This blog takes place on Gundungurra and Dharawal Country
Christmas of 2025 came and went, with me just publishing my previous blog on 'The Grotto and Greys Beach Reserve Walking Tracks', on Christmas Eve. I had done this walk on my birthday back in November and had such a long time to write it because I kept putting it off after getting the video game 'The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom' on the Switch and obviously I prioritised that.
Christmas resulted in more video games to take time away from both walking, and writing (and the Tafe work I should really have been focusing on), but with A Way Out, Split Fiction and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to play, I knew that would be my Christmas work break filled, but I didn't mind, seeing as my Wife was heavily pregnant and two of those games gave us a shared activity to do together.
I did, however, want to at least get out and go for an explore somewhere I hadn't been. Something I wanted accessible to my Wife who really couldn't walk far or do much.
The year before on our Christmas break, we had gone to Cataract Dam (on New Years Day 2025).
We had then later gone to explore Cordeaux Dam, and I had written about this in a post called '3 Days Out' which detailed exploring 3 different smaller locations over three separate days.
I suggested we explore another dam we hadn't visited, Avon Dam (the selling point to my Wife being that we also stop in on the way at Appin Bakery for pies). She agreed, and we booked in our planned trip to the dam on the 2nd of Jan 2026.
However, the night before we looked up and found Appin Bakery was closed for the Christmas breaks. We began searching for alternate options on our phones for some food around Bargo and Thirlmere, with my Wife suggesting we head to Loopline Pies as we had done when we did the Thirlmere Lakes walk. However, in my online searching I had discovered a place called 'Farmer's Beauty Cafe', whose facebook page was advertising that they were selling camel sausages and camel milk (I had eaten camel before, but never tried camel milk). I suggested we also stop in here to buy some, but on the way back so that the food would remain cold to take home.
We woke up early on the Friday morning and set off towards Thirlmere only to find that Loopline Pies hadn't updated its holiday hours online, instead a note was hung on their door saying they would not open again until much later. We headed towards Bargo, near the entrance to the Avon Dam which we now discovered didn't open until 10am. We arrived in Bargo at 9am planning to go to Bargo Hot Bread Bakery which was also closed with a sign on the door that it would reopen on the 5th.
Frustrated that we didn't just pack food with us, we wandered down the road to a coffee shop in need of some caffeine.
I grabbed a coffee, and my Wife grabbed a lemon muffin, and we sat outside eating it, trying to kill some time until 10am. My Wife finished her muffin, and I was about halfway through my tea, when a man came out of the cafe eating loudly at a table behind us. The noise of him loudly eating was irking me, so I suggested we go and we headed back to the car and drove towards the entrance to the dam.
We arrived about 9.40am and the gates were already open, so we drove straight in, discovering it was the entrance to both Avon and Nepean dams, and I suggested as we were already there we might as well visit both.
"Great." My Wife said, not meaning it at all. She really had no interest in the dams and only came with the promise of food.
As we drove in the entrance there were working on ride on mowers mowing the grass along the sides, the entry had probably been opened for them to start work but we took advantage of it. I got excited as I saw a family of Kangaroos also along the side, out in the open by the wall of bushland behind the grassy areas.
The road forked, with the entrance to Nepean Dam being a right-hand turn. As this dam was closer, I suggested we head to it first and so we followed the road down to the right.
We pulled in quickly at as toilet block, before making our way all the way down to the start of the dam, where you're probably not meant to park, but I didn't want to make my heavily pregnant Wife walk down a bunch of steps.
"Are you coming?" I asked after I had pulled up the car.
"Nah." She said, saying she would simply wait in the car for me.
I headed up towards the dam walkway, hoping to see the water of the Nepean River in its catchment. Along the fenceline next to me I noticed a Lifeline sign, obviously meant for people contemplating, or about to commit suicide, which was a pretty dark thought, as I wondered if it had happened here, or how often.
I enthusiastically walked up the steps onto the dam wall for my first views over the water.
I walked to the centre of the dam, whereas with both the Cataract and Cordeaux Dams had a building in the centre you could walk inside. This dam did too, however the roller door was closed, and I could not go inside. Instead, I continued along crossing the dam to reach the other side.
Unlike the other dams I had visited, where often once you reach the other side there is nothing to do but simply around and walk back, there was some tables and benches here to picnic at, and some stairs you could walk up to further explore, which I did. Coming across a little stone hut which was empty inside.
I continued along a fenceline with warning signs explicitly warning not to cross the fence. On the other side, beside the water in the reservoir, was (what I assume, with literally no knowledge on dams) a section for water release to avoid overflow.
Continuing along the fence led up another series of steps, which just took you up higher to watch where this water overflow passage led, as it followed along a cliff face, flowing downhill.
