Bundewallah Reserve Walking Track

  This walk takes place on Dharawal Country

While doom scrolling my Facebook newsfeed like a mindless zombie on the weekend, a post from an indigenous street food truck that I follow (Mirritya Mundya) appeared on my feed, promoting their 'Emu and Lamb Guiness Pie'. 
'Oooohhh.' I thought, always a lover of trying different foods.
The truck was based down in Bomaderry, where I had just been for walks on both the two prior weekends, but it had been closed on those occasions.

I had the following two days after the weekend scheduled off from work and debated heading down to get one of the pies.
'It's a long way to go for just a pie.' I debated to myself, deciding to have a look for any nearby walks, hopefully just a short one, that I could do to make the drive south for a pie worth it.

As I investigated, I found a walk called 'Red Rock Trig Trail', an apparently easy 1.9km walk, and decided that is what I would do. 

You might be wondering why I just wanted a short walk, well that was because I had just written another decently long blog post and felt writing fatigue so didn't want to have to write another huge blog.
"Well Steven, do you have to write about every new walks you do?" You might ask.
Well dear reader, sadly blogging is the only feeling of satisfaction, fulfillment and feeling of accomplishment, like I've actually done something with my life, which I lack career-wise, so yes, yes, I do need to write this up, lest I feel worthless and sad.

Anyway, I digress.

Monday came along and I woke up in the morning, pruned my mandarin and lime tree then sat inside drinking copious amounts of coffee while catching up on episodes of 'The House of the Dragon', debating whether or not to go for the drive down while my gorgeous Dog sat snuggled in beside me giving me the 'don't leave me Dad' eyes.
However, my Wife messaged saying she was going to come home from work as she was feeling sick, so I waited until she arrived home so poor little Orla (my Dog), was not left alone.

When she got home, I packed my water bottle, and began the drive south while listening to the indigenous artist 'Allara' to set the mood.

When I finally arrived at Mirritya Mundya on Concorde Way, I hopped out of the car, strolled right up and requested the emu, lamb and guinness pie.
The guys looked at me hesitantly and turned to the man behind him to ask about them, that man turned around and said.
"Oh, we don't have them in, they're coming later this week." 
I felt my heart sink. It was a long way to drive for a pie, especially when the pie is not there.
He commented saying that they had a brisket and mac pie, and too awkward to walk away without purchasing anything I said, "I'll just get that then."
Walking away with a pie I didn't necessarily feel like due to my own social awkwardness.

I set Google Maps to the walk and ate the pie while I drove. It was packed densely with the brisket meat, and didn't really have any gravy, it was truly a 'meat pie'.

As the drive took me around the back streets of Bomaderry, Google Maps played up and would swap every 5 seconds between telling me to head the way I was heading, with a right turn at the end, and swapping to turning me to turn around and go back the way I had come from, stressing my out because it would swap and change to rapidly.

I eventually followed the street to the end, and turned right pulling up as Google Maps settled and finally just took me in the direction I was going, towards Red Rock Trig Trail.

I headed out from Bomaderry, towards Badagarang, where I then got held up in roadworks. As I sat in the roadworks for about 10-minutes I felt like nothing was going right. Finally, we were allowed to proceed, and I began heading up the winding mountain pass that reminded me of a mix between Macquarie Pass and Jamberoo Pass.
Halfway up here we were once more stopped with roadwork, causing me to loudly groan and sigh. This time it felt like I was stuck for even longer as one car came past from the other direction. It felt like another 10-minutes until finally a series of cars came through and we were allowed to continue up the mountain now. As I drove up, I noticed the left side of me having repairs works down, obviously erosion had given way and mud or trees and rock and fallen over the road, probably due to all the heavy rain, wind and extreme weather events we'd had lately. On the right side I noticed some of the road heading down the mountain had completely given way and collapsed over the edge.
"Shit." I said, looking out my window as I continued uphill.

As I came to a bend in the road, where my GPS was telling me to turn left, this bend was filled with the road workers and the turn off up that road was blocked off.
"Shit!" I said to myself, continuing around the bend has the road now began winding down the mountain. 
I had no idea where I was, and had never been in the area before, so all I could do was continue the drive down the mountain waiting for a spot where I could pull over which took between 10 and 20 minutes.

I finally pulled up, surrounded by farmland, wondering if I should just give up and go home. However, I remembered another walk I had looked at when trying to decide to go for a walk.

'Bundewallah Reserve'.

I decided to GPS to there so my entire day hadn't been a waste. The directions told me I could continue forward the way I was going and turn right at Kangaroo Valley Road, or I could go back the way I had come which it said was '4 minutes shorter'. 
'Yeah, not with all the road works.' I thought and continued driving along past the farmland eventually turning right at Kangaroo Valley Road. 

