3 Days Out

    This blog takes place on Dharawal, Dharug and Gundungara Country

As a new year dawned, 2024 became 2025. The years were flying by, and although a lot had occurred in my life from when I started my blog in 2015, it felt like most of it was inconsequential. I felt like I was wasting my days away at work, my depression was growing worse (my three days away to the Blue Mountains in November had made my return home even harder).

We had recently just purchased a new car, as my Wife had hated her car for a while (it was super fiddly with the gears from first to second and you had to be exact, or it would stall it was a huge hassle to drive). We had wanted an electric car to save on fuel but also wanted something a bit more robust for myself to use on dirt roads with certain bushwalks, and to make camping easier. So we ended up buying a Toyota Rav-4 Hybrid (and losing a shitload of our savings doing so).

Day 1 - 1/1/25 - New Years Day 
In the morning, we decided to take it out for a drive, and I suggested heading up to Madden's Falls and Kelly's Falls as the walks weren't too long (my Wife struggles in the heat of an Australian summer). I also suggested we could visit one of the dams around that region, such as Cordeaux or Cataract as I had memories of going to one of the dams when I was a very young child and it was one of those weird memories that your mind always seems to bring up to you out of nowhere, so I wanted to explore them.
My Wife agreed, and I was glad to get out of the house, as I had just been laying around drinking alcohol and rewatching Scrubs on Disney+ since Christmas.

We set up the GPS Map on the dash of our new car, my first time using it (I usually just use Google Maps on my phone in a bracket and connect via Bluetooth), setting Madden's Falls as our destination.

While driving along, I became very confused at the direction this GPS was taking us, so my Wife quickly used Google Maps and found this GPS system was taking us, to as I would colloquially say: 'Buttfuck Idaho'.

Along, the way while trying to fix it up and just connect our phone to Google Maps using Android Auto, I saw a turn off towards Cataract Dam, so decided to turn in there for a quick stop.

There was a couple of people up here picnicking as we pulled up, but it really wasn't too busy.
"Probably heaps of people nursing hangovers." I said, as we sat in the car applying sunscreen.

We followed a sign leading us down some stairs along the side of a road past a couple of houses that looked like they were bed and breakfasts or available for people to stay (I don't know if they are). It was an incredibly hot day as we continued downhill, eventually stopping for a reprieve from the sun under a little built rock shelter with a chair (it reminded me of a bus stop). We soon continued on down towards the dam, until we came to a steep section of stairs and I could now see the dam in front of us.

I made my way to the bottom while my Wife, a little dizzy from the heat (and from heights) held a rail and slowly made her way down towards the base. I went to walk along the dam, before I noticed she wasn't coming.
"Aren't you going to come?" I asked her.
"No I'm good here." She said, with both her fear of heights and bridges she stayed where she was while I looked off the right side watching water shoot out from a pipe.

I walked a way along, looking out over the blue water, wishing I could explore the shorelines of the land I could see in the distance, or paddle out in a Kayak. However neither of that was allowed.

I approached the section in the middle which had a temporary fence up, not allowing me to cross to the other side, the building bit in the middle, which must contain things inside was also closed as I read some plaques on the wall that gave me information about the dam (if you're interested here's the Wikipedia link: Cataract Dam).

I crossed back to my Wife and headed up the stairs and I could see her bright red face and knew she was struggling with the heat.
"It's ok." I told her. "Madden's Falls is a very short walk."

We stopped once more under the shelter for some water, continuing back uphill as the intense heat seemed to almost radiate the air around us. Like at any moment the entire would could burst into flames.

Beware of Snakes in your toilets!

Once we returned to the car, I set up my phone (music first, maps second) and we headed towards Madden's Falls right outside of Glenbernie Orchard, which was a lot more busy. 

We pulled up, and started heading down towards the falls, as I filled my Wife in on the time I had come here with my friend Tristan (see blog post).

She was struggling bad and sadly said she didn't think we would be able to do Kelly's Falls today and asked if I would be ok to go home after this. I didn't want to push her, and agreed, saying that it was lunch time and we were both hungry anyway. We reached the falls, but due to hot and dry weather they weren't flowing anywhere near as nicely as when I had visited previously. Once more with her fear of heights, she wouldn't come right to the end of the platform to overlook the falls.

As we made our way back to the car, we passed a family blasting loud Hindi music from a speaker as they made their own way towards the falls.
"Ahh, that natural serenity." I commented, telling my Wife that people who play loud music out on walks are ignorant as fuck.

