It was decided we would have another girls weekend away. I had been gifted a voucher for a weekend at a hotel near the Hunter Valley in NSW. In the pioneer days, the Hunter Valley’s initial industry was as a source of timber and coal for the steamships that provided much of the transport for Sydney and its surroundings. The first road built between Sydney and Newcastle crossed the Hawkesbury River at Wiseman’s Ferry then travelled via Judge Dowling’s Range to Bucketty and further to Wollombi where it split. One branch headed North to Jerry’s Plains (between the modern townships of Muswellbrook and Singleton) and the other headed East to Newcastle through Cessnock and Maitland. Today, the Hunter Valley is certainly one of Australia’s most well-known wine regions; there are over 150  wineries producing a wide array of exceptional wines reflective of their origin.

I was excited to receive the hotel voucher and phoned my best friend Donna with the invite.

“Guess what bestie, were off to the Hunter Valley for a weekend all expenses paid! The voucher is for two nights stay at Monte Pio which is situated in Maitland around a 20-minute drive from the Hunter Valley Wine region. The date is the middle of winter so the temperature in that area will be seriously frosty! Are you still keen to come?

Sounds great, I’m up for it Bestie! Donna screamed with delight.  She was always up for an adventure.

The plans were made for that following Friday night.  Off we set in the car with the car heater pumping. As we drove closer into Maitland, our car was overcome with a dense fog. We suddenly couldn’t see a thing. Reducing our speed to a snail pace we slowly moved through it.

It was already a very scary start to the evening as we had no idea where we were driving or if we were even near any other car.  This pace went on for about 2 km.  What a relief to finally see clearly ahead an entered the town of Maitland. It was quite dark with minimal street lighting. Finally looming in the distance was a large old building with the sign Monte Pio.

I had earlier read that the building of Monte Pio dated back to the early 1800s. The review had said it was a grand property full of history and an enchanting atmosphere. I also heard it used to be a convent with a rumour it’s haunted by the ghost of an old nun. I had kept the haunting nformation to my self as I knew Donna would freak out. The foggy atmosphere gave the building a creepy look. We both felt a little apprehensive as we drove through the entrance. It was very quite and no other cars were parked inside. We walked through the dark entrance and down a long hall to the reception area and were greeted by a young man. He looked to be no older than 18 with long greasy hair with a long fringe that fell over one side of his pimply face. It was only 9.00pm and it seemed the place was almost deserted. He handed over our keys with not even a grimace of a smile. We had left Sydney without stopping so feeling quite hungry we asked about where we could eat.

“Is your restaurant still open? We are absolutely famished and my friend Wendy desperately needs food.  She becomes quite unmanageable without food” Donna said laughing.

She knows me well and will often remark to friends about my appetite. When we are away and have finished a big breakfast, I will already start discussing where we should go for lunch. This remark to the young man didn’t sink in or dredge even a smile. Our jovial conversation rolled off his vacant face like water on a duck’s back.

Donna and I glanced at each other with that ‘Oh dear this one’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, a few cards short of a deck, the hamster is dead but the wheel is still spinning look.’

The poor kid was probably so bored and half asleep. Maitland is a town whose main focus is the industrial, mining and transportation industry. Okay, I thought, let’s be gentle on the poor fellow, he appeared very young and simple.

“The restaurant is closed and the hotel is empty except for both of you and the staff. We have more guests arriving tomorrow.”stated our bland concierge Col with his slower-than-normal speech.

“Okay, thanks, but surely there is something still open around here?” we replied in tandem. We really needed to eat. I’m not one of those people who gets by with a cigarette and a glass of wine.

If you go out through this side door and aim for those lights over there you will come across the leagues club.” Col drawled even slower as if he were speaking to foreigners.

I squinted through the garden and across the empty car park. To me, the lights looked quite far away. It was pitch black outside.

“You walk straight ahead which takes you behind the Hospital. If keep walking through their car park you will eventually come across the Leagues club.” replied Col. He appeared quite proud that he managed to get all that information out without pausing and possibly without breathing too.

“Have you ever heard of the Anita Cobby murder?”  Donna interrupted abruptly with a look of  ‘Are you kidding me!’  Col looked vague.

“I don’t think he was born then Donna.” I remarked with shrug of my head.

“Okay, thanks for being so helpful Col. I think considering the fog and darkness, it’s best we drive there.”  Col just looked back at us, smirked and pointed to the door while handing us our room key.

There have been many rumours and legends about this Hotel that have endured over the years. One mentions a tunnel that was used to smuggle children in and out of the orphanage. Another story was about a ghost of a Nun that would wander the hallways at night searching for tea. I was thinking of all this as we tried to find our rooms. I even had fleeting thoughts remembering that scene in the movie ‘ The Shining’. Where the little boy on his bicycle pedals down the hallways. The twin ghosts saying ‘Hello Danny come play with us forever and ever. That movie was so creepy!  I said to myself, it’s just an old Hotel nothing more.

