Tarbourie Village to Termeil Lake

 This walk takes place on Yuin Country

Having done the Saddleback Mountain walk, the weekend before I had already planned to head down and camp and walk-up Pigeon House with my friend Tristan. However the Tuesday after doing Saddleback we had a really cold snap where I could barely find the energy to get dressed and ready for work that morning, due to the cold and the idea of waking up, having to pack down a tent that was covered with frost, after spending a night freezing, walking up it, then traveling home, and to have to unpack my tent to let it dry so it didn't get moldy didn't sound like much fun. So I messaged Tristan and told him this, telling him I just couldn't really hand the cold since my cancer treatment.

He agreed, but I said I would just spend the night at his Sunday night anyway, we could relax and have a few beers and get up super early Monday morning to drive down.

However, Thursday at work I began getting fevers and chills and came down with a severe cold. I did a Rapid Antigen Test for Covid (tested negative) before having Friday off sick and spending all day, blowing my nose into tissues and playing the new Zelda game (Tears of the Kingdom).

I waited to hopefully recover by Sunday, where I was still sick with the cold, but informed Tristan I was still keen to do the walk every with my cold (though I would have definitely preferred to have not been sick).

I headed to his place, and we chatted about a bunch of things, while I continued to blow my nose. He looked on at me in disbelief that I still wanted to go, saying that we could just go another time. I told him I really wanted to do something steep to test my lung capacity before my next lung test (as I had lung damage from the chemo). We chatted into the night, having a barbecue and some beers (Tristan much more than me and my one long neck stout). I informed Tristan that I had also been constipated all day and had really been hoping to poo during the day before I had come to his. It became time to go to bed and luckily, I was able to make myself go to the toilet right as Tristan set me up a blow-up mattress on his floor, and I laid down to try and sleep. Of course, that night there were extreme winds and the howling gale did nothing to help me sleep. I cuddled under my blanket with my jumper and beanie still on, shivering and blowing my nose, trying to daydream off to the land of sleep with no avail. As I tossed and turned, I realised the mattress was slowly deflating and I was no pressed against the tiles below and even colder. I checked my phone seeing it was 2am and the alarm was set for 5:30am. I grabbed the blanket and pillow and moved over onto Tristan's couch, where either because it was leather, or because I was unwell, I began to overheat and sweat through the rest of the night with some broken sleep.

That morning having heard about my night's sleep and with the gusty winds blowing, Tristan seemed like he really wasn't in the mood to head down. I told him I was still fine to, ever ready for the adventure as he told me that I had 'nothing to prove'. I told him if he didn't want to go we could bail, but I was still fine to go. He seemed to reluctantly agree to go, telling me that he would be pissed if we drove all that way and I got down there and was like "I can't do it". I reassured him that wouldn't be the case, or I would bail beforehand and that I would suffer through it. He also said if there were any fallen trees, he would turn us back because he wasn't going to be, in his words "One of those fuckwits who doesn't listen to the warning signs". 

As I hopped into Tristan's car and felt his seat warmers on my back, I told him how good it felt after a crappy night sleep and that my back was pretty sore. He looked at me with completely disdain before once more asking if I was sure I wanted to go. I assured him I did, and we finally set off south towards Pigeon House Mountain.

As we began our drive down towards Milton I started off chatty but, found Tristan not overly responsive I eventually dialed it back assuming he wasn't in the mood or was still just tired. I removed my beanie allowing my head some fresh air after having slept in it all night my scalp felt a little tender. I began to have microsleeps drifting in and out of consciousness. As we approached Nowra I told Tristan about a chicken shop on the Northbound Lane that I had always seen for years but had never stopped at, soon we passed 'Chooksy's' and Tristan said it was quite good there and I should one day stop in. I told him there was also a hotdog place somewhere further South that I always saw and needed to one day stop in at too. We approached the new building of Nowra bridge, our first time seeing it since it's construction and we openly questioned what they planned to do with the old bridge that was now closed for access.

I sort of dozed out again until we were approaching Milton and Tristan made a comment about not being able to see Pigeon House yet. I let him know that Didthul was the Indigenous name for Pigeon House, and that it meant 'Woman's Breast', which I said it looked more like than a Pigeon House, telling him that it was named that by Captain Cook. We turned towards Pigeon House, at 'The Heritage Bakery' in Milton, telling Tristan that the pies there were pretty average.

As we drove the roads out to Pigeon House, Tristan again made a comment about the extreme winds while he pointed out the roads covered with leaves and debris. I told him it would be fine and I started to get excited by the walk, blowing my nose and beginning to get prepped. 

We rounded a corner as I took some photos in preparation for my blog post, but while I was looking out the window when Tristan said "Here's something you can get a photo of."

Tristan pulled over and death stared me. "You didn't check?" He asked.
"Why would I check? I never check I just assume walks are open."

We hopped out of the car for some fresh air, and I told him we could just find another local hike to do seeing as we had come all this way. I still had the 'All Trails' app installed on my phone since downloading it during my Saddleback Mountain walk. Walks started popping up all over the place and I named one and Tristan quickly put in the address to that and said that was the one we were going to do while I continued to read him more options. "No, we're already going there." He said and we began to drive to Tarbourie Village.

I commented that everything was trying to stop us doing Pigeon House and that we should have listened to the signs, from the cold to me getting sick, to feeling constipated, to the extreme winds, to not getting any sleep and freezing all night, and finally actually having the walk closed.

