Karloo Pools and Bottle Forest Trail

Christmas came and went, and the New Year was approaching, I hit up my friend Tristan to come to the movies to see the new Avatar film 'The Way of Water'. While catching up after the film we got to talking about another walk and Tristan threw out the idea of Karloo Pools on the 2nd day of the New Year, the day before I returned to work. I said that it sounded good to me, who had spent most of the Christmas break laying around inside eating really heavy meals.

So, the day before I quickly messaged another friend Biris to see if he would be joining us, unfortunately he was busy with a barbeque. Tristan offered to pick me up and decided to bring his girlfriend who was mentioned in my 'Kiama Coastal blog post'. My first time actually meeting her.

He arrived outside my house, and we set off towards Waterfall. Chatting along the way. As we arrived at Waterfall train station Tristan decided he needed to poo, with me jokingly telling him he should just go in the bush. As we began walking to the station looking for a toilet, he realised that the walk began at Heathcote train station, so we got back into his car and he stopped at a service station along the way to use the loo.

As we arrived his girlfriend Amy and I both felt we needed the toilet and went at the station. We then followed Tristan's lead over the track to the other side looking for where the walk began seeing a few people heading that way. We followed them and found the entrance to the walk.

As we inspected the map, I mentioned we could have walked there from the Uloola Falls walk at Waterfall station (a walk I have done a few times and have meant to return and do again as a blog). He commented that we could have, but this way was shorter. My eyes bounced around looking at all the different walking trails wanting to do them all. We then began the walk in the sweltering heat wondering how I would go after my diet of rich Christmas food.

I could tell instantly that the walk was a popular one, there were people heading towards the entrance as we began the walk and various groups ahead of us.

As we followed the path along the back of the houses Tristan's girlfriend Amy mentioned that it would probably be nice to live on one of these houses, however I said I wouldn't like to as there is not enough privacy for my liking, especially with the amount of people traversing the trail.

To our right we came upon this structured sign, and I thought above the generic 'New Years Resolutions' but couldn't be bothered coming up with any because I never live up to them.

The path soon forked, with us following the trail right into the bush, towards Karloo (while the trail to the left was an APZ trail).

Tristan pointed out particular plants along the way, using his bush regeneration knowledge. He also pointed out an Eagle, which to stir him up I kept insisting was a bird it wasn't (such as a pelican).

Along the thin trail we weren't walking particularly slow, overtaking some people whilst also stepping aside to let groups of other people march on ahead of us.

We stopped along a rocky slope looking at the scenery. The discussion soon turned to travel with Amy mentioning swimming in the Nile while on a trip to Egypt, and I mentioned my upcoming trip to Iceland, she asked me about the Midnight Sun, and I said I thought that it occurred there, but wouldn't at the time of the year that I would be there.

The walk began to slightly incline, and we continued along the uneven surface (though it was not treacherous and was a very easy walk still).

After reaching the top just over the incline in the picture above the walk began on the same uneven surface but on a much sharper incline downwards that at some spots on the walk involved a little bit of scrambling just to avoid the people who were working their way back up (many of whom were stopping due to exhaustion and the heat as they worked their way uphill). It felt like we spent longer heading down then we had on the rest of the walk and wondered if we would look like these poor souls on our way back.

We soon arrived at Karloo Pools, which I could hear before I saw it. As the pools came into my sights, I realised why I had heard them, it was like going to a public swimming pool with the amount of people. We looked from side to side along the watering hole and opted to go to our left and climb up on a big rock away from people overlooking the water. I debated whether or not to get a photo as so many people where in there but opted to quickly take one while looking at my phone so it was 'inconspicuous'.

As I sat up on the rock observing the people around me, not far from my right a group of young teenagers lounged about, blasting their crappy music for everyone to hear. "This isn't a fucking water park" I thought angrily. "Nobody wants to hear your fucking shit."

Just down beneath me two young teenage boys threw stones into the water heading down stream and were told of by a lady who said he and her friend were trying to go in and swim there. The boys completely ignored them and continued just throwing rocks and while the woman looked at them with an incredulous look, unable to believe their sheer rudeness. 

"Are you coming in?" Tristan asked me. I told him I wouldn't as I didn't bring any swimmers and I didn't fancy walking in wet cloths, and that there were far too many people for my liking. Him and Amy went in for a swim and I sat trying to tune out the music and image the area without people.

