Simba - 22. Simba Ch 22

When Patrick arrived, I asked to speak to him in private, so we went for a walk around the island, and during that time, I stated that this island was special because it had a higher level of vegetation on it. This in turn provides a lot for shelter to all of the animals on the island, which is about the same as it is on Taylor Island, at this point of time of the survey.

I asked Patrick not to install camping ground on this island, so to protect the animals that call this island home. I asked that if he needs to install a boardwalk for visitors, that it be one single one raised higher off the ground to allow all animals to pass under it, and that a few raised sections of the boardwalk on Little Taylor Island be raised for the same purpose.

Patrick thanked me for my straight to the point views on the island, and that he would consider my request carefully before making a decision. Back at camp, Travis mentioned to his uncle about our encounter with a Great White, and Patrick contacted his staff on Little Taylor, to let them know that there is a Shark warning in affect, and to notify all the guests.

I also let Patrick know that we would be staying for only six days, as three of us had to get ready for the start of another semester at university, and Aaron had to prepare to attend TAFE College. Aaron had decided to study for a Certificate IV in Business Administration, followed by a Diploma in Business, with two years in total of studies, so he can assist with the running of the project, which I was pleased that he is doing this.

With just two days remaining for our stay on Grantham Island, Will and I helped with the surveys on the island, and on our last day, we spent the evening packing up camp, and loading the vehicles back onto the barge, as we would be travelling back to Port Lincoln after dark, where we would stay onboard till morning.

When we woke early in the morning, I saw that we were at the Port Lincoln Marina boat ramp, so after packing up our swags and loading everything into our vehicle, we drove off the barge. We thanked Lance and Travis for their company and providing transport for us, we headed off to find a café that is open at this time in the morning, to get some breakfast to go, as we had a whole day of driving ahead of us to get back home.

With a stop at Port Augusta, for a meal break, and a number of short stops to just stretch and walk around, we made the trip home in just under eight hours, and we were all feeling quite tired by the end of the day. Dropping Jack off at his place first, we headed to the project to empty out the vehicles of all of our camping supplies, and all the cages and cameras, dumping them in the main hall to sort out in the morning, before heading back to the house, in just my vehicle.

“Hello boys, how was the trip?” Uncle Nat asked as we entered the house, ready to collapse. “Good, but the long trip home was a bit of an effort, we did the trip in two days there, but one day back, which I think was a bit of a mistake,” I replied.

“Patrick called me and told me about the shark encounter, are you both ok?” Uncle Nat asked Will, and me “It gave be a big scare, but I am sort of ok now thanks Colonel,” Will replied, and I smiled on hearing this. “I am fine, I just kept a close eye on it, and we headed back to shore as soon as it began to get any closer to us,” I added.

“Good to hear, I have heard that some of those waters have big numbers of sharks around there,” Uncle Nat said. “We have to return to the project to put everything away tomorrow. We still have to go through the last of the video footage that we collected this morning, and put together a full report of the survey, which will take some time since most of us are going to be busy with college and university,” I informed Uncle Nat.

“I had a call from my sister yesterday, she wanted to know how the project is going,” Uncle Nat said referring to my Mum.

“How are they, any news on what is happening up their way?” I asked, “Yes all is going good, now the other bit of news that I have for you, I have been posted to Canberra, which means there will be some changes to accommodation for all of you.

This house is going on the market, so I have made some arrangements. Will and Chris, there is a woman down at 67 York Street that rents out rooms to University students, so I have managed to secure rooms for your both there, and before you ask, yes both of your parents are aware of these changes.

For my nephews, I have secured a smaller house for you to live in, also located on York Drive, at number 1, so you are still all close to each other, and close to the project.

I know that you start classes in two day’s time, but I won’t be leaving until the end of next week, so you will have a week to get settled into your new locations,” Uncle Nat announced.

“Is the house we are in rented?” Aaron asked, “Yes it is, we have a twelve month lease on the house with the option to extend for another twelve months, and Jacob’s parents and I are covering most of the expenses for your both,” Uncle Nat replied.

The next morning, I found a note on the kitchen bench, with my name on it, and a set of keys sitting on top. “Jacob and Aaron, these are the keys to your new place, it is ready to move in, including being mostly furnished, all you have to do is move your beds and belongings over there. I will be home at around 3 pm. Uncle Nat.”

I had just finished reading the note after pocketing the keys when Aaron appeared, “Good morning, how are you feeling?” I asked my cousin, “Ok I guess, I had a nightmare about that bloody shark last night, woke up sweating, but I am ok now,” Aaron replied.

“If you need to talk about it, just ask ok mate, I am happy to just listen,” I said to Aaron being very worried about what I had just heard. After breakfast, with the others still asleep, we headed over to the project to start cleaning up what we had dumped in the hall.

“Jack was walking down the driveway as we unlocked the gate and drove in, and we parked around the back of the building, unlocking the gate and the back door to get inside. “Good morning Jack, how are you feeling today?” I asked happily, “A little tired, but I’m ready to get to work,” Jack replied.

“That is good, the other two were still in bed when we left the house,” I said in response, “You all share the same house?” Jack asked, “We do, but that is about to change, as we learnt last night that Uncle Nat has a posting to Canberra, so he has made arrangements for us all while we were away,” Aaron replied.

“Will and Chris will be boarding at a Uni student house at the far end of York Drive, while Aaron and I will be sharing a rented house also in York Drive, but at the beginning of the street. Which is just up the road from here, so we are close to the project as well,” I said, as we entered the hall to see the pile of stuff we had dumped the night before.

“When does that all happen?” Jack asked, “By Friday this coming week, as well as having our studies to do as well. Now let’s get all this mess sorted, and packed away properly, and with the gazebos, I think we will leave them packed up for now, since we didn’t use them,” I responded.

Once we had everything cleaned and packed away, we headed to the conference room to look at the video footage taken from the field cameras, which we now own twelve of them. “Jack, would you be able to put together a presentation of all the footage of all the different animals that we have captured on the night footage from Taylor Island and Grantham Island?” I asked.

“Sure boss, not a problem, where can I find the footage of Taylor Island?” Jack replied smiling that he was able to do something in the office apart from menial work. “It will be on the email files on your desktop computer,” I replied. “I will get right onto it,” Jack said as he headed to the reception office where his desk is located.

Aaron and I headed to our office next door, where we discussed what has to be done next, in the way of promotions for the project and we looked at the list of country shows and other public events, where we can promote our organisation.

With all of the country shows being held during weekends, we decided that it would be good to be able to attend as many as possible and with a list of all country shows in South Australia. We worked out that we could attend three in August, one in September, and two in October, on top of the Nature Festival and the Adelaide Royal Show in September.

With the shoes selected, we began making the applications for a spot to promote our organisation and sending the required application fees, and we managed to receive confirmation to all of the country shows that we had chosen to attend but we had missed getting a spot at the Royal Show.

We were about to head home at the end of the afternoon, when we heard what sounded like a large truck arriving, and exiting the building via the front door of the hall, we were shocked to see a two trucks reversing into the front car park.

“Any of you guys know what this is all about?” I asked as we watched the first truck begin to unload a twenty-foot shipping container, at he far western end of the front car park. “I may know something, but I am not allowed to say,” Aaron said smiling.

When the first truck moved away once unloading was completed, we watched as the second truck with an even bigger container on the back began to reverse into the car park, and that is when I saw it. “What the… this can’t be real? Aaron is this a…” I said finding it difficult to speak when I realised that I was looking at a Ten Fold Engineering Container, and it has the Project logo on it.

“What is it boss?” Jack asked me, I was almost in tears with emotion, that another part of my dream to have a portable research station available to take us almost anywhere. “Since our fearless leader can’t speak, I will tell you,” Aaron began and I just nodded my head for him to continue.

“You are looking at fold out building that changes from what you see now into a building up to and sometimes over triple in size, depending on what design it is.

This is created by a British company called Ten Fold Engineering, which Jacob went to England to checkout on behalf of the Australian Army, and if it wasn’t for that trip, that I would have met my cousin,” Aaron said.

“If you would sign this to say that you have received both containers in good condition, I will be on my way,” the second truck driver said to me and I signed the consignment form, and watched the driver climb into his truck and drive off.

As the guy’s were walking around the second container, another vehicle arrived and it was Uncle Nat, and he was smiling as he exited his vehicle. “I am glad that I made it here on time,” he said as he approached me and handed me some kind of remote.

“Hey guys, you better stand right back,” I called out and once I saw everyone standing near me, I pointed the remote and the action began, just as it did when I was in the UK, and I watched the guy’s faces as the container began to open up in a two level home.

“Welcome to your new mobile work base, as you know it has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, kitchen and two large open areas. In the other container, is all the furniture that you need, to furnish the building, with the bedrooms turned into bunkrooms to accommodate all of the team.

The furniture includes a conference lounge, simular layout to what you have here inside the project base, with six workstations, and a few other smaller seating areas, located on the upper level,” Uncle Nat announced, as the building completed its folding out, and I smiled at having this wonderful building to use for research.

I paced out the length and width of the building, to get an idea of its full size, and I was happy to see that it was about twelve metres long and eight metres in width, when it is fully open, which will fit nicely in the display site we had booked for the Nature festival. We would need to make some changes to the country shows to be able to fit the Tenfold Building.

We spent the next half an hour checking out the inside of the building, and once we had talked about how the place will look with the furniture, we exited the building, and pressing the remote again, we watched as the building folded up again.

“How do you stop it from folding up while the furniture and we are inside?” Chris asked me, “Easy, I had the same question when I went to the UK to see the buildings up close, and the answer is that there are some safety bolts that we install once the building is open, that stops that from happening,” I replied.

“Now that I have seen it up close for myself, I am more impressed with it than I was when I first saw this on the computer,” Uncle Nat said to me, “Yes, it is pretty special isn’t it,” I replied. “Any idea when we will first use this new facility?” Will asked.

“I think that we should use it for just the larger festivals, as it will be a bit too big for any of the smaller country shows, so that means the Nature Festival in late September. Now that we know that we have this, I will ask the Adelaide Show if they have a large display area available,” I replied.

“So, will we have a different layout when we are on the field, compared with when we are at a festival or show?” Will asked. “Yes, all of the downstairs area will become one big display area, with the bedrooms turning into video rooms, and the upstairs area will be just work space for us, and maybe our sleeping place with our swags,” I replied.

“I have one more surprise for you Jacob, since you are the only expert on Tenfold Engineering buildings in Australia, I have come up with a deal with the company in the UK, and I recently set up a new company called Kilimanjaro Distributions.

We have the contract to supply Tenfold building’s in the entire Oceania region, from New Zealand and Fiji to the east, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea to the north and all of Australia. Part of the deal includes a 75% reduction on the cost of our second purchase, and 50% off the third purchase,” Uncle Nat said to me.

“Wow. Now that is something that I didn’t expect, so what designs have you selected for the other buildings?” I responded, I think you will like the first one I chose… It is the Tree house,” Uncle Nat said to me smiling, and I laughed, “You know me too well Uncle,” I replied.