This was a long, winding road and was slow going, with my GPS saying it was going to take me just under an hour to get to that walk. I drove past all sorts of estates and retreats, before coming to a section of Kangaroo Valley Road which was closed and having to turn right down Tourist Road (later looking at maps of the road, I saw if that had not been closed my trip would have been much shorter).

This road continued on past all sorts of hidden retreats and I wondered if they were just getaway spots, or if they were those weird silent retreat places people go in films and tv where you give away your phones and connections and things. 

As I was heading down a section, I saw a turn off on my left to Cambewarra Mountain lookout, however there was a car heading up the mountain with their indicator on to turn there, and as I only saw it last minute, I continued past down the mountain, when they turned up that way.
I slowed down in my car thinking. I thought I should see the lookout but had already driven past, 'but then, when was the next time I would be around this area?', I thought, bringing my car to a halt on the empty road and reversing back up the hill to turn off towards Cambewarra Mountain lookout.

I pulled up, in the parking area, discovering some sort of restaurant or cafe was here too. As I hopped out of my car the other car that had just gotten there had arrived with two young people hopping out and as I looked, I witnessed the young male squeezing his female partner's butt.
'Ok then.' I said silently to myself, raising an eyebrow and walking off on my own to take in the view.

I stood on my own, atop the mountain, gazing out at the other mountain in the distance, I wondered what it was (I believe it is Coolangatta Mountain), my eyes followed the Shoalhaven River out to Shoalhaven Heads, and I could spot Comerong Island, where I had gone on a day trip adventure with my Dad and added the details of underneath my blogpost 'Barren Grounds - Kangaroo Ridge and Griffiths Loop Track', which in retrospect I should have just done as it' own short little blog post, rather than hidden away on some unrelated blog.

I stood trying to take a panorama shot with my phone and ended up fumbling and dropping my phone, causing a crack in my phone screen. My face twitched and I felt my teeth grit as I tried to hold in the frustrations of my day. I walked back to my car, continuing on route to Bundewallah, and started screaming once I was back on the lonely mountain road.
"Fuck!" I screamed. "FUCK!" At the top of my lungs, pure psychopathic rage, had anyone seen or heard me they would have thought I was insane.
You may think this is a bit of an overreaction, given the day I was having. But this wasn't just about the day. It wasn't about the pie, or the traffic, or the closed walk, or my phone screen. These were today's issues. But this was a build-up. Pent up frustration, anger, anxiety and resentment.
This was years in the making. From the covid lockdowns, to my fractured ankle, to my cancer diagnosis and treatment (all during the pandemic), to returning back to work, which had progressively gotten worse, with no career progression only more work and responsibility with no more pay, with a cost-of-living crisis and issues with my own home life. I had just been thinking to myself lately, what exactly did I beat cancer for? To just be constantly kicked and knocked down? To just continually struggle with only the rare opportunity to travel and adventure. It was the build-up of all these frustrations that caused me to scream alone in my car like a maniac.

I continued the was Google Maps was taking me and I soon found myself in roadworks once more, for another 10 minutes, as I came down the mountain in pretty much the same location that I had gone up it. 

"What the actual fuck." I said to myself, passing by another roadworks but not being stopped this time as I soon entered onto the main highway through Bomaderry, turning left to head north towards Berry.

"What a clusterfuck." I said to myself, looking at the time as it was almost 2pm.

I followed the Princes Highway, turning left towards Berry, but then taking a left turn away from it at the first roundabout, leading me to a second roundabout where I turned right up Kangaroo Valley Road. I followed this up for a short while before turning up Bundewallah Road, where I soon found my location, a very small and indiscreet area right next to someone's large and glamourous property. 
I thought to myself 'I hope these people realise how lucky they are to live in a place like this."

I had pulled in as I arrived, but decided to reverse park instead, pulling out and reversing back in, as I hopped out of my car, reading the sign about it being a Shoalhaven Bushcare area.

I followed the steps down a short way, and it immediately led down to a creek.

Facing downstream towards someone's property

Facing upstream

The track on the right looked more suited to continuing up, as it was more open and the surface was flatter, so I crossed to that side of the creek, and began following the creek along as I headed up (completely missing and not noticing a trail that led up through the bush following along the neighbouring property's fence line.

While continuing up I noticed many of the Giant Stinging Trees along the way, some with branches sticking out along the creek, with leaves at face height, that you could easily walk into, and I didn't like to think about how that would feel to the unsuspecting person who had their face caressed by the leaves of this tree.

