Tip top: A Caped Crusade

As the track disappeared under the bonnet, its colour changed from a sandy beige to a rich, rust brown, as if it had become a picture with too much saturation. Marked contrasts like this abound at Cape York.

Cape York Peninsula is an almost pristine wilderness, and one of Australia’s most remote areas. Just over 1000km north of Cairns, The Tip is only 130km away from Papua New Guinea.

The area contains a rich contrast of interconnecting, complex ecosystems, with savannah grasslands abutting old gum forests, interlaced with pure, free-flowing rivers and creeks.

We were at the Cape to drive Volkswagen’s re-invented entry-level Amarok, the Core Edition. With a bunch of new, dual-cab competitors lobbing in this year, Volkswagen wanted to show us the Amarok that it says 4WD enthusiasts prefer in an environment in which most of them would prefer to be.

We landed in Weipa, a bauxite mining town and the biggest town on the Peninsula. But we don’t dip into the town, rather it’s straight onto The Peninsula Development Road in the Amaroks.

The wide, corrugated road cuts through a gum forest — and as we drive though, a burn off is in progress, settling into an ethereal haze above.

After 112km — by which time we were driving in scrubby savannah grasslands, with silent pillars of termite mounds dotting the landscape — we linked up with Telegraph Road.

When we reach the intersection with Telegraph Road, we’re met by a smooth stretch of tarmac — one of only few in this area. Soon the road turns to fast corrugated dirt, with some nasty bulldust holes to keep us from settling into an easy cruise.

From the intersection with The Peninsula Development Road, it’s just 24km to Moreton Telegraph Station, where we pulled up for the night.

Moreton Telegraph Station is just off the Telegraph Road, north of the bridge over the Wenlock River. It was built in the 1880s as accommodation for workers building the Old Telegraph Line, while today Moreton Telegraph Station is a camping ground with accommodation ranging from BYO tent to safari tents and air-conditioned huts.

In the morning we set off to tackle the Old Telegraph Track proper. The OTT was a morse-code line and the only form of communication on the Peninsula from 1885 to 1962. It was then upgraded to an overhead phone line, which remained in use until 1987.

To get onto the OTT, it’s a 42km drive on corrugated dirt to Bramwell Junction Roadhouse. The Roadhouse is the last place to grab food and fuel before tackling the 116km of rough OTT.

There’s a campground here too — there’s plenty of places to stay up this way. The OTT starts to the left of the Roadhouse — the fork in the road heading right is the Bypass Track, built to allow Telstra workers easier access to the north.

The OTT begins at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse in a scrubby forest, the single track winding its way though sections of drop-offs, gutters and dry creeks. We cross Palm Creek, Ducie Creek, South and North Alice Creeks — all dry during the dry season.

Our first creek crossing proper was across the Dulhunty River — which was an easy, relatively shallow crossing, once we’d worked out where the exit point was.

Then it was onto Bertie Creek, which looked completely impassable at first, before we noticed the two-tracks worn into the rock along the bank, and saw that the crossing point was further up the Creek than where the track arrives from the south.

Again, an easy crossing, although you have to make sure to avoid some nasty large holes littered around under the water on the creek floor.

From here it’s onto Gunshot Creek — by far the most difficult crossing on the OTT. The problem is not the Creek crossing itself — during the dry, the water level is barely tyre deep — but rather the access points from the south. There are about six points to access the creek, and they all comprise steep drop-offs into bog holes.

We got one vehicle through — the only trayback in the group, given its better departure angle – but even then the tray scraped going into the bog hole and it immediately bogged down in the mud.

A quick snatch from some fellow travellers and the Amarok was on its way again, but for the rest of us in the pick-ups — with their more easily damaged longer, lower trays — it was time for a back-track to the Bypass Road and to Eliot Falls.

After crossing Scrubby Creek, we pulled up for the night at Eliot Falls, after covering just 129km. The campgrounds are adjacent to some of the best swimming waterholes this side of Kakadu’s Gunlom Falls. Eliot Falls and Twin Falls have cool, clear water and are a great place to take a dip after a long, hot day on the OTT.

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The next day we head off early to tackle the hardest part of the Old Telegraph Track — after Gunshot Creek that is — with water crossings becoming more technical and deeper than those further south.

The first of these was Canal Creek, which had an uneven creek bottom and was deep in sections but generally an easy crossing. So too were the next four crossings over Sam Creek, Cannibal Creek, Mistake Creek and Cypress Creek.

Cypress Creek is actually a log bridge crossing over the creek, which is intimidating at first, as the logs don’t look like they’d hold the weight of a vehicle and it’s a narrow bridge.

Then it was on to the most difficult crossings of the northern section of the OTT, starting with Logans Creek. This is a long crossing, with the water lapping the bonnet in sections and the sandy base requiring a bit of momentum to get though.

The final northern crossing is Nolans Brook. This crossing has three access points from the south, and it’s a good idea to walk the crossing first. We managed to get two of the six vehicles bogged, but the trick here is to carry momentum into the deepest part of the crossing and not back off.

After pulling up on the northern side of the creek for lunch, it was time for a swim. The water at Nolans is crystal clear and clean, and just the right temperature to cool off.

From Nolans it’s up the OTT's narrow single track through scrublands again to the Jardine River ferry. There is a ford across the Jardine, but it’s considered too dangerous to cross these days.

Once across the Jardine, we were back on fast, open corrugated dirt again for most of the 42km run into Bamag, from where it was a further 32km to The Tip, on roads varying from fast dirt in open scrubland to tight single track though rainforest.

Finally we arrived at The Tip carpark with six unscathed Amaroks, for the five-minute walk over the rocks to the northernmost point of Australia.

It felt like we had conquered a challenge, like the early explorers did — although of course in reality we knew nothing of the challenges they had.

Even so, this 450km trek taken over three days or more will be one of the most memorable off-road journeys you’ll ever take.