We followed a dirt road I had never been down before in my life and soon ended up at Tarbourie Village pulling up in a suburban street, with a sand road that the app said not to go down, instead telling us to begin our walk by heading right past a gate and behind the houses.

While doing a little research (mostly into Indigenous History in Meroo) I learned that Meroo National Park was relatively new, as it had previously been State Forest, but after the severe damage from the bushfires it was made a national park in an attempt to help regenerate the land.

I noticed a house on our right had placed up a constructed artwork (I suppose?), of Abalone Shells. I mentioned something about how I thought harvesting too much abalone was illegal and that I wouldn't be showcasing it off on my property. I then asked Tristan if he had ever tried an abalone. He hadn't and I replied that we might try it one day.

Tristan turned around as I was way behind him, he gave me a 'why are you being so slow' speech and I told him it was a 5km walk I was just taking my time and enjoying the scenery.

There seemed to be a lot of trails branching from the path, and I just kept pointing and being like 'let's go down that way' like it didn't matter. Tristan got anal and grumpy with me, once more bringing up the constant bushwhacking and inability to find the right trail of when we walked Mount Jellore.

Tristan made us stop and took out his phone looking at the All Trails app, making sure we took the right ways.

We came to a first proper fork in the path and the app seemed to tell us we weren't on the right path anyway, so we followed the left path heading more towards the beach, which seemed to be the right way to go.

The app continued to tell us both we were way off the path, and I wondered if it was simply our GPS. "Why would both of ours tell us we are off the path in the same place?" Tristan questioned. We shrugged and continued.

I commented that this was less of a hiking trail and more of like a local beach track, similar to the local ones I would take Orla on a walk through over at Windang Beach near the area I live. Which I stated I would never blog about.

The track soon veered left and opened us up on the beach with a view of Crampton Island on our left.

Tristan facing south towards Stokes Island

I wondered where we were on a map (checking Google Maps on my phone) which is how I learned the name of these Islands. I thought it would be cool to walk out to Crampton Island and explore it, but commented that Stokes Island didn't really seem like an Island, more just some rocks sticking out from the beach.

I questioned to Tristan if we should go back and try and find the path, but he was already walking down the beach. I said we would walk down and see what was around the bend and if there was no sign of the walk we could head back to the track and take another way.

As we continued down, we noticed the built wooden staircase leading back up, and assumed we were on the right track, and if not, we would follow it regardless.

Smile!

We walked up the stairs as Tristan received a work phone call. I continued ahead as I reached the grass picnic area on top, I headed towards the table before noticing a big Kangaroo eyeing me off from across the field.

"I'll fight ya!"

I continued to the picnic bench, keeping an eye on him as he soon hopped away into the bush, I sat down and waited for Tristan to finish his work phone call.

There seemed to be a path to our right (facing away from the beach), I sat enjoying the view over the water, as Tristan finished his work phone call and approached me. "Sorry about the work call dude." He said. 
"Nah, you're alright." I replied, thinking to myself that the way I actually speak was so much more 'Aussie' in vernacular than the way I processed thoughts in my mind or how I write.

I told him that I thought there was a path along the right side of the bushes, but that I was not sure it was the track. He shrugged, saying that we would follow it anyway, and suddenly our roles had flipped and he was the one who didn't care if we were going the right way.

Just as we reached the shade of the trees in the image above the track split left and right. I looked down the track on the left and could see a sign pointing the way to Sunburnt Beach Camping Area.

I didn't even notice the Kangaroo, blending into the scenery until he started hopping down the track and out of sight. I mentioned to Tristan that when we had looked at the All Trails app, the track seemed to skirt around, and never go to the campground, so we continued on along the left trail.

Tristan began to perk up and get a bit more talkative, and we began chatting before the trail came out onto a road right in front of a toilet block. Tristan was psyched to get to do a poo as I wandered around in circles with a walking stick, that I had picked up prior to first reaching the beach.

Nothing more exciting than a photo of a road

When Tristan finished his business, I said that I thought we had to walk the way away from the camp ground once more, before Tristan got out the app and started saying that we needed to follow the road down to the campground. I didn't particularly care and didn't need to argue so I just started walking down the road with him.

The camping spots we walked past looked like ok spots, besides the lack of grass, as I'm not a fan of pitching a tent on rocky, hard soil. Tristan began another work call as I followed a path along wandering by all the different camp sites. As we approached the beach once more the path curved around to continue South, and I noticed a little path down to the beach that I decided to quickly walk down for a look while Tristan was on the phone (assuming the path to the beach was not the right way).

As I was halfway down the path I stopped in my tracks, noticing a Swamp Wallaby in front of me.

It saw me and quickly hopped away into the scrub. I looked out over the beach for a while before turning to head back to Tristan and noticing he was right behind me.

"Did you see that Swamp Wallaby?" He asked.

I told him I did and that I thought this track wasn't the right way, but he said we should walk down it anyway, again swapping who cares about which is the right way and who doesn't.

We walked along the sand as Tristan asked me how my mental health was going, aware of my recent issues with anxiety (which he witnessed first-hand at his, the night before, when his neighbour started chopping wood and the sound triggered an anxious response from me) and depression.

We continued discussing it while he gave me advice about what he thought while asking me questions as we crossed the sand and followed the rocks around the headland, admiring all the rockpools, bubble weed and rock formations.

"What's this gross orange stuff?" I asked.