Giant Stinging Tree Leaves 'Dendrocnide excelsa'

I rounded a bend in the creek, with a large branch blocking the way, though it was easy enough to simply duck under it and continue on.

As I ducked underneath, I was glad it wasn't thing giant stinging tree, and didn't need to stress about its leaves as I continued up, seeing an old stone fence to the right of the creek, which I assumed (incorrectly) marked the boundaries to the reserve and the private property (though it might have back in the day).

I continued along, crossing to the opposite side of the creek to take a better photo of the stone fence, which reminded me of my time working for the 'Green Army', a conservation and land management program run by the government which I began working in in 2016 at Killalea State Park, where we had cleared through metres worth of lantana to the convict built stone walls were visible again. Our group was even interviewed on the radio for it. It just brought back memories of younger days, working in a job where I felt like I was accomplishing things.

If I had been looking at anything other than the old stone wall, I may have noticed the trail through the bush not too far behind it, next to a wire fence that marked the boundary line, however I did not, and so turned to continue along up through the creek.

I watched my footing, making sure not to awkwardly slip and fall (especially not while taking a photo, as I didn't want to do any more damage to my phone). I crossed the creek again, stepping on some rocks that wouldn't wabble as I crossed over the water, stepping up the rocks that were raised up, on past a bird's nest fern growing from the base of a tree, and once more I rounded a bend in the creek.

As soon as I came around the bend, I saw this was a dead end. There was a little pool of water built up as the water would flow down.

I actually tried to look up if areas of creeks or stream that do this had a technical name (scouring the web through glossaries of technical language regarding streams and creeks to no avail).

The walls were high and very flat, and as I looked for a clear location to climb, I couldn't find one. I looked to the side for a well-worn path up and around. There was nothing. I thought I could just head up one of the banks of the creek back a bit and bushwhack through a bit. But then I though this must simply be the end of the walk, though I thought it wasn't as long as it was supposed to be. I decided to load up the 'All Trails' app, as I know that it has a map of the trail to see if I had reached the end.

'Hmm, nowhere near the end.' I thought as I looked at it, but also realised it was showing that I was off to the left of the track. 
'That could just be a GPS error.' In also thought, but decided to head back, keeping an eye on my left for any sight of the trail.

Soon I noticed one, heading up the banks through the ferns, so I followed it, still a little dubious as to whether this was the right path, or if it was just an animal track.

As I continued along it, my questions were answered.

A wombat track to a wombat hole

I looked around me to see if I could see anything, and through the branches in front of me I thought I could see a larger, wider, more genuine looking trail a few metres ahead. I made my way through the bush and came out onto what was the actual trail.

Looking down it, the way I should have come up

The trail upwards, feat. wombat poo

I started trudging uphill, and immediately my heart started racing, I struggled to catch my breath and I felt hot in my jumper.

I huffed and puffed my way up this section of steps. Deep in my ears began throbbing, my throat got dry, and I felt like I couldn't breathe as I continued pushing, forcing myself to continue uphill, step by step.
As I reached the top of this section I stopped to guzzle some water, removing my jumped and shoving it into my backpack. I felt demoralised, lowering my mood further. It reminded me of how I had felt the first time I attempted 'Bong Bong Pass' again after my cancer treatment.
How had my fitness gotten so bad again, I thought, or was this still the effects of catching covid? I thought, thinking about how I had been doing huge hikes daily while in Iceland. I had my yearly cancer test and appointment coming up, so I thought I would see how that fared before I worried, maybe I need to just get a bit of fitness up.

I took a little breather as all these thoughts flooded in, a tsunami of negative emotion that I tried to shake from my head as I continued along the now flat trail.

However, this didn't last long.

I once more huffed and puffed my way up the steps, struggling to extend my legs too far as the cargo pants I was wearing were really restrictive. (My good pair had recently had a hole in ripped in my crouch while climbing at Bomaderry Creek). Both sides of the track were full of orange thorn plant (Pittosporum multiflorum) but I was far too out of breath and determined to keep moving to stop for a picture of their little orange berries.

The trail came to a flat section where I stopped to breath, before continuing over a little wooden bridge to head up even more steps.

As I trudged up these steps, I silently whispered to myself: "It's too hot for fucking pants." Wishing I'd worn shorts instead.

Soon it seemed like the path forward was leading me to a wire fence, with another wombat hole situated right in front of it.

With a quick look around, I noticed the trail changing direction and continuing up another small section of steps.

On either side of me as I continued up this last section of steps were growing Rubus rosifolius, a species of native Australian raspberry. 'I should take a cutting' I thought wanting to grow some myself as I stopped to take a picture of a flower coming from one.

