Country Retreat - 62. Christmas at Manakoora

Rebecca jumped into the driver seat of one of the other Utes, while Jarrad jumped into the other vehicle, and we all dashed out of the complex and headed down the paddock. “Hold back guys, the Council Ranger has just arrived, and he is talking to them,” Giles said over the radio. “Jarrad and Becca return to base please,” I added over the radio as I slowed down and turned off the main headlights, so I was travelling with just the parking lights on, which wasn’t a problem with the moon shining at the moment, I soon located Giles seated in the buggy, about forty metres from the boundary.

“I walked down there, and spoke to the rangers, to let them know that these people on the beach had attempted to climb the fence and received a bit of a surprise in the way of an electric shock,” Giles informed me, and I chuckled, “Serves them right for attempted trespassing,” I replied. “Yeah, they are not happy about getting that, and that’s when I found them, cursing as they got off the ground, and they started getting abusive, and picking up stuff from the bush and throwing it at the fence, so I backed off to this position where I could monitor them from a distance, and I called for help,” Giles said to me.

We watched as the Rangers spoke to the intruders, who eventually returned to the beach, where they had been ordered to pack up their gear and return to the official campsite 2 ½ kilometres down the beach at the end of Greenwood Coast Road. Once the intruders had gone, Giles and I drove down to the fence line in the buggy, and I suggested meeting them at the corner gate. A few moments later, I exited the property through the gate, with Giles remaining just inside on the buggy. “You are the owner of this property? Mr Kingston is it?” one of the rangers asked me.

“I am a member of the Kingston family that owns the property yes, some friends and I are camping here through Christmas, my Grandparents who are the official owners will be calling in tomorrow morning,” I responded. “How long had the electric wires been on the fenceline?” the other ranger asked. “Installed just this week, as we have been getting damage from intruders climbing the fence, as you can see it is well signed that there are electric wires on the fence line,” I replied, as I shined my strong torch towards one of the signs of the fence.

“Yes, we saw the signs while speaking to the visitors, we have been monitoring them since yesterday down at the campsite. We see that the electric wires are above head height, so we see no issues with them being there, have a good Christmas, goodnight,” the head ranger said to me before they walked back down the beach towards their vehicle, where they gained access to the beach via the laneway leading from our front gate.

Once all was quiet again, we drove back to my vehicle, where we set off back to base, and over the UHF radio, I suggested that the patrols end at 9 pm. Later when everyone was gathered in the dining room for a late supper, I looked over to Giles. “I was looking at the property on Google Earth earlier and noticed that the property is blurred out… did you have anything to do with that?” I asked Giles, who chuckled, “Yes, maybe,” he replied.

“Wow, you can do that?” Jarrad asked, “Yes if you have the know-how and know the right people to get it done,” Giles replied. “So we are protected from nosey people looking to see what we have on the property? Does that include Government departments?” Rebecca asked. “Yes to both. No one can see what we have around the complex unless they are flying a plane or helicopter overhead, and I am working on installing a jamming device to stop any unwanted drones flying over us,” Giles answered.

“I think we need to install some surveillance cameras around the property, especially near the boundary fence at key areas,” I said to my friends, “Yes, I will check out what’s the best systems to do that, you will need something that has motion sense, so to pick up any unauthorised entry onto the property,” Giles added. After supper, I went back to my quarters, where I relaxed for a while, before retrieving the suitcase that contained all of the presents, which I put near the front door of the pod, ready to carry it over to the dining hall, where we had a small Christmas tree.

I knew that the Edgar brothers would be travelling back to Perth to spend Christmas day with their family, as would most of the gang, with just Hunter, Hugh and Koen remaining with me for lunch celebrations, which Hunter had been busy for most of the day with preparations, with Jamison’s assistance. About an hour later, I carried the suitcase to the dining hall, where I saw several presents already had been placed under the Christmas tree, as I unloaded the suitcase, placing all of my presents under there as well, before heading back to my pod, where I found Hunter waiting for my return.

“Doing Father Christmas duties?” he asked me and I gave a short laugh and nodded my head yes, “So I am guessing you have been briefed on what is about to happen with this place?” I asked, “Yes, Jarrad and Hugh have told me, and I would love to be part of this, if you will let me,” Hunter replied. “I was hoping that you would say that,” I replied.

“Does this mean we will not be returning to Adelaide to finish our studies?” Hunter asked me, “I hadn’t had the time to think about all of that, but yes, I think it would be best if we were based here in Western Australia if that is ok with you?” I responded, “Yes, anywhere you are would be fine. You saved me from an unknown future. If it wasn’t for you, I would be in a gutter half-starving, homeless and… well that has all changed now, thanks to you,” Hunter said to me with tears in his eyes. “I am glad that things have worked out well for you buddy, and yes I am glad that you are part of our group and this project,” I responded.

The next morning, we were up early and we headed over to the dining room where everyone was gathered, as we served ourselves some tea, coffee or milo. Once we had breakfast, we all gathered around the Christmas tree, ready to open the presents, when Gran and Gramps arrived with an armful of boxes containing presents, which were distributed amongst us, and were mostly gift cards, so they could choose what to buy.

My presents from my Grandparents, I was told were waiting for me in the garage, and to open them once they had left to go to the farm, as the others opened up their presents, most of them being very small gifts, for most, while my gift to each of my friends, was an I-phone 15, each one with 512 GB capacity and encryption capable, which surprised all of my friends, who all said that I shouldn’t have spent so much on them.

Eventually, all of my friends who were going to spend Christmas day with family headed off, and my Grandparents stayed to chat and have a walk down on the beach with us, where we discovered a bit of a mess on the beach from yesterday’s crowd, which I wasn’t too happy about, and we took some evidence photos, to send to the shire rangers in a day or two.

Once Gran and Gramps had left to head up to the family farm, Hunter, Koen, Hugh and I returned to the beach with hessian bags and gloves to pick up all of the rubbish, and once that was done we used some rakes to level off the beach a little, before heading back to the compound to relax and enjoy Christmas with my friends, who as expected spent some time fiddling with their new phones.

Once we had eaten Christmas lunch and cleaned up, we relaxed down at the sports field kicking a soccer ball around, which was fun, and once we had enough of that, we loaded the kayaks onto the trailer and hitched it to the buggy, before heading to the beach to enjoy an afternoon on the water and beach, which thankfully we had all to ourselves for the whole afternoon. We kayaked out to the artificial reef and spent some time snorkelling around the sunken barges, which now are covered in coral and have plenty of sea life on and around them which was very pleasing to see.

It was going to be very quiet around the complex for a couple of days, so after a relaxing Christmas day, I planned to take the lads up the coast a little bit to show them around, and I had already notified Marcus and my grandparents of these plans, so he knew. The day after Christmas, which is known as Boxing Day here, we had packed a bag each for a few days, and with two kayaks loaded onto the top of my vehicle, along with snorkelling gear and our luggage, we headed out of the property for our trip, meeting my Grandparents at the gate, where I was informed they would be staying on the property until Marcus returned in a few days.

Over the next few days, we slowly travelled north where we stopped off at Hangover Bay for a swim and paddle, before we checked out the famous Pinnacles at Numbung National Park, which was just 6 km away, with Hunter amazed at seeing these limestone towers in the middle of a sand-dune desert. From there it was just a short drive north to reach the town of Cervantes, where we stopped for lunch, before taking the kayaks out for a paddle on Hansen Bay, where the water is very clear.

From there we continued north stopping briefly at Jurien Bay, where we would call in again on the way back, before going further north passing through Green Head and Leeman, before we arrived at our two-night destination of Port Denison, where I had booked a three-bedroom ocean view chalet at the holiday park. Once we had checked in we went for a walk down to the beach nearby and down to the mouth of the Irwin River, which is closed off by a large sandbank. We spent two wonderful days in Port Denison, and the guys enjoyed their time there, with plenty of swimming at the beach and kayaking on the river and ocean, which was great.

Once we had checked out of our accommodation, we started to head south again, stopping to explore some of the large limestone caves that are quite spectacular to explore, and further south we stopped at Jurian Bay for our last overnight stop at the tourist park. After checking into our accommodation, we unpacked the kayaks and set off to explore the offshore islands, which are a fair way out, but with the help of the reefs, the water was fairly calm, which made it easier to paddle out that far to explore them. After a few hours out of the kayaks, we returned to our accommodation to rest and have some lunch, before going for a drive out to Sandy Cape to check out the spectacular coastline.