We found our room, dropped the bags and headed off back to our car to find the Leagues club.   It was only a few minutes up the road but we would have been walking it probably 20 minutes. The outside looked normal enough. Cars parked at the front under a bright neon sign. We could hear music playing, people talking but as we entered the room it felt like the music stopped and all turned. We were dressed casually in jeans and t-shirts. I suppose it was a small town and we stood out like a sore thumb. Looking around we both laughed. At first the crowd appeared to be fathers with their daughters on a night out.  We sat down at a bar table and scanned the room. The men appeared to be in their late 50’s and their female partners no older than 16. I felt the skin on my neck prickle and shuddered. The look on Donna’s face was also revulsion.

“Let’s get a drink this could be fun people watching.” I laughed.

We waited alongside others at the bar. There was a rather handsome young barman asking people to my left for their order.  Donna nudged me hard with her elbow.

“He is asking you Wendy?”  ‘No ,he isn’t he’s asking those people at that end.” I replied confused.

Donna nudged me again and this time muttered under her breath. “It’s you, there’s something wrong with his eyes.”

I looked closer and oh dear this poor young man had obviously been deformed somehow either at birth or by an accident. Both eyes seemed to be to the left of the centre of his face. Oh, I’m sorry yes can I order two glasses of Sav Blanc please and some hot chips?” I yelled across the noisy bar patrons. I looked to the right of me. A man that looked and smelt like he was in great need of a shower sat at the bar with his head hung low. He was slurping quite loudly through a straw. I wondered why he didn’t just hold his glass up. I then noticed his hands, well what was left of them! He had no hands just dirty old bandages wrapped around the ends of what was basically his wrists! I suddenly felt nauseous. What had happened to him! Jesus this place was starting to feel like a set for a Stephen King movie.

I grabbed our drinks and we headed to a high bar table near the dance floor. Gulping down thirstily, we noticed the music changed to Tina Turner’s smash hit the Nut Bush. All of a sudden the floor was filled with sleazy older men with much younger female partners.  We watched the crowd doing the nutbush dance steps. It looked more like a scene from Michael Jackson’s Thriller!

We just sat in amazement with our jaws open watching the local Maitland folk do their best steps. Suddenly, along came two men.

“Good-aye girls, would youes like a drink?” said one short over overweight man with a big floppy hat. His unshaven face was dripping in sweat. He had a gummy grin, a roll of fat threatened to snap his trouser waist. He was wearing a too small a size shirt that had lost a few buttons showing a white hairy navel. I gulped ‘Oh thanks, but we already have our own drinks.”

Oh my goodness, if this night couldn’t get any worse. I felt a compulsion to laugh out loud but held it in.

“Ah fark that girls, you can drink more than one drink! It’s no probs we will get youes more wines. Larry go get em two saves. These sheilas need more drinks pronto mate.” the fat one laughed, then almost choked on his own flem. He was obviously a heavy smoker too.

We felt surrounded by these odd folks and this guy appeared to be blocking our exit so we agreed with sheepish grins wondering what the hell would happen next in this odd place.  ‘Okay, thanks just one drink. we both replied laughing nervously.

“Holy cow. I whispered to Donna, some village has lost its idiots, aren’t we the lucky girls!”  Donna laughed with the look of a rabbit caught in the headlights. Don’t worry I whispered, we will just be polite. Fat boy’s mate Larry ambled back swerving a little with the tray of drinks. He was also an unusual looking man. Tall and slim, his clothes much larger than they should have been or maybe he had filled them once upon a time. His face was roughly shaven with a moustache and a small goatee beard. He wore cap on his bald head and was also missing some front teeth.

The fat one introduced himself as Bernie and started trying to make conversation.  I had to hand it to them, they were confident. In Sydney you rarely get chatted up by men, they all seem to interested in their mates, themselves or the rugby. These guys seemed to have nothing to lose with the delusion they were a couple of prime studs that had found their Mares for the night!

‘So girls what youes do for a buck?’  Bernie asked with his bad english sculling his beer down, he burped loudly as he rubbed his stomach. Ah, I love me beer girls!’ ‘So what youes do then? he repeated.

“I’m a paralegal conveyancing secretary in a law firm.” answered Donna with a pained look.

“I also work in the Law firm and I’m doing a correspondence course in management,” I added with an equally pained look.

“Jesus that must be farking boring! said Bernie with a smirk and a snigger.  Larry also started shrieking a hillbilly like laugh. So whats youes names then?”

“My name is Wendy and this is Donna.” I replied instantly wishing I hadn’t told them our names. “Farrrrrrrrrrk, I knew a Wendy at school. I had a crush on her. Hey farrrk! maybe you’re the same Wendy? he then started laughing and coughing uncontrollably nearly falling over.

I turned to Donna and grimaced with gritted teeth and a startled WTF let’s get out of here now look.

“Hey girls what’s youes doing later, do you want to come back to our place now for a party.
We have lots of grog and music, you can get trashed.” said Larry with an excited look laughing weirdly.

“Ah, sorry guys we really must get going as we have a very early coach booked to pick us up for a bus tour to the vineyards. Thanks so much for the drink.” I said grabbing Donna’s arm and propelling as if she was on wheels straight out of the club. We left the cousins from Deliverance to play on their own. We bolted to the car, and jumped in fast locking the doors. I accelerated the car in reverse and swung around and took off. We were both horrified and laughing at the same time.

We rushed back to our ghostly hotel to collapse in our rooms. We were way too tired to hear any ghosts lurking in the hallway. Needless to say, I did wake a few times with visions of those two creepy men leering in my face!

The next day our night was soon forgotten as we enjoyed copious amounts of delicious wine on our tour of the Hunter Valley wineries. We had so much fun and consumed copious amounts of wine and cheese which created rather unsettled stomachs. The end of the day drew near and the bus pulled up to our Hotel.  I was sure my stomach would explode and needed the bathroom quick! I tried to exit the bus with my painfully bloated stomach that began to rumble. The Bus driver became very chatty and decided to talk about other activities and places we could visit while up there. My stomach squelched and grumbled. I didn’t know when this guy would shut up. I felt like I would explode any minute like a balloon pricked by a pin!  He was on a roll muttering along oblivious to my discomfort. I politely interrupted oh that’s very interesting thank you so much for that information. We really must get this Wine inside and sadly we leave tomorrow so I don’t think we will have time to see anything more but maybe next time. I was holding a few bottles I had bought and thought my bladder or bowels would burst. ‘Oh dear these bottles are heavy. I remarked in an exaggerated weak with no strength look.  I crouched down bending one leg as if about to drop the wine.

I had to try to stop whatever was about to exit me!

I was thinking OH MY GOD I will have a very messy accident or embarrassing noise in three seconds if he doesn’t shut the hell up. Donna knew what I was doing. She finally interrupted and said sorry but we have to rush off. We have booked a dinner reservation and we are already late. “Thanks again for today.” Donna waved.

“Yes thanks, bye now!” I added in relief as I ran into the hotel. Donna was laughing loud behind me all the way to our room.

We slept off the wine and woke feeling hungry.  Again it was too late for the hotel restaurant and there was no way we would go to the leagues club again.  We felt wide awake and wanted to find a place to eat and maybe have a dance.  So we decided to get in the car and make our way through the forest to the wine district in search of a pub. We turned off into the road with the sign to the Hunter Vally. The road was dark. No street lights at all.

“I hope we don’t come across the likes of Larry and Bernie” I said with a laugh. This thought made me put my foot down on the pedal. I was a bit scared. imagining if we broke down out here. I drove like lightning all the way to the Harrigans Irish pub.

Harrigans was filled with more odd characters. One guy said he was a long haul truck driver. He was about seven feet tall and looked like bikie. He stated he will drive to Sydney to take me out. He kept saying in a rather forceful way how I was the girl he had been looking for his whole life. I started to feel a bit scared as he looked so determined and was trying to hug me. I muttered something about needing to go to the ladies and took off. On the way, I grabbed Donna and propelled her through the crowd and out of the entrance. “Let’s get out of here now! The guys here are weird and creepy.”

Donna agreed and had also been fighting off a drunk unsavoury looking miner. He had been about to start a fight with another man that also had his eyes set on Donna. We both felt like cattle on the stand about to be sold off to the highest bidder. It really was quite comical.

Driving as fast as safely possible through the dark roads not daring to slow down in case the car stopped and wouldn’t restart.  We would rather spend a night in the haunted hotel than deal with the beasts that roamed the Hunter wine region at night. When we returned, we bolted the room door and jumped into our beds. Trying to sleep we could hear ghostly noises of moaning, banging of doors and shuffling in the hallway! Oh my god was it true, there are ghosts here?

Eventually, we must have passed out into sleep. The next morning the sun was shining and thank god we were going home to Sydney town. What an adventure!

(Pleases note: We love the Hunter Valley and it’s a fabulous place to visit so don’t let us put you off. This story was just our funny experience.)

Just another memorable singles-girl weekend away!

Published by Seafarrwide

Love travel, food and experiences. View all posts by Seafarrwide