Wellstead - 11. WSD Chapter 11

“It is a big surprise for everyone, including the staff, so don’t say anything. We are leaving on Saturday, so keep it a secret until I announce it to everyone in a few days’ time,” I asked and Lloyd nodded his understanding. For the next half an hour I showed him all the information about where we were going for this trip around Australia.

After lunch Lloyd fell asleep on the lounge as Elspeth, Anne and I were talking, getting to know each other, while Kyle and Quinn were outside busy working in the garden. When Anne eventually excused herself so as to go prepare afternoon tea and dinner, Lloyd woke up from his snooze and yawned loudly, making me laugh. I offered to take Lloyd shopping for some real Aussie clothes and Elspeth said she would just stay and maybe help Anne in the kitchen.

By the time Lloyd and I had returned from our shopping adventures, three hours later, it was nearly time for dinner, and Lloyd was indeed very hungry, as I had made sure he didn’t waste his appetite on junk food during our shopping spree which Elspeth was thankful for. After dinner, Elspeth, Lloyd and I retired to the library for some relaxation, but Lloyd wasn’t able to keep still, so he went exploring the rest of the house, and it wasn’t long after that the sound of wonderful music was coming from the music room.

I looked stunned but Elspeth just smiled. I stood up and made my way to the music room, where Lloyd was playing some classical music, and doing it quite well too. Although not faultless, it was still very good and I just stood at the door and watched Lloyd playing on the grand piano, enjoying the wonderful sounds from the piano that he was making.

The next morning, I took both Elspeth and Lloyd to the British Consulate to make applications to remain in Australia due to the events of the past with Elspeth’s former husband. Before leaving Scotland she had filed for divorce, and when in London she was able to get a speedy processing of that application due to the violence of her husband. She had that paperwork with her to support her application.

They were informed that it would take a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks for her application to be processed, and that her current emergency visa would remain in effect for 6 months from the time they arrived in Australia, and that was all they could do at that time.

After leaving the consulate, I took them to do some more shopping for clothes, shoes and some extras. I bought them both an iPhone 5 each, plus I bought a small portable stereo, headphones and 2 dozen music CD’s for Lloyd and a laptop computer for Elspeth, so she could keep in contact with her friends in the UK. With all the shopping complete, we all returned home to relax for the remainder of the day.

With just over 3 days remaining before the trip, I decided that dinner time that night was the best time to announce the holiday. I asked Anne and the boys to join us for dinner.

I gave no hint of an announcement during the main course, even with Lloyd looking across the table at me often. I just smiled and didn’t say anything, but once desserts were served, and everyone was seated I decided the time was right.

“I guess you are all wondering why I have asked Anne and the boys to join us for dinner tonight,” I began after taking a sip of my juice before continuing. “I am glad that everyone is getting along well as we are all about to spend a lot of time together over the next three weeks…” I paused to let it sink in that something had been planned.

“For the next three weeks, Grant is taking all of us, including Anne, Kyle and Quinn, on a three-week-long around-Australia train journey,” Lloyd said interrupting me as he couldn’t keep quiet for another moment longer. I laughed at Lloyd for his interruption, and began to give more details on the surprise.

“That is correct. Starting this coming Saturday, just three days away, we are all going on a special trip around Australia, with 5 train journeys, starting with “The Ghan” from Adelaide to Darwin, and ending with the “Indian Pacific” from Sydney to Perth.

“During this time, we will have only two plane flights: the first is from Darwin to Mt Isa to connect with our second train trip from Isa to Townsville, and the second will be from Perth to back home at the end.

“Apart from the train stop overs, we will have rest breaks in Darwin for 2 days, Townsville for 2 ½ days, Brisbane for 2 ½ days and Sydney for 3 ½ days. So, plenty of time for shopping and sightseeing. This is an all-expenses paid trip for all of us from me. The only rule I have is that you all have fun.

“Kyle and Quinn, if you don’t mind you will be sharing rooms or cabins for the whole journey, as will Lloyd and myself. Anne and Elspeth will have their own accommodation. Now that I have announced it and given some details, does anyone have any questions?” I asked, and thankfully everyone was silent.

“That’s good. So now for the next two and a half days just relax. Don’t stress out. Just take your time packing, and make sure you have everything you need for three weeks. Oh, and it must be kept to just one medium suitcase and one hand luggage, to keep in line with the railways and airlines requirements. So, let’s enjoy our wonderful deserts and have an early night, as we are all going to be quite busy for the next few days,” I said and started eating my banana, ice-cream and custard dessert.

The following day I went to see Frank at his office to make sure the arrangement that I had asked for had been put into place. This was to arrange for a security firm to make regular checks on the property during the time that we were away. Frank also said that he would be making the occasional checks too, just to be sure.

