Kingfisher Pool

    This walk takes place on Dharawal Country

Life had been continuing, which as life goes on seems to be at an incredibly rapid pace. Like blink and the years are gone pace. I wasn't sure I was going to get another walk in with so much going on in life, but the new change of career back into Bush Regeneration work was helping curb a little of my lust for the outdoors and adventures, as well as every now and then an animal encounter.

However, soon the Australian Day long weekend arrived (my thoughts on the political aspects of this can be read on another post). My plans for the Saturday were locked in. I was going to live stream Alex Honnold Free Solo the Taipei 101 Skyscraper (508m tall) live on Netflix.
However, the event was postponed by the rain, so I tinkered around doing some gardening and then played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the rest of the day, tuning in again on the Sunday to attempt the watch.

I started my Sunday morning with a climb at the local bouldering gym, burning off some energy from sitting around all Saturday as well as making sure I don't turn into a hugely grotesque slob.
I showered off once I got home and finished off reading Bob Brown's book: Defiance.
My alarm was set for 11:40am as the climb was to commence at 12.
This time it was a go ahead, and I watched nervously, sweaty hands. I didn't want to see anything happen to a hero of mine, as vivid memories of my dad's cliff fall replayed in my mind. Surely that wouldn't happen to Alex, who is an absolute professional.
My fears were for naught, as of course, the man, the myth, the legend, Alex Honnold completed the free solo of Taipei 101, the highest free solo climb of an urban structure in history.

Pumped from that, I felt the need to get out of the house for a little adventure. I also knew I had an upcoming opportunity to do some writing on this blog, so I decided on a walk I didn't think would be all time consuming, and that I could probably quickly churn out a blog to after I had done it.

The walk: to Kingfisher Pool in Waterfall, NSW.
The first and only time I had done this walk was all the way back on 27th September 2011 (which I can date accurately thanks to the creepy stalking mechanisms of social media.), which I will talk about later on.

That night I went to bed, and whether from the heat, or the adrenaline lingering in my system from watching the climb, or from not getting out and burning off energy that day, or intrusive thoughts or all of the above. I tossed and turned in the bed, unable to sleep, getting more and more annoyed and frustrated that I could not fall asleep, knowing I wanted to get up early and head out on this walk.

The next morning went just as badly, after 4 hours of broken sleep I awoke with a painful and stiff back, right between my shoulder blades. Whether, from climbing the previous morning, or from not sleeping well and all the tossing and turning (the likely culprit). Next my Wife and I got into a bit of a disagreement about a bunch of pent-up issues that I won't get into. Needless to say, by the time I set off it was after 10am. I rubbed some deep heat on my back in an effort to help with the pain, filled up my water bottle, packed a sandwich and a piece of fruit and set off on the drive towards Waterfall.

As I pulled off the Princes Highway the sharp turn onto Bundarra Street, I tried to recollect where I had walked the last time, and debated whether or not to drive over Kooraban Street to park in the Waterfall train station car park, (where you'd usually start along the Couranga walking track towards Uloola falls, another walk I had done many times over the years, and have meant to go back to write about).
Instead, I decided to continue up Warabin Street, parking on the side of the road just before Yanagang Street.

I remembered walking up this street with the friend I had done this walk with, (we had either caught a bus or a train up as at the time neither of us could drive, I know we definitely had a bus on the way back replacing trains but cannot recall on the way up back then).

I began to walk down the street, where many cars were arriving.
'Maybe I made a mistake coming today.' I thought to myself, but many of the people who arrived went into the houses nearby, assumingly for Australia Day get-togethers.
A couple walked past, calling out to their pets that were walking, a few dogs, and a cat also walking along coming when they called which blew my mind. The cat came when they called, but came around the side of a parked car on the side of the road, coming towards me head on, it saw me and gave a little panic rushing away to be near the owners who were walking on the grass council strip, heading away from me.
"Sorry mate." The guy said to me in regard to the cat.
"All good." I responded, still surprised to see the cat going along like a dog and coming when called to.

I admired all the bushland across the road from the houses, all the eucalypts and acacias at one point a little seat in the shade underneath them.

I finally approached the end of the road, ready to begin the walk.
'I probably could have parked a little closer.' I thought myself.
I noticed the main train towards Kingfisher Pool along the Bullawarring Track heading into the bush on my left, but also slightly on my right a little path through the bush with a signpost featuring a picture of a Koala in front of it, which I stopped to read. It was basically a warning about why not to bring Dogs into National Parks, listing a few of the reasons why and saying that having them on a lead didn't make a difference. Likewise, the gate blocking the opening to the start of the walk hosted signs about no domestic animals.

