Gloucester

 06/08/2012
  We have thoroughly enjoyed our few days in Tamworth, Hamish has done us proud. We have eaten well and managed to avoid all forms of country music. We have been chauffeured around the local ( and not so local) places of interest and finished off last night with a pizza and a few stubbies in the van. Most enjoyable.
  Now we are in a caravan park on the outskirts of Gloucester having driven over the Great Dividing Range. The drive may well be one of the most panoramic in N S W especially through Port Stephen Cutting and part of the road known as Terrible Billy. The top of the range is certainly up a depth! Some of the views are spectacular but the road is quite narrow and there aren’t many pull ins for photo opportunities, so it was a case of point the camera out of the window whilst travelling, press the button and hope for the best.
 There was one pull in, up on the tops called Carsons  Pioneer Lookout where we stopped for lunch. Fantastic views across the valley but it was so windy it rocked the van. I suppose the wind comes with the territory. Driving down this side of  the very, very steep range (with very, very hot brakes!) we passed a sign post saying Welcome to Gloucestershire but again there wasn’t anywhere to stop to take a photo.
 The town is just down the road from our van park but we haven’t explored it yet, we will have a look tomorrow as I am knackered from the drive. It’s a very picturesque drive if you happed to be in the passenger seat but hard work behind the wheel.
 We are making our way towards Forster, a coastal town where we are going to meet up with an old friend from way back, Jim Briton. He once lived in Newbold  but managed to escape. We will catch up with him later in the week.

07/08/2012
 This part of New South Wales has to be one of the most scenic parts of Australia though it is very different from the North Queensland tropics and Western Australia’s ruggedness which we love. The hills, valleys are very green, and this is mid winter.
 The small town of Gloucester is tidy and has pretty much everything we require by way of shops, all except a second hand book shop which we are soon to be in dire need of.
 Sat having a coffee in town we talked about where we should go next eventually deciding on nowhere. Having visited the tourist info office and found out there is lots to see locally we opted to stay another night and go off exploring. First we drove out a few ks to a couple of high lookouts from where we could see over the town and across several valleys towards a range of, one time, volcanic mountains known as The Bucketts. Then we travelled out to the Barrington Tops National Park the last 20k of the journey along unsealed road. We vowed never to go off road again but the only way into the park is by dirt track and it proved to be well worth it. There are six river crossings ( fords) to negotiate before arriving at the riverside picnic area at the end of the track, each one crosses the same river, the Gloucester. Luckily each crossing had a smooth-ish concrete base and the water came just half way up the wheels. All the time we were off road ( driving very slowly) we met one other vehicle and that was a farm worker. We seemed to have the whole place to ourselves.
 It’s all a bit weird staying here in Gloucestershire, with the town of Stroud not too far away and the river Avon just north of here which runs into the Gloucester, and would you believe there is a town called Stratford close by the Avon. Mind you the geography does go a bit haywire because not far from here you need to go through the town of Welshpool to get to Newcastle, confused