26th December 2012 Wednesday
We had the car and the
caravan packed the night before and the caravan hooked up to the car, which
meant putting in last minute items in the morning, this worked out very well, leaving
at 5.40am to avoid the traffic heading north on the F3 motorway. We, that is Gil, Julianne and our
little budgie Buzz, yes, we decided to take our little mate with us this time,
we had an excellent run through Pennant Hills onto the F3 and again all the way
to Hexham it was certainly worth the early start. The only thing not good was the weather it was showery to
start then heavy rain the further we drove north.
We stopped at Twelve
Mile Creek Rest Area where there was a driver survivor stop, had a cup of
coffee and a bickie it was good as Jules (the driver) was starting to get
tired. This is an excellent
stopping place just the north side of Hexham good parking for cars and caravans
and toilet facilities. From this
stop we only drove a little way up the Pacific Highway then turned left onto
the Bucketts Way, Gloucester was 79kms from this turn off. This is certainly a picturesque drive, farming,
small country villages all with a lot of history. The road is windy in parts but a steady 80km per hour is
easily achieved pulling a van. We
arrived in Gloucester around 8.45am very happy with our time.
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| The River |
We were able to book
in immediately which was great, the weather was cool and wet, light
drizzle. On first inspection of
our site it was not what we first imagined this to be, it look like it could be
wet and in a hollow, but after some discussion and further inspection we
decided to park the van in position and unpack.
The weather was not too good so we decided to go back into
Gloucester and have a quick look around and we discovered our mobile phones
would not work due to our provider being Voda phone and the area was only
covered by Telstra and Optus, not good, and on top of this there was no WiFi
network everything was shut for Christmas or not working – also not good. Lesson learnt – check the areas
you go into for phone coverage or better still have a cheap Telstra prepaid
phone, like we eventually had to do.
We returned to the caravan
park and the weather had improved so this time we put up our annex for the
first time, we had a couple of trial runs putting this up at home but we were still
a little apprehensive, after a couple of false starts it went up much to our
enjoyment. We were finally
finished around 1pm had some lunch and a rest. We were very happy with the annex it made our area warm and
a little more private.
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| The Walk |
Late in the afternoon
Gil and I decided to walk down to the river which runs beside the Caravan Park,
the Gloucester River. This was
very pretty in spots the water running over cobble stones and winding its way
along unfortunately there has been some major flooding and the bank has been
washed away in parts and trees have fallen into the water also some weedy vine
has taken over the surrounding bank and makes this look very neglected.
Our short walk ended
up taking 1.5hrs we became so engrossed in our surroundings we lost track of
time and eventually walked into the Gloucester District Park where there is
obviously work being done to improve the area, picnic and BBQ facilities, a human
Sun Dial and a Bush Tucker Garden with aboriginal carvings. Pioneer Memorial Garden has beautiful
trees this was a very big park but very well looked after with the river
running beside it was quite pretty.
27th December 2012 Thursday
After breakfast again
we went into Gloucester but this time we travelled around the back streets to
look at the old houses and visit a couple of the parks. Our first stop was the Information
Centre in Dension Street a very small place but the ladies were very helpful
with the information we needed.
The Memorial Park was small but very pretty it had a small garden of
roses and agapanthus and on a hill was a clock tower with all the names of
personnel listed who went to all the wars and from this the view to the mountains
was quite spectacular.
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| King George park |
We went to
Cook Park this is only a playing field, then onto St Clement Park this is a
very small park with an old school house and a few falling down gates and this
looks over to the mountains. Our
final park was King George V Memorial Park
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| Memorial Park |
from the street you could see a
playground area, picnic tables and toilets a sign mentioning this was a
community built park, we were nearly going to drive on but Gil decided to drive
in a little and to our amazement at the back of the park was a timber walkway
down to the Gloucester River, of course this took our interest.
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| View from Park |
We were amazingly surprised the riverbank
was cleared and mowed behind the houses and you could walk down steps to the
river and this was a great view the water rushing over rocks, twisting and
curving around very picturesque, we were very happy we stopped and had a look.
We returned to the
caravan park and decided to put up our awning off the annex again this was
something we had not tried before and we were very happy with our
extension. As we had the end space
for caravans in our row we were lucky enough we could spread out a little more
than normal and in front of us was a vast grassy area that is used for campers
we were lucky there was not many campers around. We had lunch lazed around reading and just relaxing.
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| Billabong Park |
There was still one
more park we had not visited, Billabong Park and Rose Garden.
We walked to the park as it is very
near our where were staying, this has a suspension bridge, children’s
playground, native playground and lots of good things for children.
