Jingga Trail and Minerva Pool

On Friday the 19th of November 2021, I turned 30. A big milestone in life (a moment please while I quietly have a midlife crisis). After having spent my 29th in hospital receiving chemotherapy to battle Leukemia my Wife told me she wanted me to do something big for my 30th.

So we paid for me to go up in one of those Stunt Planes that does all the flips and spins booking it in for the Saturday after my birthday. Meanwhile I made plans with my friend Tristan for a Sunday bushwalk to complete my birthday weekend. We decided to do the Jingga Trail, after seeing it on a sign when we went to Madden's Falls. On my birthday I simply took my Dog Orla to the Dog beach to enjoy a relaxing day with no big fuss. However my flight got delayed due to rainy weather (moved to the following Saturday).

Tristan messaged asking me about the weather. I assured him I was still keen to go, and that we both owned raincoats. "It's more adventurey in the rain anyway." I said as I messaged him.
"Who's driving, me or you?" He replied back.

I told him I could drive, and soon began to Google Map where the walk actually was (assuming it was simply around the corner from Madden's). Turns out it was right near Campbelltown, and I screenshot some pictures on Google Map to send to Tristan so I could blue-tooth music in my car as we drove instead of needing to have GPS on.

He arrived to mine on a drizzly Sunday morning and we jumped into my car. 
"Happy birthday bro." He said to me, handing me a piece of BWS paper with a printed itinerary for a road trip I was planning to take before I resume back at work next year.

I began the drive, mentioning it was my first time driving us to a walk since before we walked up Mount Jellore. I began to tell Tristan about how my Stunt Plane flight had been cancelled and that I went to the movies to see Marvel's Eternals instead. I told him about how it was long and slow, not bad, but not a particularly interesting or memorable movie.

As we drove up Mount Ousley the rain began to fall very heavily and we could barely see in front of the car due to thick fog. As we made our way towards Appin Tristan mentioned if we passed a place for  him to get a coffee along the way he'd appreciate it if we stopped so he could grab one. Lucky for him we passed one next to a budget petrol station on Woodburn Road as we turned to head towards Wedderburn.

"You want a coffee dude?" Tristan asked me.
"Nah I already had one this morning that gave me diarhea." I told him. Before eventually letting him buy me one.
As he was in the cafe I took the time to apply some sunscreen (although it was overcast and raining I still need to protect my skin as the medications I am on due to having gone through my treatment say to avoid excess exposure to the sun, and I had gotten a little burnt on my birthday at the beach).
After applying my sunscreen, I had a look at my printed road trip plan as Tristan came back to the car bearing coffee.

As we continued our way to the trail Tristan mentioned he too was planning a road trip, but with absolutely no plans other than going North, South, East and West and finding something cool in either direction, and thought it was funny that I had 2 pages of things to do.

"Well it's part road trip, part family history research, that's why that second page is just a bunch of ancestors and their Graveyards." I told him.

Soon we arrived at the walk, and stood underneath the cover of a national park information sign while waiting for me to finish my coffee. As I finished the rain began to settle, I reopened the car, placing my empty coffee cup inside and began our walk along the Victoria Road trail.

"So this must be the same National Park that Madden's is in," I commented. "Just on the opposite side."

The coffee was soon through me, and I told Tristan that I had to do a wee, he pointed out a toilet block on our left not far from the beginning of the walk. I muttered something about corona-virus and unhygienic before simply taking a leak in the bush. We arrived at the first turn off to Minerva Pools, (which I had heard of often but had never been to, meanwhile Tristan had been there before). We continued straight heading towards the Jingga trail that we had originally come to do.

We continued on along the trail and I mentioned to Tristan that when I had looked up to find where Jingga was I had read that it was apparently steep and that it too led to water.

After a very short while we arrived at the Jingga trail, but decided we would continue on to O'Hara's Lookout first.

The rain was heavily inconsistent. Swapping from short heavy bursts to a gentle mist. I pointed out how nice the droplets of rain looked in the trees, particularly he casurinas, Tristan agreed saying it made him think of Christmas trees, as the water drops lightly sparkled. "It almost looks like sleet." He said.

As I was taking this picture, a lone girl in a raincoat came walking down the path from O'Hara's Lookout, we politely said hello to each other as we walked past.

"See, isn't it a nice change to walk in the rain?" I said to Tristan while he looked at me funny. "Lets jog for a bit."

He looked at me incredulously. "Why?"
"Well I'm going back to work next year, and my fitness is terrible and I need to start working on it." I told him. "Come on, just up to the tree on the corner!" I said.
"Oh yeah, the tree on the corner, like there's only one." He said sarcastically.
"The one that stands out there on the corner, on the left, the gum tree, the one that's not a casurina." He continued to be sarcastic but eventually agreed and we began a slow jog towards the tree.