I followed the track down past all the Sydney Red Gums. It only continued on a short way before the track split with a sign point left down behind all the houses towards the Kingfisher Pool in 1.6km and also Lake Eckersley in apparently 6.5km, but I didn't know which track led to that and saw no further signage along the rest of my walk (looking it up afterwards leads me to believe in is along the Pipeline trail which I will have to explore in the future).

Right, led to the Mooray Track, or was the Mooray Track as I found out afterwards at 0.3km in length.

I set off down that trail, which headed downhill, winding around until I came to a stone outcrop with more Sydney Redgums, their bodies twisting, and winding and making them an awesome sight to behold.

Sydney Red Gum (Angophora costata)

I couldn't see a clear way, so I just followed the stone outcrop and continued forward.

I very quickly realised this was not the way, as there was no trail. I backtracked a little and soon saw they trail continuing off the side downhill.

I made quick time getting down to the bottom (so quick that when I reached this section upon my return, I had forgotten how far down I had come and was shocked at my ascent back to the top).

I admired all the native flowers in bloom as I followed the sandy trail along, enjoying my time out in nature in spite of my lack of sleep and aching backpain.

The tree on the right sort of looks like and upside-down Octopus

I soon came to another stone outcrop; this time someone had the foresight to place a pole with an arrow pointing off the side making sure you didn't miss the path.

My age is starting to show, and so is my nearly 10-year-old shirt

Many of the Red Gums were shedding bark like crazy, and it lay around the base of some trees in massive piles. 
'I wonder why they do that?' I thought to myself, later looking it up and learning that they do it for a few reasons.
1. Self-cleaning. Getting rid of things like fungi, insects and parasites.
2. Fire adaptation. They shed bark in thin sheets, not long ribbons, which leaves. behind smooth, fire-resistant bark underneath.
3. Growth and healing. Like a snake shedding its skin this allows the tree to grow cleanly.
4. Temperature and sun control. The fresh pink bark reduces sun stress during hot summers

I trudged along the track, which soon came onto a larger track heading left and right. I thought to myself that it didn't really look like a track, but more like a path made my rainwater running down the hill. As there was no signage giving me any direction I decided to head left, downhill, as the logic I used if I'm heading to a 'pool' the likely place for water to pool up would be 'downstream'. 
I began walking along, thinking to myself that nothing about this walk seemed familiar. It had been over 10 years since I last walked it, and I had only done it once and not written it down (which I find really helps me remember my walks easier), so there were obvious reasons for not remembering.
As I thought this, I saw a little movement, out of the corner of my eye, maybe it was movement, or maybe my brain just registered it in my peripherals. I jumped back with an audible swear as I realised I had walked very close to a red belly black snake. As I jumped back to that safe distance, quickly pulling my phone from my pocket (like a cowboy to a gunfight was my speed), to capture a photo or video of the snake, unfortunately it slithered off too quickly and had vanished into the heath.

I should expect snakes, as I have encountered them often, but I think it's being caught off guard that leaves a lingering feeling of disquiet in one's body. When I was a young kid living at home (I'm talking early years, preschool and early primary school), there was a spot of carpet near the door of my bedroom. At night, this particular pieces of carpet, was darker than the rest, and made it look like a large dark snake lying in wait.
While I knew there was no snake, there, it would freak me out and I would often double check it to make sure it hadn't moved, even jumping over that spot if I needed to leave to go to the bathroom. Maybe I was a weird kid, maybe I was a scared kid, I can't psychoanalyse myself too much but needless to say I think I have a healthy fear and admiration of snakes now, defiantly better than a lot of people.

This path I was on levelled out, and there was a trail now going down on my right, or continuing directly ahead, again no signs to direct me.

I followed my previous logic and turned right to keep heading downhill. As this track levelled out it reached another thin trail, heading off to the right. I followed this along, mind on the lookout for snakes as the ferns next to the path brushed against the sides of my legs. The trail continued until I came across a thin gumtree in a fork in the road. I decided to head left this time, assuming it would take me further down towards the waterway.

