Barrington Tops - and a Good Scottish Haar

So off we went to Barrington Tops. On the map it seemed just a hop, skip and a jump but, as with all such things in Australia, distances are deceptive and it was over 60ks before we got in the general vicinity. On arrival we found real Scottish weather, and Scottish Highlands weather at that – the mist was down, visibility was poor and the rain started to break the drought all over again. On the plus side we had decided to leave the tent in situ in Gloucester for another night so didn’t need to look for a campsite.

I’m sure that when the sun shines and the skies are blue there are few places on earth like the Barrington Tops – however today was not one of those days! Never-the–less, despite the weather, the day provided some interesting moments. We decided to do a big loop through the forest – about 200 ks. However, as those of you who know Sandra and I, we hate to return the same way as we went, so we looked for alternatives. We noticed on the map an area known as the Kangaroo Range and through it there appeared to be a track – it was one of those small dotted lines which indicate some sort of right of way – so we thought we would give it a try.

Of course the important thing that we should have factored in was the weather – in particular the pouring rain – dotted lines on maps can often appear slightly different in reality, as do rivers! As we had spent most of the day on forest roads the Kangaroo Track (as we call it) initially provided no problems. However, back home, Sandra and I have a method of classifying roads by the amount of grass growing in the centre – the more grass, the more minor the road.

The grass on the Kangaroo Track was abundant as were the precipitous drops on both sides of the track. The mist was thick, visibility very poor and our foglights were on – although there was no one there to see them. I knew things were going wrong when I realised that my progress down the hill was outwith my control. The road surface (if it indeed was a road) was a bit muddy, to my left was a drop down to the river and to the right was a ditch. The problem was the vehicle was not responding properly and instead of going down the track forwards – we had spun round and were having a shot at a sideways descent – not good!

Managing to stop before disaster struck, I nipped out to lock the front hubs and engaged four-wheel drive – where we should have been in the first place.

Now, fully equipped for the worst, we set off again only to be thwarted by the next swollen river – we couldn’t give it a try as the road had be closed due to flooding and we had to take a fairly long detour. However our time came about 20ks later when we came to another swollen river – no detour this time and it was over 100ks to go back – so off we went – nae problem!

And that was that. Back to the tent to find that it had survived and that is where I am now sitting blogging and drinking wine. I have no idea where we will be tomorrow – we had planned another day at Barrington Tops – but I think not as the weather forecast for that area is even worse than today.