Country Retreat - 10. School gets Easier

“Will do, I will take a wheelbarrow and scoop with me as we go,” Jarrad said sarcastically to his father, “Cheeky brat, get out of here, and have fun,” his father responded smiling. “We are taking part of the Brigadoon Bridle trail Mr Drake, which is about 7 kilometres, so we will be back just before lunchtime, or we can do an additional five kilometres, in which case I have a packed lunch with me,” I informed Jarrad’s father, “Very well, stay safe, and do one of you boys have a mobile with you?” Mr Drake responded, “Yes sir, I do. Have a nice day,” I responded.

Once I had put my backpack back on, I climbed into the saddle of my horse Dixi, while Jarrad climbed up onto Charlie, and we set off down Cathedral Rd toward the road where we needed to turn inland. With it being mid-Autumn, it was fairly cool with a bit of a breeze and slightly overcast, so it wasn’t too bad just riding along at a walking pace, and it wasn’t too long before we were at the junction, where we had to make a decision.

“Ok, we are at the turnaround point of the short route, do you want to head back or keep going for another five kilometres?” I asked Jarrad, who had been mostly quiet for most of the journey so far, which I didn’t mind. “Keep going please, I am having an awesome time, especially with this bridle track,” Jarrad replied smiling. “Ok, we will stop in about half an hour for some sandwiches for lunch?” I responded.

“What do you have for lunch?” Jarrad enquired, witches and sand of course. Oh, and some fruit too,” I replied smiling, “Smart arse,” Jarrad said softly but loud enough for me to hear him and I just laughed, as we continued. We stopped where I saw plenty of grass for the horses to graze on, while we sat on a large flat rock to eat our lunch. I had an extra two – 1 litre bottles of water, and I tipped my felt hat over and poured water into it, so the horses could drink in turn, with both of them drinking the full bottle.

Once finished the now damp hat helped me to stay cool, which was great. As well as bottled water for us, I also had a thermos of white tea, and after I had finished my cuppa, I poured a cup of tea for Jarrad who happily accepted the beverage, while I gave the horses each an apple to munch on, “Hey, I thought they were for us?” Jarrad said to me, “I never said that, I just said that I had fruit too, I didn’t say who it was for,” I replied smiling.

“So not fair,” Jarrad pouted and I just laughed, before retrieving another apple from the backpack and handing it to him. With my apple, I broke it in half, and had a bite from each half, before giving the rest to the two horses. “You spoil them too much, you know that,” Jarrad said to me, and I just nodded my head smiling.

Later that afternoon, “That was so awesome, can we do that again soon please,” Jarrad said to me back at my grandparents' property, as we unsaddled, washed and brushed down the two horses. “Sure, how does next Saturday morning sound to you?”I replied, “That sounds perfect,” Jarrad responded as he continued to groom the horse.

As school days passed, all went very well for me, I had settled into my new school very well, and I was happy with the few friends that I now have. Apart from Rebecca, there are also Giles Harris and Kate Davis, who are also in most of my classes. Through discrete enquiries at my request, Rebecca and Kate were able to find the source of the rumours about me leaving my previous school and my former classmate being sent to Switzerland by his parents. Much to my surprise, a guy a year older, happens to be a 2^nd cousin of a current student at my old school, but two years older.

Just a day later during lunch, “Hey Davies, why did you ask about that guy from my cousin’s school who got expelled and sent to Switzerland? Oh, it's you… I should have realised,” an older student asked when he approached our group and spotted me amongst them. “You know Lennard, you should learn to keep your nose out of other people's business and stop spreading rumours. Thanks to you our good friend here has had two panic attacks since hearing about them,” Rebecca said as she stood up and was face-to-face with him.

“Is there a problem here ladies and gents?” a new voice could be heard as they approached, and Rebecca groaned when she saw that it was the head girl Sally approaching. “No, all is good, we are just clarifying some information, and educating gossipers on what happens when they open up their big mouths,” Kate responded. “So it was you who started all of this gossip about our newest student… Expect to be summoned sometime soon,” Sally Alp said before walking off, and Lennard, looking a little shocked and shaken up, dashed off in a different direction.

