Jim & Barbara Burton Travel: South Maroota

South Maroota – Peter & Stephanies,

On Friday, we picked up our rental car at Sydney Airport and drove out to meet Peter at the Koala Park. We spent a few hours inside as we were not meeting him to drive out to South Maroota until 6pm.

The Koala Park is another sanctuary where animals are saved. We saw more Koalas, another sheep shearing display, more Roos and Wallies, different varieties than before from the swamps and others from the mountains. There were even red-necked wallabies and they were not from Alberta. We also got to see a magnificent cockatoo called a Major Mitchell and these three Little Penguins.

Just after six we met up with Peter and followed him to their lovely home in South Maroota. Steph was already there and we met their two dogs Stead and Jess and Alfie the cat. They also have four Arabians that are endurance horses.

On Saturday, Peter and Steph took us on a scenic drive. We crossed the river by ferry and went on to hike the Convict Trail. It was a very hot day and luckily we didn’t go up too far. The Convict Trail was called The Great North Road and was completed in 1836 to connect Sydney to the Hunter Valley. It took tens years of hard labour to build. In that kind of heat and in shackles it must have been unbearable.

We saw magnificent views of the Hawkesbury River and went on to have a scrumptious lunch in The Settlers Arms in the very small village of Albany. We visited St. Albans Old General Cemetery where many of the original settlers are buried and the little town of Windsor.

Sunday we went to the show-grounds and back to the wander through the market in Windsor, followed by a nice walk along the river. Unfortunately, there are no photos of the Sunday events as I forgot my camera. UGH!!!!!

While we were here we went out to feed the horses and found the bush-rats had gnawed through the bag of chicken feed. Due to the recent rains the small bush-rats had come up from the bush below their property. They are bush-rats!!!!! Next day when Steph went to see to the horses she was working away for quite a while at the sink totally oblivious of a large female diamond backed python draped over the washing machine she uses for the horse blankets. These snakes are not poisonous but it was about 12 feet in length with a considerable girth. It was so still that she thought it was dead, so she poked it and it slithered away behind the washing machine. It had been stalking a rat and the next thing she heard was the rat squeaking and the noise of it being swallowed. I went back out, camera in hand, but to no avail and it did not reappear for a photo shoot during the rest of our stay. Probably went back to the bush for a week to digest its meal.

The property at South Maroota is like a paradise with a beautiful bungalow, swimming pool, horse paddocks and stable yard, riding arena,other outbuildings and all crafted by Peter & Steph.

We were also treated royally while we were there and Steph cooked us some delicious meals including mussels and prawns one night, lamb another and a superb breakfast one morning with freshly laid eggs from their hens.

It was hard to leave but we hit the highway and went on our merry way to see Dave and Bev at Nelson Bay.

See you there…………………………