We got to the car, returning home for lunch where I spent the remaining days of my Christmas break drinking alcohol and watching Scrubs.

Day 2 - 26/1/25 
January 26 is a heated day in Australia. Officially, it is known as Australia Day. It is also known by other names, such as Invasion Day, and Survival Day.
Historically, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove.
The reason this causes debate, is to do with Australia's Indigenous Community, the First Nations People, Australian Aboriginals, who view this date as the unlawful seizure and dispossession of their lands and subsequent years of persecution, racism and frankly unspeakable acts of barbarity, which has led to country wide protests and petitions to 'Change the Date'.

Now, I've never celebrated Australia Day. When I was younger, I thought of it as Bogan Day, because the sort of people who celebrated it were the sort of people I usually despised. Bogan, racist, degenerate assholes who I fucking hated anyway, and I felt no sense of patriotism towards Australia in those younger years.
Later, my opinion was that I was white, and the date didn't matter to me, only having a public holiday, and as if affected others, who felt like the date wasn't inclusive at all I agreed that it should change so everyone could celebrate it.
As I've gotten older, my sense of being an Australian, and loving my country has grown. But my version of being Australian, and loving country, and learning more about history has led to a stronger belief of changing the date. Knowing Australia Day previous took place on other days such as July 30 and that it wasn’t until 1935 that all states adopted a common date and name for Australia Day to be held on January 26 and that it also took until the 1940s for Australia to get its national holiday in place and it wasn’t until 1984 that the National Australia Day Committee was federally funded.

But still the debate rolls on amongst people, and while I think changing the date isn't a huge deal (as long as we get a public holiday, because fuck work) some people cling to their outrage at the mere thought of it. So on this contentious day, which fell on a Sunday in 2025 (which meant getting Monday off, as the public holiday rolls over onto a weekday), we decided to do something with our weekend.

My Wife had seen a video on TikTok (which is another debate raging about whether or not to block access), about a Cake Biz store in Narellan in South-West Sydney that had a train carriage out the back that you could eat in. She thought it would be a nice date, and I agreed, suggesting we could go into Campbelltown for a walk along Fisher's Ghost Creek afterwards. I have mentioned in previous posts about my Mum running in the Fisher's Ghost fun run when I was a kid and being left out on a picnic blanket alone with my brothers for hours while she ran it. I have previously wanted to attempt to myself enter the fun-run as some sort of catharsis, but I also fucking hate running and every time it approaches something comes up (like getting covid).

We headed up to Narellan (once more in the Rav-4), where we passed the Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan along the way (deciding to go there afterwards instead). We arrived at Cake Biz, where I was hoping for a chilli pie (no chilli pie, so I got a curry pie instead), we took our food and coffee and headed into the train carriage out the back.

My pie was actually really good, and my Wife said her sausage roll was too, enjoying it more than our sweet cake and coffee's. After exploring the old train there was another small old locomotive behind it, and I jumped into the drivers seat.

Remember that time I actually got a job as a Train Driver?

We headed of towards the Botanic Gardens for an explore, which was pretty busy with people picnicking (though they seemed to congregate in the same areas while everywhere else was pretty empty).

We wandered around looking at plants, slowly making our way uphill, as we pointed to a small flowering plant 'Brachyscome' or 'Mauve Mystery' a native daisy, and decided we wanted to buy some to plant some more flowers in our garden, also shameless plug, follow our gardening Instagram: 'Hudson's Harvest'.

We made it to the top of the hill looking out over the surrounding suburbs with a little sign talking about the encroachment on native habitat and how little natural area around here remains.

We continued following the path to where Google Maps said would be the 'actual Mount Annan', as I thought it would be cool if you could walk up it.

As the area opened to large grass plains filled with flowers we left behind the shade from the trees and once more my Wife began to struggle in the heat of the sun (she was already struggling from making our way up the hill).

We passed the 'Wedding Knot' a stone sculpture that looked like a pretzel that took requests for putting plaques on it. There were not many on there and my Wife commented that they're probably "expensive as fuck".

I saw people coming down from a little hill, and excitement filled me as I thought (judging from when I had last viewed Google Maps), that this was probably Mount Annan. So I decided to head up, as my Wife decided to continue along the trail we had been following to find shade and wait for me as I made my way uphill.

On top, I found a Toposcope, which was pretty faded, however I couldn't see it pointing towards Mount Annan, which made me thing I was on top, (but it now appeared elsewhere on Google Maps, making me question it).

I followed the trail along the top, until it began heading down the opposite side towards God-knows-where, so I turned around to head back towards my Wife when I heard the bushes move behind me and turned to see a Kangaroo now on the path staring at me.

I made my way back down to the grassy and flowering fields and headed up another hill along the path towards my Wife.

Atop this hill was a sundial and another method of telling the time with standing stones (the Sundial of Human Involvement it is apparently called), which I didn't get a photo of because a young family was there standing using their shadows to tell the time.

"They didn't adjust for daylight savings" My Wife quipped.

We continued along the trail until we headed back downhill past 'Lake Fitzpatrick'.

And then followed the path past 'Lake Sedgewick' where all the picnickers had congregated.

We returned to the car and my Wife was well and truly over the heat and walking and wanted to head home, but I thought we could drive and pull in at other sections of the gardens which we hadn't walked too. We ended up doing two looping drives around the main area before turning left and driving up a road past Lake Sedgewick which head two directions at the end. We headed left along 'Cunningham Drive' which was almost like a safari section of the gardens where you could only see thing by driving along here. After a decent drive, we came to a roundabout, where we continued straight rather than turning right towards an exit, driving past a lake and Woodland Picnic area, pulling up at an area that said it was a Stolen Generations Memorial, which we thought seemed appropriate given the date.

"Stolen Generation Memorial - a place of healing and reflection.
Until 1970, between 10% and 30% of all Aboriginal children - up to 100,000 in total - were taken forcibly or under duress from their families by governments, churches, police or welfare officers. Most were under 5 years old. They are known as the 'Stolen Generations'.

The Children of the Stolen Generations were brought up in institutions or fostered out in an attempt to 'assimilate' them into white society. They were at risk of physical and sexual abuse. They were denied their Aboriginality.
The Botanic Gardens Trust has a strong commitment to reconciliation. In 2003, following approaches by the Aboriginal community, in particular by Carol Kendall (herself a Stolen Child), the Trust undertook a partnership agreement with Link-Up NSW and the NSW Stolen Generations Committee to acknowledge these events in Australia's history.
We dedicate this memorial to the children of Stolen Generations. We invite you to walk through the Woodland via a series of boardwalks (wheelchair accessible to the sculpture) and experience this memorial as a journey of healing and reflection, leading to a peaceful meeting place with water and sculpture. Please enjoy the sense of peace, harmony and reflection."

The walk could go in two directions, and we followed the path on the right, where as we continued along where memory plaques featuring recollections or thoughts by children of the Stolen Generations.

We walked in silence, reading the heart wrenching plaques and all the trauma brought upon First Nations people through colonisation. 

I was startled quickly when I noticed a head sticking out of a hole in the bush! At first I thought it was a statue, then I realised it was the head of a Lizard, the rest of its body hidden from sight inside the hole.

As I took photo's of it, it began to crawl out of the hole so I swapped to my video camera to record the Lace Monitor crawl away in the bush.

Soon we arrived at the memorial, with a sign giving us some information.

"A place for reflection
To arrive at this place, you have walked through a fine example of Cumberland Plain Woodland, the original vegetation that once stretched across western Sydney.
Mount Annan is known to Aboriginal people as 'Yandelora', meaning 'a meeting place of all peoples.'
This site has been chosen by some members of the Stolen Generations to reconnect Aboriginal people with their land. Their story is told in the sculptural centrepiece and they invite you to sit and reflect on the tragic consequences of separating Aboriginal children from their families.

If you wish, scoop up some water from the 'river of tears', and trickle it onto the sculpture. As you do this, try to imagine the experiences of the Stolen Generations and make this place for all Australian to continue the healing process."

I knelt down to collect a handful of water to trickle onto the sculpture, as I brought my cupped hands out of the water however, I had accidentally scooped up a tadpole. So I put the little fella back into the water and took another handful, tadpole free, and trickles it down the sculpture in remembrance.

My Wife did the same after me. We both commented that it seemed like a very fitting way to end our day given the date and the history, and we continued on around the walk, which looped back around, along a creek and back past the sculpture onto the same trail, heading back towards the car.

We followed the other trail for a little, around a little pond here, where we read a sign comparing the area in front of us with and image of it from the past, as well as past a sign detailing some of the wildlife here, including lace monitors and brown snakes.

We didn't know how long this trail would go on for, so we simply returned to the car and began the trip home.

Day 3 - 8/2/25
Now, while I had been away in the Blue Mountains I had looked around me on a few occasions for a chilli pie to eat, to no avail. While on the Darwin Walk (while ducking to the bathroom) I had posted on a Facebook group for 'Best Pies in NSW and ACT' requested really hot chilli pies around me. Mentioning the 'Flaming Ron' the 'hottest natural chilli pie' I had picked up and eaten on my way home from a trip to Newcastle.
One of the suggestions was a scorpion chilli pie, from Appin Bakery, so I had been wanting to go there and try it since.
So, one random Saturday I organised with my Wife to go out to the bakery, with either the option of exploring a different dam (if the weather was hot) or taking Orla to walk along Fisher's Ghost Creek (if the weather was cooler).
That morning, while my Wife did the grocery shop, I took Orla to the vet for her monthly arthritis injection (my poor bubba). 
When we reconvened, I mentioned that the weather was a bit cooler that day.
"It's so hot!" My Wife insisted, and I couldn't be bothered to argue because I wanted pie, and because I had spent over an hour the night before looking up, and dropping pins on Google Maps trying to work out the distance of it, an knew it would be more than half an hour and I'd get complaints so we wouldn't end up doing the entire creek.

We set off towards Appin, poor Orla left home alone outside to eat grass and chase birds or whatever she does when we're not home. I had a bad feeling I would rock up and they wouldn't have the pie, however luck was on my side that day and we sat down out the front to eat our pies.

It was spicy and delicious. The lady who had served us had warned me it was very hot, but I ate it with no issue.
"It was a nice hot pie." I said to my Wife, scrunching up the wrapped. "No where near as hot as the Flaming Ron, but I guess that's why it was a 'challenge' and why I had to sign a waiver.

We headed to the car, setting off towards Cordeaux Dam, a different dam around the same area.
As we turned in towards it, the area was looking familiar and my Wife asked if we were going to the same dam as before (Cataract). I told her we weren't, and that the entrances were just designed very similarly.
However, as we continued along, I began to question myself, even though there were obvious differences. The road continued on long past all the picnic areas and took us all the way down to right across from the dam, so very was even less of a walk than at Cataract.

I asked if she was going to join me this time to walk along it, and she declined once more. As I walked past the entry towards a toilet block, picking up an empty bottle of water and throwing it in a nearby bin.
"Fucking people littering." I vented. "That's all we need is all the microplastics in our drinking water."
However, I noticed a decent amount of rubbish lining the stone wall alongside the water.
"Maybe the bin just blew over though." I said, trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, despite knowing most are trash.

I finished in the restroom and began my walk along the dam towards the other side. I noticed tree stumps on the sand shore on the opposite side of the water, and wondered if they had been chopped, but admiring the landscape regardless. I began looking down over the other side, as I could hear the running water, but I couldn't see anything. I thought about how Cataract had a big fountain of water bursting out, and as I continued along, I soon got a look at the running water I could hear.

Around three quarters of the way in there was a gold coloured maps, showing all the dams in the area. Others included the Nepean Dam, the Avon Dam, the Woronora Dam and the Warragamba Dam.
'All places to visit.' I thought and smiled to myself as I walked along looking out over the landscape in the distance across the water.
Soon I passed an elderly couple, walking back from the other side of the dam.
"G'Day." The old gentlemen said to me.
"How are ya?" I responded.

Soon I passed a family with many rambunctious children and reached the other side of the dam.

I made my way back across the dam to my Wife who was sitting under the shade of a tree avoiding the sun (we had discussed in the car after leaving Appin Bakery that it was good we were doing a short walk as I had run out of sunscreen).
We began the trip home, were I mentioned it was nice going out on little day trips. As the two of us use to do it much more often before we bought the house and got Orla (as much as we love her). 
The road we followed home took us over a little one lane bridge, which had some old dam or construction thing on the side (I only got a quick look at it as I drove across the one-way bridge).
I mentioned that it looked like something out of Jurassic Park (or more like Jurassic Park 3).

Which, as we approach the end of my blog of three random day trips, I have to say I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan, and as a kid I was obsessed with the first 2 films and use to play Jurassic Park games, pretending to be on the island, swimming in my pool, climbing up trees to escape Velociraptor attacks.
A few days ago, they released the new Jurassic World trailer (Jurassic World Rebirth). I had been very keen for it having read articles about the movie with the director saying we wanted to harken back to old school Jurassic Park, and the writer of the first two films had written the script, (I hadn't liked the 3 Jurassic World movies very much). However, the trailer created such bitter disappointment within me, and many others. I didn't see gritty suspense; I saw generic Hollywood. Dumb quips in the middle of dangerous action. It felt like a Marvel film and my bitterness was shared by others online.
Hopefully I'm wrong, and the film can be good, but we shall wait and see. But my expectations are so incredibly low now for the franchise.

Anyway, with that film rant over, I expect to blog again soon. More hikes, travel, days out, and maybe one will finally be Fisher's Ghost Creek! But you'll have to stay tuned to find out. Also, feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts on the new Jurassic World trailer!

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Barren Grounds - Kangaroo Ridge and Griffiths Loop Track

So after going for a morning walk with my friend Tristan and doing the Ken Ashburn Track on Mount Keira (1/2/21), I received the results of my bone marrow biopsy indicated their were still leukemia cells in my body.

This really effected me, upsetting me and ruining my positivity towards beating cancer. I tried to get myself back into a positive headspace and decided I want to do a massive walk to take my mind off it. I had started 2 blogs in between my previous walk at Barren Grounds, both that didn't get finished and a thus sitting as drafts until I go and complete the walks (I'll explain why they were unfinished when I write them). 

So I decided a return to Barren Grounds to do the Kangaroo Ridge Track (while also completing the Griffiths Loop Track) would be the walk for Dad and I to do, so we set off back up to Barren Grounds (3/2/21).

After arriving I began applying sunscreen in the car while my Dad talked to two ladies who had pulled up the same time as us, saying they were just going to do the Griffiths Loop Track. He told them the story of how he believed he had seen a Quoll here a few years ago.
I finished applying my sunscreen and we set off to begin our walk.

As we began my Dad commented that the path would likely be a bit flooded and wet, I commented that it should be fine, but shortly in he was proven right as we came upon sections of path still lightly coated in water.

It's not an Australian Bushwalk without a Termite Mount

In 900m we came to a turn to our left to the Illawarra Lookout, which again we had been to many times. I asked Dad if he wanted to quickly duck down. He offhandedly responded no, to which I quickly insisted it wasn't far and turned our direction towards the lookout.

To the right of the turn-off, Barren Grounds scrubland

We made our way towards the lookout passing the two ladies my Dad had spoken to in the carpark who were returning to the Griffiths Loop Track. The path opened up to an area with a small wooden picnic table and a little fence made to stop people getting too close to the edge. We looked out over the Illawarra, Jamberoo below us, Lake Illawarra, Warilla Beach and Windang Island all visible.

The view looks better when not through the lens of a phone camera

We returned to the loop track and made our way forward. Shortly after returning to the path my Dad received a call from his Wife (my step-mum) saying she had forgotten to take her lunch and had left it in the freezer, my Dad responded he thought it was for us and had packed it in the esky (which was sitting in the boot of my car). He began to tell her that the alcohol free beers she had packed for us to have when we finished actually contained alcohol (which I had pointed out to him at the car). She began to say it was trace amounts and I was being silly for not drinking it. I held my ground, saying I didn't want anything to risk not beating cancer. My Dad said it was 0.05% but I told him it was 0.5% so not much weaker than a light beer. He questioned if I was sure and I told him I was.

I commented on how beauty the landscape was, recalling how years ago the times I had done the walks I had thought they were a little boring, realising how I had grown up a bit through the years.

We soon came to a bit on our left that was almost swamp-like leading me to believe it was an area constantly filled with water and not just because of the recent consistent rain.

The path began to incline and the area around us become more dry, with the path also more rocky.

As the track continued to twist and turn it also continued up and down, with my Dad and I both commenting that we remembered the walk being very flat. Although none of the slight hills were particular arduous.

Soon the track entered a more covered forest area in which my phone camera either glitched and overly brightened each shot, or my screen had a thin layer of sweat over it because all the pictures I took look a bit misty.

The path begins to head down and you enter a rainforest area that you continue through for a while.

I had been waiting to come to this section with this fallen tree, as while doing this walk in 2014 with my girlfriend (now Wife) I had taken a photo that made it look like I was lifting it up, and I wanted to replicate the photo 9 years later, however it had obviously fallen completely and I was unable to replicate the photo as below the roots was a deep puddle of water.

From 2014

The path through the rainforest began to end as we once again began uphill.

The landscape opened up again overlooking the shrubby bushlands and continued on a slight incline until we noticed the viewing platform just popping up over the scrub.

I remembered the viewing platform looking different, and being in a different spot and so did Dad. I questioned whether this was a new one and if the old one was on the path heading towards Saddleback Trig, or if this was a new one in the area of the old one, or if we were just completely misremembering the whole thing. 
As we rounded the bend to the full view of the platform we noticed the two ladies sitting at a wooden bench across from it eating lunch. We walked up the platform for a nice view overlooking Barren Grounds and were happy for the cool breeze we felt while up there.

We had a drink and opened up some trail mix and decided to continue on, as we walked past the ladies they began to get ready to continue walking too.

The track surface became very rocky and the shrub land around us even more low lying. 

We were in the middle of talking when Dad told me he saw something on the path up ahead. I looked up but couldn't see anything, as we walked up we saw what he had seen close to the ground on our left. A little Echidna eating a bunch of ants.

Of course my Dad, character that he is, calls out back to the ladies to let them know about the Echidna. I would have kept walking, socialising as little as possible. He was almost going to stay standing there to point it out to them but I told him they would see it, and we continued walking.

We soon rounded a bend and came along to another sign marking directions and distances. I didn't properly read it, just quickly took a shot of it with my phone as too men were walking up the hill and getting close to the sign. 

They said good day, and talked about how it was a nice day for a walk. The two man carried big, heavy, expensive looking cameras and asked how much further it was to Saddleback Trig. I told them it wasn't far and that they would reach a lookout and the turn off to it would be on their right. My Dad talked to them a little, also letting them know about the Echidna, and we made our way down the hill, the steepest part of the walk so far. I commented to Dad "No wonder they were asking how long, after just having to walk up here". (To not be rude, but the two gentlemen were pretty heavy-set).

We continued down the rocky path, while I recounted stories of some of my adventures in Europe to him. The path down the trail was pretty sodden and we talked about how we had both been watching the survival show 'Alone' and discussed the contestants and survival in general.

I felt like the walk was completely different to what I remembered. Remembering a bit just up a hill where you can sort of overlook everything. But everything looked different than I recalled, even the path. Dad pointed out a rock on the ground with beautiful colours inside. I took a photo and placed it back where he found it.

The path continued down the entire time, and eventually we began to hear running water, to my complete confusion, when we came across a sign post...

We had completely missed the turn off to Kangaroo Ridge, having not even seen it as it was exactly where we had ran into the two men. We had now walked 1.6km in the wrong direction, which meant 1.6km back up hill. I felt completely bummed and a bit demoralized, deep down questioning if I could do that walk back up and then the rest of the walk to Kangaroo Ridge, still not back to my old fitness precancer. We decided to continue down the 20m to the running water to eat our lunch while I internally debated whether or not to bother walking back up to do the Kangaroo Ridge walk.

We sat and watched the dark running water (that looked like black tea) and ate our vegemite rolls.

Finally after shooing away a big fly that was pestering Dad and I, whilst looking forward at the easy way forward and short loop back to the car, I made the decision to work our way back up hill and do the Kangaroo Ridge walk.

Just 2km back to the carpark, so tempting

Shoo fly, don't bother me

Overjoyed to be backtracking...

After walking our way back to the turn off to Kangaroo Ridge, it was easy to see how we missed it while distracted by the two gentlemen, but it didn't help make us feel any less stupid and annoyed at adding an additional 3.4km onto our walk.

If my Dad was worried about how wet the rest of the walk was he must have been bothered now, as the walk was instantly squelchy, muddy, damp, and every step was wet to varying degrees. Not long into the walk my Dad told me his socks where already wet.

After a long walk through the sloshy wet terrain, the trees formed a barrier on either side reminding me of the first time I had done the walk with my girlfriend, we had been walking for hours (albeit at a pretty slow pace), and reached an almost tunnel bit of trees but got concerned about the time (having started the walk later in the day) and turned back. It wasn't till a few years later where I first went with Dad on Father's Day where I got to the end of the Kangaroo Ridge walk, to tell my (fiancée or wife by this time?) that we had been a mere 5 minutes away from finishing the walk.
However I knew we were not up to that section of the walk yet, and soon the path opened up, to a track through the small scrubland again, and the slight hill but I had recalled sitting and resting at (that I was confused about not reaching while wrongly walking towards the Stone Bridge).

We stopped on a large flat rock even with the ground on the top of this slight hill, looking at another hill through the scrub, facing away from the path, with Dad saying out loud that there was surely some way to walk to the hill. I told him there was, but it meant traversing through thick scrub.

We soon rounded a bend to the left where the trail quickly veered off to the right, but we could see through the trees another trail which we followed a short distance that gave us a view over the Shoalhaven. I asked if the beach was Seven Mile Beach and my Dad agreed.

We tried to see Shoalhaven Heads and Comerong Island, as we had been on an adventure to Comerong Island just 5 days earlier (which I will write about at the end of this blog post). We finally agreed we could see Comerong Island from the lookout, seeing the opening at Shoalhaven Heads and even being able to see the break-wall. We made our way back to the path and continued on, feeling now that we were close to reaching our destination and I felt a bit of pride, as the walk hadn't even felt that long to me.

Soon we reached the bit of the walk I remembered turning around in back in 2014.

While walking through a branch got caught on my shoelace causing me to slightly trip while flinging up and lightly cutting the front of my leg, one of those annoying parts of walking. We came to the end of the track where there was an area that looped around a tree and bit of bushland, almost like a roundabout, obviously designed for fire vehicles to be able to drive through and turn around. Just behind this was a short track through the trees, which gave me a lovely face full of spiderweb, and then we were there, at Kangaroo Ridge, with a similar view to the lookout we had seen just a bit earlier.

I felt a sense of gratification. I had been meaning to do the Barren Grounds walk since 2015 where it sat in my draft folder until I had completely forgotten anything about the walk and never ended up writing it. Then I had planned for it to be my first walk with my Dad after he recovered from his rock climbing accident, but then I broke my ankle, which when it recovered we were planning to do the walk, but then I was diagnosed with cancer, and then last time I didn't have the strength or fitness so we just did the Cook's Nose walk and I was planning to use old photos to write about Kangaroo Ridge, only to find I really didn't even have that many saved photos of the walk. So to do it, and get there, and feel ok, was all a great sense of satisfaction. 

We walked around the cliff face further onwards and sat for a drink and some snacks at a bit of rock that reminded me of the rock formations at Drawing Room Rocks.

We began our walk back, which always feels much longer. I began to feel bits of my body starting to fatigue and hurt, it was definitely not use to doing so much after my 10 weeks in hospital not including intermittent times in between being neutropenic and laying around at home.

I began to tire of the walk, being keen for it to be done, mentally I had accomplished what I wanted, but need to do the return journey.
I complained to Dad that the extra 3.4km didn't help. We finally made it back to the sign post and began the walk downhill to the Stone Bridge... again...

About halfway down my feet began to severely ache, the sides of my feet next to my big toe felt like sandpaper was scratching my skin off with every step I took. Eventually I said I couldn't do it anymore, and took my shoes off to carry them. My Dad told me not too as the surface was so rocky. I said I couldn't continue to wear the shoes, and that I had done the whole walk at Comerong Island barefoot too.
The walk was much slower barefoot, having to be even more careful where I stepped, but much less painful. When we made it to the Stone Bridge my Dad told me to wash off my feet and he had some band-aids I could place on the part of my feet that were hurting. We did this, and it definitely took of a lot of the pain, although it still did hurt to walk, we could now move quicker as all I wanted now was to get home and have a lie down.

Just at the top of the stairs on the other side of the Stone Bridge was another wooden picnic table, and a sign pointing towards the Cook's Nose walk and the carpark in 2km.

While walking through I stepped down and sunk as I stepped, turning around a noticing a my footprint sunken in the mud. We finally made our way through to where the track left took you to Cooks Nose and the track right to the carpark.

Along the way back we saw another Echidna, almost in the same spot we had seen it when we had done the Cooks Nose walk a few weeks earlier. When we got back to the car Dad wanted to sit around and eat, it was past 4pm and I said it was almost dinner time. He ate a roll from the esky and on of his alcoholic 'alcohol-free' beers, which I was right about being 0.5% not 0.05%. I drank an iced coffee while I drove us down Jamberoo Pass dropping my Dad off home and getting home after 5pm feeling tired and sore. Later that night noticing a giant blood blister on the back of my right heel. Not surprising after a 22km walk.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Extra tidbits! - Comerong Island Adventure 29/1/2021

While off work due to my cancer I have been investing a lot of time into trying to research my family tree, which I have been doing since 2011 and have made a lot of good progress (especially on my Mother's Side). My Dad's side I have done well on his Mother's heritage, but I have really struggled with his paternal ancestry. My Dad was adopted out due to infidelity, as his Mother was having an affair. She came clean while pregnant when she worried that my Dad would come out Italian (the man she had the affair with was Italian), so my Dad was adopted out even though we now believe that my Nan's Husband was indeed his Father (until proven otherwise I suppose, but my Dad and I are not of Italian descent).

Anyway, I believed I had found ancestors on this side coming over from Ireland and living in Numbaa (near Nowra in the Shoalhaven), and that he was Mayor of Numbaa at some point, so we decided to go on a day down to Numbaa and also explore the nearby Comerong Island.

We initially stopped at a farm in Berry (where you can get married or they do Yoga there) as another ancestor on my Dad's Mother's side, Issac Walton and previously owned the land the farm was on according to my Dad who told me he had viewed the land records at a museum in Berry.

You had to cross train tracks to visit it and I got a good shot looking up the tracks reminding me of my favourite film 'Stand By Me' and a terrible adventure with friends I had  when I was younger in 2011.

From here we drove to Shoalhaven Heads as my dad believed the entrance was closed up and had been for years, although I told him that it hadn't been when I was looking up Numbaa and Comerong Island on a map. We arrived in the rain and set out along the beach towards Comerong Island, looking up at Coolengatta Mountain in the rain.

We soon got there to find, low and behold, the entrance was open with deep running water. My Dad went up to talk to one lone fisherman to ask about when it opened up and we made our way back to the car to drive out through Numbaa to catch the Ferry over.

I was excited driving through Numbaa, past huge farms full of corn fields. We waited for the Ferry to come from Comerong over and drove on, talking to the ferryman about local history and ancestry as he was a local for generations and seemed very interested.

The ferry arrived on the island and we drove through past lots of farmland.

We pulled up in a spot while my Dad recounted a time he had been here before with my two younger brothers. We walked up through the bush eventually reaching the beach which we found a few feet down an embankment from where we stood.

We had to stand on the edge and let the sand crumble away and almost surf the sand down to reach the bottom (with it being higher than the photo makes it look).

Dad was determined to walk to the break-wall so we set out in the rain walking the long stretch of the beach littered with a lot of rubbish and thousands of washed up blue bottles (Portuguese Man O' Wars).

After walking the length of the beach in the pouring rain we finally reached the break-wall but could not find a path inwards (as my Dad had said there was another carpark you could park at the end here, and he wanted to walk back on the dirt road through the interior of the island). After some bush-bashing we found the Breakwater Track, realising it was just up and embankment and would be easier to find if we had came out that way.

There was one lone car at the car park but no one around and we began our walk in the rain along the dirt road (Coal Wharf Road) through the island. I found the whole situation very cool and couldn't help picture Jurassic Park.

The walk seemed to take twice as long as the road twisted and bended through the island.

The rain came in waves, light and incredibly heavy. Soon the lone car came around the corner on it's way out. Driving past a puddle splashed us to which my Dad was a bit annoyed but the car pulled up just in front of us. The man inside offered us a lift to which my Dad responding we were having a walk asking if the man had been fishing. He said yes and that he had caught some and wished us a good day.

As the walk continued my Dad began to question on whether or not we should have accepted the lift as we were both walking barefoot. I thought it was pretty nice to offer two soaking wet strangers a lift.

Soon we reached a turn off to the carpark, walking down into it however there was no car, my Dad began to panic. Then we realised it was the wrong carpark so had to walk back out and continue following the road until we finally reached the car, using a towel to clean our feet we jumped in and had to begin our way home as my Dad had taken my step-mums car and was meant to pick her up to take her to coffee with a friend. However the walk had taken so long he was due to pick her up in 15minutes and we were still in Numbaa. She called his phone to see where we were before angrily hanging up on him as the drive to her was at least and hour away.

She tested saying to just pick her up at 6pm as she was just going to work back instead. So we turned back from Nowra and Dad took us to Greenwall Point to point out a place that served the voted best Fish and Chips in NSW and told me about how when he was young and lived in Bomedarry everyone use to go to Greenwall Pub on a Sunday, as pubs used to be closed on Sundays but some stayed open but you could only visit if you were a traveler and as they lived more than 20km away that was their go to Sunday pub.

We returned to Numbaa and I got a photo with the street sign I believed was named after my ancestor and the Mayor of Numbaa (if I do more research and this is not the case I will feel a little dumb, as all other ancestors I know for a fact).

We went for a drive along Ryan's Lane to try and find a bed and breakfast that was on the road, but it was very flooded and muddy dirt road and we got about halfway before we had to turn back and we headed home after a fun day out exploring.