Tristan shared his opinion that some of my depression may be stemming from career dissatisfaction and asked if I would ever get back into doing Bush Regeneration again. I told him I would never get a job doing it, because I would be unwilling to use most chemicals (such as Glyphosate), since my cancer. He told me that if I told him that, there would be no way he would hire me to do bush regen work. I said I believed you could do regen without spraying, as I found it to not be that effective. I referred to my own time working and talking about spraying things and having the glyphosate just fasten the lifecycle to go to seed faster and how we would spray massive areas and it wouldn't help at all. I said it felt like just spraying toxins around with no purpose compared to when I had worked with Green Army at Killalea State Park, drilling and filling African Olive which was an actually effective treatment. I said I wasn't against the use of chemicals that could be necessary, in that fashion.

Tristan began defending the use and saying that it just needed to be done right and the right chemicals needed to be used. We rounded the bend, and as I was watching my footing Tristan pointed out some Dolphins swimming off-shore.

He commented that it was a nice day and that seeing Dolphins was a positive. I agreed saying it had worked out well, exploring a place we never would have come to otherwise and that it was probably for the best to not be walking up Pigeon House while sick.

As we reached the sand I noticed a little lagoon in the distance, but also saw a staircase off the beach out the corner of my eye.

As we followed the path up, we assumed that the track we were following would now head back, as we passed a sign facing away from us I turned around to see we were at Termeil Beach.

As we followed on I noticed a tree with orange berries and tried to remember some of my plant knowledge, asking Tristan if it was Wombat Berry? He said it was a 'pittosporum undulatum'. He began saying they were a weed, well, not truly a weed, that some people liked them because they were returning places where they were back to rainforest, but he then began to start going on about how they create a monoculture and how it can be bad because nothing else grows and you will just get areas of them and nothing else growing. With my lack of sleep, I felt my eyes begin to glaze over and told him he would have to fill me in on it later because I wasn't in the right place to absorb any knowledge.

We came upon a information sign about Meroo National Park and camping at Termeil Point that we stopped to read. I commented that it would be cool to see some Middens which brought on the topic about me adding about the land on which the walk I blog about takes place. I said about all the different tribes and that there were Wodi Wodi in Dharawal and how I sometimes found it hard to be sure so I just acknowledged the main 'country' that the walk took place on, lest I stuff up and do the wrong thing.

We continued past some more campsites on our right, with some people camping, as I mentioned something about my blog.

"You're blogging about this?" Tristan asked, assuming that I wouldn't be.

"Yeah." I simply responded.

"Won't be a very long blog." He said.

"Good." I replied. "They don't all need to be, sometimes it's nice not to have to write so much."

As we continued, I could see bright blue from the left corner of my eyes and noticed a beautiful lake to my left and realised that must have led in to what I had thought was the lagoon.

As we continued on the trees cleared and I could see a path down to the lake. I asked Tristan if he wanted to walk down and he agreed, as we approached, we noticed a big rock, but from the distance we couldn't quite tell what it was and I asked if it was a Ram's head, before reaching closer and seeing that it was just a rock.

We stopped and admired the view of the lake that was quiet, serene and just peaceful. The wind was gentle here after a short while I told Tristan we would get a photo of the two of us, placing my phone down against the base of a tree and putting on a timer for 10 seconds.

I commented that it reminded me of some of the locations they would be placed at, in the survival TV series 'Alone'. Tristan mentioned he had been meaning to watch it. I began talking about how the show works and told him that if he was going to watch the recently aired Australian version, to at least wait until after watching the currently released US versions (general consensus among fans if that the Australian one was disappointing in comparison, and I didn't want him to be turned off). We made our way back uphill to the road and continued our way back, passing the last of the campgrounds.

Walking along I pointed out at least 3 Glossy Black-Cockatoo's sitting in the casuarina trees. Tristan got instantly excited saying that they were rare to see. I commented that the information sign we had based not too long ago had said they were in the area. He replied that just because they were in the area didn't mean we would necessarily see them, which to be fair is sound logic as you don't often see all the local animals on a walk.

I felt like Tristan's mood had greatly improved which made me feel a bit better about not being able to do the walk we planned, and feeling bad for having him drive so far.

We came upon a sign letting us know we were on the Tabourie Village Track, and we were glad that we were going the right way.

We continued the track along with Tristan at one point pointing out a Sundew.

"Drosera?" I asked, the name popping in my mind.
"I don't know the species name." Tristan said.

"Yeah, there's heaps of them at Barren Ground." I told him, before looking up and seeing that there were heaps here too.

"Looks like an infection." Tristan said.
"The Last of Us." I replied.

"Never played it."
"Neither, but I watched the TV Show. It was ok. Nothing special. If you've seen 'The Walking Dead' or any other Zombie type show or movie ever it was pretty much the same (yes I know they're not Zombies, but like, they totally are really).

We rounded the bend and the path began to get all muddy and sloppy. I looked up and saw the path ahead was covered with water.

"Damn." I said, as Tristan simply walked along a path that was to the left of it that I hadn't noticed.

Soon we appeared at the fork in the path before the beach were we had initially turned left and found ourselves coming out from the right side of that, knowing it was just the straight track back to the street where Tristan had parked.

As we got into the car for the long ride home, I commented that we could just do Pigeon House in July.

"I'm not doing it in the middle of Winter." Tristan responded.
"It's already the middle of Winter." I retorted.
"It's June." He said, "The start of Winter."
"What about August then?" I asked.
"I've got a lot on in August."
"Well, I'm overseas for the whole of September in Iceland." I said, with us agreeing Pigeon House would have to wait until October.

