All Alone - 6. Alo Chapter 6

When we returned, Greg was waiting for me in the jeep’s passenger seat, “I have some water and morning tea” Greg announced, and I nodded my head in understanding, before going inside to grab a onelitre bottle of water and Angus’s feed and water bowl.

Angus followed me back outside, and I picked him up and placed him in the back of the jeep, along with the bowl and the water, before taking the driver’s seat. “Angus doesn’t like being left behind, so I decided to bring him with us” I said to Greg, as I started up the jeep, and we set off. We had 4 campsites to stop at, with six visitors to speak to, and asked them to pack up and leave the station, as the station is now closing for the period of the cyclone alert.

We arrived back at the homestead just before lunch time, after stopping for some morning tea and a quick swim to cool off, and Greg set off to have some lunch while Angus and I walked into the front of the visitor centre.

“Hey mate, I just had a call from Matt, he has the sign up and he is on his way back, with just one last camp site to visit, Jem is doing a water and stock check, so he will be out most of the day, after lunch time, can you please assist the lads with any cleaning up around the sheds and other buildings” Angela said to me when I entered, as Angus went down the hallway, and with the apartment door closed he collapsed onto the cool tiles, and snoozed.

After the short chat with Angela, we locked up the visitor centre, and a sign that was already made, was placed at the front door. “Till further Notice, this Visitors Centre and the Cattle Station, is closed to visitors, until the Cyclone has passed”.

Once Angela had set off to her place, I headed down the passageway, and opened the door for Angus, who dashed into the apartment, and flopped down onto the floor, while I made some lunch for the both of us, and looking in the pantry and kitchen, I could see that I would not have enough food to last the time the roads will be shut down, if they are flooded.

Straight after lunch, I called Jem on the radio, “I think we will not have enough food to last, if the roads close due to flooding, I think I better make a quick shopping trip to Carnarvon” I said to Jem when he answered. “Yes, good thinking, I will get Angela to go with you, she will pick you up in ten minutes” Jem replied before ending the call.

I took Angus out for a walk, so he could go to the toilet, and I set out some food and water for him and left the sliding door to the balcony slightly open, so Angus could go out to the sand box that I had on the balcony.

Grabbing my wallet and mobile, I walked around the side of the building, and waited for Angela, who I could see approaching in the distance, just as Matt appeared, “Angela asked me to come too” he explained, before dashing off again, and returned dragging two large eskies behind him.

With the two eskies loaded into the back, along with two car fridges, that Angela already had in the car, we set off eastwards, towards the main road, 18 kilometres away on rough gravel, which didn’t seem to slow us down, as Angela kept at a frightening and constant 80 km’s per hour the whole way.

Once on the main road, Angela increased her speed to 115 km’s per hour, 5 km’s over the speed limit, and the journey took us just under two hours, at least half an hour shorter that if we had kept to the speed limit.

With it being just after 3.15 in the afternoon, we didn’t have much time, so I suggested that Angela do her shopping at Woolworths, and we will do our shopping at IGA, that way we will get it all done quickly.

Angela dropped us off, since it was the closest supermarket to the end of town, and grabbing a trolley each, we raced inside. “Right, let’s get a good mixture of fresh and frozen, that way we will have plenty to eat if we lose power” I suggested, as we headed to the fresh food first, and loaded up one trolley with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, biscuits, bread, I included some fruitcakes, which can last a long time.

Next, we went and picked up toilet paper, soaps, personal toiletry supplies, plus lots of bags of dog biscuits, and cans of dog food, some special treats, and a few bones for Angus to chew on, lots of UHT milk, plenty of cereals, rice, pasta, jars of various sauces, a couple of torches and lots of batteries.

Next, we went to the frozen foods section, where we placed in one of the eskies that we brought with us, lots of frozen vegetables, and a wide variety of frozen dinners, and finally the meat section, where we added on top of the vegetables, lots of 4 packs of chicken legs and thighs, beef mince, chops and steaks, pork chops and steaks, and lamb chops.

When the lady at the tills tallied it all up, it came to over $600, which Matt was a little shocked about, as he continued to repack the esky, and I paid for the groceries without hesitation, and we wheeled the two very fully trolleys out of the supermarket, and stopped in the shade next door at the service station, where I bought, some bags of ice, which we placed at the top of the frozen vegies and meat, to keep it all cold.

Across the road, I spotted the Yamaha Motorbike dealership, so I asked Matt to stay with the shopping, and that I would be back shortly. On entering the shop, I spotted the portable generators on display, and there was not many of them, as I began to look at each one and think about how much power I would be requiring, if the power went out, and I decided that getting a bigger one would be better, so I headed to the biggest one on display.

