Deception - 28. Dec Chapter 28

We caught the early morning flight to Adelaide the next morning, and the first thing we did was go to a uniform business to select an ideal uniform for us, and after much discussions, we eventually chose long black shorts, and a khaki colored cotton drill shirt, which has front pockets, and a logo to be embroided above the left pocket. After some more discussions, we chose – “Louth Island Retreat - South Australia” in a half downward arch, with our first name under it.

Once this was done, we would return later in the day to collect our three sets of new uniforms each, with the embroidery included, and after some morning tea, we caught a taxi to our next destination, which I kept as a surprise to all of them. When we entered the gates of a hovercraft manufacturing company, I saw four stunned faces, which made me laugh as we climbed out of the minibus taxi, and headed to the site office.

“Good morning Mr Langton, your purchase is prepared and ready for your inspection” the man at the counter said and he lead us down a passageway and into a large shed at the back, where stood a 12 -metre long hovercraft, and a set of stairs had been placed beside it, to allow us to climb up onto the sidewalk of the craft. The man opened the door and motioned us to go inside, I went in first followed by Tom who headed towards the back closely followed by Ethan and Jacob, when Bryce entered I stopped him, “Your seat is up the front” I said to him, and his jaw dropped when he realized what I meant, and looking at the front he saw two pilot seats and he took the one on the right, while the man took the left seat, after securing the door.

I took a seat a row back from the pilot’s seats, and I motioned the boys to sit down, which they did, and the engines roared to life. “Good morning, today we will be taking a short ride on the harbor to allow Mr Kennedy to get familiar with the controls, please remain in your seats and enjoy the journey” the man said over the PA system, and we were soon moving out of the shed and down a boat ramp onto the water.

Over an hour later we returned to the shed, with Bryce being in control, and he brought it to a stop and shut down the engine, to allow the hovercraft to lower into its parking position, and I saw that Bryce had a huge smile on his face as he climbed out of his seat. “How was it skipper? Do you think you can take us home in it later today? I asked him and he just smiled and nodded that he could. I left Bryce and the boys to look over the hovercraft, while I finalized the purchase, and confirmed that we would be back at 3pm to collect it.

After we had some lunch, we did a bit of sight-seeing, before going to a printing shop, to look at designs and selecting and ordering some stationary including business cards, which would be posted to us mid next week. Once this was done we made our way back to the uniform shop, to pick up our new uniforms, which Tom, Ethan and Jacob chose to put one set on to wear for the journey home, and they looked very smart in the new uniforms.

We arrived back at the hovercraft to find – “Louth Island Retreat” in large print on both sides of the cabin, and after thanking the gentleman for the purchase, we all climbed in with Bryce at the helm, and we began the long journey home across the St Vincent and Spencer Gulfs, with part of the journey being a little rough due to us being in open waters for over an hour. When we finally arrived back at Louth Island shortly before dusk, we were all glad to be back home after a long day out. Bryce parked the hovercraft high up on the western beach, and Jack, Amos and Lloyd came down to inspect the new vessel after observing it approaching the island from their high vantage point.

Bryce promised them a ride in the morning, after he has had a good night’s rest. Amos and Lloyd commented on the nice-looking uniforms that the three boys were wearing, and I said that I was sorry that I hadn’t got uniforms for them yet, as it was a bit of a rushed day, and we ran out of time to do anything else. After dinner, I retired to my room soon afterwards, and after a hot shower I drifted off to sleep, waking up the next morning, feeling still a little tired, as I showered and headed downstairs for some breakfast.

I found the kitchen empty, but used cereal bowls in the sink, so I presumed that Bryce was taking Jack and his sons on a short trip in the hovercraft. I took my time preparing and eating breakfast, and as I was finishing Tom, Ethan and Jacob made an appearance, all three of them in their new uniforms, which I suggested that they take off and put them in the wash along with Bryce’s and mine.

They returned a bit later dressed in casuals, and looking a little more awake, and they made themselves some breakfast, while I went into the office to check on emails. When Tom appeared, I asked him if he could take some photos of the hovercraft and add them to the website, and he smiled and nodded as he dashed off to do as I suggested. With just two days to go before the first guests arrive on the island, I was making notes on what needed to be done before they arrive. I picked up my phone and called Bryce, and when he answered, I heard the loud sound of the hovercraft engine in the background.

I mentioned to Bryce that we needed to put together the breakfast baskets for each of the tents, so we needed baskets, with a selection of fruit & biscuits, small cereal packets, tea, coffee and sugar. In the fridges, we need bread, butter, fruit juice, small cartons of milk, muffins and bottled water. Bryce said that they were just arriving at Louth Bay, so they will do the shopping while they are there.

An hour later when the hovercraft arrived, they came straight to the Eco tents to make up the breakfast baskets and to stock up the fridges for the guests, before they came back to the house with the rest of the shopping, with BBQ meat packs for the guests, and some more food supplies for the house, which I helped to put away.

While Bryce was away I had been looking at the cooking books, to decide what to provide for the guests for meals, and looking in my pantry, there is a variety of vegetables and in my freezer, there are a selection of frozen prepared meals.

I decided that I would prepare some steamed vegetables, that I would store in takeaway containers, for easy delivery to each eco tent, along with a BBQ meat pack and two frozen prepared meals each. When I checked the emails, there was some questions being asked by the guests coming in two days, about cooking facilities, food availability and transport to the island, I decided to wait till Bryce came in and let him handle the responses.

When the barge arrived back at the island, Bryce, Amos and Lloyd soon appeared with arms full of groceries, and I helped them to put it all away. Once finished Bryce sat down while I was making cups of tea for each of us. “I have been thinking of this tourism side of things, and we may need to employ a chef to be able to do the catering for us when we have guests” Bryce said to me.

‘That’s true, but we could also restrict the stays to a maximum of two nights, and the guests provide their own food” I suggested and Bryce thought about this for a moment, “How about we make it bed and breakfast, we provide a breakfast basket every morning, and they provide the remainder of the food, with the option of purchasing BBQ meat packs” Bryce added. “Yes, I think that is the best option, we need to get the boys to make the changes on the website as soon as possible” I agreed.

“I have also been thinking about this eco camping on the island, I think 4 eco tents won’t be enough to cope with demand, we could add another 3 eco tents overlooking the western beach and homestead bay, plus another 2 on the north-west corner and 3 more on the northern corner. I think a total of 12 eco tents, should be enough to cope with the demand” Bryce said.

“Yes, it will bring in a nice steady income for the island, especially when we expand the board walk along the southern end of the island, and include hovercraft transport to the island and hovercraft tours of Boston and Louth Bays” Bryce said with a smile. Our discussions were interrupted by the noise of the boys coming through the tunnel to the house, and we watched as they came in and sit down in the open living area, and we joined them there.

“Ok, since we are all here, I call a business meeting” I announced as I sat down and the boys stopped talking right away. “Bryce and I have been talking about this Eco Camping project, and we have come up with some ideas, the first is that we will be expanding the number of tents, to include 3 overlooking homestead bay to the west, 2 overlooking the small north west beach, and another 3 overlooking the small beach to the north.

This will give us a total of 12 Eco tents for guests, and we will be offering it as Bed and breakfast, where we will provide breakfast baskets each morning, and the guests will have to bring the rest of their food from the mainland, or they can buy BBQ meat packs from us. We will use the hovercraft instead of the barge for transporting the guests, that way we can provide a bit of a guided tour on the way to the island from Port Lincoln.

I’m also thinking that we will stagger the number of guests, so there is a maximum of two tents occupied in each area at one time, so that means two in the north section, two in the west section and two in the east section. Boys can you change the website, so it states that the Eco Tents are to be Bed and Breakfast, BYO food for remainder meals, or buy BBQ packs. That transport to the island is via the 24-passenger hovercraft, and that additional hovercraft tours of Boston Bay are also available” I announced.

While the boys went to work on the changes to the website, Bryce and I headed up top, to find Jack and his sons, to let them know of the plans to add more eco tent sites along the north half of the island. We found them starting work on extending the boardwalk to the south, starting from the gazebo, and Jack said he was pleased that there was more work here on the island to keep them busy. I was about to walk away, when I had another idea, “Jack, I was wondering if you can join me and Bryce for s little while, and he nodded and followed us back to the main stairs to the house.

Half way down the stairs we stopped and entered the other tunnel that leads to the pond cave 150 metres away, stopping on the ledge that overlooks the large pond that covers most of the area of the cave. We had installed some steel stairs down to the small beach below, from about half way along the length of the ledge. “I was thinking of extending the living area, by having a one level guest accommodation wing build here, what do you think about that?” I asked Bruce and Jack.

“Well it would mean that you can have some more privacy when you have guests staying” Bryce commented, as he walked the length of the ledge before looking over the edge to the beach below, and returning to where I stood. “If you have it built like the main house by the same company, I think that we could have the extension fully installed within a week once it arrives” Jack added with a smile. “That’s what I was hoping, I think we could fit another 4 guest bedrooms with two shared bathrooms, and a veranda overlooking the beach and pond” I added and I led the way back to the main house.

“We have finished the changes to the website, and added some pictures of the hovercraft, which I took when Bryce and co were coming back from Louth Bay” Tom said with a big grin, and I gave him a sideward hug and ruffled his hair. “I have already spoken to our first guests, they will be meeting us as 11am at the main jetty at Port Lincoln tomorrow, and they will be bringing their food for lunch and dinners, and as you had agreed to earlier Gres, they are each paying $175 per night per couple, including return hovercraft transport per couple” Bryce announced.

“For $350 per couple for two nights, I think we can afford a bottle of local wine for each tent, can you organize that when you collect them please Bryce” I said and Bryce nodded he understood, “Now boys, I need you three to be porters for the guests, which means bringing their luggage to their Eco tents, we will bring the guests to the island at the Gazebo stairs, so I will need you boys to bring their luggage carefully up the stairs, and then to their Eco tents, you may use the quad bikes once the luggage is at the gazebo, we may need to try and come up with a better way of transporting luggage”.