TELEGRAPH TRACK - what you need to know.

[Music] cape york's changing all the time 25 years ago when milo was new and i was still riding trail bikes up here it used to be tough it still is tough there's still lots of tough places but the major routes they're all getting graded and smoothed out and the old telly track that iconic bit of aussie four-wheel driving well it's had a few changes too telstra put a cable through they had to grade some of the crossings to do that and in a couple of years i've heard there's a pipeline going through there too that'll change things again so as much as anything and the fact that jack's never seen it i reckon that's a good excuse to come up and have another look at the telly we're going to meet up with jeff and luke up here at bramble station and then the three of us are going to head up that track i can't wait to be honest i love the telegraph and i love this end of australia get a load of luke 75 series what a beauty it's got the prolockers back in front he's had this custom rear made for it it's an awesome truck but jeff well jeff's the local isn't he he's got the 80 series it's got xgf suspension and poly air bags and a dual battery system it's got that good stuff you need for touring so with two good trucks we're off time to do the telling our trips kicking off from bramwell station we're going to take the telly right from here which is the straight route to the top except for all the bendy bits and then once we get over the jardine well then we'll go and see if we can find a beaut little sunset on the coast or something up at benega i got lucky with my traveling mates on this one that's for sure jeff's a local in fact uh he's involved in the bamiga trading shop up there he comes up and down here all the time doesn't always take the telly track but then he's one of us so he does as often as he can and well luke luke's a mechanic a diesel fitter and he works out a weeper on the big mines trucks you know what this is great couple of guys like this i've got a fair chance of getting through unscathed for once one trick to traveling up the cape is to stashy grog there's some pretty serious finds if you carry alcohol through the wrong places up here jeff knows that really well and so like most of the locals and most of us travelers do he knows you've got to stash it and this time we got lucky and we actually found it [Music] it's nice to see that so far anyway it's just the way it's always been there's no big change the telstra guys did as a real favor i mean they could have just as easily bulldozed this into a big track but they've actually been very sensitive about it and put the cable just to one side haven't they if you didn't know it was there i mean you can't see it there's no place for a white vehicle that's all i mean you would never hope up here if you didn't have a bit of road oh look at this beautiful water hey can you just taste the pure rain in it beautiful look at this typical three exits two are completely impassable they're just for mugs who like to muck around about me and the third one is a walk in the park too easy there's nothing too hard about crossing the door hunting there never has been in fact the only incident i know of up here was a certain tour guide operator who came through here in his troop carrier at the same time a bunch of swedish backpackers had decided to go for a swim at the waterfall here and he got a little bit distracted and ran into a tree and i think i'm still paying for that rhubarb actually the telegraph track's aptly named it's littered with remnants of the old telegraph line which used to run dead straight it's amazing how the road doesn't anymore though look at this what a beauty and it's one of the rare ones still standing you know they came through here i think 1885 and it took him a couple of years to finish it but it was an awesome job can you imagine coming up the cape when there was nothing else on horseback and laying these poles i'll tell you what the pioneers they really had a hard job ahead of them but for the first time by 1887 australia was wired up to the rest of the world it's really quite awesome you know one of the horrible things i guess in a way is that over the years people have been just knocking them over just to pull the insulators off the top just to go home with a souvenir that wasn't a plastic crocodile or a t-shirt it's a bit of a pity and i bet there's a lot of people i'm talking to out there who've got a few insulators at home somewhere and you know what the thing that i always find amazing is that to this day our best four wheel drive tracks for most of the time follow power lines or telegraph lines or some pioneers early cut through the bush birdie's fairly typical of a lot of the um track crossings track river crossings and there's so many of them so much fun in birdie's instance you run along the edge on the uh right hand bank coming from the south southern bank and then you get to just the right spot and head to the left and over you go if you haven't walked it you can be in all sorts of trouble wind up taking a swim when you don't want one something like that jeff and luke knew that i mean they're following me and they're locals anyway but when tim bought the camera car through oh it was a different matter wasn't it he got it all cocked up and we just about had to go to new guinea to get him back [Music] big angles are a real kate thing and that's why we don't put a lot of weight on the roof the combination of a heavy roof rack and low tyres that'll see you on your backside all day long [Music] things happen pretty quickly up here when you're having fun that wasn't long before we were on gun shot the infamous gun shot oh you gotta love this one well that's where i busted me cv coming up that one this one's all different hey yeah i sort of got to the bottom and stopped this