I ducked underneath a gum tree that was half hanging over the path and along to an area beside a creek where the ground was litter with fallen leaves and sticks, that kept giving me heart palpitations every time I thought I had accidentally not registered one and seen a snake, but they were all just sticks playing with my mind.

'I hope I'm going the right way'. I thought to myself, as I had followed numerous paths with no direction. This trail flowed left and right, weaving in and out alongside the creek before turning it at a segment where it was obvious I had to cross to the other side.

Looking up the creek

Looking down

I turned right, heading the direction the creek was flowing, and now following it along from the opposite side. The trail along here was loose sand, which kicked up as I walked getting into the back of my shoes.

The trail followed alongside the creek, as I listened to the sound of the running water and the birds chirp around me, soon it opened up onto another large track, wide enough for a car to drive along that head to my left and to my right.

I turned around getting a photo facing up the creek, where you could see the little track that I had exited from on the far right of the photo.

The creek ahead

To the right, heading back uphill, there was a sign pointing in the direction I had came from saying it was the Bullawarring Track that I had believed that I was on, heading back to Waterfall Train Sation.

'Guess I didn't go the right way'. I thought to myself

I wondered what was up the road that was on my left, as I went to take a photo, to people came around the bend just into the shot.

I noticed just up ahead, another track, heading down the creek, just off this path, with a sign pointing towards Kingfisher Pool in just 875m, so set off down the trail.

A short way along the track I heard voices, and a group off attractive blondes in activewear came around the corner. I stepped to the side, allowing them to pass. A few thanked and acknowledged me, I nodded to some, said 'all good' one said good day and I cordially responded, moving on along the trail as soon as they had passed.

Occasional rocky outcrops lined the trail, and you would step up them as the path elevated like walking up and occasional step. The further along I got, the wetter the path seemed to get until it got to a point where you were simply walking around the edges to not get mud up the sides of your shoes (obviously this depends on season and amount of recent rain).

I rounded a bend onto a long straight stretch of the track, were at the end before it twisted again, I could see a man and a woman in the bush off on my right, phones up, silently filming or photographing something.
I slowed down, curious to see what they were looking at.

'Maybe a Goanna?' I thought to myself, encountering that same scenario while bushwalking at the Glasshouse Mountains.

I looked up into the trees, stopping dead in my tracks when I did see what they were looking at.

A Koala.

The first time I had seen one in the wild (not counting the time I saw one along the side of the road driving up Macquarie Pass, with a car pulled over and a man walking up to it).

I watched for a bit in silence, watching the little bird also fly around it and keep landing on its back. I didn't want to disturb it, so continued along while the coupled remained, quietly in the bush still watching.

A minute or so later I passed a group of maybe 12 teens (or young adults, it's hard to tell as I get older and grumpier), blasting music from a Bluetooth speaker. Now while I don't mind Creep by Radiohead as a song, I don't like any music blasted in nature settings or at the beach, and so I gave every single one of them the stink eye and glared at them all as I walked past.

'And now those fucks will probably go and disturb the Koala'. I thought angrily as I marched along the track, passing a few more people heading out.
'Hopefully the place is empty by the time I get there.'

I came upon a signpost, next to a gras tree, with an arrow pointing straight ahead towards 'Kingfisher Pool Campground' but off into the bush on my right towards something else. I'll never know because someone had come along and scratched it out.

I could hear voices from the track, so knew the place wasn't empty. I decided to head right into the unknown, to see what was there, wondering if it was some secret people didn't want known, or if it was the direction of the Kingfisher Pool itself.

I wandered through to an opening with a group of young people having a picnic and loudly talking and laughing and having a good time right by a section of short falls.
I looked down to my left and could see the Kingfisher Pool a bit further down.

I walked up past the group picnicking by the falls that seemed to fall into a hole and disappear under the rocky creek surface. I couldn't get a good photo without getting the group in it, so snapped a photo of the water disappearing down into the hole.

I headed a bit up the creek away from the group on their picnic, so as to not seem like a creeper taking photos around them.
I noticed what looked like a trail on the opposite side, and as the signpost and been scribbled out I wondered if it was another track so crossed the water and headed down the trail into the bush.

The trail reached a boulder in the bush and I climbed up on top of it and there were a few other boulders through the bush heading downstream, but I could see there was clearly no track here, so simply climbed back down to head back out to the waterway.

I headed a bit further down from the people to get a photo of the Kingfisher Pool. As I approached the edge, looking down into the body of water I noticed a couple, a man and a woman, on the far right side of where I was facing, the woman pointed up at me and I heard the guy given an audible "Oh".
I don't know what it was about, but I took a photo, making sure not to get them in the picture.

