Barrington Tops

Barrington Tops National Park was the first trip we made in our new used car (a very solid Holden Commodore sedan, made by GM. It's a favorite of taxi companies and police forces. I discovered after we bought it that our car was formerly owned by a police department in Queensland).

From the Barrington Tops website: "Carved out of an ancient volcano, it rises from near sea level to over 1500m. In the lower valleys, you'll find World Heritage-listed subtropical rainforests. Up on the plateau, there is subalpine woodland which regularly sees snow in winter."

Unfortunately, we drove up with little planning and only spent a few hours before driving back--1.5-2 hours each way. Beats a roundtrip to Breezewood though, although the road system in Australia is much less developed than in the U.S. What look to be major roads on the map just 30 minutes out of town often turns out to be winding two-lane country roads.

Nicholas, Peter and a new friend that they met at the park are building a dam in the Williams River, which is being considered for a real dam to ease the drought in some parts of Australia. (No water crisis in Newcastle, however. It has rained very regularly in February and March.) The hotel is located in Dungog, the gateway to the southern section of Barrington Tops. A sign on the road approaching the town welcomes to the the "Shire of Dungog". Very "Lord of the Rings", we thought.