is the infamous gun shot probably the most photographed creek crossing in australia definitely the most famous for a whole lot of really good reasons there's five possibilities to get into gun shot one of them is eminently drivable it's very very easy and that's because the telstra guys came down here later cable flattened it all out but this place holds all sorts of memories for me it really does over the 30 odd years i've been coming up the cape i've broken an ankle over there on a trail bike falling off the wall on the steep one milo pulled its winch to pieces going up that hard one in the middle i lost a drawbar on a prado up here pulling a camper trailer through so many people have had a breakdown here now it's not really necessary anymore because it's fairly easy but because we're four wheel drive action and because of what this creek's done to me over the years there's no way i'm going to let it go i'm going to go and try the track that broke my cv trying it the opposite way it's pretty muddy at the bottom it should be a bit of an adventure if nothing else i don't know if the guys will follow me through yet but we'll see how i go [Music] now i know it's soft and slippery so i've got the rear locker in and bang jack goes straight into the glove box no worries we've got through a lot easier this way than it is the other way that's for sure beautiful oh there's a bit of water in here no way was jeff going to miss out he bought the 80 down nice and controlled if you consider all the wheels locked up sliding nice and controlled that mud at the bottom mud is the bane of gunshot the mud here is stickier and wetter and oozier than anywhere else in the world i think certainly slows a few people up there we go nice clean rims and everything well luke saw the fun we were having there was no way he was going to miss out even though he's 79's a heavy old beast over she goes all locked up very controlled slide too it was potential for a lot of damage there especially with an independent front suspension set up but he handled it beautifully by crikey there's a lot of weight in all that aluminium you know easy good old marla pretty soon it's time to set up camp and well luke's got the poshest set up i've ever seen he likes his comfort and boy this is comfortable straight off the top of the rack good on you mate this looks like a bit of a construction over here jeff's tent caught i'd need a 48-page instruction book to put one of these together but he's got the knack of it he's done it before and it goes together really quickly pretty comfortable way to sleep if you ask me not sure if it's as good as mine though simple old polaris awning swag on top of a bunk there's only one thing missing nice place to campaign creek's just down there midnight skinny dipping well actually soon as we're all blokes they'll be like 10 o'clock skinny dipping 11 o'clock skinny dipping 12 o'clock 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock so i might just go for the 1 o'clock and if you're gonna travel up here especially with the old dengue fever around all the rest of it these little numbers perfect now look at that queen of sheba knife the normal thing once we've set up camp is i get to do all the cooking while the other guys sit around the fire and do the drinking well maybe not always but in this case how lucky am i jeff is a chef by training and he's worked in some pretty flash resorts too so he offers to help and i take him up on it in fact if i had my way i'd be sitting down at the creek with a beer and he'd be doing all the cooking but that only happens in the movies doesn't it [Music] the end of a hard day's four-wheel driving we need something good and tasty and plenty of it to fill us up and that's exactly what we're gonna have next morning we're up bright and early packed up and heading for elliott falls i guess when it's the teletrack there's a bit of fun every day there really is but i've got one big tip for people who come travelling up here and that's do a bit of preparation before you come now here's something that will really test out the articulation and you get stretches like this all the way up the tele track if you didn't sort your suspension out before you came you're going to know about it here aren't you well the old leaf springs handled it quite well but look at the way the 80 does it all without the body movement that really is technology at work isn't it folks mind you this was quite surprising the way the 79 came through it handled it so well i was really quite surprised once again good suspension is the key component and there's a guy who needs no suspension at all hey jack well that's the way i've always worn in the past this is cockatoo and more than anything cockatoo illustrates the importance of walking creeks on the teletrac first thing you learn when you hop in here is it's ripping away today there's heaps more water in here and it's really travelling which leaves the next possibility which is if you get your door line below this you've got a fair chance of going downstream fairly rapidly so the trick with cockatoo today is going to be to try and get the vehicles on the highest ground and by the look of it that's where it is this sort of boomerang shape on the right hand side it's a little bit rocky few dips and whatnot but the boys have walked it haven't gone over their knees should be okay the main crossing over that side at the moment should just about to carry you all the way to darwin the way it's ripping along like that this is great isn't it [Music] jeff said it was no hassle but he had wet carpets afterwards this is one of the big differences between a ute and a wagon if you look at luke's u it's pretty rare the door line goes under the water in this crossing so he gets to keep his carpets dry they're a very capable truck those 79s not quite as strong as a 45 of