Avon and Nepean Dams

 This blog takes place on Gundungurra and Dharawal Country

Christmas of 2025 came and went, with me just publishing my previous blog on 'The Grotto and Greys Beach Reserve Walking Tracks', on Christmas Eve. I had done this walk on my birthday back in November and had such a long time to write it because I kept putting it off after getting the video game 'The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom' on the Switch and obviously I prioritised that. 

Christmas resulted in more video games to take time away from both walking, and writing (and the Tafe work I should really have been focusing on), but with A Way Out, Split Fiction and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to play, I knew that would be my Christmas work break filled, but I didn't mind, seeing as my Wife was heavily pregnant and two of those games gave us a shared activity to do together.

I did, however, want to at least get out and go for an explore somewhere I hadn't been. Something I wanted accessible to my Wife who really couldn't walk far or do much.

The year before on our Christmas break, we had gone to Cataract Dam (on New Years Day 2025).
We had then later gone to explore Cordeaux Dam, and I had written about this in a post called '3 Days Out' which detailed exploring 3 different smaller locations over three separate days. 

I suggested we explore another dam we hadn't visited, Avon Dam (the selling point to my Wife being that we also stop in on the way at Appin Bakery for pies). She agreed, and we booked in our planned trip to the dam on the 2nd of Jan 2026.

However, the night before we looked up and found Appin Bakery was closed for the Christmas breaks. We began searching for alternate options on our phones for some food around Bargo and Thirlmere, with my Wife suggesting we head to Loopline Pies as we had done when we did the Thirlmere Lakes walk. However, in my online searching I had discovered a place called 'Farmer's Beauty Cafe', whose facebook page was advertising that they were selling camel sausages and camel milk (I had eaten camel before, but never tried camel milk). I suggested we also stop in here to buy some, but on the way back so that the food would remain cold to take home.

We woke up early on the Friday morning and set off towards Thirlmere only to find that Loopline Pies hadn't updated its holiday hours online, instead a note was hung on their door saying they would not open again until much later. We headed towards Bargo, near the entrance to the Avon Dam which we now discovered didn't open until 10am. We arrived in Bargo at 9am planning to go to Bargo Hot Bread Bakery which was also closed with a sign on the door that it would reopen on the 5th. 
Frustrated that we didn't just pack food with us, we wandered down the road to a coffee shop in need of some caffeine.

I grabbed a coffee, and my Wife grabbed a lemon muffin, and we sat outside eating it, trying to kill some time until 10am. My Wife finished her muffin, and I was about halfway through my tea, when a man came out of the cafe eating loudly at a table behind us. The noise of him loudly eating was irking me, so I suggested we go and we headed back to the car and drove towards the entrance to the dam.

We arrived about 9.40am and the gates were already open, so we drove straight in, discovering it was the entrance to both Avon and Nepean dams, and I suggested as we were already there we might as well visit both.

"Great." My Wife said, not meaning it at all. She really had no interest in the dams and only came with the promise of food.

As we drove in the entrance there were working on ride on mowers mowing the grass along the sides, the entry had probably been opened for them to start work but we took advantage of it. I got excited as I saw a family of Kangaroos also along the side, out in the open by the wall of bushland behind the grassy areas.

The road forked, with the entrance to Nepean Dam being a right-hand turn. As this dam was closer, I suggested we head to it first and so we followed the road down to the right.

We pulled in quickly at as toilet block, before making our way all the way down to the start of the dam, where you're probably not meant to park, but I didn't want to make my heavily pregnant Wife walk down a bunch of steps.

"Are you coming?" I asked after I had pulled up the car.
"Nah." She said, saying she would simply wait in the car for me.

I headed up towards the dam walkway, hoping to see the water of the Nepean River in its catchment. Along the fenceline next to me I noticed a Lifeline sign, obviously meant for people contemplating, or about to commit suicide, which was a pretty dark thought, as I wondered if it had happened here, or how often.

I enthusiastically walked up the steps onto the dam wall for my first views over the water.

I walked to the centre of the dam, whereas with both the Cataract and Cordeaux Dams had a building in the centre you could walk inside. This dam did too, however the roller door was closed, and I could not go inside. Instead, I continued along crossing the dam to reach the other side.

Unlike the other dams I had visited, where often once you reach the other side there is nothing to do but simply around and walk back, there was some tables and benches here to picnic at, and some stairs you could walk up to further explore, which I did. Coming across a little stone hut which was empty inside.

I continued along a fenceline with warning signs explicitly warning not to cross the fence. On the other side, beside the water in the reservoir, was (what I assume, with literally no knowledge on dams) a section for water release to avoid overflow.

