolled up to the top of the track, and Glenn jumped in to do the decent.

The track definitely was easy, with a steep, but not hard drive into the creek.  From there the creek was not difficult, although there was a steep little pinch to come out.  With a bit of slipping and sliding, and (skilfully) just missing a little tree, we scooted out of Gunshot unscathed.  Definitely not problematic given our track. 

On a later trip back into Gunshot (via a side access road) we did look around and see the other tracks down into the creek.  There were some quite ridiculous ones, which obviously had been eroded to the point of now being near impassable.  Whilst we were there, we did see a group going through one of the passible ‘drops’.  Of 4 vehicles we did watch, at least two did some damage that we could tell.  We agreed that even given the choice, and the amount of travelling we had to do in Slim, we wouldn’t have bothered giving that a go!

Watching a vehicle at Gunshot on our return visit

From Gunshot we all moved on to Cockatoo Creek crossing.  This was a little interesting, more-so for the track down to the creek.  It had a few nasty rocks to negotiate before you got to the creek.  The crew did a little ‘roadwork’ and tried to eliminate the nastiest sections, but we did scrape a little in going down.  Amy did a great job on this one, and crossed the reasonably deep creek well.

It was then an easy run to complete the southern leg of the OTL, and onto Canal Creek for an early camp.  This was always going to be the hardest spot to get all 27 vehicles into given the possibility of other campers.  It was definitely a very tight squeeze, with the group split across three, slightly cramped sections.  For us, we ended up having a great spot, locked in closely with Maurie, Paul and Maria, and Geoff and Kay.  This close quarter camping was not a problem for us, and we enjoyed our neighbour company with a lot of socializing.

Given the early arrival in camp, we had plenty of time this day to go down to the creek and enjoy a swim, and a beer or two in the creek.  Delightful!