Deception - 26. Dec Chapter 26

“Upstairs, uncle and I have our own master bedrooms, and there are 4 guest bedrooms with two shared bathrooms, at the top of the stairs above us is a large library and study areas, the same size as this open living area” Tom added. “If you like, you can go up those stairs to the right, and the first four doors on your right are the guest bedrooms, so you can choose which room you all would like” I said, and our guests grabbed their luggage and went upstairs.

Tom grabbed his and my luggage and took the left stairs to our rooms, while I headed back into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Tom joined me a few minutes later, and helped me with preparing vegetables for dinner, and once he had completed the vegies, Tom said he would grab Ethan and take the bikes and trailers back to the shed before it gets dark.

As I heard Tom and Ethan talking as they headed down the tunnel, Bryce and Jacob came into the kitchen. “Hey guys, have you settled into your rooms? I asked as they sat down and I retrieved some beer from the fridge. “This is an amazing place Gres, and the bedrooms are a lot bigger than I expected” Jacob said cheerfully, “Actually it is Tom who designed the house, when we first discovered the caves, yes there is more than one, we came back with a laser surveyor, and with the information entered into the computer, Tom came up with the design, and together we worked on some minor changes, before we came up with this final layout” I said.

When the boys arrived back, I gave them a soft drink each, and they sat in the dining room along with Bryce and Jacob, while I continued with preparing dinner. Once we had eaten and cleaned up afterwards, which was easy with the dishwasher that Jack had installed, I grabbed four torches and we headed up top, to go for a walk along the trail to the gazebo.

I told our visitors of the 9 species of animals that have been introduced to the island as a breeding and rehabilitation programmes, and as we walked along the path to the gazebo we began to hear the noises of animals, and suddenly we saw a pair of quokka hopping by, which surprised our visitors, and as we stepped onto the boardwalk, I led the way to the gazebo, were we looked out onto the bay, with a clear night and just the sounds of the animals and the ocean waves.

After a nice restful sleep, I woke up shortly after dawn and I went for a walk along the boardwalk to see if I could see some more of the mammals that have been introduced to the island, the first thing he heard was the Mallee Fowl making their early morning calls, and I soon saw some wallabies and echidnas, and after an hour of walking I returned to the house to start some breakfast for our guests.

Tom was the first to appear, dressed and ready for a day of being a tour guide for Bryce, Jacob and Ethan. When everyone was present in the dining room for breakfast, thinking of what I was about to say, I sat down and spent a moment to take a sip of my cup of tea. “I’m sure Tom is eager to give you all a grand tour of the whole island, and I would like to ask that while you are doing this, that you consider staying here long term, to help me with the management of this and the other two islands that I own” I said to our guests.

“Other islands Gres?” Ethan asked, and Tom began to chuckle again, and I smiled at him as I prepared to explain, “Yes, I own Grantham Island, which is just 3 kilometres south of Port Lincoln, with 26 acres in area, and the newest purchase is Boston Island, which is just East of Port Lincoln and is 2,400 acres in area, this island is 334 acres in area” I announced to our guests. “Wow, that is quite a big island you have there, what do you plan to do with it?” Bryce asked, “Well, I have plans to have most of the island air seeded with a variety of native trees and shrubs, to make it a wildlife reserve like this island” I replied.

“Actually, I have an idea what we could do with Grantham Island? Tom stated to me un-expectantly, and I turned to him and nodded to hear more, Tom smiled before continuing, I have been doing some research on something that I have heard been done in far northern Western Australia, have you heard of the word Glamping?”.

“Yes, and you know Tom that would be a great idea, especially if we get Jack and his boys to build some boardwalks around the island” I said eventually. Tom jumped up and went upstairs, he reappeared with his laptop in hand, which he placed on the dining table, and he opened it up and opened the web browser. Moments later, he typed in glamping into the web search and pressed enter. What we saw on the computer screen was a wide variety of Glamping, and the one I liked best was the Eco Glamping in Broome, Tom then typed in another search, which came up with a company in Australia that builds Eco tents, and this was even more interesting.

After a good look at the search, I had decided that the 4.2 x 4.2 metre eco tent with added ensuite and veranda, was the best option, the extra areas are both 1.8 metres deep, making the whole structure 4.2 x 7.8 metres in area, with steel frame and very strong canvas walls and roof, and once I had made up my mind to go ahead with this idea I turned to Bryce.

“How would you guys like to stay and assist with getting this project started, I suggest we get a few eco tents set up here on this island, above and facing the eastern beach, and when that is sorted we can look into doing the same on Grantham Island” I said with a smile. “How can I refuse a great new job and lifestyle, I accept” Bryce said and Ethan jumped up and down with joy, “I too accept, as I have no other plans, now that the farm is sold” Jacob announced, and I was happy to now have a team to help me.

We headed up to the top of the island, where I gave Jack a call, asking him to come to the island for a meeting when he is available. Jack announced that work was real slow, so he and the boys could come over as soon as they charter a boat to get over there. While waiting for them to arrive, we walked over to the gazebo situated on the southern end of the eastern beach, overlooking Carl Cove.

I already knew that this beach is 820 metres long, and with a spacing of 150 metres apart, we could easily fit 5 Eco tents along the top of the hill overlooking Carl Cove, and I explained this to everyone once we arrived at the gazebo, where we could easily picture the location of the tents, “If you place them out 200 metres apart for more privacy and just have 4 Eco Tents, you could possible charge more per tent per night. Have the second and fourth tents set back say 3.5 metres from the first and third tents, that way when guests are seated on their verandas, they won’t clearly see the neighbors.

Also, have a raised boardwalk from the veranda, going down one side to a linking boardwalk say twenty metres from the Eco Tent” Bryce suggested, I nodded my head as I made a mental note of these ideas, and I stepped off the gazebo, heading along the top of the island above Carl Cove, where the proposed Eco tents will be. With everyone following me, I paced out the distance from the gazebo, stopping at 50 metres, I asked Ethan to stand at that point, and I kept pacing for another 175 metres and stopped, and without asking Tom stood at that point and I kept going for another175 metres, where Jacob took up the spot.

The next stop I made, Bryce stood on the spot, while I continued on till I reached the boardwalk at 55 metres, where I stopped and looked back at the others. We were all about ten metres from the edge of the hill and looking at the line we had formed I felt that this was the best option, so as not to be too close to each end of the boardwalk, and I began to walk back towards the gazebo, collecting everyone on the way, till we all arrived at the gazebo.

“I think that 55 metres from each end of the boardwalk, and 175 metres apart would be perfect for locating the Eco Tents, and if we made another boardwalk say 20 metres back from the eco tents, to provide a link to each tent, this would also make it easy to get guest luggage and supplies to the tents” I stated. Tom pointed out he could see a boat approaching from the north- west, and we presumed that it was Jack and his boys coming over. Ten minutes later the charter boat set anchor in Carl Cove just below the Gazebo, and the trio were soon with us up in the gazebo.

Once I had introduced Bryce, Ethan and Jacob to Jack, Lloyd and Amos, we were all seated, I explained my plans on the Eco Camping idea, and suggested to Jack the idea of positioning of the 4 tent raised platforms, and building a connecting boardwalk.

While Jack, Bryce and I went to plan out the idea some more, Lloyd, Amos, Jacob, Ethan and Tom headed over to the western beach to go swimming. From the shed we retrieved the hammers and 4 long and two short steel pickets, and returning to the small track along the top of the hill overlooking Carl Cove, we paced out the first 55 metres before setting a marker picket in place, before pacing out 175 metres for the next picket, until we had all 4 steel pickets in place, evenly spaced out at 175 metres.

Walking back to the 3rd steel marker, I paced out 3.5 metres back and set a small steel marker in place, and we did the same with the 1st steel marker closest to the gazebo, collecting another dozen smaller steel pickets, we paced out 20 metres along the boardwalk, from the top of the stairs, towards the shed and toilets, then stepping off the boardwalk we began pacing out 50 metres and making it to create a line where the boardwalk along the back of the eco tents will go. Once we had done this we returned to the gazebo, were we could hear the boys returning from their swim, wearing just their underwear with their shirts and shorts drooped over their shoulders.

With Jack having no set jobs for the next few months, he said he could get to work on the boardwalk extensions and tent platforms right away, I suggested that they bring their swags and camp in the cave garden while working on the island, and that I would organize meals for everyone, while working on this new project. Jack got onto his phone and started ordering more wood and cement for the new work, and once he had made the order, he announced to me that he would have the first shipment of wood and cement ready for collection after lunch tomorrow, so I said I would collect them at that time.

As we watched Jack and his boys set off back to the mainland, I turned to the remaining members of the project team, “They will be back just after lunch tomorrow, and will be staying on, I will need to take the barge to collect them, their tools and supplies, plus do some food shopping, Bryce can I leave it up to you to order the 4 eco tents in kit form, and I think we will get two patio tents also, I think that maybe we should put one between each of the two linking boardwalks on the back connecting boardwalk, we can add outdoor lounge space, outdoor dining and a large BBQ to each of the Patio tents, for extra living area” I suggested.

‘Or we could add a 3 x 3 metre patio tent beside or in front of each of the tents” Bryce suggested, and I thought about what he said for a while, “How about we wait till Jack gets back tomorrow and we can see what he thinks, since he’s the builder” I added and Bryce nodded his head in understanding, and we followed the boys back to the underground house.

After lunch, I went to my office to look at the website that Tom showed us, a bit more and I printed some of the information and some of the different layouts of eco tents. Tom had announced that he, Ethan and Jacob were going to do some more exploring of the island, and maybe go for a swim in the cave pool, and when I came out of the office to get a cup of tea, looking up I found Bryce was up in the library doing some reading.

As I headed back to the office, I motioned Bryce to join me, and once he was seated, I showed him the information that I had printed out, and waited for him to soak in all the information, which included suggestions of a second eco tent that provides living and dining space, similar to what Bryce had suggested. After a bit of discussion, we decided on having a living and dining tent in front the bedroom Eco tent, with it all being on a raised platform. I remembered that Tom’s friend Jake, whose father is a landscape gardener, and I suggested to Bryce that we ask Shamus to grow and provide a large number of native trees and shrubs to plant around the island, to increase the shade for the new eco tents, and along the boardwalk, which Bryce agreed with.

Ethan, Jacob and Tom returned with Tom calling out for me, and opening the office door I saw them approaching. “We would like to contribute to the project, we would like to design a website for the island please” Tom announced as he reached the office door, I looked back at Bryce who smiled and I said to Tom that it would be a great addition to the project.