I was a little upset, wanting to do a pretty steep hike to test out my lung capacity before my next lung test (having lung damage from my chemotherapy), and I started to think of other steep challenging walks I could try to do before I had that test.

As we headed home we drove along the Princes Highway past Lake Tabourie where I commented that it looked like a beautiful spot. I told Tristan that travelling along the south coast reminded me of my childhood, reminiscing of the times we would travel down and stop in at those old fish and chip shops with the plastic strip curtains and how Dad would either buy us a Paddlepop or a Bubble O Bill ice cream. (I have a particular fond memory of the now discontinued Paddlepop Mud Puddle while spending time at Sussex Inlet).

He said it sounded like a good childhood. To which I simply replied, "Some of it."

We continued North past Dolphin Point and Burill Lake, both beautiful, and I questioned how we got so far South, saying the drive from Milton towards Pigeon House and then to Tarbourie Village had not felt like so long a drive. We finally came to Ulladulla as I looked out for 'Funland Ulladulla' having more good memories of going there as a kid. As we approached Milton I mentioned that there was always a big statue of a Dinosaur that always excited me as a kid (as a massive Dinosaur nerd). I wondered if it was still there, and it was, and as we drove past it I found that the memory of it was more impressive than the actual thing.

"Is that it?" Tristan questioned, "Doesn't look very good."
I agreed, but still have fond memories of just being excited by it as a kid.

I didn't take a photo and was unable to find a photo anywhere online of it. I convinced Tristan to stop in and get a pie at Milton's heritage bakery. "They're pretty average but it's one of those places you just have to get a pie from, like Robinson Pie Shop." I told him.

We went in and I had a look at their pie options, hoping for a chilli pie. None of the options stood out to be and with a price tag of $7 I decided against buying one while Tristan bought one with a coffee. As he sat to eat it I asked how it was. "Pretty average."

The more he ate the more he seemed to like it though, saying it was probably worth that price tag.

We continued home as I felt how sick and tired I was, as I had not been paying attention to my body on the walk. As Tristan dropped me on the street before pulling into his driveway, so I could jump in my car and go home to nap, he thanked me for the walk and said we would catch up soon, I agreed and said we would go see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny that was due to come out at the movies that week, before getting in my car and driving home with very tired eyes. 

I went in to work the next day and had to go home before lunch because I was just too sick and rundown. I managed to go in for the rest of the week but my cold continues even as I finish typing the end of this blog post on the next Sunday, but I can feel myself coming through the other side of it, and I look forward to a steep harder walk to test my lungs before my test.

If you have enjoyed this post, or my blog in general, please follow it, or like my page on facebook or follow me on Instagram. 

Thanks for reading! - Steven

Hoddles Track - Saddleback Mountain

 This walk takes place on Dharawal and Gandangarra Country

 Pre-blog Catch Up

Following my last walk and blog at Fairy Bower Falls I tried to organise another walk with Tristan, however we were very busy and finally locked in a date to go and do Didthul/Pigeon House Mountain on the 26th of June (which should be the next post after this). Meanwhile, a lot of time passed without actually doing any walks, or going on any adventures and I had things going on in my personally life that were triggering anxieties and severely affecting my mental health, which my Wife believe was partially due to trauma associated with my cancer diagnosis and treatment.

So on the 5th of May my Wife and I decided to take our Dog Orla camping, as we had planned to take her camping (and even booked and paid for a Dog friendly campground), before having to cancel because of my cancer. We found a Dog friendly area at Wingello State Park, and we organised time off work to go, with my Wife believing it might help with my declining mental health. The story of this camping trip I will share at the end of this blog post if you're interested (as it ended up being a much larger story than I had initially planned).

Hoddles Track - Saddleback Mountain

My friend's Stuart and Megan ended up messaging me, as the three of us had been meaning to go on another walk together for a while now, and I suggested Saddleback Mountain to them, having done it only once back on 7th August 2011, with my high school friend group (the same ones mentioned in my Kiama Coastal Disaster blog). my recollection of the walk was incredibly vague, and I could only really remember ending up along houses down near Foxground while my friend Nathan played John Butler Trio out on his phone to us and we ended up having to walk alongside the highway towards Gerringong, before catching a train into Kiama, and having to pay for a taxi up to Nathan's car at the top of Saddleback Mountain (which I had to pay for, and was unemployed at the time).

Footage from 7th August 2011

As soon as Stuart and Megan arrived at mine and I got into the car we instantly began discussing the new Zelda video game: Tears of the Kingdom, the two of them confessed that they had just had a two-week break from work and had spent most of their time playing it.

"Time well spent". I declared. As Stuart asked where we needed to go (with me not remembering the directions at all) and put Saddleback Mountain into his car GPS. We continued discussing Zelda and Zelda-isms about being to in the mindset of the game that you see things in real life and think about it in terms of the game controls and/or logic. I mentioned that I too had stayed up late the night before playing 'Tears of the Kingdom', and that the day before I had gone to Spiegeltent in Wollongong to see a Drag Show. (As my Wife loves RuPaul's Drag Race and Drag Queens). I commented that I had enjoyed it, being my first drag show, but that I preferred the more comedy aspects to the lip sync singing and stuff.

