Thirlmere Lakes

 This walk takes place on Gandangarra and Dharawal Country

After returning home from Iceland, and going through the process of recovering from Covid-19, I tried to focus on trying to improve my career opportunities by trying to focus on doing my Certificate IV in Business Admin with TAFE NSW, however I found the whole thing monotonous, convoluted, and disorganised. Between that and feeling incredibly exhausted and burnt out from work (and feeling a real struggle after covid, maybe due to my pre-existing health conditions).

I tried once to organise a walk with my friend Tristan, which was locked in, however a relative of mine passed away and her funeral was held on the date we had planned. Time passed and I thought about organising it, however found myself incredibly fatigued with work, and I began to wonder whether it was long-covid, or just because of my cancer treatment. After weeks of neglecting my TAFE, I began to feel a decline in my mental health, and deep depression began to take hold. I thought about trying to organise the walk with Tristan again, but as it was a mountain I began to get in my head about my feeling of intense fatigue and whether I would struggle.

Soon my Wife suggested the idea of a day out at a nearby Apple Orchard across from Madden's Falls. Looking into the pricing and the way it was run we decided against going there and my Wife started looking into other orchards that may have more agreeable rules and prices, before finding a strawberry picking place in the town of Thirlmere. I got excited as she suggested it, as I had never been to Thirlmere and my brother Scott had been there before and suggested I go. I had looked into the town after he suggested it learning about its heritage of being successfully developed by Estonian Immigrants. 

I suggested to my Wife that way make a full day of it, and do a nearby bushwalk after visiting the Strawberry Farm. After quick Google Search I suggested the Thirlmere Lakes walking track, a 6km loop track (apparently a Grade 4, though I've never in my life paid attention to grading systems). She was aggregable to this on the condition that the weather be good and 'not too hot', a hard ask in Australia, so I waited for the time to be right with eager anticipation to break up the monotony that I had felt since returning from overseas.

The week leading up to it, my Wife then asked if I even wanted to pick Strawberries, saying it wasn't the experience, like walking through an Apple Orchard would be, and we could just buy Strawberries for the same price.
I asked if she was still ok to go to Thirlmere, which was my main draw and she said she was, so the excitement remained. I also had a guy reach out to me from ABC Illawarra wanted to talk to me in regard to a Facebook page I run about the 'Bull of Bull Island' and I agreed to speak to him on Monday, after the weekend, feeling a churn in my stomach of nervousness as I had been on the news before and found that I get anxious and tend to ramble.

Saturday morning came, and we packed some food for the day, including some homegrown cucumbers with hummus, and set out to Thirlmere. Driving through Picton, a place I had also never gone before I commented that it wasn't like what I thought it would be like (in my head picturing Liverpool or other areas of Western Sydney).
"It's giving me Jamberoo vibes." I said, and as we progressed into a busier section of the town, I said it now reminded me of Bowral.

We turned off the road towards the lakes and ended up following a dirt road downhill. As we reached the base of the hill there was a sign. I stopped on the road to look up which was the best way to begin our walk. The NSW National Park website said to begin at the Couridjah picnic area, and so we turned left and in 10 seconds we pulled up to our right at a picnic area overlooking a lake.

"This is a nice spot." I said as we both applied some sunscreen. My Wife has started feeling ill with vertigo on the drive up and I double checked that she was still ok to do the walk and she assured me she was.

I walked up to the information board at the picnic area to learn a little about the lake. With my Wife pointing out that there were two missing Dogs with signs stuck to the board making us sad. "Although you're not meant to bring Dogs into national parks" I commented.
"Maybe they escape from a nearby home?" My Wife commented.
Either way we felt sad for the lost Dogs.


"People and the Lakes
The Dharawal and Gundungurra have lived around Thirlmere lakes for many thousands of years, leaving grinding grooves, rock engravings, artwork, and other evidence of occupation.
The local Aboriginal people were some of the first to feel the impact of European settlement, suffering from new diseases, violence and occupation of their lands. 
They called the area Couridjah, which is believed to mean honey and refer to the nectar of the abundant banksia flowers.
Europeans officially found the lakes in 1798, and they have been popular with visitors since at least the 1860's.
In 1867 a pumphouse, which still stand beside Lake Couridjah, was built to supply water to steam engines plying the new southern railway.
Today the park is a significant conservation reserve ideal for quiet public enjoyment."

"Are there any toilets around here?" My Wife asked.
"I'm not sure." I replied. Before spotting one a short distance away through the bush along the trail, before finishing reading the second half of the board.

"Birds of the Water
More than 140 different birds use Thirlmere Lakes, including many waterfowl. The threatened Australasian bittern needs to dense shoreline vegetation for nesting and foraging. It is hard to see because it is mainly active at night.
Endangered Japanese snipes fly 9,000 kilometres from their breeding grounds in Japan to feed in Australia every summer. They are sometimes seen wading around these muddy shores. The snipe is protected by a special agreement between the two countries."

"I hope we see a Snipe." I said.
"We say them in Iceland." My Wife replied.
"I know, and they're super cute."

(There was more information on the board about the vegetation, geology and lake animals and I will share systematically throughout the post.)

As I went to walk down the path to the toilet, my Wife pointed out a built path to the toilet up further, so we walked up to that and along to the toilets which also had stairs leading down to the walking track. As we looked to see which toilet to enter, we were amused, as there was a male toilet, but the female toilet was duel male/female toilet. 

"This is just the patriarchy all over, we get to use both toilets." I teased my Wife.

This would upset J.K. Rowling

The toilet was one of those old school hole-in-the-ground bush toilets, and as soon as I entered, I was instantly swarmed, and my ankles were attacked by mosquitoes. We walked back to the start of the walk to have a look at a map. It appeared to show two walks, with one going straight, but the one doing a loop going off to the left and not going around the lake.

"I thought the loop track went around the lake." I told my Wife, and she said she should just do the loop.

We began down the path, and after a short walk there was a little trail down to the water once more, for another view of the lake.

"Waves of Vegetation
Have you noticed the bands of different sedges fringing the lakeshore?
Some species can handle constant wetness while others prefer to be 'high and dry' when the water level falls.
Above the shoreline grows a wave of moisture-loving paperbarks and, in a few places, the locally rare river peppermint.
The paperbarks merge upslope into the open woodlands featuring rough-barked apples, Sydney peppermints and red and yellow bloodwoods"

After a short while we came to a fork in the road, and I wondered if we suppose to turn left here. However, we noticed an arrow carved into the tree and decided to follow it to our right instead.

"Hopefully it's not just someone trying to trick us into going the wrong way." My ever-suspicious Wife commented.

"God my ankle is itchy." I said, giving it a quick scratch that instantly drew blood. "Damn mosquitoes."

"You couldn't take a photo of me looking less sick?" My Wife commented

"When the Earth Moves
The meandering valley where these waters now rest was formed by an ancient stream flowing downhill, gradually cutting into the land.
But about 15 million years ago the valley was tilted up by earth movements. Water that could no longer drain away pooled in the valley floor.
In the vast sweep of geological time, lakes don't usually last long. They're filled in quickly by sediment washed from the surrounding slopes - perhaps in just a few million years.
Thirlmere lakes are certainly shallower than they used to be amongst the oldest of all lakes. Why have the been so stable for so long?
Maybe the small catchment has something to do with it, but no one knows for sure."

