Deception - 17. Dec Chapter 17

While Amos and Lloyd dug the holes for the support poles for the ablution block and shed, Jack, Tom and I started to put together the eight walls for the gazebo, which started to take shape quickly. By the time, Jack’s sons had completed digging the holes and concreting the posts into the ground, all the walls for the gazebo were in place, and half of the roof was on.

When it was time to stop for lunch, the gazebo was completed, and posts were in the ground for the 125 metres of boardwalk between the gazebo overlooking the eastern long beach, and the toilet block and shed in the centre of the island. We were pleased with our efforts so far, and as we ate our lunch, we discussed our next plan of action, which would be to start setting the posts for more of the boardwalk around the northern section of the island.

By the end of the day, we had completed setting the posts for 250 metres of proposed boardwalk, and I was very pleased with the progress so far, and although we are all tired, we were happy with what we had completed so far. I was hoping that we would have most of the other two buildings completed by mid-afternoon tomorrow, before heading back to the mainland, and after a light dinner, we all retired to bed early.

The following morning with all the support footings set, we began putting together the floor of the toilet block, soon followed by the external walls of the shed and toilet block. By lunch time we had the shed completed, including the roof, and we stored the quad bikes and trailers in the shed, leaving just the roof of the ablution block to be completed, along with all the plumbing, and the doors.

Deciding to continue the work the following weekend, we packed up our luggage and set off back to the mainland, arriving back home shortly before 2pm, and once I had the laundry washing going, I sat back and relaxed, while Tom did some reading. The following day, I took Tom to school, and I personally presented the consent form for the trip to the school administration, before I headed home to prepare for the coming weekend of work.

Tom would be leaving on the Saturday morning, staying overnight on Friday at a school mates home, so as soon as I have delivered him to school along with his excursion luggage, I planned to head to Louth Bay and onto the island. With a free day, I caught the early morning flight to Adelaide, and hired a vehicle at the airport.

Before setting off I made a quick call to Sam, to see if he was free for lunch, and he informed me that he had a busy day, so no, and with that I went shopping for the island, selecting all the plumbing for the ablution block, arranging for it to be delivered to Louth Bay by Friday.

Next, I went to a glass manufacturing company, where I enquired about the making of two large circular convex covers, to be made of thick glass Perspex, to allow plenty light in, but keep the weather out. Stopping for a quick lunch break at a small café, near the court house, I was surprised when Sam walked in, and on seeing me he ordered some lunch and came and sat at my table. There was silence for a while, and Sam could see that I was thinking of something serious, “Ok mate, spit it out, whatever it is on your mind, you know I am a good listener” Sam said to me seriously.

“Well, I recently did something, that I thought I would not do for a long time, what I’m trying to say is that, because I got caught checking him out, I admitted to Jack that I am Gay” I said quietly so only Sam could hear me. I had my suspicions, and I wanted to wait till you came out before saying anything, I am out to family and friends, plus a couple of work colleagues, that’s all” Sam said to me, and it took a moment for the information to sink in, before I realize what he had said to me, and he was smiling when I looked at him.

“I know you have to worry about bringing up Tom, so I have not made any advances, but I wanted to let you know that I will support you in any way I can, even though I have had a crush on you from the first moment I met you” Sam said to me with a big smile, and this made me laugh a little as I also blushed.

With the lunch break over, my next stop I went to a steel works factory, where I looked at a number of steel spiral staircases, to find one that would fit down the main access hole, and I found one that was a perfect fit, including a safety rail around the top.

I also asked about making a steel mesh convex cover, same as the glass Perspex to cover the roof of the main cavern, to provide a safety barrier, but still allow rain in to water the trees below, once I had purchased the two items and arranged for them to also be delivered to Louth Bay. I went to a steel works factory, where I looked at a number of steel spiral staircases, to find one that would fit down the main access hole. I found one that was a perfect fit, including a safety rail around the top, and I purchased it and arranged for it to also be delivered to Louth Bay. Giving the dimensions that I required, I was assured that I would have the two covers made and delivered in 2 ½ weeks.

My final shopping stop was a solar power store, where I looked at what is available, and I found 7 large solar panels with stands, with power converter that would be perfect to power the whole house. Once I was happy with all my purchases, I returned the airport, dropped off the car and a while later, boarded the late afternoon flight back to Port Lincoln. I picked up Tom from his friend’s home, and we headed home. I told Tom of my day of shopping, and that some of it would be arriving early next week, and that I had arranged with Jack to spend the extra two days on the island.

Tom informed me that all the class were looking forward to the trip, and it was all that they were talking about during their spare time. For the next three days, I went to work and spent most of the time entering data into the computer, Tom attended school with more enthusiasm, as the days grew closer to the excursion north to Coober Pedy.

On the Friday morning, I had my luggage packed for the four days on the island, and Tom was packed for his excursion north, I dropped Tom off at school, wished him a safe and enjoyable time away, and I headed north to Louth Bay, arriving shortly before 9am. Jack hadn’t arrived yet, so I called into the local store, and bought a few extra provisions that I had forgotten to buy the day before.