Stuart's GPS started taking us through Albion Park Rail, getting us to turn right as we passed McDonald's on the highway. I thought it was trying to take us out through Jamberoo and told him to ignore it and turn around and just follow the highway to Kiama before adding Saddleback Mountain into the GPS on my phone and directing him once we reached Kiama.

We reached the top, pulling up, and hopping out of the car and realising that the wind outside was absolutely chilling and we all commented on how freezing it was. I quickly ran down to the sign to snap a photo with Stuart and Megan in the background commenting to Stuart he would be in the opening photo.

We walked through to the viewing platform to our right with a family already there and we looked out over the Illawarra, while I made a joke about the serenity of the steelworks billowing smoke in the distance.

The top of Zelda-ism in real life was brought up again and I commented about how when 'Breath of the Wild' the predecessor of 'Tears of the Kingdom' came out I had mentioned finding a Korok in my blog at Belmore Falls. But mentioning I also had a lot more time to play that game because six months after it came out, I broke my ankle so was home from work for that whole time playing it. 

We continued up the path looking for the start of the walk and getting a photo at the Rotary Lookout just to the left of the fire trail you follow to begin the walk.

The fire trail you follow to begin the walk

As there was no sign marker indicating this was the start, and I hadn't fully researched the walk and could scarcely remember doing it I suggested we look down in case it began at the picnic area just down from the toilet so we walked down and across to the picnic area that had markers for the Saddleback Mountain Southern Lookout Walk.

It was a short walk down to a lookout with a view of Seven Mile Beach and Coolangatta Mountain.

We walked back up and headed back towards the fire trail, the only thing in sight that could possibly be the starting location of the walk (while also looking on our phones for any information on the start of the walk, with one website mentioning green marker poles). As soon as we reached the horizon of what we could see of the fire trail from where we began it began to dip and head downhill, following it down to a gate blocking random cars we noticed the small wooden green pole next to it and assumed we were on the right path.

As we continued past this there was very loose gravel over the dirt track and we progressed slowly as Megan didn't want to slip and fall, though all three of us slipped on the loose gravel at various times, none of us took a fall.

Don't fall guys. I'll be watching. Aaaaalways watching.

To our left I could see old stone farm fences overgrown in the bush, and told them they were built by convicts (though I have no idea if they were), simply because when I had worked at Killalea State Park for Green Army doing Conservation and Land Management we had cleared lantana back at least six metres to reveal similar stone fencing that had been built by convicts and our work group was featured in a the newspaper. (I also told Stuart and Megan this story).

There was a group of plants on our right as we continued heading down the path that I wasn't able to identify but I point it out now because right next to it on our way back from the walk we heard a Lyrebird just here, and it was cycling through various bird noises, it was like someone playing them on a loud stereo, much louder than the actual birds would sound, (as Lyrebirds are able to mimic most other sounds), it did the Whipbird sound, Crow sound, Magpie sound and even Kookaburra noises cycling through and repeating certain ones.

It was just at the top of this hill (as we returned)

As we continued down the track thinned and we could see a fallen down green sign post. We all commented about how the track might not be very well used.

After a short walk further downhill, we came to a clearing with powerlines heading both North and South, before the walk now began uphill. I turned around and you could see Saddleback Mountain clearly from where we were.

I commented that we could again see Seven Mile Beach looking south from the powerline clearing and Stuart jokingly stated, "I wonder why it's called that?" Before we began joking that it was six point eight, mile beach or seven point two, mile beach. 

Megan mentioned One Mile Beach, which she said wasn't one mile long, but was named so because it was one mile from the post office, which Stuart and I found pretty amusing.

Just a short walk up the hill the fire trail finely has a sign indicating Hoddles Track, inwards to our left while the fire trail continued uphill, with another gate blocking vehicle access.

I joked to Stuart and Megan that this was probably the start of Hoddles Track which was apparently a 7km walk, and I joked that the 7km started at this point (although I actually have no idea and I've never much cared for distances or elevation and I have had people often comment on some of my posts asking, which I read, shrug, and never respond to).

The walk started uphill and the scenery of it instantly reminded me of walking up Bong Bong Pass.

As we continued uphill the trees began to thin giving us a view of farmland on our left and you could see the stonewalls on either side. 

We reached a flat clearing, next to a barbed wire farm fence with a clear view over the Illawara once more and I pointed out a section of fence completely coasted in Cape Ivy.

The track was level for a while and we soon came to a tree across the track, which I told Stuart and Megan I had seen complaints about while I had tried Googling the start of the walk when we were on top of Saddleback Mountain. We simply walked around the right side of it and the track soon came to a small metal fence but a path to the left of it with a fallen down Hoddles Track sign.

Which, now is a good time for me to break up the walk with some history! Hoddle Track was named for surveyor Robert Hoddle, and the following is an excerpt from the Kiama Library website:

"In 1830 the plan was to open up a route from the lush pastures in the Southern Highlands to Kiama Harbour, to enable a faster route for produce to be shipped to Sydney and to avoid the slow overland journey. Robert Hoddle was the surveyor who was set this task. Hoddle set off in the July of that year, starting at Wingecarribee Swamp and surveyed the Illawarra Escarpment in an attempt to find a way to Saddleback Mountain and down to Kiama.