After a short walk we came to another split but this time there was a metal marker telling us that the walking track was the track on our right, which continued along the lake.

"That's the problem with bushwalks in Australia, there are so many alternate trails, and you're don't know if they're just people walking off and creating them, if it's people doing bush regeneration work." I complained.

As we continued along, I pointed to a plant growing in the trees. The way it grew it looked like a plant net that had washed up and been caught high up in the tree by flooding, though I knew that was probably not the case, it was the story my mind made up by looking at it. (Which is probably some insight into human psychology and where stories and mythologies throughout history have come from.

(Aetiological: serving to explain something by giving a cause or reason for it, often in historical or mythical terms)

The weather was nice, and not too hot. I had been non-stop checking the BOM weather app for rain, and the car was receiving spitting rain on the drive-up Mount Ousley before the turn of towards Picton. But now that we were here, it was sunny, and not too hot, and as we wandered along the path surrounded by trees. I already felt my mental health improving. I wondered to myself if my fatigue was long-covid, or even cancer related, or if it was simply depression. I wondered if my solution to tiredness was to actually be active. I had been putting of walks because of how I had been feeling, but maybe they were just what I needed.

I took a deep breath of air and it felt clean, I wasn't struggling to breath at all. Then the doubt set in. "What if I'm just having a good day?" I questioned. Suddenly another burst of childish joy and enthusiam.
"Mushrooms!" I knelt down to photograph them.

Continuing along this relaxing walk, my Wife and I talked and just connected. Occasionally with me interrupting to point out pretty wildflowers.

We approached a wider section of the track, passing some horse poo.
"If I knew there was going to be horse poo, I would have brought a bag to collect it." My Wife said, thinking about using it to fertilize our garden.

This wider section had a fallen log you could step over on the left side of the track, with a tree and some ferns and lomandra in the middle splitting the path so you had to choose a route to take. I didn't particularly think about it but walked to the right, not paying attention.

As I walked around, in the lead ahead of my Wife, just passing the log, I instantly froze and threw up a head to stop my Wife. Just ahead, very closing to walking right into it, was a large Red Belly Black Snake. I took out my phone to take a photo, but it slithered away into the bush before I was able to.

My heart was racing.
"That was unexpected." I commented.
We then began discussing that although Red Belly Black Snakes are venomous, they are passive. They are not aggressive creates at all and will usually slither off at any sign of humans, and attacks, although they do happen, are usually the result of them being messed with, or accidentally stepped on.

My Wife told me it was the first she had seen in years, maybe in 10 plus years, with me commenting that the last time I saw them was on a bush walk with my friend Tristan when we went to Kelly's Falls.

As we were discussing this, I was again not paying attention, and I had not even been expecting to see the first Snake, so when I almost walked upon the second also out soaking in the sun on the dirt track I vocalised "Shit!" I exclaimed.

This Snake also quickly slithered away into the bush, but I was able to snap a quick photo before it disappeared.

I was focused now, and keeping an eye on our trail, wary. Not because I worried about getting attacked, but because I didn't want to accidentally step on one and get bitten. My Wife was slightly nervous now in case there were other snakes, like brown snakes or tiger snakes, which are more aggressive and dangerous.
"If we came across any of those snakes and they didn't immediately slither off I wouldn't try and get closer by stomping to even scare them, I'd just turn around and go home." I commented, and began telling her about all the Brown snakes my Dad encountered at a quarry at Glen Davis when we went on our road trip out west.
"That was back in 2009, in like late November, early December, and it was crazy hot." I said.

We approached a log, and I went slowly over it first, cautious in case of a Snake underneath or on the other side. I then proceeded to help my Wife up onto and down off it as she is not use to the outdoors.
"How do I get down?" She asked once up on there.
"You have to just step down with one leg until it touches the ground and then down with the other."
I held her as she managed to do it.
"See, that's like my whole leg length though, she said, referring to her height."

I began telling my Wife about my bedroom as a child. That when I was a really young child this was a part of the carpet at the entrance of my room, and at night there was a line of it that appeared darker than the rest, and that it would terrify me. That I always thought it was a Snake. I knew it wasn't, but my mind always saw it that way and would fill my young child mind with fear.
She commented that it was probably and evolutionary trait, from cavemen, needing to spot things in and amongst the trees and snow looking for predators to keep us safe, the same was probably true with Snakes.

The path then wound back and we could see a clearer view of the lake once more.
"I thought it said we weren't going around the lake?" I asked once more, referring to the map, even though the walk online had said it would.

"Stange Creatures of the Deep
Lurking in the waters of Thirlmere Lakes is a remarkable sponge. All other Australian freshwater sponges are able to reproduce asexually by sending off bits of themselves - rather like a plant cutting.
This ability, called gemmulation, is useful for dealing with the changing conditions of ageing lakes. But 'Radiospongilla sceptroides' can't gemmulate, a fact which seems to confirm the great age and stability of these lakes.
Other strange and significant animals have evolved in Thirlmere Lakes in isolation from other water bodies. A mussel, some worms and various microscopic organisms are mostly restricted to this one lake system."

We could hear people now from across the lake. It sounded like kids playing, they're always irrationally loud.
"I think they're at the other carpark, the one we could have turned right to go to." I said to my Wife.

I passed another big mushroom, kneeling quickly to take a photo, that ended up blurry, which is a good reason to segue into the fact that about two weeks before this I had an eye-test at Specsavers, because I was having headaches while reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Turns out I am farsighted and need reading glasses. (That novel had ultra small writing though!), though, that not being an excuse for my blurry image, which probably had more to do with rushing to not be kneeling down in the bush that had already had more Snakes on it than I'd seen in years.

The wind began to gently blow, and you could hear the sounds of it gently blowing the tree leaves.
"Can you hear that?" I asked my Wife, making her stop and listen.
"Yes, it freaks me out." She responded.
"What?!" I said, perplexed. "That sound is beautiful!"

I made us stop to feel the wind slightly cool us. A gentle flutter of leaves all at once began to fall from the trees and slowly spin towards the ground. We stood there in the silence, watching them lightly fall around us, and it felt like be in a fantasy forest realm in a movie or a video game.
"That was beautiful." I said when it had finished. My Wife agreed.

In reference to my Wife finding the wind creepy, she began trying to say there was something about the Australian bush that 'creeped her out.' but she couldn't quite but her finger on why. (Her Mum is from England and her Dad's family German immigrants, so maybe she doesn't have the cultural heritage of the land in her yet?)
"I know why it is." I confidently told her. "It's because we grew up watching Jeopardy." I told her, referring to the BBC found footage style show about Aliens filmed int he Australian Bush, not the quiz game show which is also excellent.

"Christ!" I yelled. Once more startled by a Red Belly Black Snake. This one at least was a distance away, and just to the right side of the path.

