Back to good ol' Gooly

We packed up and left Bathurst and headed back to one of our favourite places, Gooloogong. Now Gooly (as the locals call it) isn’t really anything special. Except when we were here last year we had a wonderful time. It is a very quiet little town with some of the friendliest people we have met. We wanted to go back there to visit some of the people we had met last year.

Since we were last here, the little town of Gooloogong had had some massive flooding. Only a few weeks earlier, the river banks had burst and the whole town was nearly under water. There was still evidence of how high the water levels had risen and after talking to the locals it was a very unpleasant experience. But the town had worked together and cleaned up nearly all of the debris.

We have now been travelling for over a year and for the whole time we have been trying to decide on a name for our caravan. There are some fantastic and very clever names out there and we wanted to personalise our little home.

Last year we came up with the name ‘snail’s pace” because we were taking so long moving from one place to another and because our little Patrol really couldn’t go very fast whilst towing the caravan. We were, therefore moving around Australia at a ‘snail’s pace’. However, since upgrading the car, that name no longer applies.

While driving from Bathurst to Gooloogong the song “On the road again” by Willie Nelson came on and Sam very casually said “hey, this should be our theme song”. We realise that we almost always sing that song when we first get in the car after staying somewhere for a while. It was perfect! So while we were in Gooly, we contacted the local welder and sticker writer, Simon, and asked him to put together stickers for our van. He did a wonderful job and we now have a name!

On the road again -
Just can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again

And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again -
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way

And our way
is on the road again.

Leaving Gooloogong we had a really good feeling. It was so good to finally have a name for our caravan! We proudly left the town and even got a few comments by passersby about how they sing the song when they are going on holidays too.
 

About 40ks down the road we pulled aside to let a car with a little caravan pass us. As they pulled back in front of us, we could not believe what we were seeing. For the first time ever we were looking at a caravan with the name “on the road again” The exact same name that we had just called our van! We have never seen that name before and within an hour of driving with our new name we come across one of the same.

As we passed through Dubbo we stopped Elston Park to visit their water playground again. It was a beautiful sunny day so the boys walked, fully clothed, into the water park and spent the next hour having a ball!

 

After lunch Dan, Marvel and I sat on the grass and enjoyed watching the boys play.

We spent the next night at a little campground called Eumungerie, south of the town Gilgandra. It is known as the town of windmills and the home of coo-ee. We couldn’t figure out why they say that so I looked it up as we left town.

“Gilgandra is known as the town of Windmills and Home of the Coo-ees. Until 1966 the town did not have a central water supply and most people in the town had a windmill. At one point the skyline of the township was dominated with approximately 360 Windmills.

The home of the Coo-ee refers to the march of 35 men from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915 to volunteer for the war. By the time they reached Sydney their numbers had swelled to 263 making the 1915 Coo-ee March from Gilgandra to Sydney the first and most successful recruitment march of World War 1”

A little Green Tree Frog in the ladies toilets.

Zaccy decided it was mean to pee on the frogs so we all had to use the caravan toilet!