Hoddle wrote in his diary that the rainforest of the escarpment was "the most formidable brush". Hoddle had a team of 20 convict men, pack horses, bullock teams and drays. The path that Hoddle created went throught sub-tropical jungle and was described as rough for both man and beast and only suitable for pack horses. You can walk part of Hoddle’s track today. It is sign posted from the western end of the car park on Saddleback Mountain and will take you to Barren Grounds. The track will take around 4hours return. The views from the forested Norrinan Mountain to Kiama and the Illawarra coastline are worth the rough, steep trek.

The surveyor was of immense importance in the new colony, expanding topographical knowledge, and planning roads, towns and property boundaries. From the 1920’s no land could be leased or owned unless it had been surveyed first. Robert Hoddle was an experienced surveyor and draughtman and was also an explorer and artist, whose paintings document the area around Kiama as well as many other parts of NSW and Victoria before white settlement.

Hoddle completed the survey of Sydney after he arrived in 1823, and then went on to be the Surveyor-General of the new colony of Victoria in 1851. In addition to the work around Kiama and the Illawarra Escarpment, Hoddle surveyed and explored the Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven River region, and south coast down to Moruya, was possibly the first white man to climb both Pigeon House and Mt Budawang. Hoddle also surveyed the area around Canberra, as well as Bathurst, Liverpool and Berrima marked the northern route through the Blue Mountains."

Which upon researching and learning he was the first white man to climb Didthul/Pigeon House, I found pretty topical considering I was planning to walk it again the following weekend.

The clearing had a fire trail heading on the left. Megan asked if that was the way, I had a look down but didn't want to walk to far down it as I wasn't sure that was the right way so we continued straight along the path. I snapped a picture on my phone commenting at how green the photo looked considering it had no saturation, as I don't like to filter or edit photos I take (even if they don't accurately represent how the scenery looked to the human eye).

We commented a few times about how dark the clouds looked, wondering if we might get rained on.

I literally don't recall any of this walk, I told Stuart and Megan as we continued along. Megan wasn't surprised. "You did do it 12 years ago." She said.

As we continued along the trail we came upon a sign saying there was no track through to Barren Grounds, which is where you need to go to actually get to the viewing platform at Saddleback Trig. (In my mind the end of this walk would take us to a Trig Station similar to what was on top of Mount Jellore, I have no idea why I thought that though)

I pointed out to that the plant surrounded this sign was native raspberry 'Rubus parvifolius'.

Continuing up there were now trees all over the path, nothing too strenuous but just involving some light climbing or ducking around to continue on.

At the top of this little incline the path was pretty overgrown, and you had to actually squat and duck through some branches to continue along.

We continued past some boulders on our right before getting a pretty marvelous view south over Seven Mile Beach once more.

We rounded the corner and came to an awesome section of rocky cliff-face on our right, with a rock protruding that I commented looked like a Turtle.

Turtle Rock

Fun fact, Turtle Rock is a dungeon in three Zelda games

We admired it for a bit, with Megan taking a candid photo of me doing so, and commenting how it looked like the most staged photo ever, I replied "How do you think I feel when I take photos of myself on solo walks?" and we continued over some more fallen trees that were over the path.

As Stuart finished crossing the fallen trees I asked the two of them if they wanted to stop for lunch, as we were in such a lovely and perfect spot, they agreed and I sat down on a rock and began munching down on my sandwich. As Megan opened the 1 bag they had brought, she asked Stuart where the food was. Apparently, it was in their other bag they had left in the car, as I was down taking a photo of the sign at the start of the walk, Stuart had asked Megan if she wanted to bring anything else and she had said the one bag would be fine, unaware that their food was in their other pack. I felt guilty, eating my sandwich, with them telling me not to worry about it.

The conversation once again became about Zelda, talking about different play styles, and I how they had spent two weeks binge playing it. I said that if you're not out on a walk, or doing some travel or adventure, playing Zelda was the next best thing. Which is why I loved escape rooms, as they sort of felt being in a live Zelda scenario, reminding them that we still needed to travel to Sydney to do a Jumanji themed escape room together. Stuart asked me about if we had a group gaming night playing Dungeon and Dragons (I have never played but after we all saw the movie together my Wife and I agreed we would with them), if we would like a normal game or a Zelda themed one. I commented that we should probably do normal as my Wife doesn't really know Zelda related things. However, I commented that I had banned myself from playing D&D with Stuart until he had finished my Steventure logo.

Draft logo, actually inspired by old Zelda artwork showing 'Dueling Peaks'

Megan told Stuart to hurry up and finish it and he told her that she needed to force him, because he's bad at motivating himself.

I finished my sandwich and said we should press on because I didn't want to take to long, aware that the two of them might be hungry, mentioning my prior walk at Fairy Bower Falls I had forgotten to take water and not taken food. I turned to follow the track that looked like cobbled stone before Stuart pointed out a piece of lichen shaped like Australia.

We continued onwards around the bend, as I pointed to a little tree that had decided to grow on a boulder.

Dirt, who needs dirt?

The next section of the walk had the most trees over the track and involved some pretty ungraceful maneuvering on my part.

As we continued through this section I stopped on the tracks as there was a little bird with a yellow belly perched on a horizontal tree across the path. I tried to take a photo but at the distance I was at by the time I tried to zoom in he had flown away. I commented that it sort of looked like a Wren, and that it was probably just called a 'Yellow Bellied-Wren' joking about the names of some birds we had learned from their board game 'Wingspan'. Though looking it up when I got home, it might have been a 'Golden Whistler'. I told them I wanted to get a bird book, just of birds in the Illawarra, so I could mark off ones I saw while on walks. Megan told me she knew I would get obsessed and actively seek them out as I got to the remaining few in the book. I agreed that would probably be the case.

As we finished traversing through the area of fallen trees we came to a little pond and sandy section of the path, and I commented that it was a weird section to find sand, although it was near water, so it was probably from rain causing it to flow downhill, eroding rocks and other things over time.

"Thirsty Stuart?"

The track now began uphill once more and became very thin so that the bushes on either side brushed against us as we followed the path along.

The path soon split in two, each path looking like it could be the right way. I followed the one on our right first but saw that it began heading down after a while, so we turned back and followed the left path leading us to a lookout at the top of Noorinan Mountain.

We stopped for a rest and some water and started talking about Zelda and Zelda lore, as well as fan theories regarding 'Tears of the Kingdom' and its placement in the Zelda timeline. Stuart and Megan couldn't say too much as they had played much more than me, but I began spewing out my own personal theories about how it's meant be the 'founding of Hyrule' but I mentioned how that didn't work with the established lore of the game 'Skyward Sword', and gave my theory that although it was a founding of a Hyrule, it wasn't the original founding, with that founding and ancient past still being long after the other games. Stuart and Megan couldn't say too much to me without spoiling anything, but Megan mentioned she needed to get more into the Zelda lore (and if you've never played Zelda, this is all probably gibberish). We discussed some of the fan theories we had read prior to the games release including ones about Demise and Ganondorf as well as the symbol of the Ouroboros and how the games nature my be cyclical, but I digress.

We decided we had better continue on and get to the end of the walk (unaware that where we had been sitting on Noorinan Mountain was actually the end of the walk, as I was still expecting a Trig Station).

We ended up following a bunch of random trails through the bush atop Noorinan, some points just bushwhacking because I was desperate to reach the finish and not have an uncomplete walk due to and overgrown on unmaintained walk.

I'm sure this is the right way guys, I promise.

After wandering through thick bush, I began looking on my phone for answer regarding the walk and ended up installing the app 'All Trails' which I had so far been unwilling to use because I like exploring a walk with no prior knowledge. I did find some other people's hiking blogs, but they seemed to be severely lacking in information. I found that we had long passed the end of the walk, discovering that it was the Noorinan lookout.

We tried to find a trail back to the actual trail but again it was the blind leading the blind. We somehow found our way back to it and were soon at the section with the pond and sand where I stopped Stuart and Megan as we watched a Lyrebird in the bush as it ran across the path. We followed it up the hill on top of the area with the pond for an extra explore before we headed back to the start of the walk.

We passed a couple on the way down, and I asked if they had done the walk before. They responded that they hadn't and I let them know that there was no signage indicating the end and told them it was Noorinan Lookout, mentioning that we had to look it up. I commented to Stuart and Megan as we passed them that this was completely different than the walk I had done in 2011, and that myself and my friends must have followed that other fire-trail down to Foxground.

As I waited for Stuart and Megan to cross the fallen trees just past Turtle Rock I quickly scrambled up the rocks close by it while Megan snapped a photo.

We made it back to the car but decided to stop in Kiama for Stuart and Megan to grab some coffee and food while making plans to go for a walk again soon.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Extra tidbits! - aka Camping at Wingello

As we packed, I was keen to get away, but also knew it could potentially be difficult with Orla as due to my cancer along with the Covid-19 lockdowns in Australia we were never able to properly socialise her and she had developed Dog anxiety and reactivity herself, but I was still hoping for a good experience.

As we made our way up the highlands, we stopped at the toilet block in Robertson (where I had filmed the guy mowing in the fog on my Fairy Bower post). There was a sign put up by a Wingacaribee Council Cleaner about the toilets being cleaned (but when you gotta go you gotta go). 

I went in first to the male toilets while my Wife kept Orla on her lead, and as soon as I walked to the toilet cubicle (not being a fan of urinals, no thank you), I saw that it was completely and utterly covered in diarrhea. No I'm not exaggerating, it was like a shit-bomb had gone off. I quickly walked out and used the urinal much too my own dismay, while the council employee came in behind me to begin cleaning, saying nothing to me. As I left, and tried to find my Wife who was walking around the toilet block with our Dog, another man entered the male toilet. I soon caught my Wife and took my Dog walking out into the field as my Wife went to enter the female bathroom the employee who had said nothing to either men, had a go at her for not reading the sign about being closed for maintenance. This left my Wife shaken and taken aback as apparently, we were meant to all use the disabled bathroom in the middle but his incredibly rude and aggressive tone frightened her, when old 'Terry Toughie' as I like to call these men, had said nothing at all to the men.

We got back in the car and I told my Wife to write a complaint to council as there was no reason the man simply couldn't have said "Hey sorry the toilets are out of order are you ok to use this one?", not that hard and not being aggressive towards small women could go a long way in our world.

We continued on making our way through the highlands (which I always complement as it's a part of Australia I genuinely love), before finally arriving at our campground that we had never been to before. 

We pulled up at the mostly empty campground, other than two men packing up their mountain bikes. We put Orla on her lead before taking a walk around the campground with a lot of signs around the dirt roads saying that they were closer areas for authorised personnel only. We looked around for which spot we thought would be the best camping area for ourselves before beginning to unpack and build the tent we had bought years ago and never once assembled, which was a little bit of a cluster, partially because of our lack of reading the instructions. 

The spot we had selected had a table and we tied Orla up, giving her a Kong with a dental stick inside to keep her occupied as we put the tent together.

After some arguing and back and forth we finished the tent and proceeded moving items from the car to the tent or the table.

We then decided to take Orla on a walk around to explore her surroundings so she could get a feel for the area.

After walking around the campground with her and letting her sniff it out, we decided to go into the tent with her to see how she would go inside.

She seemed like she was going to be comfortable inside and we thought we might get lucky going on a weekday to get the campground to ourselves. But I was very dubious of this, as every time I have thought with while camping some weirdo had always rocked up last minute. For example, the last time we had camped at Carrington Falls, before becoming engaged. It was about 9 at night, we were all set up, the only ones in the campground, I had relaxed and had a beer (I was on my Green P's at the time), and someone on a motorbike turned up. Did a loop around the empty campground before pulling up and setting up a tent right next to us. 

"Don't worry, I'm not a ranger." He said, smiling. 

I wished it was, because we had actually paid the campground fee. We whispered to each other about how this guy had a whole fucking campground and decided to set up right next to us. As the night went on we began getting the wafting of chemical smells, like the chlorine of an indoor pool, before deciding it was suss as and slowly and silently dismantled our tent and left in the middle of the night. Luckily, I wasn't pulled over by police and breath tested because I'd had those few beers, but I have often had experiences of camping trips being wrecked (between degenerates being noisy, doing burnouts or just being creepy) so I tried not to get my hope up.

After hanging in the tent with Orla I cooked us up some sausages for lunch, saving the rest for dinner. Afterwards we did a little walk around to collect some firewood, before letting Orla have a walk around to explore off-leash as there was no one else in the area.

As it grew later in the day heading into the evening the temperature began to drop and we dressed Orla in her snood to keep her warm.

I had brought my magnesium and flint I had bought when I was in between rounds of chemotherapy and at home recovering (as I had gotten really into the survival series 'Alone' and binged watched it while recovering), as I wanted to attempt getting the fire going using this. While I was attempting to do it a man arrived on the opposite side to our campground with a Dog, and we assumed he was going to camp the night. However, he just began walking around with his Dog off lead, which was really setting Orla off and sending her into a panic due to her anxiety. The guy apologised, but kept getting unnecessarily close to our campground with his Dog off leash, as dusk arrived.

While dealing with Orla panicking and my Wife getting stressed out by both Orla behaving like this, and this guy sort of stalking around our camp with his Dog off leash, I soon gave up on using the flint and just used some matches to get the fire going.

As night fell and this man continued wandering around the bush with a torch, with his off-leash Dog right by our campground, I ended up having to just put Orla in the back of the car while I got dinner started, with my Wife worried the dude was some creeper or an Ivan Milat character as he kept doing loops down by the stream right by our area. I tried to alleviate her fears saying he was probably some sort of ecologist just looking at something in the area and he probably came all the time (I had no idea, but it was all I could think of to explain away his actions other than the guy being a fucking weirdo).

Eventually after a few hours since arriving, the man got in his car with his Dog and left. As I went to the car to let Orla back out with us, I found her asleep in the back. We ate the rest of the sausages for dinner, and I had some non-alcoholic beers (I occasionally still drink alcohol, mostly stout but have tried to switch to non-alcoholic due to my cancer) while chilling out by the fire, and enjoying the light from the moon, glowing over the pines. As the temperature continued to drop and the fire continued to burn away my piles of sticks and branches, we decided to move into the tent to cuddle Orla and do some reading (I was attempting Moby-Dick at the time but ended up giving up just shy of halfway, as it was super boring and I was only readying it because I was going to see a Lano and Woodley comedy show inspired by Moby-Dick.)

The night began to get freezing cold, and we realised we had not adequately packed enough to keep us warm, and so with Orla cushioned between us we shivered through the frosty night. We were up before dawn, just unable to sleep because of the penetrative chills. I sat for hours waiting for the kettle to boil some water for us to have cup noodles for breakfast and it was a very large kettle and I probably put in more water than needed.

Soon a lady rocked up with a van full of Dogs and she called out that she had a bunch of Dogs that were 'friendly'. Asking us if Orla would be alright. I said she was fine because she was on lead and that we had her under control, and she would be fine as long as none of the Dogs rushed her or ran up to her. The woman paused for a bit, before saying "Oh they probably will." But she just opened her door and let them all out anyway, (absolutely infuriating my Wife who had to retreat into the tent with Orla, and still continues to vent about people like this woman). Who walked off down one of the closed tracks with all the Dogs.

 After hours of waiting, it was well and truly day daytime as the water was finally hot enough to make it before having ran completely out of gas by having it on so long for breakfast. We ate the noodles in the tent with my Wife seeing having no gas, and all the stress with Orla as a reason to only camp the one night, which I agreed to as it was a bit much for her and she had tried at night to keep getting into the car (we believe as she was ready to go home). I said we would enjoy the day up there and take Orla for a big walk while the sun got rid of the moisture all on the outskirts of the tent as I didn't want to have to back it away all wet.

So, we set off down a trail with Orla to explore.

After a couple of hours of walking we returned to the campground and luckily the woman's van was gone. We proceeded to pack away the tent and camping equipment (which was probably more of an ordeal than setting up). Before beginning the drive home. Unfortunately, the camping trip wasn't all I needed to magically alleviate my anxiety issues which only continued to worsen, to the point where I have started to see a psychologist to deal with my anxiety issues, which is ongoing.