1602 DT final

previously accessible only by camel were
suddenly linked to cities and the outside world
as a vast web of telegraph lines spread across
the continent.
Because of its remoteness, Cape York was one of
the last places in Australia to get the telegraph.
The last few hundreds miles of lines were laid
in the mid 1880s along a straight-ish line from
Cooktown on the east coast right up to the
northern tip of mainland Australia, along with a
service road. But straight lines aren’t the ideal
way to build roads because things like cliffs,
rivers and hills will ultimately get in the way. It’s
for this reason the remaining 100km stretch of
the Old Telegraph Road has been reinvented as
the holy grail of bush-bashers in Australia.
Getting to the ‘Tele’ is a mission in itself. In my
case the journey involves a three-hour flight
from Sydney to Cairns, an overnighter at an
airport hotel, an early morning flight to Horn
Island in the Torres Strait and a ferry to Seisia.
There I rendezvous with Roy Kundra of Cape York
Motorcycle Tours – a fast-riding, fast-talking
northerner whose been showing this Mad Max
part of the world to visiting riders for 25 years.
Roy is riding a formidable Husaberg FE501.
For me he’s brought a Suzuki DR-Z400E, a
mass-market tractor he rents to riders on his
company’s trophy 8-day tour from Cairns to the
tip of Cape York. Attempting to do it in three
days, I thought, was be testament to my mettle,
until I learn Roy once did it in 10 hours and 45
minutes. I have difficulty imagining how such
a record is even possible when, an hour after
leaving Seisia, I spend 10 minutes stuck behind
the aforementioned dust-encased 4WD until I
can safely overtake. Not a minute after making
the pass, I see Roy waiting patiently for me at an
unmarked goat track.
“Have you had much experience on sand?” he
asks before we get stuck into it.
“Heaps,” I reply, lying through my teeth.
“Sweat. Then follow me.”
62 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2016
1602 DT Telegraph track.indd 62 2016/01/24 9:41 PM