I walked towards it, having more distance between it and the others and more time to get it to slither off. I stomped my feet as I approached, but it did not want to move. I threw a few sticks near it hoping that was frighten it enough (keeping them landing far enough away as to not hit it, I'm not cruel.) However the Snake did not want to move.

"Want me to just walk past it?" My Wife offered.
"No, don't." If it's not moving it might be being territorial, I just don't want it to turn around and bite you all the way out here. If he doesn't want to move, we'll just cut through the bush."

I pointed to our left, we would cut through the grass, and the trailed after the Snake turned left so it wouldn't be too long a walk through to make it back onto the path.
"What about other snakes?" She asked.
"I'll keep an eye out. Just follow behind me." I said, and began into the grass, keeping a careful eye out. About a metre and a half in, the Black Snake slithered off further away to the right, and we walked back onto the path and past it.

"God I'm really on edge now." I said, my heart beating quick every time I saw a fallen piece of black bark to the side of the path, now hyper vigilant for snakes.

As we continued along my Wife began noticing all the holes around.
"Are they Wombat holes or...?" She asked.
"Yeah." I responded.
"Why couldn't we see them instead of all the Snakes."
"You see them out more at night."
"God that's scary." Said my Wife, pointing as we turned a corner to a fallen down tree.

I assumed she meant because Snakes could be leaving underneath it, but she just meant how big it was and the thought of if it fell on you.

Continuing along any sort of breeze had disappeared, and it was now well and truly warm, and we were starting to sweat. I put my sunglasses on to dim the brightness out, but as they were polarized, I found it harder to keep an eye out for snakes, so ended up resting them on the brim of my hat.

We continued along the trail, I pointed out big boulders out in the bush every now and again, wondering if they were the places that featured the Aboriginal rock engraving and artwork. As a history buff, living on Aboriginal land I couldn't help but think about how little I was ever taught about the Indigenous culture here. I'm only 32 (still young according to people older than me, but feeling old now), and even I was brought up calling Uluru 'Ayer's Rock', and with the latest voice to parliament result I couldn't help but think there was still a long way for our country to go. I pictured in my head what life was like for them all those years ago. Living around this water source. Wondering how they dealt with the Snakes, which in the Dharawal/Tharawal language is 'Munda Gari'.

After walking in silence for a while, sweating and keeping an eye out for Snakes, we saw the path open up onto a dirt road.

"I guess we took the other track." I said. Saying that the loop track must have including the dirt roads that my Wife didn't want to walk on in case of 'speeding cars'.

A lady on horseback was coming up the road towards us. I greeted her and asked if she had seen any snakes, informing her of the three we had encountered along the trail. I then double checked with her that the way she'd came led back to the car park and she said it did. I thanked her and we began along the dirt road in the heat, now with less shade back towards the carpark.

"You're becoming your Dad." My Wife told me, mentioning the fact that I started up a conversation with a random. 
"Ah well. We're out on an adventure, got to talk to folk." I replied. "Usually when we're out it's Tristan who does it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he loves a good chat." I said as we continued along the road.

This dirt road led to another dirt road with a gate blocking off car access. it pointed us right towards the Lake Werri Berri carpark and picnic area, which was about 1 kilometre out from the Lake Couridjah picnic area where we had parked.

After a decent walk along the road with two passing cars, discussing our recently bought shoes we arrived at the bustling picnic area, and I walked to the information board to see if there was any difference. The information provided appeared to be the same, but the map seemed to more accurately show the loop trail we had just done.

We continued along the dirt road.

"We'll know when we're almost there once we reach the pump house." I said, having seen it less than a minute away from the picnic area as we drove in.
In less than no time we arrived at the pumphouse, built in 1867.

"The Couridjah Pumphouse
This building was once the pumphouse that supplied water for steam trains using the southern railway line.
Built when the line was extended to Mittagong in 1867, the pump house once contained a boiler and steam-powered pump capable of delivering 27,000 litres of water an hour to the nearby Couridjah Railway Station.
Demand for the water from the pumphouse dropped dramatically in 1919 once an alternative rail line between Picton and Mittagong commenced operation.
Pumping operations continued here until 1964 when the boiler and pump were removed.
Today the site is recognised and conserved as an important historic place within Thirlmere Lakes National Park."

You couldn't enter inside but could peer in through the barred door.
"Creepy." I commented.

"Servants of Steam
Both this pumphouse and the locomotives it provided for had one crucial thing in common - they were driven by steam engines.
Steam was the critical element that powered up the industrial revolution which in turned changed the world forever.
The key difference between steam power and the modern internal combustion engine is that with steam, all the real action happens before the steam enters the cylinder chamber.
The heart of the steam engine is the boiler where water is boiled as it passes around a coal fire via a system of internal metal tubes.
Pressure thus builds up to around 150 lbs/sq inch before a safety value cuts in to "let off steam" and prevent the boiler exploding.
With a "full head of steam up", the boiler is then ready to do some work. A regulator (throttle) releases the steam into the cylinder where it forces the piston downwards thus turning the crankshaft and hence the flywheel. Most steam engines have two cylinders.
Having done its work in the cylinders, the steam is then blown out through the chimney. A fair bit of power goes with it as you could tell if you heard the noise made by the exhaust.
Owing to limitations on space, weight and wasted heat, steam locomotives were very inefficient energy users. Of every 100 units of heat produced by fuel on the fire grate, only 6 or 7 were turned into useful work in normal running conditions." 

A few metres up the road we were back and Couridjah Lake picnic area, and we sat at a little table in the shade looking out at the water while we ate our homegrown cucumbers with hummus.

"Would you like to go into Thirlmere after this?" I asked my Wife. I was happy out, exploring somewhere new. I wasn't ready to go home yet.
"Nah there's nothing there." She said dismissing it.
"We could go into town? Maybe find a bakery? Try a pie. I love trying a local pie." I said, hoping she'd relent.

She was soon on Google Maps, where she found both a local bakery that looked good (Loop-Line Pies), and a cake shop she thought looked good (DeliciousLeigh Cakes).
"Sounds good to me." I replied as I had been down by the water while she was looking them up.

As we drove into town, we passed the NSW Rail Museum. I enquired if she was interested in going. She gave me a look that said, 'Do you even need to ask?' and she directed me to a spot to pull up near the bakery for a pie. As we crossed through the town, I couldn't notice anything particular 'Estonian' about it, but not having been to Estonia, and really not knowing too much about it as a place I probably wouldn't have noticed if there was.

"I like the name of the Inn." My Wife said, point out it was called 'the Welcome Inn' as in, welcome in.

As we entered, I was devastated to see they were sold out of my favourite; chilli pies.
"Do you want one?" My Wife asked.
"Can we check and see if the other bakery has them?"
"The other one only sells cakes." She answered.

I decided upon a Beef Curry pie and my Wife got a sausage roll. She said it was the best sausage roll she'd had in years and my pie was excellent too. Like a full on slow cooked beef curry put inside a large pie casing. I was so full after eating it.
We walked down to the cake shop which wasn't too far away and ended up indulging a lot, buying a large Orea slice, Turkish Delight Slice, Blueberry frosted cupcake and a large caramel donut. (All of which we ate later at home on separate days, and they were delicious). I also got a medium sized honeycomb milkshakes and my Wife a lime flavoured one.

