Simba - 19. Simba Ch 19

Back at the campsite, we noticed that Uncle Nat had already retired for the night, so we did the same. The next morning, Uncle Nat was already up, and he had already packed up his swag, and was sitting in a chair reading, when I appeared.

“Oh man, who is the heavy snorer, kept me up most of the night,” I commented, as I stretched, “That would have been me, sorry about that,” came a reply from one of the tents and it sounded like Will.

Once we were all up and packed up, we headed to a café to get some breakfast. “We met a group of Indigenous people down at the river beach last night, and I asked if any one of them would be interested in being part of our organisation, and the Elders said they has someone in mind and that he would be in contact soon,” I announced to Uncle Nat.

I wondered how long it would take you to think of that, I have thought that you would have done that a little sooner,” Uncle Nat replied, which surprised me a little, “You are in support of this idea?” I asked, “Of course I am, and you took your time doing something about it,” Uncle Nat replied as he smiled to me.

“I guess we had better start looking at accommodation for him somewhere close to the base,” I said, “I have already done that. 163 Black Road is the property I bought a few weeks ago. It is the red brick house right next to the front gate to the project front gate, so he can act as caretaker for the property as well.

“Awesome, thanks for that Uncle Nat, all we have to do now is add another desk to the reception office for our new staff member, and I think we really need to have desk top computers as well as our own laptops, and we need to add Patrick’s - Taylor Island Glamping Holidays as our first sponsor” I replied.

“Don’t forget to include Simba’s Mountain Retreat @ Marangu, as a sponsor?” Uncle Nat said to me, “No, I hadn’t forgotten that at all, I was just going to ask you about doing that when I got around to it,” I replied. “Good to hear, as it would be good to keep our staff there busy, and maybe increase the number of staff to help Afya and Jabali with the work load,” Uncle Nat said.

“I will give Jabali a call later to see if he or Afya can send a photo of the front sign that Jabali made, so that we can have some artwork made for the promotion,” I informed my uncle. After we had eaten, we climbed into our vehicles and headed north to Yorkey’s Crossing, which is a 15 kilometre drive, and from there we followed a rough gravel road along side the river down to the railway crossing, just a kilometre down stream.

On arrival there, we walked to where the railway line crosses the river, where we saw a weir exists across the river. “I didn’t know there was a weir, so I guess this is the furthest you one can go in a boat,” Aaron said, “That is ok though isn’t it, how far did you say it is by boat from here to the Port Augusta Yacht Club?” I asked, “Ten kilometres, give or take a few metres,” Aaron replied.

“Well that would be at least a three hour ride at about 3 km’s per hour, so there and back would be a nice full day trip, on a canal boat, fitted out to just seat passengers, with two bathrooms and the kitchen kept as they are, to provide meals and snacks during the day,” I commented.

“Actually, you are right about that, and having a full time skipper and part time deckhand, would be much better than having a self drive trip, so there would be less risk of damage,” Aaron responded. Back on the road again, we headed back to Port Augusta, this time going via the western route, which is only just slightly longer, and continued south to head back to Adelaide, but this time, Uncle Nat was travelling with Chris and Will in the staff vehicle.

“About twenty minutes later, Uncle Nat came onto the radio, “Aaron and Jacob, we will continue on to Adelaide, I thought you two may want to spend some time checking out Miranda some more, the keys to the house are in the glove box.

I put some extra food into your car fridge before leaving Port Augusta this morning, so you will be right for a couple of days. Have fun and we will see you in a few days time,” Uncle Nat said over the radio, “Copy that Uncle, are you sure about this?” Aaron asked in response, “Yes, you both don’t have any commitments, so just come back in time to do a wash and restock in time for your trip to Taylor Island, over,” Uncle Nat said.

“Roger that Uncle Nat, have a safe trip back home and see you in a few days,” Aaron said into the radio. “Well that was definitely a big surprise, no wonder he insisted in travelling with the other two and you travel with me, very sneaky,” I said smiling.

“There is the turn off sign coming up,” Aaron said pointing at the small distant sign, so I slowed down and indicated to turn right off the highway, and ten minutes later we arrived in the very small town of Miranda.

“I guess the other vehicle has the two scuba tanks, so we will just have to make do with snorkelling,” I commented as we parked the vehicle outside the double garage. Grabbing our luggage and the house key, we walked around to the back and entered the house, which I was surprised to see, has some basic furniture, which looked like is brand new.

Having a look around, we found that there was a dining table, four chairs, a lounge suite consisting of a two seater and two single seats, plus a coffee table, and there was a double mattress in the master bedroom and two single mattresses in the second bedroom.

In the kitchen, there were just the basics, with four sets of cutlery, some cooking utensils, a frying pan, and a saucepan with a lid, four of each of cups, glasses, bowls and large plates. The linen cupboard was empty, but in the laundry, with the adjoining toilet, we found in the cupboard, we found a six-pack of toilet paper, four-pack of bar soap, toilet cleaner, and a few cleaning products and cleaning cloths.

After placing our luggage in the bedrooms, we went back to the vehicle to retrieve the car fridge, which we set up in the kitchen that does not have a fridge, and was plugged it, I had a look to see what we had. Inside I found a few packets of meat, some salads, fruit, UHT milk, cereal packets, and a small packet of sugar, some cans of tuna, and the precooked packets of rice.

With plenty of food to keep us going for a few days, we decided to go and have a look at the Yatala Harbour in the upper Gulf, so we changed into board shorts, and with the snorkel gear, we headed to the beach for a swim in what is a marine nature reserve.

As well as the surprising amount of mangroves and sea grasses, we discover a lot of Western King Prawns, King George Whiting, Garfish and Blue Swimmer Crabs, as well as some Tiger Squid, Blue Ring Octopus, and Cuttlefish.

After nearly an hour in the water, with my underwater camera recording everything that I was seeing, we were heading back to shore when we came across Hawksbill Turtles and a pair of very friendly Australian Sea Lions, which I managed to record swimming around us for some time.

“Wow, that was so cool, I can see why you love doing this nature conservation stuff, that was incredible,” Aaron said excitedly, “Yes, it is pretty awesome, just wait till next weekend, then the work will begin, and we will see a lot more than what we saw today,” I replied.

Back at the house, after a quick shower and change of clothes, I sat down to download the footage that I had recorded, onto my laptop computer, as there was a knock on the back door. “I will get it, you keep doing that stuff,” Aaron said as he headed for the back door.

“Hello, I am the unofficial mayor of this here small town of ours, the name is Jed Kingsley,” I heard a deep vice say to my cousin, and I jumped up to joining him at the door. “Good afternoon, my name is Jacob Blackwood, and this is my cousin Aaron, how can we help you?” I said in response.

“My wife noticed you yesterday, and when you came back today and saw you parked here, and go off snorkelling in the marine reserve, we thought we should meet, and see what you are doing,” the man said to us. “Nice of you, to check on us, there is just the two of us here today.

We are only here for a few days doing some preliminary marine and fauna surveys, we are a private scientific organisation that is working to protect wildlife, as well as rescuing and treating sick and injured animals,” I explained.

“I see, and that is what this Kuishi Project is about?” the man asked as he pointed in the direction of the garage and my vehicle, “That’s right, Kuishi is Swahili for ‘To Survive’. We are based in Flagstaff Hill in the southern Suburbs of Adelaide, and we are heading down to a few islands near Port Lincoln, next weekend, to continue or surveys down there,” I said.

“I see, well at least you are not any pesky city cowboys out to ruin our quiet community,” the man said, “No sir, far from it, we will be returning to Adelaide on Wednesday, but we will be back for short visits in the future,” I said. “Well I guess that is ok, I will catch you around then,” the man said before giving a short wave and walking away.

After viewing the footage that I had recorded, I sent it via email to the project, and I sent a text to Chris to get them to checkout the email that I just sent to the Project email account. About fifteen minutes later, I received a text back. “Looks awesome mate, especially with the sea lion, sorry we missed the fun, I will do some editing and add it to the website, Chris & Will”, and I showed the message to Aaron who smiled.

We relaxed for a while before deciding that it was time to have some lunch, we was really just a snack, enough to keep us going before dinner. We were just cleaning up when my mobile rang. “Hello, Jacob speaking,” I said, “G’day, my name is Jacky, you spoke to my grandfather and father the other day, about needing someone from our tribe, becoming involved in your science company,” the man on the other end of the line responded.

“Hello Jacky, yes I did, we camped at the nearby caravan park the other night at Port Augusta, would you be interested in becoming part of our research team, we also do animal rescues and treating injured and sick animals, but we are not at our project base at the moment,” I said.

“So are you still up near Port Augusta?’ Jackie asked, “Yes we are in Miranda, where we have a building that is part of the Kuishi Project, but our base is in Flagstaff Hill,” I replied. “That is central area of our country, and I have just given my notice, here in Clare, so if you like I can come up there, as it is only two hours drive away,” Jacky said to me.

“Great, we are at Number 10, The Esplanade, in Miranda, right across from the Gulf, and we have a mattress, or if you have a swag, bring that along. “If you can bring some extra food, I will refund you when you get here, as we will be staying till Wednesday,” I asked, “Sure, not a problem, see you in just over two hours,” Jacky replied before the line went dead.

“Well, he seems like a very cheery bloke, he will be here in two hours time,” I informed Aaron, “I will go and turn the vehicle sideways, so he can see the vehicle signage, so he knows that he has the right place,” Aaron replied, as I handed him the keys and he walked outside.

I followed him our and watched him manoeuvre the vehicle around, before locking it up again, “Do you have a driver’s licence?” I asked, as he handed back the keys, “No, I am self taught,” he replied smiling, and I laughed, as I followed him back inside.

“Do you know if the other lads left their snorkelling gear in my vehicle?” I asked, “Not that I have seen, so probably not,” Aaron replied. “Ok, well we will need to get some gear for Jacky, how about we make a quick trip back to Port Augusta, so we can get some more supplies,” I suggested.

Half an hour later, we drove into Port Augusta, and we headed for the camping store, to get a new set of snorkelling gear with fins, and as we passed the kayak section, Aaron stopped, “What about a couple of these, they may come handy,” Aaron suggested to me.

“Sure, why not, and we will need to get straps to tie them down onto the roof rack,” I replied. Buy the time we walked out of the store, I was $2000 poorer, with two good quality double fishing kayaks, with paddles and PFD’s, straps, the snorkel gear, a portable gas barbeque and gas bottle, and five portable camping chairs.

After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back to Miranda, and we found a second hand Toyota Rav 4 parked in the driveway, and a smiling Aboriginal man standing next to it. “G’day mates, I’m Jacky,” he said cheerfully, “Hi mate, I am Jacob, and this is my cousin Aaron,” I replied as we shook hands.

“Been shopping I see,” Jacky said, “Yeah, spent a bit more than expected, we only went up to buy you a set of snorkelling gear, but we came back with a hell of a lot more,” I replied, and Jacky laughed. “No offence, but you white blokes always buy way too many things,” Jacky said and I smiled at this comment.

“So true mate, but this is for the project, so after we show you around, we will put these kayaks in the garage for storage till we use them and when we leave, and we can show you a bit about what our organisation is about,” I said.

“So, what do you think of my old man and grandfather, they tell me you were very diplomatic, and said all the right things, when you met them the other day,” Jacky said to me as he followed us inside, after grabbing a box from his car.

“They are very nice people. I presume they are all of your relatives?” I replied, “Yep, Mum and Dad Grandfather and Grandmother, Uncle and Aunt and way too many cousins, they breed like rabbits that lot,” Jacky replied which had us laughing.

“I think we are going to get along very well, take a seat and we will show you our website, which will give you a better idea of what we are about. There is a recently added video clip from today on there, as well as one from last year,” I said, while Aaron unpacked the box, and put the food away.

Once I had the laptop computer on the web page, and directed it towards Jacky, who leaned forward to look at the three-page website. After viewing the video, Jacky leaned back for a moment, “Did you film that around here?” he asked, “Yes, is that ok?” I replied, worried that I may have done something wrong.

“Yes, it is ok, you have seen what it is like in the marine reserve, pretty amazing eh,” Jacky replied.