I walked across to the other side, on a rock ledge above the couple in the water and took another photo.

I figured now was a great spot to stop, so I took off my backpack for a drink of water and sat down to eat my sandwich (dark rye bread, sauerkraut and exactly 16 slices of pickled jalapeños if you must know!).

'A nice spot to swim.' I thought to myself. 'Especially now the idiots blasting their music are gone.'

I thought back about the last time I was here with my friend. I couldn't remember this spot. I remembered a section of water you could walk over with the water flowing over it.
I amused myself at thinking that I probably did more walk back in the days before making this blog, often with friends to recurring locations such as 'Jump Rock', even though I was much less fit back then and struggled much more on walks that I do even now, after all my health issues.

I thought about the friend I had come here with. I had met her one night when returning from a night 'in town'. I was with my High School friend Jake, a close friend at the time mentioned only in two posts, my Kiama Coastal Disaster and another reminiscing about a stupid road trip to the Victorian border late at night, tacked onto the end of another post.
We were catching the train, and were supposed to get off at Albion Park Train Station, but decided we felt like 'Polar Bear Pizza'. A pizza joint that no longer exits, that was our go to pizza place on Central Avenue in Oak Flats. We hoped off there, and so did this girl. We shit-talked our nonsense, like young kids do and she made a comment about something we were saying, as she had been walking behind us the whole way, as she was heading home.
We got talking, and that could have been the last she was ever seen.
However, later while hanging with my mate Jake, he mentioned that the random girl from that night he had ran into one day, while he was working at Shellharbour Square (nowadays known as Stockland's, but forever referred to as 'The Square' by locals).
She was somehow pulled into the social group, and my memories that far back are vague (but all this occurred around 2010).
But anyway, as Valentine's Day 2011 approached, the three of us all 'single' had made plans to hang out in Wollongong and drink and have a night out together.
Jake ended up getting pulled into a night with an 'on-again-off-again' girlfriend thing that he'd had going since High School (we graduated at the end of 2009).
So this girl and I decided to proceed again, for a night of drinking around Wollongong and adventures around the base of the lighthouse, drunk as the night went on.
We ended up walking along the beach towards Belmore Basin, where we ended up by the Continental Pool. As this point we were joking laughing and having a good time. I across at her, and next thing I knew she was at me. I took a fall down onto the ground, almost like a crash tackle hug, and there was kissing and the next thing I knew I was losing my virginity on Valentine's Day at Belmore Basin.
It was a bit of a blur with her on top (sorry, too much info?).
But the night, continued and we laughed it off as friends afterwards, becoming probably even closer friends.
It helped that we both were into a lot of the same things, we both loved bushwalks, and adventures, and were both obsessed at the time with the film 'Into the Wild'. (To this day one of my favourite films, maybe just after Stand By Me). 

That brought back another memory, her playing the soundtrack to that film (by Eddie Vedder) from her phone as we had walked along sections of this walk all those years ago. So we were also annoying people playing music out loud (although there had been no one around while we did).

Needless to say, on another night a repeat incident happened, though less drunken, and by this time I thought I was deeply in love. Though remaining friends, because I was too cowardly to ever ask if this was going to be more.
My first walk here with her all those years ago probably happened before of after that second time. It's hard to place moments from all those years ago. Needless to say I was shocked one day to find out she now had a boyfriend, a roommate who she had been living with and they had started up.
I was crushed, like the sad little friend who hangs around waiting for them to break-up to be with the girl.
That never happened, as the two married, and the girl and I stayed friends. That was, until getting in a relationship with my own, now Wife, which brought an abrupt end to that friendship.
It's not the first time I thought I was in love, and looking back on my youth I really resonate with a quote from a Jack Kerouac novel:

"A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world." — On the Road

Sometimes you need to reflect on the past, as the things that occur all contribute to who you are and the way you are, and the way life turns out for you. I thought about these things as I brushed the crumbs from my sandwich off my legs watching tiny ripples dance across the top of the Kingfisher Pool from the light breeze.
'I'd better get a move on.' I thought, backing my sandwich container back in my backpack having another sip of water, and standing up to return to the trail to head towards Kingfisher Campground.

Following the trail along, off to my left, I noticed a large pile of rubbish all scattered through the bush.