As we reached it I commented that it was good to get the heart rate up a bit, before turning the corner and spotting a really nice gum tree I stopped to get a photo of, as Tristan walked ahead he called back and told me to get a photo from the other side, as he thought it looked better from that angle.

We continued along the fire trail, occasionally coming to big puddles we had to walk around on the side before coming to the turn of on our right to O'Hara's lookout, with the fire trail continuing on ahead while also looking like it branched off to the left. I wondered where it led and Tristan insisted it was just a fire trail to allow travel through the national park for dealing with bush fires. "Oh an you can edit your Madden's Falls blog post too." He told me, "The fire up there was back burning." 

I told him I wouldn't edit the post, but that I'd just mention in in this one. "My blogs carry on, they're all linked." I told him "It's like a journal, or diary but told through the guide of hiking and travel."

The entire walk to O'Hara's Lookout was flat and incredibly easy, and not long either making it suitable for most people to get to. We turned down the path and I couldn't help but try to photograph the little flowers with water hanging underneath them. The misty rain was constant and made my phone screen wet and slippery, and I struggled to swipe the photo shortcut. My phone also struggled to get the photo in focus the way I would like. Later on during the day (sitting at Minerva Pool) I mentioned to Tristan how I would like a big proper camera for photography, but that that it just seemed inconvenient to take on bushwalks.

We soon approached the the lookout and got our first glimpse down at the valley below.

The music from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (particularly Through the Valleys) came straight into my head. I mentioned to Tristan that it looked straight out of Oblivion or Skyrim. He replied that it looked straight out of Lord of the Rings to him. 
"Everything looks like it's out of Lord of the Rings to you." I said, recalling his Lord of the Rings comment he had made at Kelly's Falls.
"I'm listening to the audio book now." He said, and we then had a discussion about how boring the Lord of the Rings books are, and how I hadn't read them, but I had read the Hobbit and not enjoyed the writing style. This went on for a while and after we stood in the cool breeze and just watched as the mist and fog blew through the valley.

"I assume Jingga takes us down there." I said, looking down as we turned around and head back to walk down the Jingga trail, Tristan finding a nice stick that he picked up and took with him as a walking stick. I continued to notice new flowers along the way back. 

When we arrived at the Jingga trail the most obvious difference to us was that it was a dirt track.

We made our way around the puddle arriving at the gate but noticed a small track through the scrub on our right, and decided to follow it just to see if it led anywhere.

I led the way, getting soaked as I brushed past all the low hanging branches, which got thicket the further in we got. It soon looped around and opened up directly behind the gate, with Tristan commenting that that was a waste of time (yet all part of the experience).

We noticed some empty shells (they looked like sea shells) to the side of the track and thought that was a bit curious, wondering if they had been harvested from in the creek.

As we made our way along the Jingga trail the rain progressively began to get thicker and heavier.

The track soon began a steep incline, which is maintained the whole way to the bottom while winding around corners.

I commented to Tristan that the photo's didn't really do it justice in terms of the steepness. We continued walking and Tristan asked me when I planned to do my road trip. I informed him I didn't have dates planned, because I had to get 2 sets of vaccinations in December (due to my Stem Cell Transplant), which would have to be a week apart, and that I wanted to be home before the 20th to be here for my Wife's birthday. He asked if I could drop a delivery off to a family member who lived in Young (where I was planning to go) for him. I said that would be fine.

As we progressed down we could see O'Hara's Creek through gaps in the thicket.

On our left we were walking alongside giant walls of stone, and at one pointed we came across a pocket in the rock and I instantly told Tristan to get inside.

As we reached the bottom there was small shed we assumed was an electrical shed.

We continued as the trail opened up to a huge waterhole with a weir just upstream.

While we were exploring the area, unbeknownst to me Tristan was snapping some photo's.

I scuttled down the side of the weir while Tristan yelled at me point that there were steps coming down. I made my way across the water trying my best not to drench my shoes, though not fully successful as some spots were deeper than I thought. While I crossed Tristan climbed up a rock getting a good view down the creek and posed while I took a photo of him.

It had started pouring with very fine rain, thin, almost invisible by also heavy, and in trying to take the photo of Tristan my hands slipped and slided along my phone doing all sorts of strange things, winding up with video of him, pictures in black and white and other weird colours, presumably done by filters, all completely by accident.

Every time I tried to take of photo Tristan ran in my way, doing a silly pose and mocking a mutual acquaintance of ours.