On the day of the start of the trip everyone was ready by lunch time. The flight to Adelaide was at 5pm, so we decided to have lunch, do a quick tidy up, lockup and catch a minibus cab to the airport at 3pm, arriving at the airport just under two hours before the flight. When I handed everyone their tickets once we had checked in, it was Anne who spotted the extra surprise.

“Grant, these are 1st^t class tickets. That’s just too much. We can’t do that,” she said concerned about the extra expense. I just smiled and didn’t reply. Anne gave me a scorned look before giving up on her protest, as we made our way to the 1^st class lounge.

When we arrived in Adelaide, a minibus cab took us to our hotel, where we checked into our three luxurious two-bedroom suites, all next to each other, but not with connecting doors. Once again everyone was surprised by the luxurious accommodation that we were staying in, but I just didn’t really care at the expense as I wanted everyone to have a good time and enjoy the holiday.

After about half an hour I called the two suites adjoining mine and asked everyone to meet in the restaurant down stairs for dinner in twenty minutes, where I had a dinner reservation already made. I had organised this when we arrived and checked in. Before heading downstairs, I made a couple more phone calls as I had a few more surprises planned for later on in the journey. At dinner I informed everyone that we would be checking out at 8am the next morning.

“We will have breakfast here in the restaurant at that time. We can store our luggage at reception and spend the morning looking around the City of Adelaide. We will return to collect our luggage at 11.30am, and make our way to the train station for our first train journey, which will take two days and 6 hours as we travel northwards to Darwin,” I informed everyone.

When we checked in at the train station later, an hour before departure, we walked along the platform to where the long train was waiting. It was a lot longer than I expected. It was going to be a wonderful experience. Anne and Elspeth each had Gold Class Double Cabins, next door to each other, while Kyle and Quinn and Lloyd and myself had Gold Twin Cabins next door to each other, but two train cars away from the ladies, who were only one train car away from the lounge and dining cars.

Once we had settled into our cabins and had been given our instructions from the purser, all four of us guys walked down to the lounge car, where we found Anne and Elspeth having a glass of wine and chatting to some other passengers. I organised drinks for the three boys and myself before joining them. We sat and looked around, and eventually chatted to some passengers that sat nearby. When the train started to move the three boys cheered with excitement, as the train slowly sped up for the start of the journey, passing through the northern suburbs of Adelaide and eventually into the country side.

Lunch was served soon after we left Adelaide station, and as we were eating we saw the northern suburbs of Adelaide pass us by. The first main stop would be in the centre of Australia in Alice Springs at 1.45pm the following day, so after lunch while Kyle, the ladies and I remained in the lounge relaxing, Quinn took Lloyd to go and explore the train, and we didn’t see them again for nearly 2 hours. I had texted Quinn at one point to check on them, and received a reply that they were in his cabin playing games on the iPhone, which made me smile and wonder if that would be a regular event during the journey.

Just as we were leaving the northern suburbs I received a text from Frank:

All extra plans have been sorted as requested. Hope you are enjoying your trip. Don’t forget to send me some post cards.

Frank.

I smiled at the message and made a mental note to do just that. Luckily, I had purchased a couple of postcards at the train station in Adelaide just before boarding the train.

At about 4pm I made my way back to my cabin to have a bit of a lie down before dinner. I read a book for a short while before starting to doze off a bit, but was jolted awake when Kyle knocked to check that I was ok. He asked if I needed anything. I assured him all was fine, and that I was just having a short kip before dinner. He went off looking for his brother and Lloyd who were not in the cabin next door where we were expecting them to be.

By 6pm Kyle had rounded up the boys and had them back in the cabins to get changed ready for dinner. The two cabins had a shared bathroom, so it was a struggle to get everyone organised in time, but we managed to get to the lounge car by 6.30pm, where Anne and Elspeth were waiting for us so we could be seated at our tables.

As we ate our dinner, we watched the sun setting to the west over outback central South Australia, where there had been some spectacular views of farmland as we passed them. I knew that when it became daylight the next morning we would be in the far north of the state in desert country - a whole new kind of view with plenty of wildlife and desert shrub land for as far as the eye could see.

By the time we had finished our dinner it was pitch black outside, and while Quinn and Lloyd returned to the cabins to play some more games, Anne, Elspeth, Kyle and I remained in the lounge for an after-dinner drink, and a time of talking to other train passengers. By 8pm I was getting tired and said good night to all and retired to my cabin. Lloyd was already there playing a game on his phone, so I popped my head into the next cabin to say goodnight to Quinn, before returning and announcing to Lloyd that he needed to have a shower before getting into bed.

What I hadn’t expected when Lloyd agreed to shower without argument, was for him to strip naked right in front of me without any hesitation, and make his way into the bathroom next door, closing the connecting door to the other cabin as he closed our cabin door to the bathroom. I just sat there stunned at what had happened, and when Kyle knocked and opened the door and saw my mouth wide open, he just laughed out loud.