'God people are fucking assholes'. I thought, wishing I had a garbage bag and some garbage tongs to clear it up and take it with me.

As I entered the campground I noticed a section of the creek, flowing over a small ledge on my right, but I first walked in to have a look around the campground.

There really wasn't much too it. It was just a clear flat area, that didn't look like it'd be very comfortable to sleep on. There was a picnic table with a sign that Lace Monitors were about, so not to feed them or leave food unsecured, and what looked to be a hole-in-the-ground toilet block. Left scattered around were remnants of old campfires.

Though the sign says no woodfires

I could see what looked like a continuing walk over past the campground, but I decided to head back to the water for a look.

'This looks like the spot I remember crossing years ago.' I thought and proceeded to walk across to the other side.

As I crossed to the other side, I noticed a small pole with an arrow and a man pointing ahead to a trail.

This must have been the way me and my friend had walked those years ago. Along the track at some point I felt a pain in my neck, grabbing at it, and ripping it out of my neck. It was a large tick that had bit me. I remember the two of us had a panic and must have started pushing randomly through the bush until we ended up coming out onto the Princes Highway. I can't remember why we would randomly start pushing through the bush, so I concluded in my head that the track was probably super overgrown and that we ended up just heading in a direction we thought would get us out of the bush faster (which apparently worked!). Whether that is the case now, I cannot say as I did not follow this trail along, instead I headed back across the other side of the campsite to inspect the other trails, of which there were two.

As I read the sign, I had the option to end my walk here.
Or I could go right (from the way I walked into the campground, not from looking at the sign) and head to Goanna Track and the Pipeline Fire Trail, to Heathcote Station, though I decided not to do this as I had driven past sections of the Pipeline Trail while driving down Heathcote Road just before Heathcote McDonalds and Hungry Jacks, which I knew was a fair drive away, let alone walk and I didn't have that much time (maybe another day).

I could return across the water to the 108 Fire Trail, which I assumed the track my friend and I took those years ago was meant to led to.
Or I could continue on ahead, and do the Yelgun Track, which at least had the amount of time it would take to walk it and return.

I ummed and ahhed whether or not to continue or just head back as I was only meant to do a short walk.

'If I make it longer I won't have time to write it all up.' I thought.
I didn't want to be a slave and not do a walk for the sake of a blog, so I decided I would follow it along, but told myself I wouldn't document it as thoroughly.

'Fuck it' I thought and started off down the track with confident strides.

The trail wound around past the back of the toilet block, continuing off away from the previous waterway.

'God I'm taking too many photo's already.' I thought, shoving my phone away in my pocket, promising just to take it out for further cool images as I followed the winding trail through the bush.

It was a bit overgrown through here, but nothing too bad and the trail was still pretty obvious, though some sedges and grasses were growing over the track and times, obscuring vision a little as I stepped through hoping not to step on any snakes.

The track soon wound around to a waterway, which it now seemed to be following along, though it seemed to be following it upstream, which made me believe that as it flowed down, this water probably met up with the same water from Kingfisher Pool.

'God, I don't know if I would recommend this trail too anyone.' I thought about the less than well worn track, which soon turned off to the right, opening up onto the river rocks, which I just had to follow up, keeping an eye out for another entry point where the track continued.

Luckily it was pretty distinctive, and I found it with ease. 

I had a quick peruse up the creek for an explore first, before returning back to follow the trail along.

'This looks like the top of Gerringong Falls, were I soaked my sore ankle'. I reminisced some more.

Some Drosera or Sundew that I spotted

I continued along the track, which with filled with all manner of sharp or spiky plants scratching up my legs, some sections more overgrown then other.

I passed a cave, which I noticed had been visited by others who filled the insatiable need to apparently engrave or write their own names so random stranger who have no fucking idea who they are would know they were there.
'That's the good thing with social media at least.' I thought. 'You can just fucking take a photo with it and post it if you want people to know you were there, you don't need to write your name on shit.'

I continued along the ever infrequent track, some sections seemed perfectly fine, but I could see the it was a track that was very easy to get lost on, so wouldn't recommend it for people who don't have their eye out for tracks or might be prone to getting lost.

I passed over a large section of lust green ferns, before bending down to duck under a small tree blocking the path, as I got to the other side my heart jumped.

Luckily it was just a reaction to seeing something unexpected that caused the slight panic, as m heart settled down and I realised it was just a Lyrebird on the track in front of me, as it fled off into the bush at the sight of me.