“Can I help you sir?” a voice said making me jump a little, as I didn’t hear him approach, “Yes, this is a diesel generator? How many outlets does it have, and what is its’ output?” I asked once I had recovered from the small fright.

“That sir, is a 6 KVA diesel inverter generator, producing 230 volts power, with a 26-litre fuel tank to give you 18 hours of continuous power, with just 67 decibels of noise output, and it has 4-fifteen amp, athirty-two amp and a three- phase connecting plug, plus it has an electric starter.

We will include the three-phase cable which is 12 metres long, and we will throw in two 30 metre long 15 amp and one 30 metre long 32 amp extension cords” the sales person said, “I am from Coral Coast Station, can you loan us a small trailer to carry this generator back to the station, we will return it once the cyclone is gone” I said to the salesman, who suddenly looked shocked.

“Cyclone, what cyclone?” I said to me a little startled, “the one that is north west of Exmouth and heading in a south- south-east direction, and will be here in about two days” I replied, “Oh my, I had no idea, I missed listening to the news this morning at breakfast, and I spent all morning doing a stocktake, so I have been very busy all morning, and have only been reopened since 1pm today” the salesman said, as he walked over to the counter and turned on the radio to listen.

When the music finished, on the radio I the background, the traditional warning alarm sounded, followed by a detailed Cyclone warning for the whole of the Pilbara and Gascoyne coastal and inland regions, which we listen to carefully.

Cyclone Burt was now a category two cyclone, traveling at 26 km’s per hour, in a south-south-easterly direction, estimated to cross land approximately 70 kilometres north of Carnarvon, and expected to grow in intensity to a category three or higher. Once the warning had been issued, and the music recommenced, the radio was turned down a little, and the salesman turned back to me.

“Thank you for alerting me to the cyclone, I had no idea, by the sound of it, the cyclone is going to cross over your station” he said to me, just as I spotted Angela’s car pull up in the carpark, with Matt seated inside. “Not quite, our southern boundary is 95 kilometres north of Carnarvon, so it will pass just south of us we hope, now I must hurry, do you have a spare trailer?” I replied.

“Yes, I have a trailer out back, which you can use for the whole duration of this emergency” the sales man said as we proceeded to finalise the transaction, when Angela walked in. “I am just being prepared” I said as I pointed to the generator.

“Oh wow, you didn’t need to be concerned with that, we have a 2.4 KVA portable generator you could use, and we do have a diesel generator near the sheds, that powers lights in all buildings” Angela replied.

“Well the deal is done now, and this 6 KVA generator will provide power for fridges, freezers, and the computers in the visitor centre, plus mine and the lads living quarters if need be, we are borrowing a trailer, so can you go around the back and hitch it up please” I replied, and Angela set off outside, and drove around the back, while I watched the salesman drive a forklift into the equipment sales area, and picked up the generator, taking it carefully out the back to be loaded on the trailer.

We were provided with some straps to secure it down to the trailer, and thanking the salesman, we set off out of town, back towards home, calling into the service station first, to buy four 25 litre fuel containers, and filling them up with diesel.

Taking it a lot slower on the way back to the station, we arrived back at the homestead, well after dark, with the time being just before 8pm, but the headlights of the car gave me a clear view of the sign at the front gate, saying that the station was closed to visitors, due to an approaching cyclone.

“I had called Jem, to let him know that we were on our way back, and that we would be late getting there, and he let me know that he had taken Angus for a long walk, and Greg had taken him down to the beach for a short swim” Angela said to me. Angus was very happy to see me, when I walked into my apartment, and after a quick cuddle, I got to work to unpack the supplies.

It was decided to even out the food, between my kitchen and the lads kitchen, to ensure that there was room for all the frozen vegetables and meat which needed to be frozen quickly also, Greg heated up some soup and cooked some toast for the three of us, once the food shopping had all been put away, and after cleaning up, the lads and I went outside to unload the trailer of the generator, which we had switched over to the jeep from Angela’s car.

Firstly, we backed the trailer into the middle of the undercover parking area, and with the load evenly placed over the tyres of the trailer, we decided to just use manpower to unload it, so grabbing some ropes, we tied the front of the generator to the tow bar of the trailer in two places, and once secured, we undid the straps, and unhitched the trailer from the jeep.

With our combined body weight, we slowly raised the tow hitch till the weight of the generator was greater, and it lifted us into the air, with the tailgate of the trailer hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Once we had recovered from that, we untied the ropes and carefully lowered the generator, till the back of it was resting on the ground, before we pulled the trailer forward, to allow the generator to slide down, and land heavily on the ground.

Pulling the trailer out of the way, the generator was now sitting in the middle of the 14-metre wide vehicle shelter, and just a metre from the back wall, and 4 metres from the open front area. The vehicle shelter backed onto the visitor’s centre, with a 2 ½ metre space between them.

With the jeep parked at one end, and my personal vehicle parked at the other end, with the buggy parked next to that, there was just a two-metre gap of space between the buggy and the generator, while on the other side, are the two-wheel motorbikes, which now left very little room left in the vehicle shelter.

I looked over the generator carefully, before I filled the oil sump, and filled the fuel tank, using one of the containers I bought earlier today, before applied a little bit of choke, turned on the ignitions key, and pressed the start button, with the motor coming to life, and after a few moments, settled down to a quiet hum. I let it continue to run for about five minutes before I shut it off.

“If that cyclone does decide to get to close to us, I want you both in the visitor’s centre, your living quarters are not safe enough” I said to Matt and Greg, who looked at each other and smiled, “We were hoping you would say that, as we were not sure where we would be going for shelter” Greg replied.

“In the morning I suggest that we move the fridge and two bench freezers over at your place, over to here, where we know the food will not fly away, and it will stay fresh and frozen” I suggested, “what about my vehicle?” Matt asked, “Well let’s park it between the visitor centre and vehicle shelter, that way we know it won’t blow away, or we can put the bikes in the machinery shed and your vehicle can take that space” I replied.

Tuesday February 5th

“Tropical Cyclone Burt is now a category three system, located 492 kilometres north-west of Carnarvon, travelling at 23 km’s per hour, and is now expected to cross the coast, approximately 40 kilometres north of Carnarvon in 21 hours’ time, at approximately at 3.45am Wednesday morning”

I was up early, and after a quick breakfast, and letting Angus out for a toilet break, I entered the visitor centre, to find it full of activity, Jem and the lads were placing steel cyclone shutters, over the front windows, while Angela was on the telephone talking to someone, who was wanting to book in to stay, and Angela was trying to explain that the station was closed because of an approaching cyclone.

When she saw me, she motioned me over, “Can you deal with this please” she whispered before handing me the phone, “Sir this is Lloyd, the hospitality manager, as Mrs Dalworth said, the station is closed to all visitors because of the cyclone…” I said into the phone, and I listened to a response, “Sir, I don’t care that it is fine and sunny down in Geraldton, it is very cloudy and windy up here, and the station is still closed” I said also starting to get frustrated with the caller.

“Sir, if you do come, you will be turned around, and sent back south, as they will be closing the roads north of Carnarvon shortly… the Police and Department of Main Roads of course, they always close the roads when there is a cyclone approaching… Sir I have other things to do apart from arguing with you, please do not attempt to come up to the station, it is closed and that is final” I said and I ended the call.

“For goodness sakes, there are some very stupid people around these days”, I said out loud, not sure if Angela was still inside or not. I heard some chuckling coming from the front door, and saw Jem standing there, “Angela told me she palmed over a difficult phone call to you” Jem said with a huge smile on his face. “Yes, and I am not very impressed, boss” I replied, in an annoyed manner, and Jem just laughed and walked back outside.

A few minutes later, after I had calmed down, I stepped out the front door, and it was very humid, the wind had picked up speed, and it was now starting to drizzle, as I looked at the cyclone shutters. “One reason I built the new visitor centre so strong, was so it is cyclone proof, with detachable shutters for extra protection, the lads have informed me of your suggestion to move all of their fridges and freezers from their quarters to here, so they are just organising that now.

That is quite an impressive generator you bought yesterday, looks like it is full capable of running the whole visitor centre easily, which is good. I have already moved the two motor bikes to the machinery shed, which has been shut up tight, as has the shearing shed next door to here. I think if we get any damage, it is most probably going to be the cottage, the old homestead, the staff quarters and the backpackers.

I’m going to get the lads to collect all fridges, freezers and washing machines from those buildings and store them in the visitor’s centre for safe keeping, since we have no visitors now. I will head off shortly to close and lock the main front gates and northern gates, to keep everyone out, and do a final stock check, before we bunker down for the cyclone, on experience from the last one, I estimate that lunch time will be the last time, that it will be safe for anyone to be outdoors” Jem said to me.

“Do you need me to help with anything else?” I asked the boss, “Yes, can you go up to my house, and help Angela to secure it, like here it is solid rammed earth, so we will be fine taking cover there with our two dogs, also the other two houses, need to have all the outdoor furniture stored away, so it doesn’t blow away” Jem said to me.

After a quick check on Angus, I headed to the buggy, and drove up to the owner’s main house, which has a commanding view of the Indian Ocean. Once I had finished helping Angela, I returned to the visitor centre to find the lads bringing the last of the fridge, freezers and washing machines from the various guest accommodations.