Fruit Bat Falls; a must see Cape York attraction
One of the most iconic places on Cape York is Fruit Bat Falls, and when you see photos of it, its not hard to see why. In person, Fruit Bat Falls are even more beautiful, and nothing beats spending a few hours in the water, enjoying a place that really is incredible. Pull up and wash the red dirt off; you’ll regret it if you don’t!
We came in after spending a few nights at Weipa Caravan Park, and set up in one of the Fruit Bat Falls free camps not too far down the road, and spent a couple of hours enjoying the amazing water, and stunning views.
Where is Fruit Bat Falls?
You’ll find this little slice of paradise in Far North Queensland, just off Telegraph Road (often referred to as the Peninsula Development Road), and not too far away from where the Telegraph Track starts again, heading north. It’s a well signed, and fairly easy to access location that is extremely well known.
The track in is only about 2km off the main road, making it quick, and easy to get to.
Do you need a 4WD to get there?
I’m going to say no, but with a few caveats. You’d get a 2WD or AWD with some clearance all the way up the Peninsula development road and Telegraph Road (not Telegraph track!), and the track into Fruit Bat Falls is fine for anything with a bit of clearance too. It’s got some corrugations and little humps to help with the rain, but there’s no nasty obstacles, or challenges that you have to pass.
Of course, a 4WD is preferred (and by far and away the most common), simply because of where you are, and the fact that the roads can be absolutely atrocious to drive on without one.
Watch the vlog
Want to see us on video? Here’s our vlog:
What’s at Fruit Bat Falls?
When you take the track down, its single lane, with a number of places where you can pull over to let others go around you. The loop in is one way, and consists of a couple of different car parks for those with trailers, normal car parking and parking for the tour buses that inevitably come through.
From the car park, you can walk down to Fruit Bat Falls (which is only a few hundred metres), or stop at the toilet block at the top before heading down. The walk is gravel, and then turns onto a wooden boardwalk.
When you get to the end of this, you can turn to the right and go down some stairs above Fruit Bat Falls and swim in the shallow area, with a couple of really nice spa pools, or you can turn left and go down to the main area at Fruit Bat Falls.
There’s a number of ways to get into the water, and you can swim out to the falls. Of course, think about where the water is flowing, as trying to swim against it when its flowing well is pretty hard to do. You can actually walk over in the middle where there’s no water.
There’s a number of pitcher plants, plenty of nice scenery and we even saw a black snake on the edge of the water tucked away, which was moving around but not bothering anyone.
We also saw a heap of beautiful blue butterflies (sky blue, not the big, darker ones), that loved our kids colourful swimming vests and goggles, which was fun for them.
Watch for submerged obstacles
I’m happy to admit I can be a bit blaze when it comes to reading safety signs, and really paying attention to them. I did see some signs about watching out for submerged obstacles, and just assumed it would be like every other natural attraction with water. Use your common sense, and you’ll be right, eh?
Well, that’s sort of the case, but there are quite a few sharp rocks around the bottom of Fruit Bat Falls, and if you are kicking around and tall like me, you’re not unlikely to make contact. I was swimming over to the waterfall and stubbed my toe on a nice sharp rock, which cut the end of it, and reminded me to pay more attention to the signs put up!
Is it worth a stop?
Yep. If you drive past this, you’re mad. It’s so easy to get to, so stunning and completely worth a swim every day of the week.
Where can you camp near Fruit Bat Falls?
The Cape York Camping has been an interesting learning curve for us, and before getting to the Fruit Bat Falls area we were looking for places you can camp.
If you don’t have a Caravan, you can book into Eliot Falls Campground, and spend your time there, which isn’t too far away from Fruit Bat Falls (and is really close to Elliot Falls).
However, given we didn’t book anything due to no real time frame or plan, we needed a free camp, and there’s quite a few on Wikicamps. There’s two gravel pits south of Fruit Bat Falls that are popular, and then one small area right on the intersection that fits about 5 vans.
When we arrived, this was full, and we decided to poke our heads down the Old Telegraph Track to see if we could find anything else. Gravel pits are a place we really enjoy, and as we wanted to stay more than a night, we really wanted something else.
To my surprise, and great appreciation we found a nice spot about 2km up the Telegraph Track that was accessible to bigger vans (with a decent driver), and then another one right near Stubby Creek Crossing, which was fantastic. We pulled up at the second spot, and for the rest of the day had a considerable number of people come past, looking for somewhere to pull up.
Visit Fruit Bat Falls
If you’re coming past this area, or planning a trip to Cape York, you absolutely need to head to Fruit Bat Falls. They’re spectacular, and we thoroughly enjoyed swimming there.