Continuing along the fence led up another series of steps, which just took you up higher to watch where this water overflow passage led, as it followed along a cliff face, flowing downhill.

I wandered around, seeing if there was any more areas to explore, before finding the rest was for staff access only, so I made my way down a steep dirt slope to help myself feel like I was having a bit of an adventure, but I probably wasn't wearing the right footwear and ended up losing grip and having to sideway jog down the hill and jump and land to make sure I didn't tumble. I then walked back across the dam, taking in the sights of the bushland along the water, with a deep craving to get out into some wilderness area, maybe camping and just get away from life, society, work, and everything. But I knew it would be a long time until I got to do that again, with the baby due in March.

I returned to the car, where my Wife was still waiting, and we headed off back towards where the road had split, and I turned right down a long road towards Avon Dam.

"Keep an eye of for Kangaroos." I said, to my Wife, who didn't seem to care.

We didn't see any more Kangaroos and the drive out to Avon Dam seemed to take a lot longer and was further away as we followed a winding road out towards it. Just as we arrived at a one-way bridge, we stopped and encountered a first car who we let pass us.

I made a comment that it was interesting that we hadn't passed a single car until we got to a one-way bridge.

We continued along the winding road, passing one more car that was heading back the other way.

I followed a road down to just in front of the dam, but the area here was smaller, squishier, and as we had now passed some cars, I didn't feel right parking there, so I returned up the road a little, and did a three-point-turn to head down the upper road to the actual carpark, which was in between a park and stairs down toward the dam.

"Did you want to come this time?" I asked my Wife, who still was not interested. I decided to go look at the park first, before the dam and headed along the path, with views over the Avon River and Avon Dam on my left.

I was excited to go for a bit more of a walk, and the trail followed the river along on one side, with large boulder and rocky overhangs on the other.

I noticed that out in the middle of the water, in a straight line in the centre there seemed to be bubbles along the water, leading me to wonder if there was some sort of piping or irrigation or something occurring out there below the water's surface.

At a clearing of trees with a better view over the water I strolled up to the fence edge to look out over the catchment. I noticed some waterfowl in the water beneath me and lifted my phone up to take a photo, and it was like they sensed it, as they all began to flap away along the top of the water.

I reached the end of the walk, which the fence continued around with a large no entry sign. Behind this was another style of what I again assumed to be a water run-off spot, and the more I looked at it, I soon recognised it, as I had noticed it while driving over a bridge on our way in.

I wandered back along the path through the park towards the car, just as another car had rocked up. An elderly couple hopped out, and were at the start of the park walk, with the man loudly informing the woman that once that she was done going to the toilet he would 'tell her about the dam'. 
The woman said hi, acknowledging me and I replied, "good morning", while the old man looked away.

I quickly popped to the passenger side of the car to inform my Wife I was going to quickly duck down to the dam before the old people came along.

I quickly headed down the stairs at the grandiose entrance to the dam.

There were little gate doors on either side of the entrance way, and I popped in for a look, but once more they were empty other than graffiti and carvings of initials, names or messages on the stone walls.

I walked out to the middle of the dam, looking up at the water ways, wondering what secrets lay in the surrounding forests.

I crossed to the opposite side, which like other dams didn't have anything across, as it was all restricted. However, the large stone edge also had gates, one of which had a stairway leading down which was closed to the public.

I turned around and written on the wall behind me in what looked like whiteout read 'All is a fucking lie'. When I first read it, I thought it said 'Ali', but the grammar didn't make sense. I wondered if it was meant to be AI as in, artificial intelligence, however I soon realised the bottom half of the second L had simply faded.
'It would have been better if it said the cake is a lie', I thought to myself, referencing the video game series 'Portal'.

The elderly couple had made it down onto the opposite side of the dam to me, and I could already hear the loud voice of the old man, mansplaining away about the dam. I walked back across, stopping twice, once to admiring the lapping water, and another to watch a bird gently glide over the water's surface.

I headed back up the stairs to my Wife in the car. "Are you sure you don't want to come for a quick walk down the path and at least see the dam in the water?" I asked her.

She made a comment about the overcast weather, and burning heat, mentioning she didn't have a hat or sunscreen on. "You can wear my hat." I told her, and she pulled a gross face about my sweaty hat. Before saying she would need a broad-brimmed hat. I had my work on in my bag which I offered to her; however, she complained that it was 'too tight' asking me "how do you even wear that?"

"It's fine." I told her, placing it on my head.
"You don't wear it down." She commented.
"No, then I wouldn't have as good vision." I replied.
She ended up coming for a little walk without a hat, pretty unfazed by the experience.
"We can head back at any point." I told her and she was pretty much done after the first view of the dam.