As we drank them on the drive home, I commented that I was 'so full from that pie' and that it was nice to get out somewhere different for the day. I also said because that pie was so good I was even more upset that I didn't get to try the chili pie.
"Maybe we can come back one day." My Wife said.
My mood lifted once more. 
"Yeah, I should have a look for other walks around nearby, and maybe we can stop in first to get a pie, before they sell out."
I would have been straight on my phone researching walks had I not been the one behind the wheel.

After the weekend and back into the grind of work I had my interview with ABC Illawarra about the history of the Bull of Bull Island. It was a recording which made me panic slightly, and I felt like I rambled incoherently the whole time, wishing the interview had been written, my preferred style of communication as I feel like I can stop, think and articulate my thoughts in a much more coherent manner. It played on the ABC Illawarra radio just after 10:30am on Tuesday morning and I had my friends Stuart and Megan listen as I had told them about my perceived 'ramblings'. They were quick to assure me that I 'did good' and that it didn't come across as ramblings. (You can listen to it HERE and it starts at about the 2 hours and 2 minutes mark, though I can't guarantee that in a few years time when this post is still here that that link will work). However, I think if I were to do interviews again, I would still prefer them to be written (the same reason I tell my friend Tristan that Steventure will remain a blog, and not a TikTok or YouTube style thing. I like my style, though not popular (TLDR, people might say), this is how it will stay.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Mount Keira

 This walk takes place on Dharawal Country

During my chemotherapy to treat my Leukemia, I sometimes was placed in rooms in Wollongong Hospital that had me looking out over Mount Keira. I would sit there often looking out over it on sunny and rainy days and tell myself that after I had beat my cancer I would go and walk it.

I did one trail on it, the Ken Ashburn track with my friend Tristan in between my third round of chemo and my Stem Cell Transplant. I always planned to do the other walks, but time got by, and I never got around to it. While discussing future walks with him after we had done the Tarbourie Village track, I threw out a few suggestions to him to see if he was interested. One of these was the rest of Mount Keira. He wasn't so I thought it was a good opportunity to do some more walks with my nerdy friends Stuart and Megan, who I had done the Saddleback Mountain walk with.

They were keen to go, and we locked in the date, with Megan asking if they were alright to pick me up at 8am. We set off early with Stuart driving and asking me for directions. I told him to go up Mount Ousley to head straight to the summit, as I had investigated some of these walks right before I went in for my Stem Cell Treatment while spending a day out with my Dad.

We arrived at the summit park and from this point I knew exactly where to head, taking them straight over to the lookout facing North over the Illawarra.

From here we walked down a set of stairs down to a bronze wheel marking the distance and direction of Illawarra locations.

As we walked back up the stairs, I was humming the soundtrack to 'Hamilton' to myself as I had been listening to it once again.
"What?" Megan asked me, thinking I had said something.
"Oh no, I'm just singing Hamilton." I replied, explaining that I was listening to it again. We made our way back up, past a sign towards Five Islands Lookout, which I explained was the direction to go as I had gone that way with my Dad.

As we continued along Megan mentioned she and Stuart had been getting into 'Hadestown', another musical, but they explained to me it was based on the Greek myth of 'Orpheus' which immediately perked my interest as a lover of Mythology. Stuart interjected and mentioned something about Hades becoming a mining town and something about everyone wearing mining outfits.
"Oh, that makes more sense." Megan said.
"So, is this on something?" I asked, assuming, like Hamilton you could watch it on some sort of streaming service.
"No, we've just been listening to it." They responded.
I was about to mention to them about a musical artist I listen to: 'Shawn James' and how he had written a song about Orpheus, before I realised that the path in front of us had been blocked by a fallen tree.
We walked through a small section of scrub on our right onto another section of path that just had the base of the tree in front and simply walked around the other side of the tree.

After passing the tree, the conversation moved on and I never mentioned the song. As we approached the Five Islands Lookout, we got a view through a clearing overlooking Lake Illawarra.

I mentioned that I wanted to do a blog that was a bike ride around Lake Illawarra, saying I had attempted the ride around once before with my Dad, leaving from Central Park in Oak Flats, however I got a flat tire at Tallawarra Power Station, not far from completing and thus I never finished.

The lookout itself was barricaded off, apparently due to being on an unstable cliff, I couldn't remember it being there when I had come up with my Dad (however looking through old photo's it was). I remembered the stick pyramid structures and explained to the two of them Dad and I had come up here for a little walk after going out for lunch at Bourke Street Burgers.

We walked over to read a sign explaining the structures that also told the local Dharawal creation myth of Mount Keira or 'Geera' and that of the Five Islands that were off our coast.

"Merrigong Environmental Sculpture - The Six Daughters of the West Wind

The west wind, Oolaboolawoo lived on top of Merrigong (Illawarra Range) and had six daughters, Mimosa, Wilga, Lilli Pilli, Wattle, Clemantis and Geera. Mimosa would scratch and fight when the girls were playing and to punish her, the west wind blew her and the rock she sat on out so sea. She landed away from the land and became an island, which none of her sisters could swim to. Mimosa's fate should have been a lesson to her sisters, who were also cast out to sea by their father.

Because Oolaboolawoo way always bust out west, the last sister Gerra sat lonely on the escarpment looking out at her sisters, the Five Islands, eventually allowing the animals and trees to grow on her.
She turned to stone and became the mountain known as Mt Keira (Geera).

The sculptures were inspired by the story of the six sisters. The site where the sculptures are situated is both sacred for women and is said to have once been a place of massacre.

The ephemeral and fragile quality of the 'twig-like' structures refers to a former occupation of the site by the traditional people. The permanency of the bronze material consolidates Indigenous survival and everlasting connection to place."

We all agreed that it was cool to learn about local mythology, and I talked about how I liked to include some history of places as often times we really don't know much about the places that we have grown up around. I pointed on towards Dave Walsh's Track saying that it led on to the Mt Keira ring track that we wanted to do.

As we continued on and talking an elder couple had caught up to us, and not wanting to walk with other people we sort of slowed down, allowing them to pass and I headed to a clearing over by the ledge that had not been barricaded off.

I brought up the conversation of the upcoming Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum. They were both confused as neither really follow politics, but I was surprised by the fact that neither of them had even heard of it.

"It basically acknowledges Indigenous people in our constitution" I explained, "currently they're not referenced in our constitution, other than that what it does is gives an Aboriginal advisory committee in parliament in regard to Indigenous issues, and because it would be in the constitution the next government couldn't simply get in and dismantle it."

It seemed like a pretty reasonable thing to both of them, and I explained that many Australians were voting no, for various reasons. I explained about Lydia Thorpe previously for the Greens was voting no because she wanted Treaty, and semi explained the concept of that to them, while explaining a lot of other people who were voting no were, and I was fairly blunt here: "racist."