Soon the trail got worse. As I ploughed through the bush unsure if I was even on a trail. As I continued through I realised I sure as hell wasn't and tried to make my way back to the track.
Trying to find the track again was it's own struggle, and eventually I did. Trying to follow it along again for it only to once more become thick bush.
"What the fuck?" I said out loud, once more having to try and find the trail again.

I could see the creek just through some bushed too my right, and I could now hear voices, so I instead cut through the bush until I made it through to the creek.

I turned left, to head upstream toward the two voices, when I noticed two younger guys, with tattooed bodies rubbing sunscreen on each others backs.

I thought about asking them about the track, and if they knew how to find it. But then I got a vibe I might be intruding upon something as they laughed and giggled together.

I instead, continued past them, following the waterway up all the while keeping a lookout through the bushes for maybe another sign of a trail.

I sore a little section to the left, where the tree on the side looked like it had fallen over, or been pushed over, and I wondered if that was because people had come through it. I headed left, into the dense thicket wandering around hopelessly in the bush with not a trace of the trail to be found.

I made my way back out into the open rock, following the creek down as I noticed another section that sort of looked like an opening that was on my right now, and I had walked past it on my way up dismissing it. This time I decided to head on up into the bush once more.

Once more I found myself in the bush with no sign of the track. I headed 5 metres in a diagonal direction headed out from the creek, before coming back and heading 5 metres in a diagonal direction the other way, just pushing past sharp spiky plants.
'Nope.' I thought. "Fuck this." I said, making my way back to the water again which I followed down past the two young lads looking for the way I had come out out and not even seeing a clear path I had taken.

I turned around taking a photo from the end all the way up the creek, before climbing up a bit of a boulder and heading left and diagonal away from the creek in hopes of finding the track again.

It took a bit of trudging back and forth looking for the track but I eventually found it. Deciding to try one last attempt to follow it along to it's destination.

I rage quit, deciding to call a quits and head back. But once more I had trouble finding the track again, wasting time trying to find a clear path. Eventually I found it again, and starting walking back with enthusiastic vigour, done with fucking around in the bush for a trail that I now believed didn't exist (although there are odds I missed it, even after fucking around for over half an hour searching for it).

Soon even walking the trail back I had found my self off track, that's how shit it was so begin with. I faffed about trying to find it but I was close enough to the creek I just followed it along heading back the direction I needed to go, until I found myself at the section with all the ferns, which I didn't feel like tracking through, thinking about potential snakes.

Just at the end there was a bit of a small rockface with a tree growing next to it.

I placed my left hand on the tree, balancing, grabbing the top of the rock with my right hand, putting my left foot onto the tree and I boosted myself up the rockface. About 3 to 5 metres from the top of the rockface, heading straight, I found myself on the trail once more continuing my walk eager to get off of the Yelgun track.

After some fast walking I made it back to the toilet block, with a sign of relief I was good to go. Heading back up the trail, as I passed a man and a woman walking into the campground as I was leaving.

I was sort of curious to see if they took any of the other trails, so I slowly proceeded up the path, turning my head to to watch them through the trees. Soon they turned around, not going down any of the additional tracks, and I continued on, deciding to have a quick stop back in at the section where the people having their picnic were so see if the area was no vacant.

As I returned, there was no one in sight, and I was able to get a clearing picture of where the running water fell through a hole, disappearing underneath the stone creek bed.

Continuing back, I kept an eye out in the trees on my left, wondering if the Koala was still there, but it had either moved on, or I had simply missed seeing the right tree.

As I made it to the fire trail I a had come out onto initially (after apparently going the wrong way), I still wondered where it left up on my left, as I noticed a National Parks Ute parked a short way up, though no people where in sight. I decided to go the 'correct' way, crossing the little creek and heading up the fire trail and heading into the bush along the path where the little sign pointed saying "Bullawarring Track" and "Waterfall Station".

The trail back was a bit of a maze. It seemed to connect with parts of the track I had walked before while I must have once again taking slightly different turns heading back, as I passed the small tree in the fork in the road heading straight ahead, and I had turned down the path that was now on my right whilst heading to Kingfisher Pool.

I came to another section where I could follow a trail or head straight up some steps through the bush, and I decided to head up the steps.

I reached the top, in an unfamiliar spot, with a trail that headed in both directions. I could see a sign ahead, pointing back to waterfall station, and I followed it's wisdom.

It took me onto another section heading in both directions. I made the connection in my head that this was the bit I had thought at the start looked like an area for water run off, and that I had initially went down that way (now I don't believe that was even the same area as the ground looks different).

I went left, continuing uphill. I was walking along, just enjoying the sights and sounds of nature, as I noticed something in my peripherals. I saw the stripy tail, the colour pattern.
'Oh a blue tongue lizard.' I thought, walking ahead not slowing down.
As I got closer my brain seemed to clock on to the fact that the tail was far too long, and then I realised that it was actually the lower half of a snake as it began to slither.

I jumped in the air with an audible "Jesus fucking Christ!", and my legs did that movement, like trying to run up invisible stairs, as I jumped over it and it slithered away into the bush.

I walked quickly up hill turning around to inspect the sight it had been. My first thought was 'Tiger Snake', but had to do a Google image search to see if they had that pattern I had seen that made me initially think 'Blue tongue lizard'.

I was lucky I was high enough up now that my phone once more had Mobile Data (losing it for the majority of the walk). As soon as the images popped up I was sure that it'd been a Tiger snake.

I continued ahead, with a bit more anxiety now. Red Belly Black Snakes I have encountered often, and though I know they are dangerous, I also know they aren't particularly aggressive, while I haven't often been exposed to Tiger snakes and don't know their behaviours as well.

I started climbing uphill now. 'I don't remember it being this steep.' I thought as you might remember, I headed down to quick to really take note of how steep it had been.

I also thought I was going a while new way until I stopped to take a photo and noted a little piece of cloth tied up on a nodule of a rocky overhang, which I had initially noticed when I had first made my way down.

I followed the track back until I made it all the way back to the initial turn off towards Kingfisher Pool, and decided to end the day with a 'cool down walk', heading up the Mooray track.

This was a pretty wide trail, easy for a car to be able to drive through, and I wandered down it looking of through the bushes on my right at the large rocks in the centre, and wondered if that would be a location with any Indigenous Historical Art.

The Mooray trail was an incredibly short walk, and I found myself on the 108 Trail, a fire trail that head off in both directions to my left and right. I wasn't going to follow it back down to wear I assumed it might link up with the trail I had thought I had taken with that friend of mine all those years, ago, so I followed it uphill to my right.

It was another short walk, and led up onto the back of someone's property. It now turned off right, and I followed it that way, on the back of some more homes, following underneath some powerlines.

Soon a road headed off on my left, blocked by a locked gate, with a sign next to it informing me I was now on the 'Powerline East Management Trail'. I decided not to turn down that way, instead following the powerlines along until I reached the base of one, which also appeared to be a dead-end.

There was, what appeared to be a little track through the bush off on my left, so I decided I might as well suss it out, feeling that it was the right direction to do to return to the main street.

The trail instant shrunk to be a small foot track that zigzagged through the bush, but I could see the street ahead through the trees, and the track, though winding, seemed to get me closer and closer too it.

Soon the trail spat me out next to the Koala sign I had read before beginning the walk, though there was another trail heading up into the bush on my left as I came out.

'Probably just links up with a trail if I had gone through the gate.' I thought to myself, with no proof at all to back up my thoughts.

I stepped out onto the road, and began the walk back to my car.
'Why did I park so far away?' I thought, trudging up the road in the heat.
As I arrived at the car it was covered in some sort of bug that looked liked a stink bug. I brushed a few off, but assumed it was futile, and that they would surely be blown off the car on the drive home along the M1 doing 110km/h.

I drove home, I thought about my walk in retrospect. Seeing the Koala, my encounters with snakes, getting lost, and I thought about the past, and different chapters of my life.
It was ironic, to think of my life in chapters, as often times now highlights of my life and 'chapters' of it can almost be revisited by reviewing my blog posts, as I have now been posting for 11 years.
And soon, a new chapter was going to begin. With a child on the way, the new chapter of Fatherhood.
What was it going to look like? I was filled with anxiety and dread, but also excitement and joy. It can only be mixed emotions. You want to be a good parent, raise your kid right, have them be happy and be a good person, but then, I don't want to look at it like my own life is over. I don't want to be one of those parents.

I want to live, adventure, experience new things and keep life exciting, but I also don't want to be neglectful and shirk my responsibilities. We can only know what the future holds by living it, until it becomes the past, and just becomes another story we tell.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven