TRACK NOTES
THE WALK IN SECTIONS DAY 1
Mountain Lagoon to Colo River 17km; 110m ascent/590m descent; approx 7-10 hours
From Sams Way, walk north along the fire trail for 400m to a fork in the trail and a locked gate. The left-hand branch is the Tootie Creek (T3) Track, which you will return on. The righthand branch is the Gospers Ridge Track, signposted to Colo Meroo. Take the right-hand branch and follow it. After a short steep uphill, the fire trail swings roughly east for about 2km, and then roughly northeast for about 1.5km. After another 1.5km heading roughly east, you should reach a track junction at about GR848985. By this stage the fire trail is more like a wide foot track. The right branch continues down Gospers Ridge to Upper Colo, so take the left branch which swings north onto Mailes Ridge. Continue north on a foot track along Mailes Ridge. After a couple of kilometres, the ridge starts to narrow, and there are great views of the sandbanks in the Colo River several hundred metres below from numerous vantage points. From the first of these lookouts, you can see your intended campsite less than a kilometre away, and 300m below you—but still 10km away by foot! The track is vague in places, and while it has very occasional track markers, for the most part, it is unmarked. In general, the track keeps to the ridge, or just below the ridge on the east side. From the final high point above the river at GR827047, the track heads down the ridge to the ENE. The descent stays mostly near the nose of the ridge with the exception of one section where it drops off the right-hand side to negotiate some small cliffs. Some easy scrambling is involved in this section. Return to the nose of the ridge as soon as possible. Near the bottom, the track descends steeply to a 4WD trail, and a signpost. Turn left and a short walk brings you to the pleasant Colo Meroo Camping Area. There is a large shelter and a pit toilet. While it is possible to camp here, it makes for a long second day; it’s advisable instead to get some distance along the river. Head down to the river along the marked track that leaves from near the toilets, and wade up the river. If you don’t want to walk in your bushwalking shoes, Dunlop Volleys or light sandshoes will come in handy here, although they’ll fill up with sand regularly. It is also possible to walk in bare feet, but this risks punctures from sticks buried in the sand. For the first 5km south to the big bend (Townsend Bend), the Colo is mostly shallow and sandy. The river is dotted with large sandbanks, and deep pools are uncommon and easily avoided. The occasional foray onto the bank is required. As is common
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WILD
on this river, there is plenty of ‘Colo quicksand’ here. There is typically an excellent sandbank for camping opposite the creek junction on the big bend, at GR840000. DAY 2
Colo River to Mountain Lagoon 12km; 500m ascent; approx 6-9 hours
The next day, continue walking upstream along the river. As you round the big bend and swing north, the river gets deeper. There are still numerous sandbanks, but the pools between them are more frequent, and often chest deep or more. There are three sets of rapids to bypass, adjacent to three successive creeks that enter the Colo from the west. The first is at GR833008, about 1km upstream from the big bend. The water is usually deep near the rapids, and excursions onto the banks may be required to avoid swimming. The banks around the rapids are scrubby with dense water gums, and these sections can be slow. For the last kilometre to Tootie Creek, the going is often easier keeping to the west bank.