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| Billabong Park |
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| Billabong Park |
28th December Friday
Today we took a drive
to Woko National Park but along the way called into a look out. Kia-Ora Lookout situated north west of
Gloucester, this was up a very steep hill had panoramic views of the area,
provided BBQ and picnic table facilities.
The view of farms and farming areas, great view of the bridge over the
Barrington River well worth making the effort to visit this lookout.
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| Kia-Ora Lookout |
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| Kia-Ora lookout |
Leaving Kia-Ora
Lookout we headed for Woko National Park this is along Thunderbolts Way and
through the small village of Barrington drove across the Barrington River on a
one lane old fashioned wooden bridge, love these wooden bridges, then we turned
towards Walcha. Just past the
township of Rookhurst we turned onto Curricabark Road which runs beside the
Little Manning River most of the time, part of this road is tarred and about
10klms of gravel. This is such a
lovely drive there are some spots of wonderful views of the river, moving along
over gravel, rocks causing mini water falls and cascades. The camping area in the Woko National
Park is very pretty, right on the river, there are toilet facilities, no
showers. There were quite a few
people camping and also to our amazement a couple of caravans not off
road. We went for a short 1km walk
and returned to the picnic ground had lunch and decided to have a look at the
Gloryvale reserve, this was disappointing it was just a small reserve on the
side of the road but very full of caravans the toilets were a reasonable
distance from the reserve, no showers.
Again this was along the river but the closeness of everyone was not
good, possibly only happens at this time of year.
We left here and
returned back to our van a most enjoyable day out.
29th December 2012 Saturday
Today was our trip to
Barrington Tops a total of 79kms from Gloucester. The day started off cloudy so we were not sure about the
weather but we were positive the sun should be shining today. We drove through Barrington to Copeland
State Conservation Area mainly consisted of gum trees and low vegetation it
looked as if a fire had not long been through parts of this area and the
regrowth was very new. The road
was tarred for some of the way (31kms) then the dirt road started near Copeland
another 48 kms. We noticed on
several properties tents and caravans along the river edge (Barrington River)
and at first could not work out how they managed to get on the properties but eventually
saw a sign on one of the gates to register at Camp Copeland this would be a
good idea if you were self sufficient and wanted to be alone and private. We drove further on looking for our
first stop the road was a little rough in places with a few pot holes also once
we reached the top of the mountain we started driving in fog or low cloud which
made the driving a little slow, what happened to our sun.
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| Honeysuckle Walk |
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| Honeysuckle Walk |
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| Honeysuckle Walk |
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| Honeysuckle Walk |
Our first stop was a
place called Honeysuckle at a small picnic spot where there was a 30 min
walk. This walk was beautiful even
in the fog the Antarctic beech forest predominates, fallen logs covered in moss
and lichen, tree ferns and climbers all covered in moss it felt like we were in
hobbit country. It was a little
cool but very pleasant.
After leaving
Honeysuckle we wanted to visit Thunderbolts Lookout instead we reached Devils
Hole and realised we missed Thunderbolts Lookout it was still very foggy. We backtracked to find this and
realised how it was missed there was a sign facing one way (from Scone
direction) but not from the Copeland side which is the way we had come.
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| Thunderbolt Lookout |
We did our walk to the Lookout, the
forest here was more open with snow gums and some really beautiful little
native plants of blue, pink and yellow, our view was low cloud, oh well if this
is to be our day then so be, we were a little disappointed but what could be
do.
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| Thunderbolt Lookout |
On we went again, we
decided to pass Devils Hole Lookout and drive onto Polblue. At Polblue where there is a great
picnic spot either at tables or lay a rug on the ground, a shelter shed also available. We had lunch here and enjoyed our view
looking over the area. The weather
was starting to improve and the sun starting to shine, so we thought on our way
back we would go back to Thunderbolt Lookout and see what we missed the first
visit. It was here Gil realise he
had a passenger on his leg he had picked up a leech from Thunderbolt Lookout
track, we were mindful of these horrible little creatures as the ground was
quite moist at Honeysuckle and Thunderbolt.
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| Polblue Swamp Picnic Area |
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| Dingo Gate |
From Polblue we drove
to the Dingo Gate this is located on the western edge of the Barrington Tops
Plateau.
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| Dingo Gate |
The gate and fence are to
keep wild dogs in the forest, so they will not cause stock damage. The gate must be closed immediately you
drive through. Driving through the
gate from the Barrington side you can park in a picnic area and on the opposite
side of the road the views over the Liverpool Range are magnificent, rolling
hills and vegetation.
30th
December 2012 Sunday
Rest Day. We arranged to meet with our daughter,
son-in-law and grandchildren in Gloucester on their way to stay on a farm at
Walcha for a couple of days.
31st December 2012 Monday - New Years Eve
The sun was out and a
perfect weather day, no cloud. Driving
to Dungog and the Chichester Dam, from Gloucester to the turn off to Dungog
3kms north of Stroud is 44kms, then 20.1kms to Dungog and 19kms to Chichester
Dam.
The road from Stroud
to Dungog is good in most parts a little rough in others, sealed all the
way. Many farm’s some with
beautiful old houses and beautifully kept we saw a couple of alpaca farms,
mostly cattle.
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| Dungog |
On arriving at Dungog
we went to the information centre where we were given information to get to the
Chichester Dam, very straightforward, no maps needed. This was a very pleasant drive, the road is sealed all the
way, farms old and new and green, rolling hills dotted with the variety of
grazing cattle.
The road into the dam
area is good there is a big picnic area as you drive in with toilets, then
further in down to the Williams River where there is more picnic tables and
toilets. We back tracked a little
way and went up a “One Way” road this led to more picnic tables and steps to a
platform which offers views over the dam, from here it is a short easy walk on
to the dam wall. We were very
surprised the see the dam level down a little as there had been so much rain
over the past few months maybe not in this area.
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| Lunch time at the Dam |
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| Chichester Dam |
The Chichester Dam was constructed between 1917 and 1926
this was constructed as the Hunter’s first, and most important, dedicated
drinking water storage system, contributing about 35 per cent of the Lower
Hunter’s portable water supply.
The Chichester Dam in largely within the Barrington Tops National Park,
which is declared a wilderness area.
We then returned to
Dungog, this is a very old moderate country town, with a wide main street. The old buildings are still
occupied, the old Court House in Lord Street, in Dowling Street, the main
street of Dungog many shops and facades dating from the late 19th
and early 20th centuries some with the fine cast iron lace work on
the eaves, balconies and stairwells.
Back to our caravan
park for a short rest then a dip in the Gloucester River, as this is not very
deep and covered in cobblestones you can lay in the water and cool off this
feels wonderful on a hot day. You
need aqua shoes or old sneakers to walk on the pebbles in the river. The water
was nice and cool and refreshing. We do have the local swimming pool not far
away, but the fresh water of the river feels much better, no chlorine.
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| Navigator reading |
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| Night shots |
1st January 2013 Tuesday
The sun was out again
today so we decided to go to Gloucester Tops. It was supposed to be a rest day after our late night and
watching the Sydney fireworks on the television but we did not want to waste
the sunny day.
We left the caravan
park around 9.45am and headed along Bucketts Way until we came to Gloucester
Tops Road this trip would be around 120kms return.
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| Gloucester Tops |
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| Gloucester Tops |
The road is sealed for approx 20kms a very good road through
farmland and rolling hills this seems to be the area of Gloucester. Some of the homes are very well kept
and quite beautiful set in the hills, eventually the road becomes unsealed but
not too bad it is a little rocky in parts.
With the road winding around we crossed the Gloucester River
several times over concrete weirs these were beautiful showing glimpses of the
running river and how picturesque it is.
Gloucester Tops has a caravan Park much to our amazement and people have
taken in caravans.
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| Gloucester Tops |
There is a sign which
indicates we are entering the Barrington Tops and the Gloucester Tops National
Parks area and not very far in is the Gloucester River Camping Area this has
picnic tables, toilets and fairly large grassy area close to the river.
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| Gloucester Falls |
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| Gloucester Tops |
The dirt road into the Barrington
National Park area is narrow and care needs to be taken when two cars meet on
the road but a very pretty drive, very tall trees and in some parts tree ferns
along the side of the road. The
first sign for a walking track was Sharpes Creek, then River Walk, Antartic
Beech Forest Track and Gloucester Falls Walk we arrived about 11.30am we took
our time driving along these dirt roads.
There had been some
storms in the area and with these was some very heavy rain a few days before we
arrived and this rain caused some damage to some of the tracks in particular
the Gloucester Falls Walk. We
walked this track 1.5kms and it was easy some down hill walking but not
hard. We were unable to get close
to the falls due to the track damage but managed to see them from a lookout
platform, the falls were flowing very well and still looked spectacular. The Gloucester River is continually
flowing no matter where we see it, over rocks and pebbles and finding its way
around boulders very, very pretty river.