"You know I'm not going to be able to upload any of these photos or mention it?" I told him.

We sat around admiring the view before deciding to head back up the trail to head to Minerva Pool.

I saw Tristan disappear under the rock I had photographed him standing on top of and saw that there as a little gap through it, so I squatted down and made my way through as well.

As we crossed to the other side (and I took the stairs this time) we spotted a covered area of overhanging rocks just a bit downstream, we stood inside having a look and enjoyed the beauty of the swimming hole we were at.

I knew Minerva Pool was 'Woman's Place' a sacred place for the Dharawal Aboriginal people and that only women and children were supposed to swim there. I wondered out loud to Tristan if this area was the same, (assuming it was on the same stretch of creek) as there had been no sign mentioning it. He assumed it wasn't but admitted he didn't actually know. I later learned on the national park website that Jingga means 'nice and sweet' in the Dharawal language and that while Jingga was on O'Hara's creek Minerva was actually on Stokes Creek that flowed down into O'Hara's Creek.

We began our way back up and instantly I could feel myself getting out of breath. I commented to Tristan that we might have to stop a few times, and that it didn't feel like a lack of fitness, but when I did steep things I would just feel out of breath, mentioning that I will eventually have to get my lungs checked to see if the chemo did any damage to them (but hoping it was just fatigue due to my treatment). I stopped after not very long of walking trying to catch my breath, and then continued on again, this time stopping to get a photo of some hanging flowers, which I had to slightly climb up a slope on our right to get a photo of.

After getting the shot I jumped down onto the solid ground, panting. Tristan was shocked that I was exhausted from that. I told him I got completely exhausted building IKEA furniture a week prior.

I finally caught my breath and we continued uphill. I began to explain the origin of my "internet name" Venso Howlie, and why it was my Instagram name among many other things. I went into a big rant about a Fantasy book series I had come up with when I was in year 7 of high school, explaining to him the plot of all of the books in the series. "I picked the wrong section to go on this rant". I said at one point, before instantly going back into the details of the stories.

We finally made it to the top, just as I had finished the plot of my books, and I was impressed at the fact I had only had to stop twice. However I asked if we could head back to the cars before continuing to Minerva Pool (I had left my backpack in there because of the rain) for food and some water. 
"Oh we're doing Minerva too," Tristan said, shocked. "Makes sense, no point driving back all this way when we're here now."

I quickly ate a vegemite and cheese sandwich and downed one of my entire bottles of water. As we were eating two men arrived back from the walk (the car had been there since before we left) so we made the assumption they had been at Minerva, and made the assumption they had not been culturally respectful and had went for a swim.

"Alright, let's go." I said, all finished. While Tristan was on his phone trying to catch a shiny Shinx because it was a community day on Pokemon Go.

We made our way back to the start of the Minerva Pool walk and began down it, while Tristan continued to jump in front of shots poking fun at the acquaintance. 

We began to talk about friends, and how sometimes they come and go. While discussing it I couldn't help but remember my time in hospital. I remember through my various rounds of chemo laying in bed, sick and alone, with nothing but the sound of the machine pumping toxic chemicals through me beeping. I thought about the people who came to see me, or the people who cared enough to message me constantly, making sure I was ok and that I wasn't alone. I also thought about those that didn't. So called friends that I just didn't even hear from. Whether it be people I thought were close personal friends, or even people I thought were close work friends. I didn't say anything out loud to Tristan about it, but I did have a deep feeling of disappointment towards those people, in my mind they had shown their true colours, many I still have yet to hear from. 

The path continued winding as week spoke, and I remembering thinking about why it was called Minerva Pool, Minerva being the Roman Goddess of Wisdom (and a hundred other things). But forgot to ask Tristan (and was unable to find a reason online). But this got the idea of History in my head and our topic of conversation soon changed to History as I brought up the fact I had been watching 'Tasting History' on YouTube, a show about historical recipes/food with historical rants in between.

"Ooohhh, I wonder what's up that path." I said as we walked by two big concrete blocks.
"Private property." Tristan said, pointing to the sign hanging up in the tree on the right.

"Have you ever been to Mjolner?" Tristan asked me.
"The Viking restaurant? Nah I haven't."
"It's good food." He told me. I wondered whether or not they were historically accurate, or more 'inspired'.

The whole topic of food got me hungry and I mentioned my Aunt Chungling had a Sushi restaurant in Campbelltown. 

"You have an Asian Aunt?" Tristan asked.

"My Uncle Marks' Wife. So not blood related. But 3 my cousins are."

As we reached a sign with a turn off to Minerva I wondered where the other track led, but just continued down the trail with Tristan beginning to get sillier and sillier.