While the two of them were swimming I noticed a particular couple come down, they came around to the side I was one before turning around and going to the opposite side to read a signpost before continuing along the walk. They didn't look like they were here for a swim and I figured they were continuing along the walk to either Uloola or Audley. Once Tristan and Amy returned and got changed, I asked if they wanted to continue the walk. They said they were ready and we walked around to the signpost I had seen the couple read. The sign seemed to imply that if the followed it inward to the right it would take you to Uloola, but if you continued straight ahead it would take you on a loop track up Bottle Forest Trail and back to the entry. They agreed that they wanted to do the loop and we headed down that trail seeing a few Water Dragons and at one point a Goanna.

As we continued along Tristan continued to cast doubt that we were even following a trail. I insisted we were saying I was 90% positive. Each time we got to a section that was slightly overgrown or the trail seemed a bit harder to find, Tristan would turn to Amy and asked if she trusted following my lead. I would then again insist I was positive but lowering the percentage to maybe 60% before again finding an obvious point in the trail and raising my percentage level of assuredness. 

Tristan continued to remain skeptical that the path looped, bit I said it had been on the map of the signpost that I had forgotten to photograph (having felt like some of my previous blog were too photo heavy I actively tried to not take as many photos during the walk and instead just enjoy myself).

At one point Tristan even stopped to try and GPS were we were, insisting the trail wasn't a loop but was a retention basin on the map, and when his GPS loaded up it did indeed not show any looping trail (it did show the Bottle Forest Trail, but not connecting to the track we were on).

Obligatory selfie

As we continued down some of the water spots were very clear and looked wild and like much better spots to swim in (with a distinct lack of crowds), however both Amy and myself commented at different times that the reads made it look (for some reason to us) like the water would contain Crocodiles (though we both knew they didn't).

I was happy we had come down this way, given how beautiful the views were (much more than any parts on the previous sections of the walk), but Tristan had me beginning to doubt myself and I was soon convinced that, as he said this walk simply continued through to Audley. I told them both we would get to a certain bend in the river (that I could see we had not yet reached when looking at Google Maps) and said if we did not come across a turn off to our left by that point, we would simply turn back the way we came (as I remembered from the signpost map whereabouts the loop trail was meant to be.).

As we continued further down the trail the silence was broken by voices in the distance and I suggested that we would ask the people about the 'Bottle Brush Trail' and Tristan, and I kept misremembering the name (even commenting on the lack of Bottle Brush Trees along the walk).

As we rounded a bend there was a group using a rope swim and some people swimming in the river. I called out and asked if they knew where the 'Bottle Brush Trail' was. The lady in the water replied that she found that funny as there were no bottle brush along the walk (she must have misread it too, that or the signpost I didn't photograph was incorrectly labelled).

She said something about it being 'Olympic Pools' though I could find no reference to that name on Google Maps looking along Kangaroo Creek (the creek we were following) and the only reference to that name I could find was doing a Google Search where it came up on the app: AllTrails.

As we walked, Tristan and I referenced several previous walks and he joked that soon all my blogs would simply be talking about old blogs. I told him that I had already found some of the previous ones too referential and that I would be looking to try and remove that so much from future posts. Amy commented that she was surprised we remembered enough to write about everything. I thought about that in my head afterwards, noticing how much I had struggled with my conversational recall while writing previous posts ever since having my chemotherapy, and even while trying to start this post messaging Tristan to see what he remembered, which wasn't much, which at least made me feel like it wasn't so much the chemo-brain, but the amount of conversations and distance in time between doing a walk and writing about it.

Tristan suggested the idea of bush-bashing through if we didn't find the trail and suggesting if we headed the right way, we might link up with the Bottle Forest Trail. I threw that idea out, saying I'm fine with bush bashing but the bushland was far too thick and heading uphill, I said I was happy enough to walk down a bit further and if we didn't find it, we could simply head back and walk up the way we had come.

As Tristan continued ahead along the trail while I stopped to take photos, I heard Amy call out that there was an arrow and as I caught up to her, I also noticed the cairn at the base. Tristan had to come back as he had walked ahead without noticing it and Amy seemed pretty happy to have found the path on the walk, with me sharing a gloating smile at Tristan.

As soon as we began up the stairs Tristan began complaining about me making them have to walk uphill. 

"It would have been uphill on the way back anyway." I told him, "At least we got to get to explore a different path." He continued to whinge but because it's Tristan I assume he was whinging for the sake of it and was not literal with his complaints.

The walk up was pretty steep, but more evenly footed than I felt the way returning from Karloo Pools would have been. We stopped once along the way for the two of them to catch their breath and I commented to Tristan he seemed out of shape compared to when we had done the Kiama Coastal walk together.

"Are you calling me fat!?" He jokingly said angrily to me.
"No, I just mean your fitness. It's reminding me of when we did Mount Jellore and you got cranky at me for wanting to let you stop once we got to the top."

We reached the top of this section and we stopped again for a breath and some water, behind us the couple I had seen wandering around at Karloo Pools appeared (they had been that the spot the lady had said were the Olympic Pools, but we had not spoken to them there).

Tristan said high to them and started asking them a bunch of stuff and the woman needed him to speak slower and I realised that they were foreign and didn't speak English super well (the accent sounded slightly German but I couldn't say for sure). She mentioned they had seen a monitor lizard along the way (the Goanna we saw), and they continued on.

The walk continued up and Tristan continued to complain, however I was surprised by my own fitness but then realised the Christmas break hadn't really been that long, so my fitness wouldn't drop off too much no matter how much Christmas ham I ate.

Soon we heard another group catching up behind us and we stopped to let them pass while Tristan laid down for a rest.

 As the group walked by one of the men looked at Tristan and back at me, nodding towards Tristan he said "Living the life."

Soon they passed and I told Tristan I was going to nickname him 'Old Man Banksia' as he had commented that there had been a lot of them along the walk and not 'bottlebrush trees' as we had thought. I also commented to Amy that there's probably more pictures of Tristan on my blog then there are of me.

We soon reached a dirt road opening with a signpost I thought would say from the opposite direction where the walk was heading, however it didn't (I can't actually remember what it said, which is why while walking I usually take way more photos then ever get uploaded just to help me remember things sometimes).

As we continued on Amy mentioned she wanted to get a 'Storm' (a type of Sundae) from Hungry Jacks after we finished, I agreed to the idea of Hungry Jacks, having recounted to them my story of learning to like pickles from my trip to Finland while we had all been talking about travel along the walk.

"An Orchid!" Tristan said, pointing it out and saying it's scientific name only for me to instantly forget it.

"I've got a bone to pick with you." Tristan said to me as we continued.
I looked at him.
"You're the most negative guy in positive situations and the most positive guy in negative situations."
I thought about that for a second.
"Thanks" I said to him, taking it as a compliment, further frustrating him.

The walk soon came out along the APZ trail we had seen from when we initially began the walk with a signpost on each side, left pointing to Heathcote and right pointing towards Audley.

"So that's how you get to Audley." I said, wondering if Amy had not seen the turn off and we had continued the way Tristan was heading where the path would have led.

We were soon behind people homes again as we followed the APZ.

As we reached the end of the walk, I thought about my return to work the following day and looked forward to taking some time off once the holiday period had ended for some more walks.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven

Carrington Falls - Missingham Steps to Kangaroo River

So it's been a while since my last post, which if you read, you'd know I hurt my ankle. That injury ended up with me taking a week off work (unpaid, as I'm full-time casual) and it honestly didn't heal in that week either, just well enough to walk on, but I haven't been able to hike or do any exercise like jogging or even doing laps of the pool as kicking my left foot hurt too much. It's the first time in my life I haven't just bounced back from an injury. Showing my age I guess. So while I haven't been able to do all that I've been having a transition period of moving homes, really close to the beach so that's what I've been doing in my spare time, recently trying to learn to surf. However this last week my ankle had finally started feeling a bit better, and I decided to test it out on a hike on Good Friday during the Easter Long Weekend.

So I took my Dad up to Carrington Falls, just up the top of Macqaurie Pass. As you drive in you pull in to the camp site to begin the walk.

You can continue driving if you wish to drive to the actual waterfall

Inside the camp ground there is an area just for parking, for day visitors (the camp ground is now paid, due to people misusing the area, and setting the toilet block on fire). Directly across from here is a sign letting you know the different walks around.

Now Carrington Falls is a bit sentimental to me. Whilst the first time I ever came here was with some friends camping, although we didn't back a tent and instead just a pole and a tarp to cover us attempting to sleep that way, a bunch of the guys complained the whole time and we ended up driving off to a party later that night and never stayed. However the next time I came to Carrington Falls, was a camping trip with the girl who is now my Wife. It was our first time really spending time alone together and we made some great memories. We would later come back a few times and I actually proposed to her right there at the Blue Pool (she said yes, you know, seeing as she's my Wife and I posted about our Honeymoon).

Enjoying a Swim in the Blue Pool

Showing off the Engagement Ring

 But I did this Good Friday Walk with my Dad, and we decided to do each and every one of the walks listed. So we began heading down the path walking past the Blue Pool, which one Good Friday was absolutely packed with people.

Continue down the left path as the right leads to nowhere

Down the right path? Beautiful scenery

Dad crossing the stream

Cross the little stream, although this may dry up at certain times of year, and follow the path along.

Continue up the path until it opens up

You'll soon come to a divide, with clear signage telling you to take a left turn down the path.

When you follow this for a short while you'll see the turn for the Missingham Lookouts and the way to the Missingham Steps walk.

We instead continued past this, to go to the Warris Chair Lookout, and to Nellies Glen, another famous local swimming hole.

You will come to an intersection, turning left we headed to Nellies Glen coming out into a carpark we continued left past a bunch of signs informing you of the area, it's history including the big feature of this post, the Missingham Steps.

Soon we arrived into the packed swimming hole. A beautiful spot, and I'm lucky enough to have actually been here swimming while no one else was around (along with a few other places on my blog) which is a rarity these days. I tried my best to take a picture of the waterfall without getting all the happy swimmers in the shot.

We then headed back, but I could here the sound of water flowing, and just off the path we came down there was a sort of other path behind wooden bollards which I suggested to Dad might take you straight to the actual Carrington Falls.

I was right and after a short walk, we were over looking the top of the falls, there was a few girls sunbathing up here and I took off my shoes to head over for a look over the Falls,

There's a bit of a story behind the Akubra hat I'm wearing too. My Dad actually found it on a walk one day, deciding to gift it to me as it was in good condition, my Wife instantly hated it, calling it 'an old man hat'. While I disagreed saying it was an adventure hat. However, it was a fight not to be won, and the hat was banned from the house having to stay at my Dads, so this was actually my first time getting to wear it out. I almost did the second time we climbed The Castle, but I knew how windy it got up there and decided against it.

Snapping a photo with Dad in the background

Photo of Carrington Falls taken from the other side by my Wife when we camped there years ago.

We then headed back up to the car park, back up the track and took the opposite route to go towards Warris Chair.

Again the walk it rather short along a pretty well maintained track (besides maybe a branch or two), so we arrived at Warris Chair, a big rock sitting atop a lookout. Packed with groups of people trying to take photos of themselves. While I waited for them to finish so I could get a shot of the chair I enjoyed the beautiful view offered here.

However the groups just keep taking photos, so we went and stood at the stairs waiting for them, my Dad even offering to take a photo for one group.

Lizard of Warris Chair, taking in the sun

While waiting we both began to feel bites on our legs and noticed a massive swarm of ants crawling up our legs.
As soon as this group began stepping down another group arrived, and even seeing as waiting there,quickly climbed up the rock and began taking photos of themselves.
"The Rock of a million Instagram selfies" I said to Dad. Frustrated as I just wanted a picture of the rock. Now, I'm not against taking a good instragram selfie, especially if you've come to a cool location or even completed a great walk, but think about it I couldn't help that think that there was no sense of achievement in being here. These people had literally pulled into the car park, walked 600m, bam you're there. It's a further walk to hatch an egg in Pokemon Go. When they climbed in front of it I snapped a photo and off we went towards the Missingham Steps.

Instagram selfie here? Link to it in the comments!

The path opens up and you follow it along side a farm paddock, which I can't express why, but I found serenely beautiful.

This path dips down and up again, bending around, you simply follow the farm fence.

Finally you'll see a sign pointing left back into the bush. Just as we turned in here there was a family walking out. To which my Dad asked if they had walked to the steps. "Oh no," said the guy "there's all signs there telling you not to. But you're welcome to."
"Yeah, we'll do it" I told him.
So we reached the sign directing to both the East Lookout, West Lookout and to the Steps.
We went to check out both lookouts and admire the view.

View from East Lookout

A nice looking Fungi

Someone made their own chair at the West Lookout

View from West Lookout

One of the 'warning signs'

So we began out decent down into the gully. The initial path down is pretty steep and you really need good footing and some climbing ability to get down, though it isn't a long descent.
Once down the temperature drops and you're completely in shade. You can tell it's an area not many people come down into and the view was beautiful.

Surrounded by the cliff behind you, a cliff in front of you and a cliff to your right with a small stream of flowing water down it it was clear you followed the gully left to head to Kangaroo River. There is no clear path, and the walk involved some rock scrambling almost the entire way. If you're not level footed and decently fit I'd give this one a miss. We continued onwards, unsure of where the Missingham Steps were until the Gully started to dip downwards and we began to spot them more and more often.

Don't expect to be able to just walk down the steps, these were made around 100 years ago and since there have obviously been rock falls, erosion, and general weathering. At many places you'll need to find ways to climb and jump down to lower areas. It was cool to walk through a place that has such distinctive untouched local history.
When you reach the bottom of the steps there is meant to be no clear sign-age however someone has went through ticking can lids to trees, spray painting, and tying pink bands to, I assume help guide people in the right direction. Even with this however it can be easy to get lost, a simple way to head the right way is to just follow the path made by water during the rain.

Panorama of the forest

Around this point the ground levels out and there's no clear indicator of which direction to take, we sat and had some food and scouted around a little before deciding to continue downward in the direction we were already heading in, the top soil here was very loose, so I slipped and fell landing flat on my ass before bouncing back up.
You can easily lose your direction because after this bit the spray paint, ties and can lids nailed to trees disappeared as we took a few different routes trying to find a path downwards.

There's a couple of places where we tried to use logs as footing and I don't recommend this at it was so soft we found a feet falling straight through as I managed to catch happening to Dad.

On a path we took (one that we decided was wrong) we noticed a bunch of blueberries. Assuming someone walking ahead of us had spilled some. As we kept walking we found more and more. Too many in fact that we began to question how there could be so many blueberries scattered all over the ground.

Elaeocarpus reticulatus

We also began to question how they could look so fresh. I began to question that they were blueberries, opening one up to see small little seeds inside. "They must just be a native fruit that looks like a blueberry." I said to Dad laughing. I believe it is the fruit of The Blueberry Ash, and native Australian tree.

We soon could hear the sound of running water and after climbing up a ledge we made or way over to Kangaroo River.

The view was amazing, and really reminded me of the sere beauty of Jump Rock, but more untouched. More wild.

While I was sitting by the edge of the water, Dad decided to continue upstream for a bit of exploration. Looking at the cool clear water I was desperate to go for a swim, but didn't want to walk back soaking wet. However figuring as I had the place completely to myself I quickly stripped down into my undies and ploughed into the icy water. It was freezing but super refreshing as well. Being a very self concious person I never usually get the opportunity to relax and just be alone and in nature and not have to be in my head worrying. The experience was fantastic and I left me feeling mentally as well as physically refreshed.

After a while I figured I had better go find Dad, so I hoped out, bathing shirtless under the warm sun to dry myself a little before I too, headed upstream.

Having stayed and explored around we headed back downstream to head home feeling good having accomplished another great adventure. Both agreeing we would like to come back and follow the stream all the way up to Carrington Falls and explore downstream a bit more.

And still noticing and admiring Fungi in the undergrowth on our way back

The walk back up was a bit harder, just both being out of shape compared to 2017, however breathing heavily and dripping with sweat we walked and climbed our way back up to where we had first descended into the gully and climbed our way out.

Overall is was a great walk, especially as a lover of both nature and history. Hopefully as my ankle gets better and better I can begin to fill 2018 with many more adventures. However they may have to wait as my upcoming month is pretty full on and at the end of it my Wife and I are going on a cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia so I'll definitely be back to write about that.

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

Thanks for reading! - Steven




Extra tidbits! - So I mentioned in my last post that my wife had bought me a ticket to go Hang-gliding. So I thought I'd share a video and pictures of my time doing that, which was excellent by the way!