The older couple was no longer in sight, and we continued our way down Dave Walsh's track and I wondered to myself who Dave Walsh was, and I also wondered who Ken Ashburn was. Which after a Google search, I learned David Walsh was a local, big in the scouting movement, so whether or not he created the trail, or it was simply named after him I'm not sure. When I looked up Ken Ashburn I could find nothing, causing me to go into my previous blogpost for any information that might have been on that walk, where I learned that I had simply misread his name, and even incorrectly titled by blog post. as it was named after Ken Ausburn, not Ashburn, causing me to have to retroactively go back and edit that previous blog post, but leaving any other incorrect mentions in other blog posts.

As we approached the decent a couple and their child began approaching from behind so I went over for the view of Mount Kembla hoping that they too would continue past us.

Picture my Dad took, 2 and half years earlier

Soon the couple and their child began approaching me on the edge, so I made my way over to Stuart and Megan who were at a different spot. I began pointing out the climbing bolts saying this area was used for rock climbers. Megan had a look, before saying she would need to get her climbing fitness back up, and her and Stuart had let their indoor climbing memberships expire before attempting that, however none of us had really attempted outdoor climbing other than some light bouldering.

While we were looking at this the couple began making their way slowly down the mountain, and we lingered waiting for them to move substantially ahead of us.

I pointed toward the arrow nailed to the trees marking the way and commented that this path was pretty obvious and that they weren't really needed to follow the trail. I said that I had seen someone do a post on a Facebook hiking page complaining about people marking the tracks in ways like this, or spray painting, or tying on bits of plastic, or making cairns, saying that if you couldn't find your way you didn't deserve to be doing the walk. Which I could agree with in some ways, but I told Stuart and Megan I had often done many walks with various trails splitting off in different directions for various points along the way and nothing to tell you which was the right way to go. These were often not 'wilderness' walks, but marketed and promoted National Park walks.

A cold wind picked up, and I commented that I had made the right choice wearing long pants, but wondered if I should have worn my beanie rather than my hate, as I held it down from blowing off.

"I never think to wear a beanie." Megan said.
"I always wear my beanie." I replied.
"We know friend." Said Stuart, referring to the fact that wearing my beanie had become a pretty constant thing for me casually after my hair never returned after my Stem Cell Transplant.
"It comforts me." I insisted.

Soon the path turned right down, but the couple with their child continued straight to a section of boulders you could walk between, seeming to almost form a sort of boulder cave. We turned right and continued down, able to move a little faster now.

We followed the stairs down until we a dirt trail that began winding through the bush. I snapped a lot of photos along the way, saying that my Wife had complained recently about how many I take while we had done the Glow Worm Glen walk. I said that there had been a few times where I had tried to take less, but then when it came to writing a blog, I struggled to remember where things happened on the walk sometimes. I said that it just gives me that jump-start to my memory to remember where we were at certain points in time, and those cues helped me remember things such as conversation that had occurred along the way, but I would often cull a lot of them, or sometimes spam a bunch of images when I found I had less to write about.

We soon caught up to the older couple we had let go ahead a while back, and I could see them stopping for photos but also looking in different ways. As they saw us approaching, they began moving again and as we reached the spot they were at we saw that there was a trail heading left and right as well as continuing down the mountain. The way right had no signs or markings, however the way left had a danger warning sign, informing that the area was closed.

I wondered out loud to the two of them if that track was the 'ring track' as I had never done it before.

"I wonder if we follow it down, if that's just the Dave Walsh track." I questioned, vaguely remembering walking to the end of it with my Dad and coming to a road.

"How about we follow it down, and if this ends up being the ring track we can just walk back and just follow it the opposite way to the closed sign?" I suggested, and they both agreed, so we continued forwards.

As we walked, I told them how my Wife and I had gone to a Nature Talk at the Shellharbour Civic Centre that was about astronomy and told them about what we had learned about Black Holes while there, and how they can 'burp' and also sort of go into a type of hibernation where they don't suck everything in, and can randomly start again, talking about what bizarre enigmas they are.

"Oh, burp is what you meant." Megan said, referring to a message I had sent them in a group chat where I wrote: 'I just learned that black holes burb and I'm terrified.'
"I wasn't sure if you meant burp on burn, I thought you might have meant black holes burn."
"Did I write burp?" I asked.
"No, you wrote burb."

The canopy above us opened up revealing sky as we walked by a clearing made by powerlines and we entered under the canopy once more.

Someone the conversation changed onto how I was watching season 10 of the US survival TV series 'Alone' where I was talking to them about how good it was in comparison to the recent Australian version. I commented that I had read the headline of an article on Facebook recently about a recent British version of the show where the headline was along the lines of 'Have any of these people even been outside before?'.

Soon the canopy cleared again, and the bright sun lit the surrounding greenery and we commented that it was beginning to get warm now.

"I'm glad I didn't wear my beanie now." I stated.

I pointed out native raspberry plants all lining the side of the track.

"I feel like I point them out to you every time we go on a walk" I said as we passed a sign and could see a road ahead of us.

"Hey, this one actually had a raspberry on it!" I showed them, explaining that I wouldn't eat one out some where because I didn't know if it had potentially been sprayed with chemicals.

A few cars passed as the three of us shuffled across the road. As we reached the other side we saw the track was splitting in two directions, left the sign said was towards Byarong Park in 1.2km and right towards Robetsons Lookout in 2km.

I thought Byarong Park was a stop on the ring track as I recalled stopping in their with my Dad as we drove down from the summit, but I wasn't sure about Robertson's Lookout, so we decided to head towards the lookout and would just backtrack afterwards.

As we began down this track, I heard the end of some joke or reference Stuart had said in regard to Jurassic Park, Dennis Nedry and a Dilophasaurus.

"Speaking of-" I said quickly, my brain thinking after the Jurassic Park reference. "Our alliance is almost full, so we will have to start culling people who are inactive too long." I said referring  to the Jurassic Park mobile game: Jurassic World Alive (which is sorta like the Dinosaur equivalent of Pokemon Go), which Stuart had got me into as a time killer while I was in hospital undergoing my chemothrerapy.

As the track began up hill we began complaining about work, with the two of them filling me in on details on their work environment (which on all accounts sounded pretty terrible). I could relate with a previous job of working at a bottle shop where my manager was an abusive asshole who would tell you to do something, then come along and yell at you and ask why you were doing it. I worked there as long as I could before quitting, as it had ended in screaming matches with this dickhead and it was taking all my will power not to punch him in the fucking face.

Yeeeboiii

The trail continued at an incline now and we were all feeling the warmth of an approaching Spring.

As we rounded a bend I saw a sign facing the road but our path continued straight, I quickly ducked up to look at what it had written.

We continued along the track, once again discussing nerdy topics such as the latest Legend of Zelda game.

We continued along before coming to a sign and a little wooden staircase leading off to the right.

We saw that the ring track was up the stairs to the right but decided to continue on straight to Robertsons Lookout anyway.

As we continued along the trail we began discussing films or shows that we had been watching recently, with me saying I had recently seen Oppenheimer, the new Indiana Jones and the new Mission Impossible at the movies and had found all three to be a bit disappointing. 

As we approached another set of stairs next to a big rock, we stopped for a quick water break before continuing on up the hill.

Megan asked if I had seen 'Only Murders in the Building' season 3 yet, and I responded that I had only seen what had been released of it.
"It's not all out yet?"
"No, only like the first 3 episodes." I replied.