We walked back to the car as the old people had returned and were heading in their car to leave. We headed right, as they were reversing out, and walked around the front of their car. As their car got level with the road, they stalled and we could loudly hear their discussion about not knowing what to do.

"You'd want to learn how to drive your car." My Wife commented to me. 
"Let's get lunch." I said. It was now almost 12:30 and I hadn't eaten since breakfast around 7am.
"Where from?" My Wife asked. I told her I had found a bakery in Picton we would stop in on the way back, but first we would go have a look about this camel sausage in Thirlmere.

I couldn't set up GPS as there was no reception in the area of the dams, but once we exited back onto a road I was able to pull over and set it to 'Farmer's Beauty Cafe'.

A we arrived it was on a small quiet farm street, and my Wife made the comment "Is this just someone's house?"
"Yeah, well it's like a farm cafe." I told her as we pulled up out the front of farm property that has a small fence next to what looked like a food truck behind a fence.
There was no one there, but a little puzzle to ring to get someone on the gate. I felt awkward, and so did my Wife, as we are both awkward people, however we soon noticed Guinea Pigs running out from the fenceline of the property onto the grass patch beside the road, and we stopped to watch them.

Soon I heard some noise behind the fence and looked to see a lady talking to a Joey Kangaroo.
"Hello!" I said to her from over the fence, startling her a bit.
From over the fence, I asked her if she still had any of the camel sausages left, she said she did and invited us in, opening the gate as we walked into the cafe area.
She asked how we had heard about the place and I told her I had found it online while searching interesting places to eat and it had just popped up.
She then asked how many sausages we wanted and I looked at my Wife who suggested two. I told her two.
"Anything else?" She asked, and I said no, however as she walked away to get the sausages I remembered the camel milk.

I pointed out the little joey kangaroo to my Wife as it was behind the counter, when the lady returned, I mentioned about the camel milk but unfortunately, she was out and informed me it 'goes quick', but she should have some more in two weeks.
She did however ask if I was be interested in an Ostrich egg. I was very interested but my Wife struggles with eating egg at the best of times and once opened you can't really store them and Ostrich eggs are huge, and I don't think I could have eaten one to myself.
It probably just tastes like a really huge egg, but the niche of it, the uniqueness, the intrigue it all excited me, but I had to turn down her offer, but I knew if I could get someone like my buddy Stuart to go halves, we could maybe eat an Ostrich egg together.
I paid for the camel, which was processed into a meat like a pepperoni which the packet called a Mettwurst.

She then offered us to look around at the farm which was cool, so she opened the gate, and we were greeted by her very cute dog that I instantly began to pat. She warned just to be careful because sometimes she could 'nip. I wasn't worried, but my Wife kept telling me off for patting her, so we set of to walk around the farm.

We walked past heaps of free-range chickens, some odd-looking unique ones and up to a fence where and Ostrich and emu were. The Ostrich was looking over the fence at me and soon sat down and began doing some weird dance that my Wife told me was 'trying to scare me away'.

We moved on past two cute little pigs that my Wife stopped to pat.

As we moved on from them, we came to another fence with more Ostrich behind it, they were pressing up against the fence like they were trying to get to me and doing low boom or hum that was sort of creepy. It reminded me of a video I had watched on YouTube once that had said rather than Tyrannosaurs Rex (T-Rex the dinosaur) roaring, it would probably have made a loud thunderous bass like sound that it said would be much creepier to hear while be talked in the forest. That was what it reminded me of.
I also informed my Wife I had always had a bit of fear towards Ostriches due to a Mickey Mouse cartoon I had on VHS as a kid. The short, called 'Mickey Down Under' actually apparently features an Emu (apparently called Esther the Emu), however it looks much more like an Ostrich and you're welcome to watch that cartoon short on YouTube.

We walked around to the other side of the barn, which had some goats, more free roaming chickens as well as some Peafowl, both a Peacock and Peahen.

We wandered through, back to the entry, talking about how cool it would be to bring a kid here and how much they'd love it. As we entered back into the cafe area the little joey Kangaroo was on my right eating something and I knelt down to film him.

We thanked the lady as we went to leave, and she told us they also did meals and handed us a menu. She asked us if we were local and I told her "Just from Wollongong", that it wasn't too far away to travel. We thanked her, telling her the place was really cool, and that we would have to come back.

We headed off now towards Picton, my stomach rumbling from not eating all day, with those camel sausages sounding mighty appertising. However, the bakery in Picton was also closed, so we just decided to go to our local bakery when we got home, which we did, because when the craving for pie hits, you need pie.