“I think the gossip will disappear very quickly now that Sally knows about it,” Rebecca commented and we all nodded our heads in agreement. A day later I received a formal written apology from Lennard, for causing me any distress, which was not intentional, and via Giles, I passed on a message to Lennard that his apology had been accepted and that I regard the matter as now closed.

The rest of the school’s 2^nd term was uneventful, which I was pleased about, especially now that I had real friends who cared about me, and I cared about them too. Two weeks before the end of term, Gran and Gramps informed me that I would be heading home for the two-week mid-year school holidays, but I waited until midway through the last week of term before telling my friends that I would not be around for the holidays, and this disappointed them, especially Jarrad, but Gramps had arranged for him to be our stable hand to mind the horses for a week, while my Grandparents were with us, which he was very pleased to do.

The end of term fell on a Thursday, so when the final bell sounded for the end of the school day on Thursday, everyone was happy that we were now officially on holiday. Early the next day, Jarrad arrived at the stables just as I was finishing up feeding the horses and getting them ready to spend the day out in the paddock. “Good morning. Is there anything specific that I need to know before you go away?” Jarrad asked me.

Just do what you have been doing the past few weeks, feed and brush them, give them both a short ride at least once a day, nothing big like we did when you first started, just stay on the property will be fine, and I am sure you will do just great. I am sorry that I won’t be around, but I do need to go home to the farm, it has been some time since I was last there, and I do want to spend some time at home,” I replied.

Two hours later, after I had showered and had some breakfast, Gramps, Gran and I was on our way north, but for some reason, we were not going directly to the far, instead we were taking the coastal road. “Why are we going this was Gramps, isn’t it faster going straight up the main highway?” I asked, “You will see in about an hour and a half,” Grans replied.

This had me thinking, what was 90 minutes north of Perth on the coastal road? “That sounds like we are heading for Lancelin?” I asked, “Close to there, but just be patient and you will see,” Gramps responded, as we drove through the heavy traffic through the northern suburbs of Perth until the landscape changed to bushland.

I spotted the road sign for Yanchep Beach Rd, and another sign stating that we were now on Indian Ocean Drive, and we continued on North, with no more heavy traffic, just a lot of bushland and pine plantations, before opening out to farmland and turning west closer to the coast. About half an hour later, as we reached the top of a rise in the surrounding landscape, I could see acres and acres of farmland on the right and mostly bush with small patches of cleared areas, and a distant side road.

“What’s that road on the left there? It looks like it's not used any more,” I commented, “That is not quite right, and it is part of the old Lancelin road, but we will be turning off before then,” Gramps replied as he began to slow right down, and we turned left onto a crushed limestone road, just ahead of a Parking 300m sign. We continued for a bit over 500 metres before the road bent to the left, and we stopped at a gate.

“This is an investment that we have made for your future, which is two freehold properties here at Breton Bay. The one we are entering is just 287 acres and consists of a partly storm-damaged shed, windmill and water bore, water tank and trough, yards and a small limestone quarry, while the larger block of land is 845 acres in area, with both blocks having coastal heath bush, but mostly cleared from previous bushfires and light grazing.

The southwestern corner is just 220 metres from the beach, while the northwestern corner is 450 metres from the beach, and we have already contracted a fencing company to replace the 3.8 kilometres of Eastern boundary, with a much stronger and higher boundary fence, that includes a 1.5-metre deep trench filled with limestone, to deterrent any persons or animals from digging under the fence, which has been made 2.5 metres tall.

Once that is completed, they will start on the 6.9 kilometres of the north, south and western boundaries, to prevent any unauthorised weekend yahoos, from entering the property, and tearing up and damaging the land. The state government recently enforced the removal of the illegal beach shacks, located 2.25 kilometres south of our boundary, and with access via Greenwood Coast Road, unfortunately, it won’t stop any day trippers from travelling up and down the coast in their four-wheel-drives, for camping and fishing.

Because this land is freehold and not leasehold land, we can do a lot more to the property without too much government red tape, hence the reason for getting the boundary fences upgraded as soon as the property purchase was finalised a few weeks ago.

There is a bush track that leads onto the property about 90 metres from the bottom corner of the property, which has already been blocked, with logs and limestone rocks to stop any unauthorised entry onto the property, until the fence is completed," Gramps said. For the next two hours, we toured around the property, stopping to take a short walk to the beach from the bottom corner of the property, where the view is stunning.