Polblue Swamp 22&23 January 2011

This weekend activity was suggested in another thread and since it is now less than a fortnight away, I thought it was time to post some details.

Polblue Swamp is a camping area on the Barrington Tops Forest Road between Moonan Flat(25kms) and Gloucester (73kms).

Two ways to get there. Eastern; up(down?) the Pacific Highway, then take the(?) Buckets Way to Gloucester and then the forest road. I remember it as gravel road through the foothills and then a rough(rocky gravel), but steady climb, then a drive across the Tops.

The Western way if up(down) The New England Highway to Aberdeen(? from north) then across to Gundy. Somewhere after Gundy, the rough gravel road starts(lots of traffic up the road) till Moonan Flat. Cross the bridge, turn right and follow the river till the left turn where you drop a gear or two and start a long steep climb to Dingo Gate(great views), then follow the road to Polblue. Can got from very hot to quite cool in minutes this way.

Maps.google.com and enter either Gloucester or Moonan Flat to obtain your distances and directions if you want. Google doesn't have routing for Barrington tops Forest Road.

There are no day entry fees, but camping for caravans, camper trailers and tents. $10/adult(>15)/night or $5/child.

Pit toilets(non-flushing) and fire places(bring your own wood) are the main facilities. Details here
DECCW | Barrington Tops National Park - Camping

Apart from some short 4WD sections, the rest is basic forest roads.

Short walks and lookouts are the other major activities. Details here;
DECCW | Barrington Tops National Park - Walking

WARNING; include snow cold clothing as well. Barrington Tops are elevated and those wonderful views all round mean that the weather can change dramatically quiet quickly. It has snowed on the Tops in January. Hint, bring a bit of wood for the campfire if you can.

So, who is coming?

A significant family crisis has intervened for me. I could make it late Feb, but not before.

Old.Tony said:

A significant family crisis has intervened for me. I could make it late Feb, but not before.

Click to expand...

Well, I hope that sorts itself out okay.

Umm, anyone else planning on bringing a caravan?
If no one else is, then I suggest moving to another site nearby; cheaper per night and hopefully not as popular.

Basically, this is our January getaway, so we'll be going anyway from Wed 19th to Mon 24th inclusive. We need to shake the cobwebs out of our camping gear.

Feb is better for me.

I pretty much have a party every weekend in January.

Dave.

I wasn't aware that there was a fee for Polblue camping either.

Telegherry Forest Park would be better in that case, run by State Forests and no charge. Pit toilets are there, no water but plenty of camping area for all kinds (we've seen motorhomes in there, despite the track). Campfires are allowed, firewood isn't plentiful unless you go scouting for it.

We've been there a lot, and are very comfortable with the place. In summer, fly spray and/or repellents are highly advisable.

The good thing about the Barrington tops area are there are enough places to camp up there for a year of weekends.

How about setting a date for February, so people like Dave can pencil it into their social calendar? Also means I can mark it on our calendar.

The Boss has said she wants the upgrade of the tent to be a fat arsed camper trailer in the goldstream/jayco/coromal style and I've suggested that given the dollars involved it would be a requirement that she demonstrates that it is going to get used. The outlined performance requirement is a monthly camping long weekend.

Polblue ought to be really interesting in winter! Queens Birthday weekend is out though, my wife and I are heading back to Macquarie Woods - great little spot, cold as buggery but it was good fun. I think we're going to do that regularly from now on.

We could do a "Freeze Your Brass Monkey" camp up the top of the Tops in June/July/August.

Okay, back in town from five days at Barrington Tops and thought I'd post some information that might be useful for other occasions.

Definitely cooler on the Tops compared to the rest of Sydney/Hunter Valley. Temperature ranged from 5 deg. C to 33 deg C(sun and no wind).

ATM, they are not collecting camping fees. Fee payment stations are set up, but no envelopes to pay. AFIK rangers can not collect money and apart from arriving to top up the loo paper that was it.

Polblue is definitely the best campsite. Park like with upper and lower areas with plenty of sites. The lower sites are under trees with plenty of shade and the better toilets. The upper area is more open and sunny. Mixture of the small (3 sides closed) fireplace and open(ring with swing in bar and plate) fireplaces. Easy access for all vehicles including caravans. Caveat, with no rubbish collection provided $10/person per night is a bit of an ask

If you are taking a group, such as a Nav family camp, there is an excellent community shelter with stone open fire places, benches and gas coin-in-slot BBQ plates. Would make a great focal point. It isn't that far back to state forest areas to collect firewood, so you could have a very nice fire each night.

Polblue is the most picturesque of the ones we visited. Lots of easy nature to encounter.

Devil's hole has 3 small sites with pay station, pit toilet, and fire places and seems like camping in a swamp. there was actually a bit of water around all sites. If you can reverse, then you could fit a trailer into a couple of them.

Dilgry has no facilties and about 3 sites, 1 lower and 2 higher. You could probably manage a trailer in the top half.

Manning river is spacious with lower 4 sites and upper 6(?) sites. Has pit toilet and fireplaces on the lower. Trout fishing? the site is down in a valley, so limited views.

Horse Swamp and Gummi we didn't visit. Gummi is a 4WD only access higher up the Manning River. Horse Swamp is on the 2WD ring road, but not sign posted off the Tops road. so we didn't work out how to get there until on the way out.

There are five(?) 4WD track sections that can be driven of varying length. most run between the north and south sides of the ring road.

Moonan Flat is the closest town and has a pub. There is also camping on the river there if you do not want to deal with the cold of the Tops each night.

Thanks for that Terry, good stuff! Hope you enjoyed your trip, we've been stuck with various issues happening that we just can't escape from and things won't quieten for a while yet so we can't avoid them.

Next time you're in the area you could come up the south side of the Tops and head into Chichester forest, visit Telegherry, Currawong, Frying Pan Creek & Coachwood. They're State Forest parks, so dogs & firewood collection are permitted.

We had a lovely time, despite the cold nights. The Boss will be kept busy for a while combing through her photographs(just as soon as I cull any embarrassing ones{.

That SE corner of the Tops is one part I've never really been to, so it will go onto the places to camp at list. Said list is currently expanding fast atm as the boss enjoyed herself and put up no resistance when I said "Where are we going in February?"

We should organise a weekend to drop in to Telegherry. No motorbikes allowed, usually quiet. Does your rig have its own shower and toilet?

We could do 20th & 21st Feb there. The weekend after is also available.

Edit: that weekend might also be a good one for the flood appeal donations.