As I passed through the little thorns gently scratched as my arms, as I came clear of them at the top of the stairs in an open section where someone had had the foresight to build a chair for me to go and sit at and rest.

I sat here for a while, cooling down and catching my breath as I heard a weird noise in the distance, like a roar. I instantly thought 'black panther', (Australian folklore/cryptozoology), however it was more likely a cow on a distant property or even a feral deer. 
I waited until the throbbing pain in my ears, subsided, and until my chest no longer felt on fire, as a cool and gentle breeze was blowing, cooling me down. 
I listened to the sounds of whipbirds and all the other sounds of wild birds, while getting a whiff of myself and realising how badly I smelled.
I took another swig of water, before moving on.

The ferns along the path closed in, and it was like coming to 'the secret garden' and I ducked my head to wander into a new section of the walk underneath the thick growth of ferns.

The trail stayed flat now, as I continued in, seemingly away from the creek, feeling the lateness of the day. I stopped to take a photo of a weirdly growing tree limp with my phone automatically recommending to me to try 'night mode' due to the darkness of the undergrowth and the lateness of the afternoon.

As I took the picture, I noticed how flat my phone was (between having the screen on for so long to GPS directions, but also using Bluetooth to play music), and decided to try to conserve battery life, wandering down the dark shaded path until the end, where I reached some steps heading down.

As I reached the bottom of the steps, I saw though the trees down a hill on my right a beautiful pool of water, coming down some cascading falls, and to my left a ginormous tree trunk, which I tried to take a photo of but realised it was just too large, attempting to zoom out as best I could to capture just how large it was.

And accidentally capturing the side of my finger too

I debated whether to slide down the slope straight to the water hole, but decided I would continue along until the path ended, as there might be a better trail down to it.

Looking back at the steps I had come down

As I walked to the end of the trail I came to a creek once more.

I followed the little bit of flowing water on the left around behind a boulder, where I took a photo of the little cascading fall.

I walked downstream, looking over the edge of the section I was in at another pool of water.

My phone was giving me warning signs now that it was about to go flat, and I could see a trail continuing on. I quickly turned on my mobile data, back on to 'All Trails' to see if this was the end of the track. However, it seemed like there was a tiny but left so I continued on up the track, past a large termite mound.

The path soon ended in a large open section with no path in sight. It didn't seem like the right way to go, with the cascading falls seeming like the logical end point.

As I loaded up 'All Trails' once more, really testing my phone battery, I saw that I had now passed the end point ('They should have some sort of sign' I thought), and I made my way back.

Of course, heading back I noticed that there was indeed a sign denoting the end of the trail.

By now my phone was on 10% battery, ready to go flat as any second, so I decided I would head down each section of the cascades in hopes of getting a photo before my phone went flat.

I headed down from the first one, quickly taking a photo as my phone somehow dropped from 10% to 5 in just seconds.

I made my way to the section just down from the steps and made my way down the slope over the soft topsoil, making sure not to fall or slide, down to the bottom of the cascade, holding up my phone with its screen barely lit enough for me to even see what I was taking.

No sooner had I taken the photo, when my entire phone screen went black with 'Samsung' coming up written in the darkness before it completely faded to black. That was it, my phone had died.

I my phone away and sat for a long time at the bottom of this cascade. The cool air chilling my sweaty skin. I sat watching the little bubbles form when the falling water hit the pool of water's surface. Watching them dancing across the top of the water until they eventually popped.
I don't know how long I was there for, just sitting, alone out in the bush. Usually when doing a walk, I feel a sense of joy, or achievement. A sense of purpose or adventure. Or at the very least and sense of spiritual connectedness with nature. But I wasn't feeling that on that day. Instead, I just felt lonely.

Postscript: Sorry to be a downer, but our moods ebb and flow like the rivers and streams. That day I was struggling. But I will be alright.

The very next day I took Orla out for a play at the park, it was a warm sunny day as she ran and fetched her ball, and I felt happy. I know I have to work to make improvements to my own life, for the sake of my health and mental health and hopefully other blogs can be more upbeat and optimistic in tone.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Bid Bid Creek Loop

 This walk takes place on Yuin Country

After having done some bushwalking on the Central Coast in a State Forest, I was eager to find a nearby state forest to do some new bushwalks in, as in State Forest you are allowed to take Dogs.
While I love getting out on an adventure, I often feel bad having to leave my gorgeous Dog Orla at home all the time, and she loves getting out for an explore. I looked up some nearby State Forests, settling on Currambene State Forest, which when I googled instantly came up with a link to the Trail Website/App 'AllTrails' with 3 routes, two of which were for Mountain Biking (though you can walk them) and the third for walking, this was called on the app 'Forest Road and Bid Bid Creek Loop'.

