Drove down from Punsand Bay to the Moreton Telegraph Station yesterday. Drove nearly 300kms to get the worst of the roads behind us – and while 300kms doesn’t sound all that much, it was – given the condition of the roads.
Moreton Telegraph Station is on the site of the original telegraph station that use to relay messages up and down the OTL (Old Telegraph Line). It has ceased to serve as a telegraph station and is now an information centre, camping ground and just a place to grab a cool drink while travelling on the Cape.
We arrived mid afternoon to find the place shrouded in smoke from a nearby fuel reduction burn. Seems the most popular land management technique on the Cape is to set fire to it. We have notice fires everywhere in our travels up here.
The Moreton Telegraph Station is situated on the banks of the Wenlock River that winds its way west through the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve before finding its way to the Gulf north-east of Weipa. The river plays host to a variety of critters including Bull sharks, stingrays, saw fish, barra, bream and, of course, crocs.
Glen tried his luck again in the river, but to no avail while others around him proceeded to lose lures in the rocks and trees. One such fishing ‘buddy’ takes the Darwin Award for stupidity by attempting to retrieve a snagged lure. He apparently got a long dead limb off a tree, placed it across the river with each end positioned on rocks on either river bank and attempted to shimmy across the branch to the other side to retrieve his tangled lure. When positioned directly above the deepest and murkiest water the branch snapped depositing the Darwin Award nominee right in it! Those on dry land suggested in colourful language and with some urgency for him to ‘get the f… out of there’!
The crocs must not have been hungry, or maybe Darwin Award nominees leave an aftertaste they don’t like. Either way the human gene pool has not improved, given the Darwin Award nominee survived.
The early morning alarm went off as it always does at Morton Station with the starting of the generators at 7.00am. We woke to find visibility down to less than 50 metres with a thick fog all around us. The fog finally lifted around 10.30am when we were well underway south.
We’re now camped just outside Coen on the banks of the Coen River – a place we camped 2 weeks ago on our way north. It’s another beautiful sunny and still day. A swim later will cool us off before another campfire dinner.