My first blog post and walk through Bungal Dam

  I'm quite new to this whole blog thing so I'm not quite sure exactly what is expected of me, but I created this blog in an effort to share my experiences in the outdoors with everybody. I figured that I would most likely be going bushwalking or camping anyway, I may as well write about it. I most likely won't write about every walk I do since I tend to revisit a lot of places in order to get to know the tracks, however I will endeavor to write about every new location I visit, or at least every location that I have not yet written about. I'll do my best to take a few snap shots along the way and catalog them in each post.

  I very recently went for a walk with a close mate to the Blast Furnace picnic area near Bungal Dam. Since my initial attempt to drive into the picnic area alone failed epically and resulted in me nearly getting my car bogged on the initial descent, I thought I would try walking down to the camp grounds when James and I returned a few days later.

  So we left the car at the top of the hill, got our packs out, strapped them on and trudged down the walking tracks. The first thing we noticed was, despite the fact that the signage was pretty clear that these tracks were supposed to only be walking tracks, we were obviously sharing the track with trail bikes. Despite the roughness of the tracks, the walk was actually quite pleasant. It was a pretty steady downhill decline, which sucked for my knees and hips but it meant that I didn't expend much energy getting down there.

  It was mid-evening, about 7:30, by the time we got to the Blast Furnace picnic area. The camping grounds were fairly open, however it was sectioned off with bollards. There were several fireplaces, ALOT of dead-fall trees and I particularly took notice of the lovely gumtrees. There were quite a few that looked quite large and close enough together for me to hang my hammock. We looked around the camp site for a few minutes, before continuing on the tracks of the historic walk and on to Bungal Dam.

  We took a track that lead a little further down hill, before it stopped abruptly at a fenced off sheer cliff. We walked along the top of the cliff for a minute or two, before we came to the lookout in front of the very blast furnace that the picnic grounds are named for. Whilst we weren't able to actually walk down to where the blast furnace was, the view was spectacular none the less. Just looking at it gave me images of old iron mine workers carting iron ore down the bridge and loading it into the smelter, filling the air with the smell of molten metal.

The remains of the old blast furnace with my knife in the foreground

  We continued along the cliff before making our way back uphill to what appeared to be a large courtyard area that had road access and a gate blocking the path. It quickly became apparent, however that this was the lookout area to Bungal Dam. Whilst I did not think to snap any pictures of this particular area, it really was a sight to behold as nature met technology. It may just be that I'm a massive nerd, but I even remarked to James that it reminded me of The Facility out of Goldeneye. 

  We didn't spend much time at the lookout, we basically caught our breathes, had a quick drink of water and kept moving. We walked up a road that appeared more suited to a four wheel drive than my fat feet and we hadn't gone anymore than maybe fifty meters before we were back at the Blast Furnace picnic grounds. I laughed and then almost cried when I realized that what had been a "casual descent" was now going to be a nightmare of a walk to get back to my car.

  Luckily for me James had the forethought of walking back up via the car tracks, which still made a painful walk, but nowhere near as painful as it would have been if we returned the same way we came down. We eventually made our way back up to where we left the car, occasionally stopping to enjoy the view, both in a tired, sore and sweaty mess. All in all it was an enjoyable walk, and Blast Furnace is a site that I wouldn't mind spending an overnighter in the near future.

  I hope that I haven't rambled too much and I certainly hope that this post has been informative. I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.