She asked how it was and I said we were enjoying it so far, but not being able to binge it like I did with the first 2 (as I had watched them after they were released) limited my enjoyment a little. I mentioned I really liked 'Whodunnit' films as a genre, as it was sort of like a puzzle. I mentioned I wanted to watch the Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot movies with Kenneth Branagh.
"Is that murder on the Orient Express?" Megan asked.
"Yeah, and Death on the Nile and the new one."
"Yeah, we watched it and liked it."

I told them my Wife didn't like the genre, so I hadn't found time to watch them yet. I mentioned I would like to do one of those murder mystery live action games before also mentioning I was looking forward to the 4 of us doing the Jumanji escape room in Sydney that we had booked for the following Sunday.

Stuart had forgotten that we were going to do them and mentioned that he had cancelled a Dungeons and Dragons night (because of the walk) with his friends as he has them every Sunday.
"Oh, so I've stopped you playing D&D for 2 weeks in a row." I said in regard to next week's escape room.
I continued "What was the theme of the second room we're doing? It was like, very similar to our D&D game Stuart had hosted."

The two of them looked at me with confused expressions.

"You know how in our game; we were visiting the facility abandoned by Wizards and the escape room had like a very similar story and that's why we chose to do it as well while booking the Jumanji room".

This sparked their memory as we passed by a rusted powerline that I commented looked like a steampunk 'Torri' or as I called it a 'Shinto Gate'.

"That would be a cool show, a steam-punk dystopian Japan."

We continued chatting about a variety of things, with me asking the two of them if they watch 'Black Mirror', knowing it wasn't really their thing other than some of the science fiction elements but told them they might enjoy the episode 'Joan is Awful' as it was pretty funny. I said my Wife didn't like it either and that I had been watching the episodes of it on my lunch breaks at work along with the Game of Thrones prequel 'House of the Dragon' and the latest season of 'Outlander'.

Soon the path split, and we followed it right a short while, and it only led up to a road. We walked back down to continue along the path as we man across a man walking.

"What's that way?" He asked me.
"Up there is just a road, and the other way if you follow it long enough leads back to Mount Keira." I answered.

He continued on past us, and Megan asked us if we had noticed his shoes. I said I hadn't, and she said they were just odd shoes to be walking in.
"He's probably just pulled up at the carpark and is just having a little look around while he's stopped." I said.

We brushed by the ferns, and they opened up to a little picnic table by a concrete path where we stopped and decided to have some food.

I quickly walked pat the danger sign, just to see if there was a good view, only to find a rock surrounded by trees, and maybe if you walked dangerously through them towards the edge, a view.

"Not much of a lookout unless it's a bit further up that concrete path." I said pointing at the path that led away from the car park.

As we ate Stuart pulled out a delicious looking salad sandwich, and I complemented him on how good it looked.

"Back when I worked outdoors and didn't have access to a microwave, I used to make nice sandwiches like that." I told them. "I would often get complements about how good they smelled and get asked what was on them where I would go through listing all the delicious things. But once I stopped, I always got the same question: Where's the meat?" I told them and they found it amusing to.

Megan, who used to be vegan but stopped due to heath issues mentioned they wanted to, not necessarily go vegetarian, but go to mostly eating vegetarian. We soon began a discussion of ethics with Stuart saying he didn't like to eat smart animals which is why he didn't eat Octopus or Dogs.
"But you eat Pigs." I pointed out. "Which have the same intelligence as Dogs if not more."
He realised I was right, but I continued trying not to make him feel bad.

"But to be fair, we grow up eating Pig we're desensitised to it, and we grow up eating it in so many foods, so we also know how good it tastes, bacon, ham, chorizo." I said, saying it was much easier to not eat something you had no history of eating.

Soon to random men came out of the bush from behind the danger sign and made their way to the car park.

"Let's follow that path along." I suggested as we were done eating and we followed it along to a lookout over the Illawarra, and the steelworks but on the left a view out over Mount Keira.

I noticed a small mountain between us and the Nan Tien Temple and wondered if it was one you could walk up. I pointed out two islands in Lake Illawarra close to Berkeley; Gooseberry Island and Hooka Island. I began to explain that back in the day school dances used to be held out on Gooseberry Island, as a man approached the lookout and stood next to us. 

"I couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck on an island for a school dance." Megan said.

I made a comment about all the litter just down from the lookout that people had just tossed, commenting that some people were grubs, as we turned to head back towards the picnic table and resume the ring track.

"How about we walk along the road from the carpark until we reach that section we walked up before?" I suggested. "Just so we've walked a different way." 

They agreed and we began the walk along the road with the heat of the sun blaring down on us, but rather than find it too hot, I commented that it actually felt nice out in the sun.

"What's that?" Stuart asked, pointing to a sign across the road.

I told him it was a special area sign, sometimes used for water catchments. I said I had come across them before, sometimes after taking one of those unmarked trails I mentioned earlier, and then come across them from behind only to see it was one of those signs, some warning of surveillance cameras and very expensive fines. I said one such incident occurred on my walk up Bong Bong Pass in Dapto.

"Later after having written a blog post about it, I saw a sponsored post on Facebook from them telling people not to walk these paths or take advice from 'blog posts' and mentioning how many people had been fined lately."
They both laughed.
"To be fair," I said "My post mentions I went the wrong way and warns people about this fact."
"I like that your blog does that with stuff, like with Wedding Cake Rock and calling people out on it." Megan replied.

We noticed the way back down to the path from the road and back on to the track and began making our way down, walking past the man whose shoes Megan had mentioned last time.

"Did you notice them this time?" She asked.
We nodded and the conversations quickly jumped from one topic to another. I mentioned that I had stayed up a bit late the night before watching 'Air' on Amazon Prime about Michael Jordan and the history of the 'Air Jordan' sneaker. Stuart looked at me with a face that said he didn't think that sounded like his sort of movie. I commented that it was pretty good and that while looking up movie trivia on IMDB (which I do after watching any movie), one of the other Basketball players mentioned as a potential for Nike to invest in was Mel Turpin, who unfortunately his career never took off which affected his mental health, and he ended up taking his own life.

"Jesus."
I commented that at least we didn't have to worry about that, because we would never be great at anything. 
"I'm under no delusions." I said, "I'll never be the best hiker, or climber, or adventurer or traveler. I do what I can within my budget and within my means and don't have the pressure of having to be great."

The conversation turned to the fun run I had asked them if they were interested in doing in November. The 'Fisher's Ghost Fun Run.' They mentioned they were keen but would need to start jogging or exercising to build up to it before then, as they had both slacked off. I mentioned I had begun jogging using the C2K app on my phone recently as a last-ditch effort to improve my lungs before my upcoming lung test to see if they had recovered at all from the damage they sustained during my chemo. I mentioned I wanted to do the Fisher's Ghost run as a bit of catharsis, as I had always been dragged along to it with my brothers as a kid and had to sit around all day while my Mum would run it and we all hated going, so I wanted to do it myself to 'take it back' which they could understand.