Later in the week, we cooked up some of the camel mettwurst, deciding to use it on pizza. We did one as a plain pepperoni (or rather plain camel mettwurst), and the other as camel, chilli jam, brie with some sage on it. Both were excellent, and the camel mettwurst was actually huge so the two pizzas didn't even use up an entire sausage (and I did thicker slices on the pepperoni than I meant to).

I thought about writing the dam trip down as part one of a sequel to my '3 Days Out' blog and doing another short 3 days out and writing it up as '3 Days Out Redux'. However, with tafe, video games, work, and a baby on the way, I decided that it'd probably be that long before it got posted I would write it up as a short single blog post, which is what I did.

With life how it is too, I've been debating whether or not to take a pause from blogging. As it can be a lot of effort, with little, well, actually no reward other than my own sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. But life is about to get so busy, I'll be lucky to do walks let alone write about them, and if I had to choose, I would rather just go and for them, and to be honest, I could do many more if I didn't write about them. It will remain to be seen whether I will do a full stop, a micro stop, of if my desire for this blog to be more will get the best of me. Either way the only way to find out is to follow along for the adventure.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Lake Parramatta

   This walk takes place on Dharug Country

It had been months since my last walk, juggling all the things in life, between working fulltime, still trying to finish out my Certificate III in Horticulture, and then starting a Certificate III in Local Government through work as well, all the while keeping on top of those home chores and gardening.
I was defiantly feeling a huge amount of burnout and felt the onset of a large depression which my Wife could see oncoming.
She had been on at me since before Christmas the previous year to get my membership at the local Bouldering Gym. Something to give me an outlet and burn off some energy to hopefully help me feel a bit mentally recharged.
I joined the same week we started an 8 week healthy meal plan in an attempt to curb some of the bad eating habits we had developed (like binge eating treats when feeling depressed).
After 3 weeks of this, I was happy getting back into climbing, going 3 nights a week and already feeling that slight improvement in my physical and mental health...

The end of my third week however, on my last session of climbing for that week... I decided to stay a little longer after feeling like I had burnt out and just cool down on some easier climbs...
When doing one of these I reached up with my right arm, extending it and opening my hand wide to grab a hold. As I did this, I heard a loud very audible crack and felt it simultaneously.
"Ouch." I verbally said, using the same hand to grab a hold before grabbing it with the other hand (this was the top of the climb). I realised this hurt a lot and slowly made my way down, dropping onto the crash pad and making my way back to my car to drive home left handed, not being bale to use my right wrist at all without a sharp painful shooting pain.

I slept on it overnight, where it did not recover at all, taking the day off work to go to one of the Labor Party's new 'Urgent Care' clinics, as my injury would be covered by Medicare and I would not have to pay.

After a consult with a Doctor, where I received a splint to gold my wrist in place to reduce further injury I was sent off for an X-Ray and an Ultrasound.
The X-Ray showed no break or fracture, but the ultrasound showed "There is mild heterogeneity of the triangular fibro cartilage complex (TFCC), with mild adjacent effusion but no obvious disruption, which may represent a sprain."

Basically, a sprained wrist with the report than stating: "This can be better assessed on a MRA if clinically indicated."

After 4 days of work wearing the splint and never hearing back from the Doctor, I simply looked up how long sprained wrists could last before recovery. Finding out that the grade can represent how long the recover takes.

"Grade 1 (Mild): Ligaments are stretched but not torn, causing mild pain and swelling. 

Grade 2 (Moderate): Ligaments are partially torn, leading to more swelling, tenderness, and some loss of movement or function. 

Grade 3 (Severe): Ligaments are completely torn, causing severe pain, swelling, and a loose or unstable wrist joint. In some cases, the ligament tear may also pull away a small piece of bone, called an avulsion fracture."

I decided rather than try to get back in touch of the Urgent Care Doctor (I had already spent a consecutive 4+ hours on the phone to get back in contact), I would send my scan results to ChatGPT and ask what it thought my Grade would be (if I was going on my pain levels I would assume 2).
However, ChatGPT said it would probably be a Grade 1 given that information. I decided to pause my Boulding Membership for a further 4 weeks (already no going for a week), and hope that the wrist would recover in that time.
Meanwhile though I felt depressed that I couldn't exercise, and also with my wrist so poorly I couldn't continue with any practical modules off my Horticulture Certificate (I couldn't even wipe my own ass with my right hand!)

To try and cheer me up we decided to get out for a bushwalk that we had planned to do over numerous weekends but kept having things coming up. This walk was the Lake Parramatta Walk.
A dog friendly walk I had found ages ago, and added to the list of walks I wanted to do, but once my Wife saw a 'TikTok' on it she too wanted to go, moving this walk up the list.
So, on Saturday the 31st of May, we set off on the long drive to Western Sydney, made even longer due to the roadworks being conducted on Heathcote Road at the time.

After horrible traffic, and almost 2 hours of driving we arrived.

I took this photo as we were leaving, as I was driving when we arrived

I had driven my Toyota Yaris instead of the new Toyota Rav4 we had purchased over the Christmas Holidays, as my Wife was stressed about getting parking and as the car was still so new it was yet to have scratches and marks that will inevitably happen as assholes open up their car door into the side and other things like that. 
However, as we drove past, we noticed heaps of side-on street parking where we could have parked it with no issues. But I drove into the reserve parking, past the café and pulled up in-between two cars.

We hoped out of the car, looking out on a section of the lake.

Both needing to use a bathroom we sort of wandered over to a picnic area on a hill looking. I pointed up the hill at a bathroom and we made our way up the hill.

I went in first, then held Orla while my Wife went, walking across the road to take a photo of some stone frogs that were near a kid's playground.

I was finding it difficult to hold the phone in my right hand wearing the splint, but it didn't help holding Orla's lead with my weaker left hand and being pulled.

Once m Wife returned, I handed her Orla and asked if she wanted a Matcha Latte from the café if they had them.
"Nah just a Mocha." She told said, saying she felt like she needed the caffeine.
Lucky for her they didn't have Matcha anyway, so I ordered myself a latte and her a mocha, while I waited off to the side reading some information about Lake Parramatta they had printed and stuck up on the wall.

"Welcome to Country...
The traditional custodians of Lake Parramatta Reserve are peoples of the Burramatagal clan of the Dharug language group. Some relics of Aboriginal occupation exist on site in the form of remnant shelters, hand-stencils, flaking scars and midden deposits. Today we welcome you to the reserve and ask that you acknowledge indigenous cultural values, particularly having respect for Earth and all its creatures.
Completed in 1856, the Lake Parramatta reservoir was the first large dam built in Australia. It was made of sandstone blocks quarried onsite as seen today from the Dam Wall Lookout.
A concrete rim adding 3.3m to the dam height was built in 1898.
The dam was a crucial part of Parramatta's water supply until 1909, when the city was connected to Sydney's water system (following the construction of the Cataract Dam).
An enduring legacy of the dam for Parramatta was the creation of a water reserve protecting its catchment in the 1880s. This was later expanded to cover the natural area now protected in Lake Parramatta Reserve.
Today the reserve forms a vital part of a connected network of natural areas. These provide essential habitat for an array of native wildlife across the Parramatta River Catchment.
Please help to protect these values by following the reserve's user regulations."

The coffee's were ready, and I grabbed the two, returning to my Wife as she was telling me that you can head either direction around the lake as the track loops. I wanted to head right around the lake, telling her I want to "go clockwise" (the opposite of what I wanted, as evidently I was very tired). When we finally clarified I was an idiot and what I actually meant, we headed back towards the car, following the lake around 'anti-clockwise'.

We followed the road along, until it came to a section cars could no longer proceed through, reading a sign on the side showing us on a map where we were and saying we were about to to the 'Arrunga Bardo walk' which was part of the 'Lake Circuit' the loop track around the entire lake we were here to do.

"Arrunga Bardo Walk
Grade 2 - 900m one way
Starting from the Arrunga Bardo Garden follow the evenly surfaced bush track past Lake Parramatta's finest view to the Arrunga Bardo (Calm Waters) Lookout."

"Lake Circuit
Grade 3 - 4200m loop/ 2 hours
From Arrunga Bardo (Calm Waters) Lookout, continue on via Upper Lake Track/Reservoir Track to complete a loop of the lake."

As we continued along we reached the Arrunga Bardo Garden, with a sign giving some information on the Dharug clan, the 'Burramattagal', which was derived from the Aboriginal word for "place of eels".
To the side, was a collection of plants, the 'garden' informing how these different plants were used for hunting, weaving, food and medicine.

There was a small group walking ahead of us and they continued along the wide gravel road (the Management Trail that you can also follow), but I pointed at a little sign and a trail leading off on the left which was the Arrunga Bardo walk and part of our Lake Circuit trail and so we turned off down there.

We continued around the lake and down a wooden walkway leading to some stairs, and I was struggling to photograph using my phone in my right hand with my splint on, and my left hand holding my coffee. My Wife was also struggling holding Orla's leash whilst trying to drink. 

"Maybe we should have just had our coffees at the picnic table." I bemoaned.

Just as we reached the bottom of the stairs a couple was walking their two smaller dogs towards us, so we moved off to the side to give them space as we have found from experience that smaller dogs are usually a bit more... volatile... might be an apt description.