However, the weekend planning to do this it was supposed to rain, and the following weekend my Wife felt unwell. Orla's 5th birthday occurred (the 24th of April), the day before ANZAC Day. We decided to take her on ANZAC day, as we were both off from work (and we had her family coming over on the weekend to celebrate her father's birthday as he was born on ANZAC Day).

We set off down south in the morning, with pretty good traffic, eventually turning off the highway onto Forest Road, with my Wife telling me at which point I needed to pull in based on Google Maps (there is no signage). As we approached the bit to turn in two dirt bikers pulled out, crossing the road and continuing along the section on this other side. I drove in, pulled up, but then decided to park in closer view of the road to not have the car broken into or set on fire. I pulled up in clear view of the busy forest road, we applied sunscreen and got out very enthusiastic Dog out of the car, attaching her to a stretchy lead that wrapped around my waist. We passed the over the barrier blocking cars from heading down the fire trail, and I placed a NSW Rock down on a large rock sitting next to the start of the trail for someone to find. (I had found my first back during my Mount Jellore attempts, and had yet to get rid of any, and had been meaning to 'hide' them on walks yet never actually done it.) It felt good to finally unload one and shall begin placing one down on each of my following walks until I no longer have any.

We began down the fire trail, keeping an eye out for any dirt bikes roaring through.

As we headed down the trail, we passed a turn off on our right and my Wife asked if I wanted to head down that way or continue straight down, where the track would turn off at some point,

I suggested we keep going and turn off later. My Wife commented about needing the bathroom, and I said she should have let me know as we were passing through Nowra, as there were ample places I could have stopped for her. She replied that she assumed there would be a toilet. I commented that I also needed to go, in which she replied that if she couldn't, then I 'wasn't allowed to either'. Which annoyed me, and I offered to drive her back in if she really needed to go, but she refused.

We approached another turn off and my Wife wasn't sure if that was the way we were meant to take, trying to load up the map but unable to get reception even this short way into the walk. She started walking back frustratedly trying to get reception to have some sort of idea of the trail we would need to take. Meanwhile, with Orla pulling on the walk, with the lead around my waist putting pressure on my bladder constantly, I walked to the side of the trail to take a 'whizz', whilst also avoiding my Dog who came around in front of me when I was trying to relieve myself. 

My Wife, who was busy sticking her phone in the air for reception noticed me.
"You fucker!" She swore at me.
While I shrugged it off, telling her I had the pressure of the lead putting on my bladder. We both walked back towards the car, until my Wife finally got reception to see the AllTrail guide, and I commented that it seemed like a decent way down, and there would probably be an obvious place for us to turn to do the loop, and that all these other trails were probably bike trails for people on the dirt bikes. 
We resumed heading down the path again and my Wife's temperament seemed to improve, and we began the conversation of her investing in a 'she-wee', which I insisted she should, rather than try and ban me from my ability to go just because she couldn't. I told her to simply order it on Amazon.

After a little while of walking my Wife asked.
'Should we let her off leash?" 
I was shocked, being the one who usually lets her off, for a run around, as I know she's a good girl with great recall and never runs off when I take her to the beach. But my Wife usually gets bad anxiety with that stuff, so to suggest it here, with dirt bikers I was pretty shocked. 
"We can, I suppose." I said, unsure about dirt bikes, but then, I said "But if we hear any noise coming at all we put her straight back on." Thinking at least the benefit of them was that you could hear them coming from a decent way away, and it was now completely silent. 
"It shouldn't be too busy." I said, "ANZAC day, most those sorts are probably at the pub drinking and playing 2-Up." I said, unclipping Orla, much to her joy.

We came up over a little crest, with Orla always running forward, not getting too far, turning around and running back to us, never wanting to be too far away.
"It's colder than I thought it would be." I said, feeling a bit chilly in the shade, as we both smiled and laughed at our cute fur-baby.

"We should get a photo together." My Wife suggested as we knelt down for a family photo.

We continued along, happy to let our little girl have a run around in a pretty isolated and empty location.
"What a weird flower!" I exclaimed, very excited as I rushed to the side of the trail for a photo. As I leaned in, I realised it was some sort of fruiting berry.
"I'll have to upload this to iNaturalist." I said, referring to an app that aids in identification of plants, animals, and fungi.

'Pittosporum revolutum' - Rough-fruited Pittosporum

We reached the base of the slight declining slope, noticing a little creek of water on the side. You could loudly hear all the frogs around and the mosquitoes came out in force, biting the backs of my legs, and attacking us both. I took out some bushman's spray from my backpack, telling my Wife to give herself a spray, and then spraying just down the back of my legs and over my backpack, hoping that would be enough to keep them away (I don't really like using the stuff but will do it when necessity calls).