The track we followed opened up onto another fire trail heading both left and right but with the trail to Minerva still directly ahead of us.

*Tristan in parody mode*

We past through a section of burnt out bush and wondered if it was backburning or wildfire, eventually passing a little stream with concrete blocks placed to cross over.

Continuing along we could hear a dirt bike revving around us, off on other tracks but it sounded like it did a complete circle around us and we never saw it once.

While the bike continued around us, Tristan decided he was going to do a wee. I mentioned how I wouldn't be able to go with the sound of the dirt bike so close in case it came upon us. He asked what was more shocking, a guy on a dirt bike, or coming across a man with his dick out.

While he attended to business I walked through a little path to a clearing next to a giant boulder.

Not far from here we came across a sign pointing left for Minerva Lookout and straight for Minerva Pool.

We headed left to the lookout and I got my first view of Minerva Pool.

We stood, looking down upon the watering hole, and I could see how a spot like this could have become sacred to the Dharawal. It reminded me of something I had mentioned to Tristan a few times on different walks, the idea of a the Celtic 'Nemeton' or 'Sacred Grove'.

Tristan began walking to the right.
"Aren't we going to follow the track?" I asked.
"This leads there too." He said.

And as we followed the cliff edge along we came upon a sign about the cultural significance of the site.

Unfortunately you could see that people (probably men) had tried to damage the sign and scratch out the word 'woman' and remove and reference for men not being allowed to swim here. Tristan also took a photo so he could report the damage to the sign. We made our way down to admire the impressing beauty of the spot. I wondered about the deep ancient history of the area and stood on a ledge gazing into the deep.

I made my way down the rocks, while trying to avoid stepping in any water as along the way. Admiring the geological formations of all the holes in the rock, formed over thousands of years.

As we sat on the opposite side watching the silent swimming hole Tristan removed two cold ones from his bag (he liked to bring celebratory drinks on walks when we made it to our destination). However as I haven't drank any alcohol since my cancer diagnosis, he was kind enough to buy me a non alcoholic beer. However it needed a bottle opener, something neither of us had.

"It's OK dude, I'll open it back at the car using the seatbelt." I told him. (A trick my Father had taught me).
He was adamant to get it open, trying various keys on his keychain, a key with a knife on the end, but he finally got it open using a buckle on his backpack. He put his phone down on a timer, wanting a photo to remember the occasion.

While drinking the beer, I noticed underneath the rock Tristan's phone was resting on were two beer bottle lids. "I better get them, I don't want anyone thinking that was us." I picked them up and put them in his bag. "Cartlon." I commented, showing Tristan the top of the bottle caps.

I began to get cold, silently sitting, sipping my beer watching the water flow. A Sacred King Fisher flew overhead and landed in a tree. Tristan pointed it out and I told him I could see it. I took my phone out for a photo but just couldn't get a good shot, zooming in made it far too blurry. I put my phone away and we sat and watched. I thought to myself that in a Sacred Place it was cool to see the Sacred Kingfisher, admiring it's vibrant blue feathers. It didn't stay for long, and soon flew away. We finished our drinks, and continued to explore around the area. Just up from the swimming hole was more water.
"I wonder how much of this is the sacred area, like, can you swim in that bit?" I asked. Not that I wanted to, it was just sheer curiosity. Tristan said he wanted to message the land council to know more. We explored up around behind some boulders making sure to have a good look around the area.

As we came around a corner to an undercover section there was plenty of graffiti on the rocks. Because there's nothing like leaving nature alone. Some asshole has to write their name on a wall.

We climbed up a few boulders back up top and I noticed a hole in the ground where someone has tossed a can of the energy drink 'V'. Tristan climbed down to collect the rubbish.

We made our way back to the top and began walking back along the track that we didn't come along the first time. I noticed a bottle of half full blue powerade in the bush and shoved my way in through the trees to grab it out and put in in Tristan's bag. Just as we were approaching the sign pointing off to the lookout we had taken last time, I pointed out and bag of Dorito's in the bush which Tristan used his stick to help pull out and take with us.

We made our way back to the car with me swapping over from my bluetooth and putting in an Eluveitie CD (with Tristan making fun at me for burning my own CD's still). Arriving back at mine before parting ways he asked were our next walk would be. 
"Royal National Park". I told him. Knowing that he had a bucketlist goal of doing all the walks in there, and even had a map where he coloured of the trails that he walked. "Let's start checking off your list, and start me on some longer walks. It's time for my fitness to get back to how it used to be."

We said fair well for now, Tristan drove off as I unlocked my front door, both pondering the next adventure.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven