Writing to you from Beehive Point, Kangaroo Valley, after a 2km swim. We started at Jack’s Corner two days ago, ready to fulfill our new year’s resolution for 6 weekly aspirational bushwalks. We had meticulously planned our long weekend circuit bushwalk, closing the loop with a swim over Lake Yarrunga.

After a hot and sweaty day, the first creek crossing offered an irresistible opportunity for a swim. We settled down in a foot of water watching King Fishers swoop up and down the creek. Then rolled over a “dry storm”. We counted the time between lightning and thunder strikes and watched the blue sky retreat for a downpour.

We made our way to the abandoned Griffin’s Farm to set up camp, play frisbee with our “flying disk”, meet two fat wombats and explore the remnants of the old dairy and homestead. After a night of sleeping on crinkly goon sack pillows, we we walked to Cranky’s Creek with the expectation of making it to Lake Yarrunga by lunch (6km away).

The road closed sign, pock-marked with bullet holes, should have been a warning for what lay ahead on the old road down to Lake Yarrunga. We ran into our first fallen log 100m from the turn off which we crossed with naive enthusiasm. Nature had reclaimed the old road as its own and 8 hours and 672 logs later (give or take a few) we reached the Lake’s edge at sunset – just in time for a well- deserved swim. So exhausted, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to enjoy a “Chateau de Cask” around a campfire.

After a lazy morning, we blew up our raft to carry our gear as we swam across Lake Yarrunga. The 1970s Tallowa Dam, between Kangaroo River and Shoalhaven River, flooded  the valley surrounding Yarrunga creek and turned the forest canopy into an eerie graveyard of Eucalypts. The damming had turned our old road into a dead end at the Lake’s edge, so there was no other way to finish our track except to swim across to the other side.

By general consensus, we decided to continue enjoying the beautiful water and slowly swim past our original 300m connection to the old road, on to Beehive Point 2km away. Luckily we had diligently laminated our map. Although we didn’t want to get out, we had a lunch date with the Bugle editorial team that we were 5 hours late for, so we hightailed up the firetrail back to Jack’s corner completing our grand 22km circuit.

Ciao for now,

Helen, Billy and Margot.

You can find maps for the walk here.