I wandered around, seeing if there was any more areas to explore, before finding the rest was for staff access only, so I made my way down a steep dirt slope to help myself feel like I was having a bit of an adventure, but I probably wasn't wearing the right footwear and ended up losing grip and having to sideway jog down the hill and jump and land to make sure I didn't tumble. I then walked back across the dam, taking in the sights of the bushland along the water, with a deep craving to get out into some wilderness area, maybe camping and just get away from life, society, work, and everything. But I knew it would be a long time until I got to do that again, with the baby due in March.
I returned to the car, where my Wife was still waiting, and we headed off back towards where the road had split, and I turned right down a long road towards Avon Dam.
"Keep an eye of for Kangaroos." I said, to my Wife, who didn't seem to care.
We didn't see any more Kangaroos and the drive out to Avon Dam seemed to take a lot longer and was further away as we followed a winding road out towards it. Just as we arrived at a one-way bridge, we stopped and encountered a first car who we let pass us.
I made a comment that it was interesting that we hadn't passed a single car until we got to a one-way bridge.
We continued along the winding road, passing one more car that was heading back the other way.
I followed a road down to just in front of the dam, but the area here was smaller, squishier, and as we had now passed some cars, I didn't feel right parking there, so I returned up the road a little, and did a three-point-turn to head down the upper road to the actual carpark, which was in between a park and stairs down toward the dam.
"Did you want to come this time?" I asked my Wife, who still was not interested. I decided to go look at the park first, before the dam and headed along the path, with views over the Avon River and Avon Dam on my left.
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I was excited to go for a bit more of a walk, and the trail followed the river along on one side, with large boulder and rocky overhangs on the other.
I noticed that out in the middle of the water, in a straight line in the centre there seemed to be bubbles along the water, leading me to wonder if there was some sort of piping or irrigation or something occurring out there below the water's surface.
At a clearing of trees with a better view over the water I strolled up to the fence edge to look out over the catchment. I noticed some waterfowl in the water beneath me and lifted my phone up to take a photo, and it was like they sensed it, as they all began to flap away along the top of the water.
I reached the end of the walk, which the fence continued around with a large no entry sign. Behind this was another style of what I again assumed to be a water run-off spot, and the more I looked at it, I soon recognised it, as I had noticed it while driving over a bridge on our way in.
I wandered back along the path through the park towards the car, just as another car had rocked up. An elderly couple hopped out, and were at the start of the park walk, with the man loudly informing the woman that once that she was done going to the toilet he would 'tell her about the dam'.
The woman said hi, acknowledging me and I replied, "good morning", while the old man looked away.
I quickly popped to the passenger side of the car to inform my Wife I was going to quickly duck down to the dam before the old people came along.
I quickly headed down the stairs at the grandiose entrance to the dam.
There were little gate doors on either side of the entrance way, and I popped in for a look, but once more they were empty other than graffiti and carvings of initials, names or messages on the stone walls.
I walked out to the middle of the dam, looking up at the water ways, wondering what secrets lay in the surrounding forests.
I crossed to the opposite side, which like other dams didn't have anything across, as it was all restricted. However, the large stone edge also had gates, one of which had a stairway leading down which was closed to the public.
I turned around and written on the wall behind me in what looked like whiteout read 'All is a fucking lie'. When I first read it, I thought it said 'Ali', but the grammar didn't make sense. I wondered if it was meant to be AI as in, artificial intelligence, however I soon realised the bottom half of the second L had simply faded.
'It would have been better if it said the cake is a lie', I thought to myself, referencing the video game series 'Portal'.
The elderly couple had made it down onto the opposite side of the dam to me, and I could already hear the loud voice of the old man, mansplaining away about the dam. I walked back across, stopping twice, once to admiring the lapping water, and another to watch a bird gently glide over the water's surface.
I headed back up the stairs to my Wife in the car. "Are you sure you don't want to come for a quick walk down the path and at least see the dam in the water?" I asked her.
She made a comment about the overcast weather, and burning heat, mentioning she didn't have a hat or sunscreen on. "You can wear my hat." I told her, and she pulled a gross face about my sweaty hat. Before saying she would need a broad-brimmed hat. I had my work on in my bag which I offered to her; however, she complained that it was 'too tight' asking me "how do you even wear that?"
"It's fine." I told her, placing it on my head.
"You don't wear it down." She commented.
"No, then I wouldn't have as good vision." I replied.
She ended up coming for a little walk without a hat, pretty unfazed by the experience.
"We can head back at any point." I told her and she was pretty much done after the first view of the dam.
We walked back to the car as the old people had returned and were heading in their car to leave. We headed right, as they were reversing out, and walked around the front of their car. As their car got level with the road, they stalled and we could loudly hear their discussion about not knowing what to do.
"You'd want to learn how to drive your car." My Wife commented to me.
"Let's get lunch." I said. It was now almost 12:30 and I hadn't eaten since breakfast around 7am.
"Where from?" My Wife asked. I told her I had found a bakery in Picton we would stop in on the way back, but first we would go have a look about this camel sausage in Thirlmere.
I couldn't set up GPS as there was no reception in the area of the dams, but once we exited back onto a road I was able to pull over and set it to 'Farmer's Beauty Cafe'.
A we arrived it was on a small quiet farm street, and my Wife made the comment "Is this just someone's house?"
"Yeah, well it's like a farm cafe." I told her as we pulled up out the front of farm property that has a small fence next to what looked like a food truck behind a fence.
There was no one there, but a little puzzle to ring to get someone on the gate. I felt awkward, and so did my Wife, as we are both awkward people, however we soon noticed Guinea Pigs running out from the fenceline of the property onto the grass patch beside the road, and we stopped to watch them.
Soon I heard some noise behind the fence and looked to see a lady talking to a Joey Kangaroo.
"Hello!" I said to her from over the fence, startling her a bit.
From over the fence, I asked her if she still had any of the camel sausages left, she said she did and invited us in, opening the gate as we walked into the cafe area.
She asked how we had heard about the place and I told her I had found it online while searching interesting places to eat and it had just popped up.
She then asked how many sausages we wanted and I looked at my Wife who suggested two. I told her two.
"Anything else?" She asked, and I said no, however as she walked away to get the sausages I remembered the camel milk.
I pointed out the little joey kangaroo to my Wife as it was behind the counter, when the lady returned, I mentioned about the camel milk but unfortunately, she was out and informed me it 'goes quick', but she should have some more in two weeks.
She did however ask if I was be interested in an Ostrich egg. I was very interested but my Wife struggles with eating egg at the best of times and once opened you can't really store them and Ostrich eggs are huge, and I don't think I could have eaten one to myself.
It probably just tastes like a really huge egg, but the niche of it, the uniqueness, the intrigue it all excited me, but I had to turn down her offer, but I knew if I could get someone like my buddy Stuart to go halves, we could maybe eat an Ostrich egg together.
I paid for the camel, which was processed into a meat like a pepperoni which the packet called a Mettwurst.
She then offered us to look around at the farm which was cool, so she opened the gate, and we were greeted by her very cute dog that I instantly began to pat. She warned just to be careful because sometimes she could 'nip. I wasn't worried, but my Wife kept telling me off for patting her, so we set of to walk around the farm.
We walked past heaps of free-range chickens, some odd-looking unique ones and up to a fence where and Ostrich and emu were. The Ostrich was looking over the fence at me and soon sat down and began doing some weird dance that my Wife told me was 'trying to scare me away'.
We moved on past two cute little pigs that my Wife stopped to pat.
As we moved on from them, we came to another fence with more Ostrich behind it, they were pressing up against the fence like they were trying to get to me and doing low boom or hum that was sort of creepy. It reminded me of a video I had watched on YouTube once that had said rather than Tyrannosaurs Rex (T-Rex the dinosaur) roaring, it would probably have made a loud thunderous bass like sound that it said would be much creepier to hear while be talked in the forest. That was what it reminded me of.
I also informed my Wife I had always had a bit of fear towards Ostriches due to a Mickey Mouse cartoon I had on VHS as a kid. The short, called 'Mickey Down Under' actually apparently features an Emu (apparently called Esther the Emu), however it looks much more like an Ostrich and you're welcome to watch that cartoon short on YouTube.
We walked around to the other side of the barn, which had some goats, more free roaming chickens as well as some Peafowl, both a Peacock and Peahen.
We wandered through, back to the entry, talking about how cool it would be to bring a kid here and how much they'd love it. As we entered back into the cafe area the little joey Kangaroo was on my right eating something and I knelt down to film him.
We thanked the lady as we went to leave, and she told us they also did meals and handed us a menu. She asked us if we were local and I told her "Just from Wollongong", that it wasn't too far away to travel. We thanked her, telling her the place was really cool, and that we would have to come back.
We headed off now towards Picton, my stomach rumbling from not eating all day, with those camel sausages sounding mighty appertising. However, the bakery in Picton was also closed, so we just decided to go to our local bakery when we got home, which we did, because when the craving for pie hits, you need pie.
Later in the week, we cooked up some of the camel mettwurst, deciding to use it on pizza. We did one as a plain pepperoni (or rather plain camel mettwurst), and the other as camel, chilli jam, brie with some sage on it. Both were excellent, and the camel mettwurst was actually huge so the two pizzas didn't even use up an entire sausage (and I did thicker slices on the pepperoni than I meant to).
I thought about writing the dam trip down as part one of a sequel to my '3 Days Out' blog and doing another short 3 days out and writing it up as '3 Days Out Redux'. However, with tafe, video games, work, and a baby on the way, I decided that it'd probably be that long before it got posted I would write it up as a short single blog post, which is what I did.
With life how it is too, I've been debating whether or not to take a pause from blogging. As it can be a lot of effort, with little, well, actually no reward other than my own sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. But life is about to get so busy, I'll be lucky to do walks let alone write about them, and if I had to choose, I would rather just go and for them, and to be honest, I could do many more if I didn't write about them. It will remain to be seen whether I will do a full stop, a micro stop, of if my desire for this blog to be more will get the best of me. Either way the only way to find out is to follow along for the adventure.