We moved off and the dog made a bit of a fuss, and the lady thanked us for moving saying "They don't like bigger dogs in their old age." Proving our instincts correct.

We continued on a short while more, before coming to a rocky clearing beside the lake where I suggested we sit to just finish our coffees.

In the distance I watched while sipping my coffee, as a Duck/Swan pedal boat slowing made its way up the lake towards us, continuing around the bend and further up the lake. My Wife suggested we get a family selfie together, which were tried with none of us even being happy with how we looked in the photo.

A few people passed us while we were sitting, including some with dogs, but all seemed well behaved. We finished our coffees and decided to continue on as I commented that the temperature was beginning to warm, as it had been quite chilly that morning.

"How's she walking?" I asked, with the intention behind the question really meaning 'Is she pulling on her lead?'
"Good." My Wife responded, as Orla happily trotted along sniffing things.

The trail continued around a bend, with a metal pipe protruding from the ground along the middle of the trail. We stepped over, and rounded another bend were there was another, which I almost mistook for a snake for a short second.

The trail headed in now, and we lost sight of the lake, talking along the way and discussing numerous things together. I could see a gentle flowing stream down an embankment on my left and soon we came to a crossing, however as we approached it, two ladies walking their dog were crossing from the other side, so we walked back a bit to stand off into the bush off the path to allow them to pass with some distance.

After they passed, we continued down where the trail on the other side forked into two different directions. They had come from the track on the left, which was the way my Wife suggested that we should go.

However, knowing that the trail would head left, as that was the direction of the lake, I suggested we follow the track to the right (as I didn't want to miss any aspect of the walk).

Reaching the top, the walk opened up once more onto the 'Management Trail', a wider open direct road to allow access to vehicles (presumably for things like fire trucks and ambulances, and the like).

We followed this left, where in a few more steps the previous left trail also opened up onto the management trail. 
As we rounded another bend once more having eyes on the lake, a man was walking along with his Beagle, off leash.
I moved to the side, taking Orla's lead, pulling Orla away (as she has had bad experiences with an aggressive Beagle on our street). The man kept approaching, apathetically trying to call his dog back to him while my Wife stood firmly between, to make sure that the off-leash Beagle did not approach, while she stink eyed the man for not having his dog on a leash.
After he had passed, she proceeded to vent and rant about people not having their dogs on a leash, particularly ones with no recall skill, as I reminded her, we had let Orla off leash when there was no one around whilst on quiet walks too. It was just about recall and doing the right thing, like putting them back on when anyone approached.

"Rather than getting rangers to focus on parking, they should just come stand along here and fine lots of people." She continued.
Where we had moved to the side there was a little boulder sticking out from the ground and I suggested it would be a cute photo of Orla standing up on the rock. We walked Orla up onto it while I moved around her snapping photos with my camera like it was a model shoot.

After another short walk, the path split once more, with the Management Trail bending off to the right, and the Lake Circuit and Arrunga Bardo section of the walk, moving closer towards the lake.

After a 40m walk we arrived at the Arrunga Bardo, or 'Calm Waters' Lookout.

As I looked right, up the lake, and along the path we were to follow I noticed someone had built a rope swing that was attached to a tree.

I made a comment about there being 'designated' swimming areas within the lake and wondered out loud why.
"Maybe because of the boats?" My Wife suggested.
'Probably no one swimming today because of all the rain." I told her. "There was a sign saying not to swim at least 3 days after rain. Probably because of all the runoff."

We reached an uneven surface of rocks along an edge that we continued for a short while that then opened up to another wide view overlooking a portion of the lake.

The track led down a short slope before levelling out again. I decided to give my Wife a shot break from walking Orla and took her in my left hand as we continued along.
Upon reaching the level surface, we moved out of the way to let a man jogging past, before crossing a little wooden bridge that seemed to be at a section that could potentially flood or get muddy, though wasn't necessary to walk on, but I led Orla up onto it walking her across.

After another short walk we reached another set of stairs that Orla felt the desire to try and run up and I tried to hold her in my left hand and quickly follow along behind her snapping blurry photos with my right hand, it was here we also heard loud voices behind us, I looked back and expecting them to be right behind but they were a way back, just speaking exceptionally loud.

When the stairs ended the track uphill still continued with the formation of rocks and tree roots holding the soil in a way that made it almost like a natural staircase.

When we reached the top it once more opened up onto the Maintenance Track. The loud voices behind us were now even louder, and we looked to see that they had rapidly gained on us.

"How fast are they walking!" My Wife said, as we realised they had small fluffy dogs running beside them off-leash. We moved back along the Maintenance Track out of the way, waiting for them to pass at the speed they were going while I removed my jumped as now the sun was well and truly out and the weather had substantially warmed.

