After two nights at the Blackman Camp in Warrumbungles we headed off stopping at the picnic reserve outside Coona for a water refill. Headed off down through Gilgandra, Dubbo and Parkes. We could see “The Dish” off to the east of the highway. Stopped in Parkes for some shopping and then pushed on through Forbes, down the Lachlan River (surprise surprise) to Gooloogong. Our trip at this stage is very unplanned with no real itinerary but Gooloogong was one spot the dart had hit the map when we were looking at the Lachlan River.
Interestingly, this little town has a free camping/caravan park including power, water, an amenities block, hot showers…the lot…for free. Great idea to get visitors to come and stay in the middle of the little village and use the pub and small shop. There were two huge Winnebagos taking up a lot of space with their air con cranking on the free power. We could’ve squeezed our little tent in amongst the big guys but decided the shade of a 500year old Red Gum was preferred over the looming shadow of an oversized motorhome. So a TSR about five minutes out of town lured us in and we had a great spot on the banks overlooking the Lachlan River. The river (fyi Michael K – Cammy will update you I’m sure) was flowing well – maybe some water being released somewhere upstream?
We set up camp and climbed down the steep bank to sit on the roots of the old Gum – we estimated the tree to be 500 years -but really we have no idea – a massive old tree that’s seen (and survived) plenty of floods and droughts. The current was a bit off-putting for the boys to swim but we carefully climbed in off the tree roots and submerged ourselves where there was an eddy swirling around back upstream so we weren’t in the main flow.
It was hot and the next day was forecast to be a scorcher so we decided to leave the tent fly off and enjoy the beautiful cool night air.
JALC-OZ-2018 