Somehow the topic changed into video game movies, with Stuart saying he had seen a good one lately, but he couldn't remember what it was.
"Detective Pikachu? Sonic? I asked.
"No Sonic was awful." He responded.
"Oh, I didn't mind it," I said. "Though I do like Jim Carrey. As long as it wasn't the Uncharted movie. That was a piece of shit, and those games are fantastic."
"We haven't seen it." Megan said.
"Yeah, why would they cast Michael Cera." Stuart said.
I began laughing. "Michael Cera!" I laughed, thinking that it might have actually improved that awful film.
"You know who I mean! Spiderman!" Stuart urged, still not recalling his name.
"Tom Holland." I responded, putting him out of his misery.

We soon approached the stairs taking up back along the ring track, as we made our way up them, passing an information sign I swore.
"What?" They asked.
I told them I had kept meaning to bring the 'NSW Rocks' I had found over time and had built up in my study, and place them when I was doing walks, even finding one the time I did the Ken Ausburn track.
"But I don't want to place them in Wilderness areas, more on these suburban frequently visited sort of walks."
We crossed a road to continue the walk and realised the road we were crossing was the entry way we had driven to park at the summit. 

"Have you guys started the new season of Futurama?" I asked as we continued along the trail.

"No, we haven't."
"We started, but then my Wife realised she hadn't watched it all and so we went back and are watching it from the beginning before we continue with the new season."

"But all the Futurama movies have been edited into episodes, so they've just become seasons of the show." I continued ranting, talking so fast that I wasn't able to catch my breath.

Stuart and Megan began saying that had been getting really into 'Magic: The Gathering', but specifically all the Lord of the Rings deck of cards, saying how many they had bought, and I could tell by the enthusiasm in which they spoke how into it they were.

They said they had been listening to the Lord of the Rings music, in particular the song 'Into the West' by Annie Lennox from 'The Return of the King'. I mentioned that I had been listening to some of the end songs from the Hobbit movies and that they were 'Bangers'. We began discussing what a shame those movies were and how they didn't live up to the brilliance of the original trilogy.
"And I only watched like 2 episodes of the Rings of Power before I gave up on it." I told them, and they said they hadn't even watched it.

We approached a split in the path with a group of young girls walking on the trail to our right that headed up hill, while the track left remained flat. We stopped and looked at the sign at this split, hoping for some indication of which way to go.

"Well, it says left is Mt Pleasant and Byarong Park, and Byarong Park was the ring track on the opposite way we didn't take to Robertson's Lookout, but I don't know where that way leads." I said, pointing on the track heading up the mountain.
"It probably leads back to the car park." Stuart said, meaning Mount Keira summit where we had parked.
As he said it a couple approached from the left saying they had just come up a lot of stairs, and told us that the way they had come from was the way to go and so we headed off down that path.

We soon began talking about the Lord of the Rings extended editions, where I said I had only seen the first one extended and that it was really good, and that I wanted to watch the rest.
Stuart began to tell me about Saruman dying in the extended edition, and them filming it, and then the anecdote about Christopher Lee.
"Is this about him murdering Nazi's in World War II?" I asked, having seen the story floating around on Facebook.
"Yeah!" Stuart said, mentioning other weird things that happen in the books like Merry and Pippin drinking Ent juice.
"I've never read the books, I tried to read the Hobbit and really struggled with it. I'll just stick to Deltora Quest!" I joked.

As we continued down the mountain, we could hear a noise coming from the bush, and stopped, watching through the scrub as a Lyrebird kicked around leaves.

"I always see heaps of wildlife when I walk with you guys, you're like good luck charms."

We walked in silence for a while, worn out with conversation as Stuart removed his backpack, carrying it in his hands to allow his back to 'breath' as it was sweating so much. As we continued down the long set of stairs.

We finally reached the bottom and Megan commented that walking down was hurting her knees.
"And we'll still have to walk back up." Stuart replied.
"Maybe, it's a loop track. Honestly I think we've gone the easy way, if we had headed left instead of Robertson's Lookout we'd be walking up all these." I commented to him.
"But there's probably more up along the way." Stuart said.

I nodded unsure of what lay ahead on the path.

We walked along the flat path for a time before coming to one of those built-up walking structures. I commented that I didn't really like them, as they, to me, didn't feel as good as walking along on the ground, but I understood the purpose of them when it came to both keeping people on the track, and protecting potentially sensitive flora that may be around the area.

We walked along as I quickly pulled out my phone for 'on the go' photo's as I often do, both turning out blurry, before sticking my phone in the air for a quick selfie in which Stuart couldn't help but look away every time I took a photo.

As we were walking along there was suddenly a loud shuffling sound in the bush. I threw up my hands giving them the signal to stop and be quiet.
 
We waited as all the palm fronds shook, and the rustling intensified. I thought to myself that it might be a deer as the loud noises grew. I squatted down, trying to see what it was, wondering if maybe it was people cutting through the bush, then I saw it, digging around on the ground, another Lyrebird.

"God it was so loud I thought it was a deer." I said, sitting and watching it for a bit before continuing on, once more coming to a divide, heading right towards Byarong Park in 2.1km and left towards Mt Pleasant in 600m (according to the sign that was there).

"Do you guys want to do a short walk down to Mt Pleasant? Which, I don't know what it is, or just continue on?" I asked, hoping they would be interested in the extra walk. To my relief they were keen for the extra walk, and we turned left towards Mt Pleasant.

We came across a boulder and I almost walked past it, but I stopped, eyeing it off.

"I'm going to climb it." I said.
"No." Stuart told me.
"It's fine, I can see holds." I replied, dropping my backpack and ungracefully climbing up.

The climb down was even less graceful. But I felt satisfied as I slung my backpack on, and we continued moving.

The small track opened up to a wider path, as two young girls came from our left and entered up the track we had come down from, we decided to head right as there was no sign and that was the direction the initial sign was pointing towards Mt Pleasant. Stuart pointed out a random shovel head standing on the side of the path, the handle no longer attached.

We approached a slope that looked like corrugated concrete. I commented that it reminded me of a boat ramp.

"Hopefully there's a toilet down here." I said, feeling the urge as I began to drink more frequently as the sun moved high above. We wander through the shade of some trees and down a slope that opened up to a random empty field.

Down from the field we walked down a gravel hill, where we arrived at Mt Pleasant, which was simply a carpark, with no toilet.

I noticed a track down along a fence besides some houses and got a weird sense of nostalgia. 

"Before I did the Ken Ashburn track with Tristan," I said, misnaming that walk once more. "The only time I had done Mt Keira was in year 7 of High School when I went to Wollongong High. I remembered walking from the school to top, and when I did Ken Ashburn I had thought it seem too far away from the school, as it was behind the Uni." I continued. "Maybe that track leads down somewhere and that was the way up my school group walked?" I pondered, annoyed at how useless my memory seemed to be.

"Maybe." Megan said placating me.

I began to tell them about how I had got a tick 'just above my penis', while doing that walk in school.

"What did you do about it?" Stuart asked, assuming I had gone to a doctor.
"My Mum got it out." I laughed.
"But like, how?" Stuart asked.
"With tweezers." I answered.
"No!" Stuart yelled at me. "You're not supposed to do that."
I told him I know that now, but it was fine, and that I'd only ever removed ticks this way.