After removing my jumped I pointed up into the trees as I noticed a Nest-Box.

I had a quick drink to cool myself, handing my Wife back Orla's lead, and we continued the walk, again, for only a short while until the Management Track spilt once more and we headed left, downhill, heading towards the Upper Hunts Creek Crossing.

We crossed under some powerlines that stretched out across the lake, leading uphill on the other side, where I could see a building that I assumed were homes that back on to the reserve surrounding the lake.

As we continued downhill, I noticed a gumtree growing around a large rock, that had other small pieces of rock on top of it.

"That would have been a perfect spot to place one of those NSW Rocks". I said, referring to the collection of NSW Rocks I had found on various casual walks and built up in our study, which on previous walk I had tried to slowly begin to disperse back out to be found and hidden again by someone else. Unfortunately, I had a bad habit of completely forgetting about them.

As I was saying this a couple approached from behind with a dog, and we moved off to the side to let them past. I noticed a small flowing stream in the bush to my left side, and as we walked a tiny bit further down after the other people had moved on, we crossed the stream to begin an ascent up another set of stairs.

As we marched uphill, we noticed a lady approaching from behind, once more with a dog off lead. I took Orla and we continued up as fast as we could until we reached the top of the incline and we moved off to the side (the top was a wider, more open area). While we waited another couple passed us, but the lady with the dog still didn't approach. Given the amount of time we waited I shrugged, suggesting that she may have just turned back, but we gave it a bit longer while I looked at the flowering Banksias.

The lady and her dog ended up being a no-show, so we continued along the now sandy trail past a telegraph pole, and the trail headed down a slight incline before turning of through the bush.

I swapped Orla back for my Wife to walk and tried to take a selfie of the three off us while walking.
"Are you taking a photo?" My Wife asked.
"Yeah." I responded. "But they're all blurry."
Instead, we all paused and smiled for a quick selfie, before continuing on and reaching the creek crossing.

We waited for a man walking his dog to cross over first, while I pointed out what looked like a trail continuing straight ahead, away from the crossing.

"It might just loop around." My Wife suggested. "In case the crossing gets too deep or something?"

There was a lady just off to our left, crouching down, resting her hands into the water. She looked up and just smiled, going back to just looking at her hands resting in the water.
I took Orla's lead, and attempted to take her across the steppingstones, but immediately she just walked to the side through the shallow water.

The trail on the other side headed left, and I knew we were now heading back towards the start of the walk. A short way along we came to a large boulder, painted all with Aboriginal style hand stencils.

I had never seen Aboriginal art so well preserved, so made the assumption that it was a more modern piece, though before writing about it I did try to seek to see if it was historical but could find no answer via good. A quick ask to ChatGPT, claimed it was pre-European art, which if true, made it even more impressive, but if you know the facts feel free to share them in the comments!

It was also while trying to research this that I realised how similar the name of the Burramatagal clan was to Parramatta, learning the origins of the name (albeit corrupted). I did a Google search to learn a bit more on the history of this where I learned that during European colonisation, Parramatta was named Rose Hill by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788 but was changed to Parramatta in 1791.

We continued down from the creek crossing, alongside the flowing water, as I turned to look back, I noticed a plastic ball left in a small pool of water.

I walked down towards the water for a photo, and my boots slide on the very slippery moss. I steadied myself and told my Wife not to bring Orla down as it was far too slippery. I took a photo facing down the creek and slowly made my way back to them, watching my footing.

Following the track down the creek and lake disappeared, but the creek seemed to flow into a field of wetland vegetation, with many Colocasia growing amongst it all.

Continuing past here the trail split, and you could follow it up a bit on the right to walk past some small cliffs and then the two paths reconverged just afterwards. I took Orla for a picture with her before swapping to take a photo of my Wife.

I showed her the photos to make sure she was happy with them.

"Oh god I took terrible!" She said, before going on a self-hating diatribe about how 'ugly' she looked.

I tried to argue that wasn't the case, but I knew from history it was a losing battle.

Once the paths had rejoined, I turned, stopping my Wife and Orla from continuing along, as there was something on the path. We stood waiting as it walked closer and we realised it was a turkey.

I took a few photos, trying to get a good shot before it walked off into the scrub. Just past it was a little trail off to the left with a boulder in front and a view once more of the lake.

We followed the trail back along the way, as we got to a bit of uneven surface that my Wife was slowly and carefully walking down with Orla.

While she was doing this, a lady walking with two hiking poles came flying through, and didn't wait for anyone to move and just powered through, speeding off into the distance.

"In a bit of a fucking hurry." I said, making a face to my Wife. Saying about how rude it was to just barge through like that, potentially dangerously. "Bit fucking rude."

