Camping at Barrington Tops

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After hearing such great things about the Barrington Tops wilderness area we decided it was the place to work off some of our Christmas indulgences with some bush walking and camping.

The 27th of December 2007 dawned bright and sunny - a welcome relief after the weeks of rain and overcast dull skies that Sydney has been suffering under. With our cat safely locked in the house with many bowls of water and with his Aunt and Uncle booked to come and visit for feeding and cuddles during our absence we packed the car and headed out of the city. The long and exhausting crawl under the harbour then north to the freeway was hard going but finally we hit the open road!

The drive was fairly uneventful until we turned off the bitumen five kms south of Gloucester and headed to the Gloucester River camping area. The brave explorers then had to cross five fords over the Gloucester River which Ev loved! We met a lot of friendly locals as well....

Finally, four hours after we left the city we pulled into the camp ground and after selecting a suitable spot got our tent up.

The countless signs telling us not to collect firewood in the National Park forced us to head back to the road to buy some firewood cause camping's not camping without a campfire! (Although a camp fire's not a camp fire without marshmallows either and we forgot to pack those!)

As it turned out the firewood came in the form of massive logs so Ev had a chance to flex his manly muscles and do some wood chopping. Pity he hadnt packed his lumberjack shirt.....

We settled in with a couple of well earned cold beers and planned our walks for the next day. Dinner was a creation involving Surprise peas and corn, 2-minute noodles, sultanas, lamb chops, vegie sausages and a LOT of curry powder!!! The real surprise was how bloody good it tasted with a glass of $5 clean skin rose to wash it down with.

That night we were serenaded by a very loud froggy chorus.

In the morning after a fabulous brekkie we headed to Gloucester Tops to do our walk. We settled on a 7km+ circuit of three walks taking in three completely different landscapes - the southern most population of Antarctic Beech trees, Sydney blue gum forrest and a series of stunning waterfalls that peeked beguilingly from the surrounding greenery.

Dinner again involved Surprise peas and corn (really the uses of dehydrated vegies are endless!) and Deb. Powdered mash potato sounds so wrong but in the middle of the bush, cooked with water you boiled from the river after a walk, listening to crickets and frogs there is nothing better than a big pile of Deb and sausages! (Dont knock it till you've tried it!)

All in all I would have to thoroughly recommend Barrington Tops. Such beautiful scenery and a real sense of 'getting away from it all'.

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