A wild, primaeval route from Googong to Narooma - a contemporaneous (1998) narrative sent to a friend by amateur explorer, Leon the Huguenot:

We came down to Narooma this time by a most interesting route.  We went down to Captain's Flat and had breakfast at the Willow Cafe.  There are new owners there - a male couple.  The previous owners had to move to the coast because the husband had health problems - as you know he had had a heart transplant.

The breakfast was pleasant but not as good as it would have been under the previous management.

Then I followed your instructions precisely to get to the Big Hole.  I turned up the road to the garbage dump from Captain's Flat and then continued along that, past its intersection with Wild Cattle Flat Road, to the intersection with the Braidwood-Cooma road.  I turned right there and, about 20 kilometres down, there was the sign to the Big Hole.  We went down a short dirt road to the left and there was a car park and map.  We were the only people there.

The map said that the Big Hole was a one kilometre walk away across the Shoalhaven.  Strangely enough a one kilometre walk with two small children, especially a six year old boy, seems like a five kilometre walk under other conditions.  But it was warm and the air was still.

The crossing of the Shoalhaven was about 150 metres from the car park.  It was a beautiful area with pure clean water flowing from right to left over coloured pebbles.  There was a ford made from largish rocks which we walked across. 

There was a clear path going upwards and we continued along it, coming across a feeding echidna at one point who was too busy eating ants to worry about us.  Then D'Arcy became tired and I had to carry him for a while.  That's great - walking uphill with a whingeing 30 kilogram child on your back.

Finally the hole was in sight and we were soon on the platform looking down into the hole.  I can tell you the description is correct.  It is a Big Hole.  It is 60 metres deep with 2 metre high tree ferns on a sand surface at the bottom.  I think it was probably about 30 metres across and the sides were jagged rock walls with a fault line visible in one part.  It was quite dizzying to look down into it.  What an amazing thing it is!

I did worry about the safety of the wooden platform and its fence.  I tended to hold the children back from the railing.  But, as we left I noticed the whole thing was mounted on heavy steel girders that were, in turn, connected to further vertical steel girders concreted into the ground.  Still, the fence could have given way!

On the way back we noted that an entire hillside to the left was covered with a species of native pine; can't remember the botanical name.  We arrived at the Shoalhaven and, since there was no-one around, three of us swam in the river with just our hats on - typical Queanbeyan River swimming and Googong summer running gear.  It was strange to lie on the bed of the river like that, looking upstream with just my head above the water.  It was like being surrounded by a cool breeze; not like water at all.  I would love to get a property along there with a river frontage.  Heaven!

We then proceeded in just our hats back to the carpark.  I noted that the map showed the location of the Cascades camping area to the south off the Badja Forest Road and had another road going off to Nerrigundah.  So this was the fabled crossing of the ranges through to Bodalla!  We continued south and, at the turn-off to Badja Forest there was a ranger sitting in a car smoking a cigarette.  I got out and went to ask him whether the road did go through to the coast.  He said that, indeed, it did and that it would take us an hour to get to the bottom of the mountains.  He told us to turn right when the Falcon Forest Road comes off.

Well, one hour was rather optimistic.  We started off down Badja Forest Road just before 2 p.m. and did not get to Bodalla until after 5 p.m.  Most of the road, as you would expect, is deep in the mountains.  The road is in very good condition for the most part but does have steep drops to either side most of the way.

We saw, en route, two parenti lizards - huge things seeming about the size of monkeys; what was probably a rare wallaby; another echidna; and - wonder of wonders - a lyre bird.  There was lots of rain forest with some of the tallest tree ferns I have ever seen.  It was superb.  But there was so much of it.

So it took us from 9 a.m. to about 6 p.m. to get from our place to Narooma.  As a one-off thing it was worth it.  I have satisfied my curiosity about the Big Hole and the route through to Bodalla.

However, it has stimulated my wish to try another route one day when the kids are less restless in the car.  I realise it is possible to go from our house at Googong to our caravan south or Narooma passing through just a single town - Nerrigundah - which has only 20 people or less.  That's amazing - to me.  You go south along the old Cooma Road, turn off at the Burra Road and proceed on that to just outside Michelago.  You then turn left and head through the Tinderry to meet the road heading south from Captain's Flat.  I think you would then drive up to the Wild Cattle Flat Road and turn left there, get on to the Captain's Flat-Braidwood road, turn right at the Braidwood Cooma Road, left at the Badja Forest Road, then right at Nerrigundah.  That road hits the Princes Highway about ten kilometres south of our caravan park then we turn left and head up the Princes Highway and bingo!

We shall do it sometime.  And the scenery along the route is superb.  I shall show you the route if you are interested. And it would go past the Big Hole again but there is another reason to go back to the Big Hole and that is to see the Marble Arch which is another 1.5 kilometres past the Big Hole.  Not a walk to take while the kids are so young.