2004/02 New South Wales loop - Telegherry Forest |
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Tuesday February 24th
Next morning, it was still raining so we decided to move on in the hope of finding a drier spot. We stopped at the Barrington Guest House for a 
Devonshire tea. They just had time to serve us before a couple of busloads of the elderly arrived for lunch. The Guest House has a few guest rooms but
most people stay in cabins scattered around in the forest. It has a magnificent dining room, with a big fireplace. The grounds are full of parrots and cockatoos and wallabies.
The campground we wanted was on a track on the Chichester Dam Road, and we hadn’t realized that what we were on was the Chichester Road. There are only about six roads in the area so you’d think they could choose 
more distinctive names for their dam roads! We had our GPS with us, and the 
computer map hookup, but that only helped us stay on the wrong road! We saw lots of interesting places before we crossed the last rickety bridge and ended up on private property.
Eventually we corrected our mistake and found the right road into Telegherry Forest Park. Although it was the right road, it was very muddy and fast disappearing under the water.
We stopped at a pretty waterfall at Jerusalem Creek, and noted that one of the tracks went right across the top of the falls. We decided not to go that way! The Frying Pan Campsite was on a bend in the Telegherry River, only accessible by driving through the river. It was more scenic and spacious than our previous spot, but it was even wetter, and we were camping in mud with the river running right behind us.
Wednesday February 25th
Overnight the rain had turned to torrential rain. By breakfast time we were camping in a lake, calf deep, and the river behind us was now roaring, a mass of white water. One of our possible exits was waist deep and much too fast to risk a crossing, but the other was only knee deep, with a good solid river bed, so that’s the way we left.
We stopped off again at Jerusalem Creek, and, as we expected, the track across the falls was also impassable. Our road out was OK though, and we had a long wet drive on back roads across to the New England Highway. This took us north through Tamworth and Glen Innes, with the weather gradually clearing.