“So, it looks like you got an eye-full of a view just as my little brother did,” he said with a big grin. Realising what he meant I closed my mouth and blushed a bit.

“Well I wasn’t expecting it, if that’s what you mean,” I eventually said, with a bit of a smile.

“Well-endowed, not circumcised and early developed too from what my brother described of the view. Shame I missed it,” he added.

“Um, yes, I think so,” I said trying to avoid saying any more about the incident. Kyle waved good night and closed the door behind him as he left.

After his shower, Lloyd came back into the cabin with just the towel wrapped around his waist, but that soon dropped to the floor as he started searching for his pyjamas in the suitcase, standing stark naked right in front of me and semi erect also.

“Um, you better put that thing away before it pokes my eyes out,” I said as diplomatically as possible to my cousin, not sure what way to look. By now he was fully erect, and it was less than a metre away from my face.

Lloyd ignored my comment and eventually found his pyjamas and put them on before climbing into the upper bed. It was just then that I noticed 2 sets of eyes peeping through the open connecting door, looking at the same view that I had just had. I grinned and motioned them to go back into their cabin, before grabbing my towel and a change of clothes and making my way into the bathroom to take a shower. Before showering I poked my head into the other cabin.

“No more of that from now on, please,” I said to Kyle and Quinn, before closing and locking the door.

After completing my shower and getting dressed, I unlocked the connecting bathroom doors and returned to my cabin, locking the door behind me. Lloyd was reading the book that I had been reading earlier, and I decided not to stop him, as it was getting him away from playing his games.

After looking at the itinerary for a short while and making a hash mark at the start of the line where it indicated “Overnight train from Townsville to Brisbane”, I put it away and turned off my light. I removed my tracksuit pants as I like to sleep in just my boxers and I was soon dozing off to a happy and peaceful sleep, as the train rocked its way northward towards the Northern Territory border and the remote central Australian town of Alice Springs.

When I started to wake up in the morning, the first thing I noticed was the sound of giggling. It was coming from very close by. When I opened my eyes, I saw Lloyd looking towards my mid-section. I soon realised why he was giggling, and I quickly pulled the covers over the hard, protruding piece of anatomy that had escaped my boxers.

“Yours is different from mine, but just as big too,” Lloyd said with a big grin. I was not sure what to say or do about this predicament.

“I think it’s not a good idea that you do that again, and that includes your display last night too, as both Kyle and Quinn got a full view of you also. With you being only 13 it’s not appropriate for you to be walking around showing off your bits to everyone. Do you understand me, cousin?” I said sternly showing I was serious about this subject and what had happened last night and this morning. Lloyd nodded and went into the bathroom.

After a slight adjustment of my boxers, I got up and got dressed while Lloyd was in the bathroom. I started to tidy up in the cabin just as I heard the toilet flush and the sink tap open and close. Lloyd came out of the bathroom still in his boxers and tee shirt, and I urged him to hurry up and get dressed so we could go to breakfast.

Lloyd slipped on a pair of jeans and changed his shirt, before he followed me out the door. I tapped on the door of the cabin next door as we passed, calling out, “We are heading to breakfast.”

We kept walking, and just a few minutes after sitting at the dining table, Kyle and Quinn joined us.

Anne and Elspeth were seated further down the dining car, busy chatting away as they were eating. When the steward arrived, we ordered our breakfast and chatted while we waited.

“I hear someone got a telling off this morning,” Kyle said with a bit of a grin.

I looked at Kyle with annoyance and then looked out the window to see how much the landscape had changed overnight.

Kyle didn’t say any more as he understood that I was not at all amused at his comment, and decided to behave and enjoy the holiday. Once breakfast had arrived there was total silence at the table as we ate hungrily. As soon as I had finished, I made my way to the table where Anne and Elspeth were seated, as their other table guests had finished and left.

“I was wondering if you would like to take Lloyd with you when we are in Alice Springs. I have a few business errands I have to attend to, so I won’t be doing much sightseeing while the train is there,” I said to Aunt Elspeth.

“Yes, dear. That will be fine. I do hope he is behaving himself when he is with you boys. He can be a bit of a handful sometimes,” she replied.

“He is fine. I just won’t have time to spend with him while we are in Alice Springs, and I don’t think the other boys would be able to handle a young teenager who is practically a stranger. I guess being a cousin seems to be enough to keep him in line,” I said to Elspeth with a big smile.

After a short chat I got up and went further forward up the train where I discovered the Red Kangaroo class of passengers, who all had coach seating which could be lowered slightly for sleeping at night. I kept going and found a lounge area and a café, where I ordered and paid for a cup of tea and a newspaper, before finding a spot to sit and relax.