course oh dude someone's catching a nanny nap must have been a couple of beers the night before eh once we get over to elliot i'm pretty keen to set up cam but luke is going to take tim our producer out for a bit of a look at the rough stuff we've got to go through tomorrow at least that was the plan all of a sudden luke became part of the rough stuff we had to go through tomorrow oh there's two ways to check the depth of a puddle luke using your truck's one of them oh absolutely bogged and whilst it might not look that bad when the mud gets as sticky as this it is bad you're stuck your belly panned out mate now luke's not sure to surprise us when it comes to recovery here he's got the long-handled shovel he's got the max tracks he's got everything you'd reckon a bloke would need to get out of here but guess what it's just not happening and the reason it's not happening is because the truck's sitting on its belly that's all right pretty soon jeff's along in the 80 they're going to work something out there's a lot of new recovery gear coming out of bags about now but that's the trick isn't it use someone else's yeah did you see that budget inch no neither did i it's stuck really firmly stuck [Music] sun's going down the guys are starting to get worried it's time to call in the reinforcements [Music] [Music] we're gonna have to try something a little bit tricky here i know these guys are experienced four-wheel drivers so i know that they've tried everything properly so far and they've had no luck shifting it it just isn't going to happen so we're going to break out the shackles and break out the blocks [Music] recovery blanket that's us mate i'm not sure if you're supposed to use it for this or after a hangover but okay well we'll just use that there and we'll put this where it should be first effort out we've got the line doubled up and look at this it's not really shifting is it in fact it's pulling milo forwards so i've got two problems here we haven't got enough strain to pull the truck out and the truck doing the pulling is shifting well there's only one thing for it we get jeff to chuck the 80 over the ledge and we'll back up in on that man that's an awful lot of pull for no movement it's stuck it's really stuck we'll get both blocks on it we'll go four times the talk and we'll um chain up again i think these are different size change but so have a look what we might have to do is go off milo twice back to that chain or something so what we're doing here we're going to get jeff's truck and stick it down the ditch that we've just climbed up that's our sand anchor the whole truck in this case and then we're going to chain jeff's truck to milo tighten the chains and get our winch strap four times doubled down if i [Music] you [Music] so that'll take up the slack i'll tell you when to get into reverse luke right now milo's right between these two heavy trucks doing all the pulling from both ends you reckon i'm glad i got good bars back in front better i am the only thing that kept the old girl in one piece hang on mike we're nearly there guys steering to the tony he's out hey he's out it was a really nice feeling getting that truck just to move a few feet once we've done that we knew we're on the way out i guess we'll have to go back to the camp now and have a beer couple hundred a couple of hundred at more expenses i want to say thanks to steve because if he hadn't come down with that chain we wouldn't have better that's right in hell well i might head back to camp for those beers but uh i think luke's lost his wallet or something no worries mate when you find it we'll be back at camp near the esky it's nice to get to elliot falls for a bit of a wash-off i can tell you this place is pretty civilized as far as the cake goes lots of signs and boardwalks and all that nice tourist stuff because a lot of tourists fly in to see the top end hop in a car and come down to twin falls and that's it that's their whole cape experience mind you they did pick a very nice part of it didn't they ah well after that great big recovery last night there's nothing better than coming down here to honeymoon hole at elliott falls for a bit of a wash i'm in something about honeymoon hole it's very very romantic not so much on this occasion but i do remember an occasion about seven years ago when the handbrake and i came here and as a result we've got three kids [Music] hmm [Music] it's definitely a lot more water up the cake this year for this time of year anyway and you can see it in the way that guys are taking it easier over the creeks and even shifting a little bit to the side with the bulk of the water flow and that means of course that the usual way of doing things is wetter and slipperier than normal isn't that right luke [Music] [Laughter] i don't believe it we've gone what nearly two kilometers and you're stuck again yeah you take all the hard tracks someone has to all right what do you want to do get out all right uh winchy out again this is where luke got stuck by coming up the main track wheels there wheels there this is where everyone's come most of you people know this but at the end of the day where everyone else went it's not always the best place to go and i've got this theory that i know you would have heard before the three truck theory you know first truck goes through no worries second truck makes it but only just third truck gets bogged and the only way around that is to pick a slightly different route if you're the second or the third truck we'll see what jeff does your best bet would be to ride that bank up it's not going to be easy all right we'll see what happens yeah it's all fun [Music] straight up go back me oh squish squish squish about down to the windows so what do you reckon those two cartons that lucas yeah sounds like we're doubling up all right oh gee i'm doing well i'll have to