Drawing Room Rocks Hike with my Best Friends

A Hike: Drawing Room Rocks @ Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, Brogers Creek Road, Berry NSW. All photos taken on Canon D70 DSLR and Google Pixel 3 XL.

When the work week is over and we don't get to share our lives because we are so busy answering emails, taking work calls, looking after children and taking care of ourselves, its so nice to reconnect with friends.

I have lots of friends, but few best friends such as Erin, Jaye and Betty <3

When we plan trips, it's almost like we share one mind and come up with similar ideas. Three years earlier, we made the trip to Berry to eat their famous donuts and do the local Drawing Room Hikes and we just decided to recreate those memories. Also we must've been in the mood for some delicious donuts. The two hour road-trip meant we spent the entire time sharing what our work weeks were like - frustrating co-workers, our ten to twelve hour work days, what Betty's kids learnt that week, quests to move to other countries for love. We also talk about what snacks we bought along for the hike, as sustenance are essentials. Usually Betty made us cupcakes or sandwiches and Erin brings a big bag of lollies.

Arriving in quaint Berry, one must embrace life and go get some fresh, steaming hot cinnamon donuts from the Famous Berry Donut Van with a side of hot coffee. We did just that, lining up patiently for a bag of them. We sat outside and devoured them like little kids, playfully convincing each other that we would burn off all those calories at the hike. We were wrong, we just kept eating them while on the hike, haha.

We did this hike a few weeks ago but I only thought it was a good time to blog about it now as we actually completed a different hike at the Blue Mountains today. I guess I'm feeling sentimental and I just wanted to share my love for these girls who constantly make me laugh and feel so comfortable. 

Here is a story I shared with my friends today, from one of my days at the office. 

- My soul left my body this week at work. I had to reset the factory settings on my Walkman because it started to corrupt. All was fixed but it meant that I had to reconnect my work speaker by Bluetooth again. I always listen to music at work but at very low volume so I can only hear. The work speaker decided to reset itself to a louder volume so of course at 8am in the morning, when all was quiet in the office, I played my first song. Which was of course... Cardi B's WAP (Wet Ass P*ssy) and is a pretty explicit and crude song and definitely NOT safe for work. Anyways the first few seconds of "There's some wh*res in this HOUSE" played three times so loudly that my SOUL DEFINITELY LEFT MY BODY. I scrambled around to shut down that work speaker so quickly. I did and I found my breath again and almost threw my Walkman away in embarrassment. Although no-one commented on the song that played, it felt like the loudest sound in the world to me. LoL. A lesson was learnt that day. Mistakes were definitely made.

Knowing my dirty-minded friends (actually I'm just looking at Betty here), we all had a good laugh and it felt so nice to let some walls down and share stupid life fails with them. It really takes your mind off on how mundane the week can be.

The Drawing Room Rocks Hike is simple and only a few minutes drive away from the Famous Berry Donut Van. You have to park at Brogers Creek Road, but do not park in front of any private properties. It's hard to U-turn so ensure you are confident you will find a parking spot before reaching all the way to the top. The walk is just straight up - 4.5km return and about a 2.5 hour round trip. The Lookout is rewarding as you can view NSW coastal line and the surrounding valleys.

We took our time navigating the slippery path (it was raining that week) and talking about how unfit we were heading up and how weak our legs were when descending. We spent thirty minutes at the lookout eating lollies and enjoying the view, taking some sweet photos of each other to celebrate making it to the top. Walking down we danced to "Walk like a Man" like they did in the movie Heart and Souls and sang the theme song to Moana and Frozen 2 as they were Betty's kids' favourite songs that week.

We always have such a good time together, always heading home with a belly full of food and cheeks hurting from laughter. We already started planning out next outing which would be around mid September. Can't wait <3

Mushroom Picking at Oberon NSW (Part One)

Mushroom Picking at Black Springs / Oberon in NSW Australia. Between late February and early May. Photos by me using Canon 75D 

Between late February and early May, NSW States Forests' exotic mushrooms begin to grow. Saffron Milk Cap (Lactarius Deliciousus) and Slippery Jack (Suillus Luteus) mushrooms emerge from the ground ready to be picked. These are the only two edible mushrooms found here in Oberon.
Some mushrooms are poisonous and you can become extremely sick if you consume them, so please be cautious. I was lucky enough to do this trip with two experienced mushroom pickers.

From Liverpool, Sydney we drove west for 2 hours to reach the Oberon Visitor Information Centre (Ross Street and Edith Road, Oberon). I recommend coming here first to grab a map and some guides to mushroom picking. There is no mobile reception in the State Forests so you can easily get lost. We used walkie talkies to meet up with friends. When parking, park on the edge of the road as timber harvesting is done seven days a week.