2nd January 2013 Wednesday
Today the plan is to
do a short trip, we drove to Barrington West Road through the hills behind the
small village of Barrington. The
hills again are very green, very high and cattle (brown, black, brown and
white, black and white and just white cows) grazing a beautiful back drop on
the green hills. This little trip
took us about 1 hour we crossed the Barrington River several times over fords
really lovely we stopped in the centre of the crossings to watch the river
flowing so beautiful. This is such
a pretty place some of the fords had deep enough water to have a swim and one
had a picnic table and room to park off the road, well worth a drive. The remainder of the day was a rest
until our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren were returning home from Walcha
and called in for an hour to say gidday and have a break it was great to see
them.
3rd January 2013 Thursday
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
Our drive today to the
Copeland Tops State Conservation Area and in particular the Mountain Maid
Mine. This mine is hidden in
bushland but the remains of the activities are on view when visitors join a
guided tour of the site. Gold was
discovered in 1876 at Back Creek and the district had 51 mines and 1100 people
living in the area. The area as a
Red Cedar forest and this was also referred to as gold, “Red Gold”.
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
The area has been
reclaimed by dry rainforest and still red cedars can be seen. The Copeland Tops SCA is considered an
important reserve because it conserves evidence of the gold mining era and
contains significant areas of habitat for our native species.
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
Fig trees, Birds Nest Ferns, Grey Myrtle,
Shatterwood, Yellow Tulip, Moreton Bay Fig and Red Carabeen trees.
The other interesting aspect were the cicada’s,
it is a noise we remember as a child which we no longer hear any more in
Sydney. We found this tour
to be very interesting and informative.
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
The Mountain Maid Tour
is well worth paying $10 adults and $8 for children 3-15 years, this is booked
at the Gloucester Information Centre.
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| Mountain Maid Mine |
There are other
walking tracks that can be done at anytime, Basin Loop Track 7km- 4hr return,
The Hidden Treasure Trail 4.5km – 2hr return.
4th January 2013 Friday
We woke up to a sunny
day and did not want to waste it so we decided on a quick trip to Taree some
75kms from Gloucester we drove via
Wingham and
Tinonee. As we have noticed all
through our holiday the hills were green and beautiful farmland. The road closer to Taree is a little
rough many potholes and more filled in holes than original tar.
Wingham is a busy
small town some old buildings and Tinonee has a few large new homes been built
as this is close to Taree we thought this could be where some well to do people
may live and travel into Taree, another small village but quaint.
As we drove over the
Manning River we could not believe how wide it is after seeing where it
trickles around the Gloucester area at its beginnings in the mountain’s. Taree has changed since we last visited
it has a by pass now and the main street has been tidied up and changed to one
lane on either side with lovely trees and gardens been planted to soften the
look and it is very pretty and inviting.
We had a cuppa at Maccas in Taree which was very nice the n retraced our
steps back to the caravan park.
Sadly this is
preparing to pack up day. We
intend to start our preparation for leaving our very pleasant caravan park for
our return home on Saturday 5th January 2013.
We would recommend
this caravan park it is clean, has two amenity blocks, big areas to park your
caravan and the camping space is enormous the fees are very reasonable. Very good for young families, room for
bike riding, kids have plenty of rooms for a game of soccer, footy, cricket
walking to the main Gloucester shopping centre, parks are close by lots to do
and see we had a wonderful time.
The river is great to swim or lie in on hot days and is safe, fresh
water.
The only complaint was that some of the campers were leaving slow cookers in the laundry overnight and washing up in the
laundry tubs, this is not good.
We would most
definitely return to this park for another holiday.
5th January 2013 Saturday
HOME
We returned to the caravan
park and the weather had improved so this time we put up our annex for the
first time, we had a couple of trial runs putting this up at home but we were still
a little apprehensive, after a couple of false starts it went up much to our
enjoyment. We were finally
finished around 1pm had some lunch and a rest. We were very happy with the annex it made our area warm and
a little more private.
Our short walk ended
up taking 1.5hrs we became so engrossed in our surroundings we lost track of
time and eventually walked into the Gloucester District Park where there is
obviously work being done to improve the area, picnic and BBQ facilities, a human
Sun Dial and a Bush Tucker Garden with aboriginal carvings. Pioneer Memorial Garden has beautiful
trees this was a very big park but very well looked after with the river
running beside it was quite pretty.
We did our walk to the Lookout, the
forest here was more open with snow gums and some really beautiful little
native plants of blue, pink and yellow, our view was low cloud, oh well if this
is to be our day then so be, we were a little disappointed but what could be
do. 
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