make some room in milo for all these cartons we're going to pull jeff straight back because he wants to have another go at it and why does he want to have another go because he wants to get it right and the only tip i can give him is to give it lots of berries do you reckon you can get out from there i think that's what he had in mind too the other side with a lot of mungo and that's what it takes sometimes folks pedal to the metal now you could see very clearly there the advantage of a little bit more power if jeff had been able to make a bit more power he would have scooted through there the first time without any recovery and that sort of tight situation where you need some instant momentum it's a really good reason to have a bit of a play and get some more power in milo's case with the new motor all balanced and everything else i took it to awms and i got them to fit this little bleed valve what that does is increase the turbo's pressure from 8 to 11 psi in this case it's adjustable and that gave me 18.7 more power which is a really noticeable lump a kick in the pants when you need to boot out of tight little places like that and get somewhere in a hurry slightly better fuel economy too which was amazing if there's a downside the engine runs a little bit hotter when it's working you expect that terrific way to spend 600 and power of course in a four-wheel drive is something we all need [Music] [Music] a little [Music] oh so [Music] [Music] that was fun yeah i reckon this should be about log bridge [Music] it changed the approach too it used to come down there and like this and that was when it was really gnarly so this is all good guys take the ferry after all we'll make the ferry the log bridge has been built up from years of four-wheel drive clubs and the odd tour guide party coming through here throwing down some more logs now that's all good except the danger with log creek is the logs rolling apart and the wheels dropping through that happened to me in a prado with the camper trailer same one i brought up here once before just about wrecked it and we lost the side rails and all sorts of things now the trick is to have a good look at the bridge and if you can see that it's going to be a bit of a drama with those logs rolling apart use your snatch straps tie the bridge up use some wire pull the whole lot together with a bit of rope wire snap straps whatever and you'll get across no problems at all see up the river all right see you up the river this is deep hi this is real deep here oh real deep like yeah got it yeah i just walked through major creek crossing it's pretty deep it's going to be fun well look all nice and flash for when we get up to vanega whoa straight in just like the yellow submarine she made it through though no problems with milo lots of holes in the floor to let the water out jeff didn't have quite the same luck though he managed to belly the 80 almost straight away now that is just bad luck in this situation but the worst thing about it is that there's water coming in the whole time so the truck's getting heavier and heavier soggier and soggier and it's not going anywhere oh it used to be such a pretty truck this is the three truck rule this is exactly it in action i might take a different line you might take a different line because you're the third truck no fair income it works every time i mean there's no reason with your bigger tyres i didn't have lockers on or nothing you should have come straight through but you couldn't because i stirred it up so it's the old if you first you look like a hero if you're second you get to look like an idiot you couldn't look like an idiot should we move yours out yeah leave jeff's here because now it's full of water it'll be nice and heavy make a good tow truck my jew i'd rather be in there than in the water with the crops luke takes a whole different line goes right around the corner and whips straight through no problems at all makes you wonder why we didn't go that way the first time doesn't it and of course our friends have done the best thing you can do in this situation when you're traveling on your own they've waited till someone else came along and made all the mistakes and then they've suited up got the plastic tab on the front to get the bow wave going very necessary with a special disco and we've gone straight through that's the big trick wait for someone else to [Music] sink before long we're back on the development road and we make the ferry for the last trip of the day [Music] jack's on croc watch up the back there good bringing your own crocodile bait along [Music] half an hour after the ferry with the sun setting we make it to loyalty beach one of my favorite campgrounds in the whole world this is just an extreme place it's a beautiful place it's the perfect place to end a hard trip like the teletrack you know what it doesn't matter how many times i've done the teletrack the feeling of achievement when you get to the end when you get up here to the tip when you get to watch the sunset over the ocean and have a nice beer on the beach it just gets better and better you know what i could do this again and again and again never get sick [Music] [Music] g'day welcome to ruthie's ruthless tales go on grab a slice of feared income australia get your dose of roofie and put a smile on your dial [Music] you

Channel: JOHN “ROOTHY” ROOTH

Views: 53,419

Rating: 4.9453783 out of 5

Keywords: 4xForum, RonBacardi666, GallBoys, ExpeditionOverland, OverlandBound, markstuff681, AlmazanKitchen, UbeefHooked, Misadventure4WD, OHM26, Hemi4WD, Off-Road Control, go4x4media, josephallen19, 4wdaction, PowerfulJRE, 4xOverland, 1all4Adventure, 4x4Australia, Roothy, UCzRkxmVeTP_29MMtEzPF4KQ, Muddy, Beards, 4x4, UCU7WCO2ymb8HSfee1z72X-w, UCKSKD6XxpsRE1IwSyGC8bKQ

Id: _F0c2N1yrUM

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021