Ride Report – The Big Hole, Braidwood, 18/10/2009
By Ian Paterson

No details were recorded of who went on this ride or what they were riding; suffice it to say it was a bunch of mystery men (and women) that might have included Garry, Judy, Graeme, Lin, Jim, Chris, John, Dave, Chris, Lionel, Sally and Ian (apologies if I forgot anybody).

Garry led us out of town, long red hair streaming in the sunshine like millions of Chinese banners during the cultural revolution, and into Braidwood for coffee and pies at the bakery. Here we also stumbled across the instigators of the Big Hole ride, Glenn, Chris, Michael and Paul from the Eurobodalla branch.

When we arrived at the Berlang picnic and camping area, half an hour south of Braidwood and right near the Shoalhaven River, there was a frenzy of wood collecting, fire starting and sausage sizzling on the handy swing-out BBQs, followed by satisfying mutual mastication on the picnic tables and lawns, which were actually an unfamiliar shade of green after all the rain that fell during our October long weekend ride to Wollongong.

Most of us managed to cross the Shoalhaven on tippy stepping stones without getting our feet wet and everybody made it to the Big Hole, which should really be called the Bloody Big Hole. It’s about 50 metres in diameter and 100 metres deep and looks like it was made by a giant drill that came down out of the sky one cloudy day (it must have been cloudy because no-one can remember seeing it).

It is generally not believed that there is a colony of pygmy lepers living in the tree ferns at the bottom of the hole, but in case there is, it would be helpful to throw your food scraps down into the chasm. There’s a sturdy viewing platform that overhangs the hole and is perfect for throwing things in. Unfortunately, it has a fault line right behind it so extreme caution is advised during earthquakes. After posing for a group photo, we headed back to Berlang and our bikes for the ride home.