Glow Worm Glen

 This walk takes place on Gandangarra Country

Back in April, for my two-year celebration of being cancer free, I went for a walk in the Southern Highlands at Fairy Bowers Falls. My Wife, who was working that day was disappointed as she loves the highlands. So in the lead up to our trip to Iceland, I suggested she do some walks with me in order to test her fitness (she had been exercising in preparation for some of the mountains in Iceland), and so we settled on doing Glow Worm Glen, as it had originally been my plan to do that on the same day as Fairy Bower Falls but I had run out of time. However, the Friday before the weekend we planned to do it my Wife became sick, and so we delayed it to the following weekend on the Sunday.

The next weekend arrived, and the rain began early on Saturday morning. However, it had stopped by the afternoon, and while looking at the forecast for Bundanoon on the Sunday we decided the weather would be alright and so I set an alarm for Sunday morning. We awoke and I had to try and get Orla (my Dog) ready to go outside for the day. However, as I lay in bed drinking my coffee, she cuddled up next to me, tucking her head in-between my armpit making me feel guilty about having to leave her. 
"How will you cope in Iceland?" My Wife said as I cuddled Orla, riddled with guilt.
We got ready for the walk, and I placed Orla out the back with her Kong that was stuffed with treats (which she usually takes and eagerly runs away with) however she simply sat down with her sad puppy Dog eyes looking at me, wondering why she didn't get to come with us.

My Wife decided to take her car, as I was beginning to clock up the km's on mine. "Is it OK if I play Taylor Swift?" She asked.
"You're the driver, you get to pick the music." I replied and we began our way to Albion Park and up Macquarie Pass, which had both side of its bottom carparks already packed, and Clover Hill Road was too as we drove by it.

My Wife didn't need any GPS to find her way towards Bundanoon having worked up there for a time at a cafe owner by our friend Alicia's Mum. As we approached Bundanoon I told her. "You know I've wanted to do this walk for years?"
"Have you?" She asked.
I told her the story about staying at the Bundanoon YHA, that I won't repeat here as I wrote about it in my Mount Jellore blog. I mentioned that it was the walk I thought I was going to do when I did Fairy Bower Falls, (even though the actual walk I had planned to do afterwards but ran out of time as I drove to Mittagong to buy a stout instead). I told her I remembered that it wasn't too far from the YHA as I thought my Dad had taken my two younger brothers to the walk on foot. I said I remembered it being on top a valley looking down into it. I said I remembered there being a lot of pine trees and that my brothers had come back with ticks all in their heads.

As we entered Bundanoon I pointed to a brown sign on our right pointing up a hill on our left. My Wife turned and drove to the top of the street, where we parked and quickly sprayed some Bushmans on our shoes and legs to avoid leeches. We walked down the road just down from the top of William Street past the houses where we found the start of the walk.

Reading the little information sign I commented that is said to avoid wearing insect repellant, as we had just sprayed on some Bush-Mans. "Bit late now." I said, hoping it would be ok.

"This still isn't looking like the place I remember." I told my Wife.
"Maybe where you stayed was over-looking Wingello if you remember all the pines." She said.
"Maybe..." I said while thinking. "Maybe and he just took them to here and I didn't see the spot where they actually walked. It was years ago, I could just be misremembering."

We made our way down the stairs that had people's properties backing onto it. As we reached the base of the first set of stairs, I stopped to look at a tree that I thought looked beautiful up against an old dry stone fence. I was taken by how green everything around us was looking, compared to a lot of the natural areas around where I live, with the haunting white bodies of gum trees and dry yellows grasses.

We continued along the path that flattened out now moving in and out from underneath the canopy as I waited for the walk to begin our decent into the Glen.

I was struck by how in such a very small distance the scenery had already changed so much as we walked through reeds on either side of us, hitting some more steps that were once more surrounded by deep greenery,

I pointed to the plants growing low along the side of the steps. 
"It looks like parsley." I said.
"One way to find out." My Wife said, taking a piece that I thought she was going to eat, however she simply put it to her nose and sniffed it. "It's not parsley." She told me.

"Orla would love this walk." I said.
My Wife began talking about how Dogs weren't allowed on many walks in Australia, compared to when we had been in the UK, again dreaming that she could live in the UK instead of Australia.

The air was chilly in the highlands, at 9 degrees Celsius. "I wish I had brought an overshirt." I said. 
"Are you really cold?" My Wife asked as I had been cold in her car the whole drive while she had the air conditioning on.

We soon reached a split in the track one heading ahead to Glow Worm Glen, the other heading right to an alternative car park.