My stomach was beginning to rumble, and luckily just as another incline was appearing I noticed a lovely wide-open spot overlooking the lake. I suggested we sit for a rest, and so that I could snack on the one food item we had packed. Some grapes.

We sat down, looking out over the beautiful waters of the late as it mirrored the sky and the trees in the water. It was still, and completely calm and for the moment we had complete silence to just enjoy the splendor of the natural world in front of us.

I tried to eat my grapes but Orla as desperate for some pats and affection, and I couldn't deny such a cute face, patting her with my right splinted hand while I ate grapes awkwardly with my left.

It wasn't long before the calm serenity was broken as a loud group of about 6 girls walked past chatting loudly. After they were out of earshot and we finally did not need to overhear their conversation anymore, we made a move on, walking until we noticed we were now directly across the lake from the car park.

We continued following the track along until we were across from the section of lake which was the designated swimming area.

Along the way we came to a section where you had to step over a fallen tree. My Wife assumed that there would be a drop off on the other side, so whilst I quickly and easily walked over it, she took Orla out of the way and tried to make their way through the bush where they met me on the other side when she realised that that had been a completely unnecessary detour.

Just as we passed the marked swimming area, I made my way down to the water on the other side to inspect the water plants. "I want to see the lily pads." I said, heading down to the water. "Well, they look like lily pads." I said, always auto correcting myself in real life in case of erroneous information.

We continued the trail along, at one point encountering a couple who was walking towards us from the other direction, who then stopped and turned around.

"That was a little weird." I remarked.
"Maybe they started walking and where like, nah." My Wife suggested, as we eventually arrived, getting out first view of the dam.

The trail now headed down to the bottom of the dam, and as we went to walk down it I noticed a group of people making their way up. I told my Wife that we would move to the side to let them past.

"No you're right!" The man in the lead said, insisting we come down and that there was plenty of room for us.

We made our way to the right of them, where the path was more of a slope and less like the side the group was walking up which, from frequent foot traffic has eroded to have a stair-like shape -albeit much taller than a usual short stair.

As we reached the bottom a temporary gate was placed, not allowing people to walk up to the base of the dam (whether you usually can or not I don't know).

In front of us was another section of concrete steppingstones we would have to cross to reach the other side.

"I can take Orla." I said, knowing it might be a bit stressful to get her across the stones, and hoping she wouldn't drop down between the gaps.

"Quickly, quickly." I repeated, holding her tightly, feeling like if we did it faster there would be less chance of Orla misstepping.

My Wife crossed after us and I handed her back Orla, and walked back out into the middle to get a photo facing toward, and away from the dam along the little creek.

Waiting for me in the shade

We continued up a section of steps, once more moving to the side for a group who was making their way down, this group didn't acknowledge us at all, just continuing their conversation like we weren't even there as we stood to the side.

We reached the top, and the other side of the dam as I felt another small rumble in my belly.

We came to another information sign (which greeted us with "Wirami or, Welcome" in what I assumed as the Dharug language group), this sign informed us that this section of the track that we had just finished was the Reservoir Track, which ended at the 'Reservoir Lookout" before becoming the "Upper Lake Track" that continued until the Arrunga Bardo (Calm Waters) Lookout, and the Arrunga Bardo walk that we had begun on.
We were now on the 'Heritage Path' that continued around the lake until we reached the Visitor Hub.

We followed the path along past the kiosk and the boat ramp.

"I wish there was a sign that said how much boat hire was." I commented, dubious of anything that didn't list prices.

We sat down at a picnic table and my Wife went to go and purchase us a piece of cake from the kiosk as something to eat before the long drive home.

I enjoyed, sitting with Orla, looking out over the water, soaking in the sun, while a turkey began to approach, before getting scared off when it noticed Orla.

Soon my Wife returned with a piece of cake for us to share.

"Sorry, I think it's just a basic lemon cake." She said, mentioning that there were no labels naming the cakes.
"That's alright it looks good." I said, commenting on the little floral pieces on top.
My Wife began to eat it and I commented that I 'probably should have taken a photo', she looked at me guiltily with a mouth full of cake, before shrugging and I took a piece too.
"Wow that's actually a really nice cake." We both said, commenting on how moist and lemony it was, expecting it to be a drier, more bland cake like you'd usually get from such places.

She wanted cake too

We went back up the hill to the bathroom before we left and this time my Wife decided to drive and asked me to just 'sit in the back with Orla' and rest my wrist.

I did this, expecting Orla to be her usual hypo self in the car, but so tired from her outing she laid down, resting her sleepy little head against me while I gentle patted her the whole way home.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven