Travelling Vets - 20. TV Chapter 20

“Damn, it has intensified and is moving faster, we are going to have to get cracking with preparations,” Marcus commented. For the rest of the day, we concentrated on making sure that the compound was secure, with tools in the workshop, I made sure that all roofing was properly secure, and with the assistance of the borrowed front-end loader, from the neighbouring station, I placed the leftover lengths of railway iron on the roof, before securing it down, to keep it all in place.

When I explained what I was using the loader for, to the new station owners, they thought it was a brilliant idea, and that they would be doing a similar thing to make sure their shed and homestead stay in place. As we sat in the lounge and relaxed in the late afternoon, after a long and busy day, the boys were reading books while Marcus turned on the radio to hear the latest news about the cyclone.

“On the news this hour, the Department of Emergency Services and the Bureau of Meteorology have just updated the alert for the fast-moving cyclone off the Pilbara Coast. The category Two cyclone, named Faith is located off the Pilbara Coast. Developed from a low depression system overnight. Currently located 322 kilometres North-west of Broome and 604 kilometres northeast of Port Hedland. The current tracking of this cyclone is South-west at 16 kilometres an hour. Updates will be every hour fifteen minutes after the news…”

After we had dinner, we put on a DVD movie to distract everyone from the Cyclone approaching, and just before 9 pm, soon after the boys had gone to bed, Marcus and I headed to the office to listen to the latest news update on the cyclone.

“On the news this hour, the Department of Emergency Services and the Bureau of Meteorology have just updated the alert for the fast-moving cyclone off the Pilbara Coast. The category Three cyclone, named Faith is located off the Pilbara Coast. Currently located 509 kilometres just east of north of Pardoo and 574 kilometres north-northeast of Port Hedland. The current tracking of this cyclone is West at 14 kilometres an hour. Updates will be every hour fifteen minutes after the news…”

“Going further out to sea, that is good news. Hopefully, it will stay out at sea,” I commented, on hearing the latest update. “Let’s just hope so,” Marcus replied, and with that good news in mind, we headed to bed. I woke suddenly in the early hours of the morning and looked at the bedside clock, which read 4.55 am, so I climbed out of bed, and headed to the office to get another new update on the cyclone, as it had been seven hours since hearing the last one, and I was getting a little worried.

“On the news this hour, the Department of Emergency Services and the Bureau of Meteorology have just updated the alert for the fast-moving cyclone off the Pilbara Coast. The category Three cyclone, named Faith is located off the Pilbara Coast. Currently located 405 kilometres north of Pardoo and 462 kilometres north-northeast of Port Hedland. The current tracking of this cyclone is southwest at 16 kilometres an hour. Updates will be every hour, fifteen minutes after the news…”

“Damn, I hate cyclones, so unpredictable,” I said out loud, “Yes, they can be like that,” Marcus said from behind me, which made me jump in fright, and Marcus wrapped me in a hug as an apology. “I’m going to have to make sure that Jake is ready too, as this is going to be one nasty storm,” I said, and I felt Marcus nod his head in agreement.

“What about the Army training facilities?” Marcus asked me. “Oh, I hadn’t even thought about that, I need to telephone the base in Perth to check on that, once the office opens,” I replied. A few hours later while the boys were eating breakfast, I was making a call to Perth. “Jexon Kendrik from Corunna wishing to speak to the Colonel please,” I said once the call connected, “I am Sorry Mr Kendrik, but the CO and a company of men are in transit at the moment… to your location actually. Their eta is approximately 1500 hours,” came the unexpected response.

“Thank you, I will await their arrival,” I reply before ending the call. “The Colonel and a company of men are in transit to here, I presume they will be flying in and land on the main runway,” I informed my husband. “We better go and see if their training camp is ready for their arrival then,” Marcus suggested, so we all climbed into my vehicle and with the keys to the gates, we took the shortest route to the training base in the hills, north of the airfield.

We were a little shocked on arrival to see that the training camp was a mess, with rubbish scattered everywhere, including lots of beer cans and spirit bottles, and there was one vehicle parked under a tree. With Marcus in the driver seat, he held down the horn button on the vehicle, to get the attention of whoever is meant to be caretaking the property.

Eventually, two men and three women staggered out of the accommodation, barely with enough clothes on. “Boys look away, while we deal with this,” I said to the boys. “I am Jexon Kendrik, owner of this property, which allows the Army to train here. Who are you and why is this camp a pig stye?” I demanded, as one of the men staggered and landed flat on his face, and the two women began giggling.

“Oh boy, we have trouble here,” Marcus commented, as I pulled out the sat phone from the vehicle and dialled a number, and handed it to me, “Sergeant, I have five persons, drunk and disorderly at the Corunna training camp, and I have a company of soldiers due to arrive within a few hours,” I said when the call connected.

“So, what do you want me to do about it Kendrik?” came the gruff response. “Sergeant, as you are aware, we have a cyclone in the region and I am trying to prepare for that event and having these two so-called caretakers and two unauthorised ladies drunk and in no condition to be here for such an emergency, I cannot deal with them right now.

Would you kindly send one of your officers to collect them and stow them away until the cyclone has passed, that would be much appreciated,” I replied. “Yeah, ok. Keep your hat on. I have an officer on Marble Bar Road just east of you, he can be there in just over half an hour,” the sergeant replied. After the call, I told the two men and two women to go and sober up but instead, we received a heap of abusive swearing, as they staggered back the way they came.

“Forget about them for now, let’s just concentrate on getting this place cleaned up, at least we have a few hours to get a start on getting this place in some kind of order,” I said, as we headed towards the supply shipping container, and found what we need after a bit of work organising the space to get what we wanted. With thick rubber gloves, rubbish bags, and some masks sprayed with a little bit of antiseptic to cover the stench, Marcus, the boys and I began picking up all of the rubbish.

Sometime later, “Hey bro, where are you located, over,” a familiar voice said over the radio and I smiled as I glanced at my watch, which read 11 am. “Receiving you Rhodes, are you here already? Over,” I responded. “Yes, we decided to do more driving and less sleeping to get here in a rush, and arrive to find an empty compound, over?” Rhodes said. “We are over at the main training camp, where we found two drunk caretakers and two unauthorised lady friends of theirs. The police came and collected them a while back.

Can you put the vet supplies into the second fridge, grab any cleaning supplies, rubbish bags and whatever else you think we need, that you can find there, as this place is a pig stye, and the colonel and a company of men will be arriving at 1500 hours, over,” I informed my brother. “Righto, we will be there as soon as possible, over,” Rhodes answered.

When Rhodes arrived, with a second vehicle following, which ended up being Jake, we stopped work to have an early lunch, which Rhodes had purchased in town on the way through, and shortly after, we got to work to get the training camp back into good order. When I heard the drone sound of engines above us, I let out a piercing whistle to get everyone’s attention. “In coming, let’s stop to welcome our guests,” I called out, as I glanced at my watch which read 1402 hours.

“What do you mean incoming?” Ryley asked me, and I smiled at this, and taking a glance up into the sky, I saw parachutes begin to open up. “Take a look up and you will see,” my brother Wynn responded, who was also smiling. The boys looked up to see lots of the parachutes opening up, “Wow, so many of them, are they parachutes?” Langley asked. “Yes, buddy, that is the special army dropping in for a visit to help us prepare for the cyclone,” I replied, as I saw some of the parachutes change course and were heading in our direction.