Thunderbolts Way

Hairpin escarpment climb from Gloucester to Walcha over the Great Dividing Range.

Thunderbolts Way, named after the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, climbs from the river town of Gloucester across the Great Dividing Range to Walcha on the New England tableland. The Gloucester-to-Walcha leg runs roughly 150km and gains over a thousand metres, mixing tight hairpins on the steep escarpment face with open sweepers across high tableland country. It is sealed but lightly trafficked and remote, popular with touring drivers and riders. Mind the steep tight hairpins on the climb, occasional rough and patched surface, and livestock and fog on the high plateau.