Remember to bring a small pocket knife or scissors and a big tote bag. It's easy to spot mushrooms as you walk by. Usually if we found one, we found others nearby. To pick, you simply cut them at the stem and gently stack them in the tote bag (tip: we used a Woolworths shopping tote with a square base).

The below photos are a guide to the edible mushrooms you can pick from the State Forests.
 
Saffron Milk Cap Mushrooms                                    Slippery Jack Mushrooms

Note: Although they look pretty - do not pick or touch the mushrooms that are not these pictured above. I brushed my fingers along the red mushroom with white dots and felt a slight tingle in my fingers. So it's best to stay away from them, just take pretty photos and supervise any children.

 I personally liked the Saffron Milk Cap mushrooms, it had a silky texture and taste. We chopped them up and and added it to our spaghetti bolognese. It can be cooked in sauces, stews, stir fries and casseroles. Slippery Jack mushrooms taste exactly as it sounds - slippery. To me the mushroom were slimy and was not a fan.  I read that it's best to dry them out and peel them for soups and casseroles.

We enjoyed two hours of mushroom picking in the eerie silent forests, under plenty of shade. We strolled and admired the dots red and orange mushrooms along the pine needle filled grounds. We then rested to enjoy a small lunch in a clearing and headed home with our bags of mushrooms.

Carrington Falls, NSW

Hike at: Carrington Falls NSW
Notes taken from 'Best Bush, Coast & Village Walks of The Illawarra'

Hi everyone. I will be keeping it short and simple today as I missed my one week deadline for blogging on Monday. My goal to blog once a week went out the door and I wasn't very happy with myself! Hai even tried to remind me that just because I fell off the bandwagon once doesn't mean I give up, it just means I get back up again and get back to it.

So, this is a hike that I did with Hai, Lisa and Sang almost 1 and a half year ago - and I finally get the chance to blog about it.

It's a super simple one, with it being more of a lookout and picnic area. I got some beautiful shots overlooking the waterfalls, but please tread carefully if you're doing this.

1.  Park at 'Thomas Place' that is also signposted "Carrington Falls Lookout".
Here is a picnic area, with tables, toilets and an information board.
2. Take the path to the left that leads towards the south rim of the upper Kangaroo River gorge. Along the way there are a number of lookouts (around four lookouts) that face Carrington Falls, that is on the north rim. This path loops around back to Thomas Place.
3.  Left of the picnic area is a track sign posted "Stevos Track" and here is dry forest for around 360m. On our hike, we realized there had been a bush fire recently and all the trees were charred black. It was eerie but beautiful.
4. You'll find a detour to your right, that goes for about 200m and take you to Izzard's Lookout, giving you views that stretch down the gorge.
5. Heading back to Stevos Track, you can also turn left again to head back to Thomas's Place (you can continue to turn right to continue the track to 'Stevos Pass', but this track is not maintained well and can be dangerous).

Note: The hike is graded as Easy, and is around 5.5km return and takes approximately 2 hours.

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On a personal note, the reason why I didn't get to blog this Monday was because I took a sick day due to the pain I felt after doing the charity walk "7 Bridges Walk" where me and my bestie group walked 17km around the city crossing 7 bridges. The true walk is 28km but we cut it short because we had a baby with us. I did feel the pain next day - my legs cramped up and my thigh muscles were burning.

Also, I get to see Taylor Swift in concert tomorrow for her Reputation Tour in Sydney! Hai bought the tickets a year ago and now the day has finally come. I'm just too excited!
In my experience leading up to the concert, I find that alot of people like to lecture me about why they don't like Taylor Swift as soon as I mention her name. And it gets boring and repetitive.
My thoughts are - I don't tell you why I don't like your tastes in music so if you've got nothing  nice to say, then don't say it. Also, one of the reasons I hear most is that she is too "mainstream", which is a poor and lazy excuse. This sort of thought process means you're just trying too hard to be 'cool' and 'unique'; but in reality you're just a negative person who is missing out on so much music out there.

Anyways, I'm loving Tay Tay's refreshing new sound on Reputation (Getaway Car, Delicate, King of My Heart, Ready For It) but I'm also a huge fan of all her other albums - I love all of 1989, Red's 'Begin Again', 'Back to December' and 'I Almost Do' all of Speak Now and Fearless; I even love the songs she has done for the Hunger Games soundtrack.

I'm just too excited! Lucky I don't have to go into work on Saturday in case I need to recover from all the dancing I'll be doing. Watch this space for a quick turn around on a new blog post. And hopefully it will be by this Sunday, as I'm determined to make up for my missed blog post from this Monday. <3