Although there was no toilet block, we sat on big rocks along the side of the car park and had another short lunch break, where I started talking to Stuart about the TV series 'Primal' an animated cartoon show set in a sort of 'lost world' with Dinosaurs, cavemen and all sorts of whacky episodes like magic ape-men and a Zombie virus.
"Man the ending sucked." I said.
"What was the ending?" Megan asked.
Stuart and I made awkward eye contact.
"You can tell her." Stuart said, laughing about the shows silly ending.
We decided to make a move back to the ring track while I filled her in. She had a basic understanding of the show as Stuart had talked to her about it before, so I simply gave a rough run down of the final few episodes.
"Basically, there's a Viking village that took slaves, including the main Caveman: Spear, his love interest Mira, and they go to the village and end up killing everyone including the Viking chief's son and eventually the Viking chief, who end up in hell and makes a deal with, I guess the devil? He comes back as a shape-shifting flame monster-" I said puffing as we made our way back up the corrugated concrete section. "Anyway, he I guess succeeds in killing Spear, so gets pulled back to hell, while Spear is like dying, his whole body covered in like third degree burns, Mira like... hops on top, and like, has sex with him so there's a flash forward with like, his kids even though he's dead."
"Because there's nothing painful about that at all." Stuart commented.
"I'd be surprised if he could even get up with third degree burns on his dick." I joked. "But before the ending it was a good show."

We arrived at the turn off to Byarong Park and continued along the ring.

Soon we approached another, slightly larger boulder. "I'm going to climb this one too." I said, walking around it and looking for a way up. I could see a way to climb but knew I wouldn't be able to get back down. As I crossed to the other side, I saw a tree had grown on an angle up against the boulder which I could use to shimmy my way down if I climbed on top. So, I dropped my bag once more and worked my way up on top.

I wrapped my arms around the tree, projecting my legs against the boulder and I walked down.

We moved on, walking through the bush. Stuart began the topic of 'lore' in term of our Dungeons & Dragons game, as the four of us (them, me and my Wife) had begun playing with Stuart as our dungeon master. This ranged from things we would like to see, or not see in the game, to the world and its creatures, and this conversation went on and on for a decent stretch of time, so I'll once more just photo dump.

As we reached this turn off heading up, I could see a cool rock ahead in the bush, so I cut through the bush to the rock, only to find that it was along the track anyway, and cutting through the bush was just a short cut. A couple that were walking and overtook us along our intense D&D discussions soon came along the path where I was looking at the rock. I walked back through the bush, and we continued along the track up the mountain, knowing I would eventually come back to the cool rock, and we once more resumed our in-depth D&D chat.

Up

Back down

As we approached the rock, there was now a Mum and her two kids doing the Karate Kid 'Crane' pose on top taking photos. I slowed down hoping they would see us and move on, (I also wondered where the hell they came from). They did see us, and the two kids jumped off and ran further up the path along the way we were heading.

The path continued down further, and I reiterated that I thought we were going 'the easy way' and that had we gone the other way, we would have had much more uphill walking, but Stuart still questioned this, believing we would have a bunch to walk up at some point.

Megan began walking slowly, struggling with so much downhill walking putting pressure on her knees, and her feet began to hurt from wearing relatively new hiking boots that hadn't been full worn in.

We slowly progressed down as the track opened up to the road once more, with a little car park and an information sign. There was a gras track leading in to our left, but I could see a sign across at the other end of the carpark, heading down the road that was the ring track continuing.

As we started through this section I paused. I could hear the loud buzzing of bees and I assumed there would be a beehive in one of the surrounding trees, Stuart however pointed out that it was just bees in the flowers of the tree above. "Spring is here." I said and we continued.

By now Megan's feet had worsened and we could see she was in a little bit of pain, the path opened up onto a crossing of the road and I told them that I thought we were close to Byarong Park and that hopefully there would be a toilet there.

As we walked up the stairs across the road we struck instantly with the sight of an overgrown fallen car.

"Well, that's very Jurassic Park." I commented, noticing the ground below with littered with objects I assumed were from the car. As we continued on, I thought and said, "I hope that car wasn't like, a suicide." I said, feeling like that would make the scene a little less cool to look at.
"Maybe," Stuart replied, mentioning all the lifeline signs that had been at the top of the mountain.
"Hopefully it was just reckless driving." I replied.

We approached another split on the trail, left towards Byarong Park, an extra 600m down to the park and back, or right back up the mountain towards where we had started the ring track at the end of Dave Walsh's track. I asked what they wanted to do, not wanting to pressure Megan as I knew her feet were hurting pretty bad. She was ok to continue down to Byarong Park, adding a little extra on our walk, as I tried to raise hope for a toilet.

As we reached the park, we were hit by the smells of cooking barbecues, making my stomach gurgle. Megan waddled over to a park bench to rest while Stuart and I went to look for a toilet.

The toilet is a lie

There was no toilet and so we joined Megan at the bench for a quick break, having some water and nibblies. I told her to just let us know when she was good, and she said she didn't want to stop for too long because it would make starting the walk again harder.

I commented that I wouldn't like to be a woman in situations like this, because, feeling the need to wee, if I was desperate, I could pretty much pull up to a tree and go. 
"One the scale of reasons why it's bad to be a woman, that one is pretty low." Megan commented.
"Yeah, I just think about it I guess because it's such a convenience."

"I guess I could get a She-Wee, but I've never looked into it."
"I've seen those mentioned on sites, but I've always thought, after you use it, you now have this object that is covered in piss. Like, then you have to wash it off I guess." I said, as we slowly made our way up hill, and I commented to Stuart that I didn't think this way was anywhere near as steep as if we had walked the opposite direction.

We continued uphill and I commented that I didn't need to wee so much anymore as I had 'sweated it out'.

I commented that I wanted to come back another day and do the walk the opposite direction.
"Maybe after I get back from Iceland." I suggested, knowing I had to spend less time blogging after my return as I had to knuckle down and finish my Tafe course (I had begun a Cert IV in Business Admin, at the suggestion of my Wife to get a higher paying job role, though I would have rather done something along the lines of 'Outdoor Recreation').

As I could see the road in our line of sight, I asked the question about if they wanted to follow along the ring track, back to the road through to the summit park, of if they wanted to walk back up Dave Walsh's track. They preferred to head up Dave Walsh's track.

We crossed the road and began walking up Dave Walsh's track. As we reached the section where the couple and the child had continued straight to go to the boulder-like cave I asked if they wanted to go over and have a look. This time they turned the offer down, both feeling pretty fatigues from the walk and we made our way back to the summit car park, debating whether or not to get coffee from the very busy cafe. We decided against it, figuring we were heading home now anyway and could just make one at home. 

As they dropped me off home, I hopped out of the car, now feeling a little sore from the walk, but feeling like my lungs had handled it fine, hoping for the best for my lung test.

"See ya's next Sunday!" I said referring to the two escape rooms we had organised. As I walked inside and kicked off my shoes, I had a sense of satisfaction, having wanted to do the walk since my chemotherapy. I felt glad to be alive.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven