Colo River Liloing ~ 21-23 January 2005
Party: Dave Lee, Tom Brennan, Andrew Meares, James Bevan
After meeting for pizza on friday night in Windsor we dropped Tom's car at the Bob Turners Track and headed off in the guzzler out along the Grassy Hill Fire Trail. It was 10.30 and pitch black by the time we began walking, paddles in hand, down the canoe creek track.
Things were going well until about halfway down my headtorch suddenly decided to stop working. After a bit of rock scrambling in the dark (including walking right next to a brown snake without realising it) we hit the colo. It was surprisingly warm, even for this time of year. We all had a nice dip then wandered up to an overhang Tom knew for bed.
The next day was to be a big one. Our destination, the Wollangambe River, was 14km away. Not far if ridge walking but liloing was a different story. We got going by 7.30 and after some time spent fishtailing, overbalancing and generally making a fool of ourselves we managed to get the hang of using canoe paddles on a lilo with overnight packs.
Dave
The Colo Gorge
The first little rapid was completed without hassle and after getting past the first few bouldery sections we began to make reasonable progress. Along the first long pool we attempted "rafting up" whereby all 4 lilos would travel as 1. Of course the catch was those in the middle got to bludge so that didn't last long. After a few hours things hotted up a bit. We passed the peak of Tambo Crown and entered the true beauty of the colo gorge.
Andrew swims
Tom masters paddling on a lilo
I'd only ever been at the top, looking in from Crawfords Lookout or Little Pass. To be in amongst it was something else.
Being eager beavers, we tried to shoot most of the rapids that morning. With the water level not being all that high, most of them involved more hip thrusting than paddling. This had a rather destructive effect on my lilo. By the time we got to Main Creek for lunch sections of canvas had been completely worn away leaving the bare thin layer of rubber to cope on its own. I was a bit more careful from then on.
That afternoon was one of long tranquil pools. The sun was out. It was hot (32 according to Dave's watch + 29 in the water!) and liloing was a pretty nice way to enjoy it.
As we passed Angorawa Creek the sky darkened and huey began to bellow. Dave didn't believe it was thunder (he thought there must have been some traffic passing nearby :) As we passed the last few bends before the gambe we knew huey wanted us.
Within half an hour of getting to camp the storm hit. It wasn't just any storm. While we were putting the fly up huey started playing brandings. Dave didn't appreciate being hit with hail the diameter of 20c coins.
I'd always wanted to be in the middle of nowhere in a huge storm. This time the others got my wish too. Despite the rain and hail we soon had a fire going and got the billy boiling. It kept raining for most of the night so dinner wasn't all that sociable an affair. After 11 hrs on the water we hit the sack early.
Next morning the rain had stopped. We only had 10ks to do today so we had a more casual 8.30 start. With all the rain the temperature had dropped a bit so most of us donned thermals and hit the water. It began raining immediately and continued for most of the day.
Blowing up lilos at the Wollangambe junction on Sunday morning
The Colo downstream of the Wollangambe
Dave sets out
In such weather the water was one of the best places to be (the water was stiil warm compared to a canyon!). We passed several long deep pools and due to the extra water many of the rapids were negotiable. However, the well known "king rapid" (supposedly a grade 4) would have required flood-like conditions for it to be possible to pass anything wider than a toothpick through its boulders.
Soon after Blacksmiths Creek we got a surprise - other people. A local family were out for a weekend of liloing and camping at Mailes Cave. It was about lunchtime so they kindly showed us to the cave where we got out of the rain and warmed up next to the fire. It seems the cave is rarely visited. The log book has been there since 1982 and along with the locals we were the first people to sign it since July '04.
At Mailes Cave
After lunch we encountered some of the best rapids of the trip. Dave shot it twice to allow me to take this video
We all enjoyed them and were looking to get out without incident until a sharp rock meant the end of Tom's lilo. We were only a k or so from Bob Turners so he managed to use the remaining pillow as flotation to help him swim his way to the end. We walked back to Tom's car then collected the guzzler and finished the trip with dinner at Windsor.
Dave
Andrew
Tom
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