"Maybe that's the carpark my Dad took my brothers from?" I questioned, before pointing out it really wasn't very car to Glow Worm Glen. My Wife pointed to each sign and the distances they both said to Glow Worm Glen, both offering inconsistent distances. My Wife suggested that we would walk through to the other carpark for a look seeing as we had driven so far for such a short walk. "I guess I probably might have had time to do it after Fairy Bower, if it wasn't for my forgetting to pack water and driving to Mittagong to buy a stout."

We continued up and I noticed a lot of trees had been cut down along the track.

We walked around the corner and soon came to the last section of stairs heading down to the Glen.

We slowly walked down these stairs looking into the gully. 

We walked down onto the built platform, which I had to wonder if it was there all those years ago when my Dad and brothers had come down. It was obviously there to stop people walking in any further and disturbing the area, although I commented to my Wife that people who wanted to would simply just jump over anyway.

I had known that during the day we wouldn't be able to see any glow worms but I didn't know the walk was going to be so short (as I didn't want my Wife trekking through the bush in the dark, but the walk was ultra short). She suggested we come back in Summer with our friends Stuart and Megan and come at night to see the glow worms. I said that would be a good idea and that we could all go out for dinner beforehand (as it's a late sunset in Summer in Australia, particularly in NSW because of daylight savings which I hate).

We stopped and ate the cliff bars we packed, feeling like we over bought on food for the walk. We sat in the silence enjoying the views and clean crisp air, before we decided to head back up and walk to the alternate car park. "Sorry it's not much of a physical test for you for Iceland" I said to my Wife.

We soon reached the turn off to the other carpark, which according to the distances on the sign was almost as long a walk as the entire walk from William Street to Glow Worm Glen.

I thought this crossing was a bit cooler than the walk we had taken and said out loud "Maybe this is the more adventurous route."

I told her as we crossed the little creek it reminded me of one very particular section of the walk to Mount Jellore.

As we crossed, I told my Wife to watch her footing, as the earth was still wet from the rain and we needed to walk uphill with nothing to hold on to. She said that sometimes it was better wet as the topsoil could be more compacted, however I had walked enough to know about slipping over in the mud, however she was proved right, and the soil was pretty firm.

As we reached the top we were exposed to completely different scenery once again as wel walked through cane-like plants that my Wife commented reminded her of the Bamboo forest we went through in Vanuatu on our way to Cascade Waterfall. I commented that I had had the same thought, though I don't know why, as the two didn't really look much alike at all.

We continued weaving through, and the path twisted and turned.
"You're lucky I'm in front." I told my Wife, wiping spiderwebs from my face for the umpteenth time.

"Crocheted beanie." I said, as we walked past someone's beanie they had placed along the trail.
"Hey crotched beanie." She said, having not heard me just say it. She said something about the type of materials or sizing or something that as someone who doesn't crotchet went right over my head. "I could make that in... an hour and a half."

"An hour and a half? It took you weeks to make mine." I retorted.
She than begin to go in about the different sizes and materials and my eye glazed and I just nodded.

We came a split in the trail, and I suggested heading right, which I thought would head towards town before I noticed the pink ribbon tied to a branch indicating that it was the right way to go.

I started a little rant about how a few of the walks I had done lately didn't really have good markers, and often had a variety of trails splitting off from them with no indication of which way was the right way to be going, thinking in particular of my recent walk up Saddleback Mountain. "They always have signs pointing the way at obvious points." I whined.

I made a comment about all the trees with their black bark and wondered if they were recovering from the bushfires, or if they just looked that way, mentioning that in the house I grew up in as child we had a big gum tree out the front with deep dark bark with red underneath that definitely had never been burned, so I didn't know if some trees just looked this way.

As we rounded the bend we came to a large section of wattle.
"Oh look honey, your favourite." I said. As she had already been having some allergies from the small pieces of wattle we had walked past so far.

I started talking about a beer I used to be able to buy from the local bottle shop. A wattle seed ale called 'Beyond the Black Stump' by Australian Beer Co. 
"That was my favourite beer." I said, explaining it was like a dessert beer. A beer you would relax and just enjoy the flavour of it, not the sort of beer where you would sit there and down a six pack. "I wish I could find it somewhere."

Soon the track split again, this time heading left and right with no marker and not even a ribbon to differ the paths. I suggested we head right, as that would be the direction back towards the Glen, so I figured more like to lead to a carpark. We followed it down and around a bend and I could see the back of a sign before the bush opened up to a field. We walked around to view the front of the sign.

"Whoops." I said, remembering when the exact same thing had happened when I had walked Bong Bong Pass with my Dad. "I wonder why it's shut I said, walking out to the field which honestly just looked like someone's back lawn and was even behind some houses. I saw another sign laying face down amongst a fallen tree and I turned it over.

"Well, it's not a carpark, but maybe you walk down past these homes from the carpark? Or used to before they shut it." I questioned.

We decided to head back in and follow the left track instead just to see where it went.
"You see what I mean about signage though?" I said. "If this track is closed there should have been something back at the big proper sign near Glow Worm Glen."

My Wife, who was behind me, was now in the front because we had turned around, and I took some photo's. I snapped some photo of her walking through before she noticed.

"Are you taking photo's of me?" She asked."
"Yeah, just you walking." I answered.
"If you post that on Facebook I will reply it's a photo of my back because of my allergies using the animal crossing meme."
"Animal crossing meme?" I asked, having never seen it. 
She tried to load it up but there was no reception where we were.
"Well let's just hope no one tries to murder us." I said.

The path begam to open up, and we crossed a tiny little stream where I noticed a leaf had got itself stuck in the front of my now falling apart joggers.

We both discussed how bad our joggers were, with me saying I would wait until after Iceland to buy a new pair. As we continued walking up the slight incline, I commented that the look of the track reminded me of Gibbergunyah reserve.

As the incline got a little steeper there was a stump surrounded by Wombat poos that I said actaully looked like a decent toilet bowl, picturing a drawing of a cartoon Wombat using it as a loo like a human.

We rounded the bend and could see another sign facing away which we instantly knew was another closure sign, the biggest clue this time was the large piece of orange plastic that had been placed in front to obvious stop access, with a big cut showing people obviously chose to ignore it.

We walked to the end as I wanted to see the area which looked like a car park.

I also took a photo of the white closure sign.
"Don't upload that!" My Wife snapped at me, as it showed we had entered an no entry area.
I told her that it didn't matter, and if anyone had tried to fine us, I would simply contest it, as we had entered from the other way that didn't have any notice asking us not to enter.

We made our way back now and I asked if we should wander down the other track where the path first split.
"We did didn't we?" She said.
"No, the very first one." I said to her as she couldn't remember.
We made our way back to that first split and followed it less than a minute down before it simply came to a dead end. We started back towards the car and we hadn't even reached the beanie before I could hear the voices of people loudly speaking.

"God this is why I hate people." I said. "They come out, talking this loud and wonder why they don't see anything. There's no reason to even speak that loud. The people in the houses near the entry to the walk must hate it."

As we approached the turn of to the actual carpark and Glow Worm Glen, the group became insanely loud and you could hear their entire conversation as we crossed down to the little creek just down from signs where we noticed small little caves in the side of the slope, hidden by plant growth.

As we reached the signs the group was there and I could hear they were talking about how they had tried to start the walk from the other carpark that we had just walked to, only to see the closures. I nodded a courteous acknowledgement of them before making our way uphill and back to the car.

My Wife enquired about how her fitness seemed as we made it up the last set of stairs and back on to William Street. I said she did well and said that she had also walked well on our recent Bondi to Coogee walk.

As we reached the car I asked if she wanted to go to Bundanoon for lunch, and she suggested that we walk down and into town and make a day of it. So, we headed down the street, as my Wife admired some of the street's gardens and got to pass a few Dogs along the way, always a cause for excitement.

We stopped out the front of what was now the 'Potter's Cafe' where she used to work, she took a photo to send to her friend Alicia and we made our way through the main street before deciding on getting fish and chips and calamari from the Primula Cafe and a coffee and chai each. While waiting for our order my Wife recounted how when she worked at the cafe she would often have people came in who wanted to order chips, only for them to say they didn't sell them. "But the cafe down the road does!" They would exclaim.
"Did you tell them they could just go to that cafe then?" I said, laughing.

We took it across the road and ate at a covered park bench, when my Wife asked if we could check out the nursery that was behind and a part of a secondhand shop. I said I quickly wanted to have a look at the information sign just down from us, that looked like a giant bus stop. As we reached in there was a map of the area and showing some of the walks. I pointed to Fairy Bower Falls following along with my finger the way I had walk and the lookouts I had driven to afterwards.

We crossed the road and made our way through the secondhand shop, that I was way more into than a 31 year old should be, telling my Wife that places like this where like 'Antiques Roadshow' and in a way, mini museums with the sort of items they had. My Wife rushed me through to the nursery that didn't have a lot of stock, before I made her have another quick peruse through the secondhand shop.

"Are you done?" She asked. Before we began our way back to the car, feeling that, even though it had been a long drive, we had made it a day well spent.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

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