We were eager to move on from near the water source, knowing that all the mosquitoes were around the water. The fire trail began an incline and as we continued on, the mosquitoes seemed to disappear which was good as I didn't want to spray the bushman's on, or anywhere near Orla (I'd never forgive myself if I thought any action I had taken at all contributed to her getting cancer.)

We rounded the bend, continuing the slight incline, and noticed a blue road reflector pole on the right, with my Wife questioning whether or not that was the turn based on the outline map she'd viewed on 'AllTrails'. 
"I don't think it would be yet." I said, "I don't feel like we have walked far enough."

As we reached the top my Wife suggested that the two of us take a photo together. We stopped to get a picture together, taking the photo, and my Wife noticed there was a big blue oil drum in the background behind us. We moved and retook a picture together with just the bush behind us, and I went over to see what the drum was, reading on the side of it: 'Valvoline. Trusted for 150 years.'

The environmentalist inside me was annoyed. This wasn't the sort of rubbish that ends up here by accident. It didn't blow out of a bin, or someone's car as they opened a door. A drum like this was here because it was just dumped.

We continued along, and I could hear a noise in the distance. I called Orla over, and she came instantly. As the noise increased, I realised it was not a dirt bike but a loud plane, which flew over us, closely followed behind by a helicopter.

"Maybe something for ANZAC day?" I said to my Wife as they flew above us.

We reached the top of our current incline and continued along the dirt road which now declined.

The road seemed to split in two, with what looked like some blue poles in the middle of the two tracks. 
"Maybe the turn off is there?" I questioned as we approached it.
As we reached it we saw it had metal doors that were locked, almost like a bunker, and as I looked to my left, I saw the painted remains of a dead tree.

"That's cool." I said, pointing out Bob the tree creature to my Wife.
"That's creepy." She said.
"You find everything creepy." I replied.

As Orla sniffed around the 'bunker' doors, I joked that the 'Bob Creature' was down there.
"Don't!" My Wife yelled at me, slightly unsettled by the tree art.
The road returned to a one-way road after this bunker and I thought to myself that it may be for fire fighters to use.

We kept up along the trail, as there was not turn just yet, and I looked off into the bush, looking at all the vines climbing up the melaleuca trees.

We finally came to a fork in the road, and I suggested this was probably the turn now, and so we followed the road to our right, which Orla was already automatically leading us down.

I stopped to admire a scribbly gum tree to my left, always left in awe of them and their scribble patterns. I realised that I could travel the world, I could even move overseas. But the sights, sounds and smells of Australia would always remain with me. Growing up camping, bushwalking in, and hearing the sounds; it had become a part of my soul.

The dirt on our path turned to sand and Orla began running around even more excited.

"I wonder if she thinks we're taking her to the beach." My Wife questioned and I laughed, smiling with joy at my little girl.

"This is definitely the way." I confirmed, turning around and noticing a short way further up the road we didn't follow, turned a sharp right up the road we had taken, looking much more like the map.

As we continued along, I felt my stomach growl. I swiveled by backpack around reach in to take out my container with my sandwich and began munching.
"I might have liked my sandwich too." My Wife said looking at me bite in.
I paused, looking at her with a mouthful of sandwich with homemade mustard pickle. I swallowed before offering to get hers out for her. She just unzipped my bag, grabbing hers out too.

We walked along eating, when I spotted a little mushroom growing out of the sand. I had to get a photo. I leaned down, trying to hold my phone and not let Orla take a bit of my sandwich, as she kept coming over, walking in front of me, also walking into and destroying the little mushroom, sticking her long neck up trying to grab a bite of my sandwich.

Then I heard it. The revering of a dirt bike. Orla was still off lead, so I jolted forward to try and catch her, but this made her run forward thinking it was a race.
We called her over to the side of the trail and saw the dirt biker behind us come from nowhere, still a decent distance away, and head the opposite way, away from us.

I felt a little started so reclipped Orla to her lead as we continued along eating our sandwiches. We finished and put them back in my backpack just as we came across a giant tree that was cut down blocking off the road. In the distance, nailed to a tree, a sign: Trespassers will be prosecuted.

We were both confused, as this was the way the map told us to go. I stood at the blockade, looking ahead, contemplating whether or not to continue, annoyed that the map would tell us to go this way if you weren't able to.

I was frustrated, but looking at the map I could see a dashing line leading through the middle of the walk, around a point in the walk where there had been another turn off, with what looked like some stairs. I suggested that we head back and follow that through to the other section of the trail. 

We began the walk back, my Wife complaining about the road being blocked.

"Well, that's the thing with All Trails," I said. "Anyone can make the trail, they're not always official tracks like ones by National Parks or State Forests."

We made our way back to the turn off, letting Orla run around off-lead once more.

We arrived at the turn-off began heading into the bush along the trail.

As we were on a smaller path now, I called Orla back to me, reclipping the lead, for not just dirt bikers, but the risk of snakes.

As we rounded a corner, we came across a clock stuck to a tree, which I once more thought was cool, but it creeped my Wife out.

"It's so Bob can tell the time." I joked. Saying I liked coming across random stuff like this, as it reminded me of coming across random easter eggs in video games like Red Dead Redemption.
'Although I probably shouldn't find it cool, in the end it's just litter, isn't it?'
"Or art." My Wife replied.

We continued following the track, conversing.
"Is she pulling?" My Wife asked in regard to Orla.
"No, she's being really good." I replied. "I think she's burned a lot of that energy out from being off lead."

We reached a section of the walk, which began uphill, it didn't look steep, but as we marched up it we didn't speak, breathing heavily, feeling like it was somehow stepper than it had looked.

"It's hot now." I commented, catching my breath as we finally reached the top with the trail leveling out.

I could see a pink tag wrapped around a short way ahead, and we stopped to give Orla a drink. She finished the second of three bottles I had packed, and my Wife and I were yet to drink (she was still needing the toilet, so didn't want to drink), but we were feeling the heat now, so opened the lid of the last bottle for us each to have a sip.

As I passed the pink ribbon, I noticed the path continued forward, but there was a trail on our left, which I commented was probably where the 'AllTrails' map trail would have led us, I loaded it up, confirming I was right, and we were now back on the trail. We continued straight and I pointed up at some metal thing nailed to a tree.

30 April 2024

("Hey, you're mechanically minded, do you know what this is?" I asked a work colleague while I sat, writing this post on my lunch break.

He stopped to come look at my screen.
"That's a sprocket, used in motorbikes." He told me.
"Makes sense, there's a lot of dirt bikers down there." I replied.)

(Now back to the day)

As I walked ahead, I had walked through a few spiderwebs, getting them straight in the mouth. But this time I spotted a massive one spread-out all-in front of me taking up the path. I stopped, able to avoid walking through it, taking a picture of the large spider in its web before we ducked underneath and continued on.

We continued the winding path, which was now just a small dirt trail. I stopped to hand off Orla to my Wife to hold as I walked into the bush a little to take a photo of a small purple flower contrasting amongst all the green.

We came to an area full of ferns, and as we walked down, we saw that the path ahead was completely overgrown by these ferns, reminding me of a section in Gibbergunyah Reserve where we had also taken Orla.

I was expecting my Wife to want to turn back, or not want to go through, but she said it might not be overgrown for a huge distance. I handed Orla back to her letting her know I would walk through first, with them following behind me.
I pushed through the thick ferns for maybe a minute, and we broke through the other side, glad that it hadn't been too long a section to get through.

We continued around some bends, and as I looked up, I saw a Red Belly Black Snake slithering fast away from us along a log with its head perked up. I quickly panicked, pulling Orla close to me away from where the snake was. We swapped Orla over to her halti, and I gave her to my Wife to hold, to walk behind me in case of any more snakes. I picked up a stick to walk with ahead of me, tapping the ground with it like a 'white cane', as a precaution in case I didn't notice any snakes along the overgrown path. 

We came across a section filled with water where we once more had to make our way up a slight incline all the while trying to stop Orla from drinking from any puddles (we didn't trust that there wouldn't have been PFAS sprayed in the area from fire fighter foam).

Reaching the top that path was flat but continuously winding for a short while, before we came to a steeper section. I was worried about Orla pulling my Wife over while going down, so we moved slowly down the slope, trying not to trip or stumble but also keeping an eye out for snakes.

At the bottom of the slope, we came to another section that was pretty overgrown with ferns, but nowhere near as badly as the previous section. I commented that it was lucky that we had encountered the snake after going through that previous bit, or else we definitely would not have pushed through. 
However, we continued through this next section, trying to tap my stick on each side of the trail, but just having it get caught in the thick growth, while my Wife tried to calm Orla who was getting a little overwhelmed by the thickness of the plant growth she was walking through.

Through here we crossed another small creek, easy enough to step over.

The path winded up away from the creek, on a slope heading uphill, but then looked like in winded downhill back towards the creek.

"Are you sure that's the right way?" My Wife asked.
"It's looks like the path." I commented, loading up the AllTrails app that showed we were off the trail in the bush, but then it also said 'Poor Connection' so I didn't know how accurate it was being.
My Wife said she thought it was up the hill, on what looked like another path, and as we couldn't see a clear path on that side, but I agreed to follow the path up the hill, leading us further into the bush.

We walked a fair bit, but I thought it looked like even less of a trail, and so I said I thought we were walking away from where the trail was. I loaded AllTrails up again, which although it had a poor connection it was showing the way I was facing with the GPS, telling me that the trail was back down near the creek, so my Wife relented and we made our way back towards the creek, (with my Wife trying not to get pulled over by Orla, who I think was over the walk now too).

As we walked down to the creek, I pointed out a big red mushroom I hadn't noticed when I had gone that way the first time.

As we crossed to the other side of the little creek, I loaded up AllTrails again, which even with poor connection now showed us back on the trail and facing the right way.

The track walked alongside the bank on the river, right on a big slope and I told my Wife to take care as to not fall or get pulled by Orla down the bank into the creek. We followed it down with the creek on our right, and then I could see the trail on our left after a while, heading up a short, steep, overgrown incline.

We made it up to a flat surface with my Wife getting pulled over a few times. I offered to take Orla but my Wife wanted me to be keeping an eye out for snakes still.

We continued along and I could vaguely see what was meant to be the trail which we followed along. As we walked sticks scrapped against my ankle, cutting at them, flinging up every time I took a step. I would brush away a branch which would fling back at my Wife who would yell at me. 

"There's not much I can do about it." I said, now just calling back every time I moved a stick lest it fling back at her.

It was now well and truly into the day, and the walk was talking a lot longer than we had thought as w were slow moving through this section to keep our eye on the occasionally disappearing trail. I looked down at my scratched up ankles.

"I should have wore pants." I said.

"It's easy to see how people get lost." My Wife said as we brushed through another section finding ourselves in the middle of the bush with no clear sign of a trail.

I looked around, still unable to see any trail in this spot. I loaded up AllTrails once more with the GPS suggesting to just keep on moving forward, so we kept charging ahead, moving quickly, well and truly happy to make it our of the bush.

"We'll have to check her for ticks once we get back to the car." My Wife said, concerned about Orla getting sick from a tick bite, she then told me the story of someone at her work who's dog had to spend time in intensive care after receiving a tick bite.

I stopped in the middle of walking to point out a sundew to my Wife, letting her know it was a carnivorous plant, but at this point in the walk she wasn't interested, and was just eager to find our way out.

Drosera spatulata

Randomly the trees opened up in front of us and we found ourselves on the side of a dirt road.

I walked down the embankment into the middle of the road, pointing to the right and saying that was the way that according to the map, would lead back to the car.

I suggested that if we had followed the turn to our right at the very beginning of this walk, this is where it would have led to.

"There's no way we would have found that track through the bush, we would have kept walking along this dirt road." I said, looking at the road as it headed to my left which also forked into two separate roads.

I didn't want Orla to hurt her joints, so I told my Wife to follow the embankment up a little bit to the left where the bush became more level with the road.

I pointed out a random washing machine sitting in the bush and shook my head. 
We were glad to be out of the thick of it and continued upon the very uneven, dirt road.
I took Orla from my Wife, putting her back on her stretchy lead that was wrapped along my waist, thinking she might need the break from being pulled through the bush.

"I don't imagine any cars are able to come through here." I commented, imagine with some off the large dips and openings in the ground it would be hard for even a off-road 4-wheel-drive to get through.

We followed the dirt road for a while, getting thick muddy clay stuck to the bottom of our shoes.
Some of the hole on the road were filled with water, and we commented about how surprisingly clear and clean it looked compared to the creeks.

"It might be fresh rain." I commented, but still pulled Orla away, not allowing her to drink.

The road soon flattened out to be more level and less torn up, and we had the feeling we were reaching the end of our walk.

We rounded one final bend and could see that we had reached the first turn of at the start of the walk. We turned left, back on our original trail, having completed the Bid Bid Creek loop, and began our walk back to the car, feeling happy and satisfied that it had been a fun walk, even if it was more intense and full on than we would have liked for Orla. 

"I still think we're lucky we went straight originally." I reiterated. "I really don't think we would have ended up doing the walk if we had turned that way to start with."
My Wife agreed, commenting that trying to get through the overgrown bush without letting her burn off that energy by being off-leash would have been too much."

We reached my car, and I had a sigh of relief seeing it wasn't stolen, broken into, or set on fire. My Wife placed Orla in the back seat, clipping her in with her seatbelt lead.

She hopped in all excited (as she is getting into the car), but soon her exhaustion gave out and she laid down to sleep for the rest of the drive home.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven