It's all good fun till someone loses an eye.

Perhaps the most notorious obstacle on the Old Telegraph Track is a river crossing at Gunshot Creek.   Even if you choose not to take the thirty kilometre bypass which is more than fine for people travelling in say a VW van, it is not compulsory to choose the most worn and treacherous crossing, yet so many do.

It's not that hard, dropping a vehicle down an almost vertical cutting that is just wide enough to allow it to fit, into a couple of feet of water.   The hard bit seems to be understanding that a) there WILL be damage, and b) the car WILL get stuck.  Why oh why do so many launch themselves over the edge, and then try to remember where they've left their recovery strap?

Did anyone say "I'll keep an eye out for crocs?"

The very last crossing on the track is known as Nolan's.  Only the bravest and best prepared and luckiest and maybe most ignorant (because what you don't know, can't hurt you) make it this far, and then they must face the greatest dilemma of the trip: Do they wind down their windows accepting that they are going to ship a few Sydney Harbours of water, but giving them an exit if something goes wrong, OR  do they wind them up to keep things nice and dry, not thinking about the consequences of stalling mid stream, electric windows failing, and having no option but to drown the entire cabin and all their treasures including no doubt a lifetime's collection of Abba cassettes with it.

Several people a day do live to regret not leaving their windows down.

Down at Palm Creek, the very first crossing on the track, everything fresh and clean and ready for what might lie ahead, although that bumper bar strapped to the trailer is a sign that perhaps not everything survived the corrugations on the way up.

 I have to admit, I've spent quite a bit of time on waterways just like this one, but for reasons that may be entirely perverse, I've never thought of doing that in anything other than a boat.