But all the time I knew that later, I would be a higher rater…

But all the time I knew that later, I would be a higher rater…

Now that travels have begun, we are regularly checking apps and websites to see how other people have rated what we might be about to experience – mostly trying to avoid absolute duds. WikiCamps appears to be the travellers’ bible and the reviews there are sensible and useful for the most part.

Elsewhere (eg Google reviews), just about everything (pubs, campsites, restaurants, museums, galleries, coffee shops, tourist attractions, tours etc etc) gets rated by someone somewhere. We find many of the ratings useless – some people are inclined to award 5 stars and write a scathing comment, or vice versa. So, not for us. We shall follow the completely subjective, time-honoured Wayne’s World system of awarding “thumbs”. Two thumbs down 👎👎 is obviously rubbish, two thumbs up 👍👍 is excellent, no thumbs 👎👍 is just that – blah. Completely avoids the 3 star rating which looks pretty good but is only dead average.

How are things going so far? I hear you ask. Here’s an incomplete collection:

Narrabeen Lakeside caravan park👍 – close to home for convenience
Umina Ocean Shores caravan park👎 – great for kids, but that’s not us
Mudgee Riverside caravan park👍 – we got a bit wet, but rain happens
Wellington Riverside caravan park👍👍 – It’s the serenity, Darl
Glendora NP campsite Hill End👍👍 – the bush and a fire plus facilities. Will National Parks be the perfect compromise?
Dunns Swamp campground👍👍 – (thanks Andrew) we didn’t stay but it is beautiful; not a swamp at all

Oriental pub Mudgee👎👍
Lawson Park pub Mudgee👎👍
Cow and Calf pub Wellington👎👍 – perhaps all pub meals are destined to be ordinary?
The Vietnamese House Dubbo👍👍 – not BYO but really delicious and top service
The Old Bakery coffee Rylstone👎 – Lesley comments, “Bakery coffee is always too milky?”
Internet Cafe and Community front room Stuart Town. Catering👎 – we’ve had a bit of a run today, 10 customers already (3pm); Local colour 👍👍 – Stuart Town used to be called Ironbark(s), as in The Man From… and they even had artists in residence for the week – superb.

Lowe Family Wines Mudgee👍👍 – classy tutored tasting in a lovely setting, well worth the $30!
Printhie Wines Orange👎👍 – surprisingly lacklustre tasting and wines for $10
Canobolas Smith Wines Orange👍👍 – outstanding aged wines, taken around by the delightful Murray Smith himself, tasting out of barrels as well as bottles and we spent a fortune! The winery is for sale too!

Finally, a campfire at last – firepit supplied at Glendora

As you can see, we’re covering some ground and meeting some fascinating people. There’s a bunch of pics in the Gallery tab that shows some of these items. The weather on this 3 week swing has been very wet and windy a lot of the time and we avoided Parkes and Forbes altogether, because of flooding. ATGANI has performed very well indeed and we know for sure that it doesn’t leak. Most of our issues are now falling into the “operator error” category and even this operator seems to be improving. What could possibly go wrong?




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