When I arrived at the boat ramp, Jack and his sons were waiting and once we had loaded up, we set off to the island. Once there, the boys went to get the quad bikes, while Jack and I unloaded the barge of all the supplies that he had arranged, and when the boys arrived back we loaded up the bikes and trailers, and carted the supplies to the cavern, before returning to the barge to transport the building supplies up to the top of the island. Before lunch, we managed to complete the roof and doors of the toilet block, so all we had to do was wait for the plumbing supplies that I had ordered, so we can complete it all.

After lunch, we continued with digging more holes and setting support posts for the boardwalk, completing a further 200 metres before it began to get too late in the afternoon, and we went down to the cavern to set up camp and to begin cooking dinner.

With 565 metres of boardwalk stumps completed, we had enough to keep us busy for the whole weekend, as I estimated that we could build about 100 metres of boardwalk per day, once we got into a rhythm.

The evening was a cheerful one, with Jack’s boys telling bad jokes as we ate dinner, and after cleaning up we retired early, so we are well rested for tomorrow. We all woke up early, and after a small breakfast, we set to work on the next stage of the project, starting to build the boardwalk. I decided to build the section from the gazebo to the shed and toilet block first, and once the struts were in place, it took just two of us to start laying down the floorboards for the boardwalk so we left the boys to do that.

Meanwhile Jack and I worked on building the stairs from the gazebo down to the south end of the long beach, which we completed just before lunch time, and Jack’s boys had completed just over 50 metres of boardwalk. After we had eaten, Jack and I continued with building the struts, while Amos and Lloyd followed behind building the boardwalk.

As I had predicted, we managed to complete 120 metres of boardwalk, by the end of the day, and I was very happy with the progress so far, with the boardwalk being built in the reverse direction, it was now north west of the gazebo, just 50 metres from the western edge of the island. Our second night on the island was a lot quieter, as Amos and Lloyd were tired from the busy day they had, so we all retired early.

The next morning being Sunday, we had a bit of a sleep in, and I made a cooked breakfast for everyone, before we began work on the boardwalk. By the end of a busy day, we had completed another 150 metres of boardwalk, and we walked back to the cavern to rest and relax, it was a warm afternoon, so we went for a swim, before preparing dinner. “I thank you, for all of your hard work over the past three days, I think when we start to get visitors to the island, that the boardwalk will be very beneficial to all, as well as protecting the islands flora.

I floated and idea with my legal advisors, about introducing some fauna to the island, namely some smaller marsupials, which should survive easily once a breeding pair has been introduced to the island” I said to Jack and his sons. “Are there any animals that visit the island, apart from all the sea birds that I’ve noticed since visiting the island” Jack asked.

“Yes, actually we have fur seals and sea lions that often can be seen on the smaller beaches and rocks sunning themselves” I said cheerfully, and Jacks boys smiled as I said this. A moment later my phone beeped with a message, “I am having an awesome time at Coober Pedy, it is very dry and hot during the day, and very chilly at night. Love Tom”

The following day, being the last for this term on the island, we had an early big breakfast, before commencing work again, this time, we decided to get some more support posts into the ground, and some more struts on, as it would speed up the building of the boardwalk a lot faster, when we are next on the island. Shortly after 11am I received a text message from the General store at Louth Bay, “Large delivery from Adelaide plumbers had arrived, ready for you to collect”. I showed the message to Jack, and he suggested that we go and collect the supplies now, so we can finish most of that part of the project today.

Leaving the boys behind to continue work on the support posts, Jack and I rode the bikes & trailers down to the beach and travelled back to Louth Bay, where there is, not just the two wooden crates of toilets, hand basins and piping, but also two Biodegradable sewerage waste tanks, one for the toilet block and the other for the house. Once it was all loaded onto the barge, we set sail again back to the island, arriving in time to off load everything before we stopped for a lunch break.

Once we had the two tanks up on top of the island, we took one tank to the last remaining hole, as one hole occupies the water tank, the other will soon have a spiral staircase in it, and the central one has a nice grove of trees growing in the centre. Once we had the right positioning, we slowly lowered it down, using the abseiling ropes, and let it rest on the floor of the hole, as we would need to dig out some more of the hole, to get it below ground level of the house.

The second tank, we took over to the toilet block, were a hole behind the shed was already made when we had the digger on the island, and we attached the piping at the top of the tank, before carefully lowering it into position. Once we were happy with it, we began to fill in the hole with the shovels, which took a lot longer than expected, and we were all exhausted when the job was finally done.

After a short rest, Jack finished connecting the toilet block to the waste tank, before starting to install the toilets and hand basins in the first two cubicles. By the time this was done it was time to pack up and return to the mainland. After I had refueled the barge and locked it up, I set off back home on my own, feeling a little empty with Tom being away.

Shortly after arriving home I received another text from Tom, “Day 2 at Coober Pedy, we explored most of the town yesterday, and today we did a bus tour of some of the mining areas that surround the town, we had to remain on the bus for safety reasons, which I was disappointed about. Love Tom” I was pleased that Tom was having a good time.