Farm Life - 5. FAR Chapter 5

“November 1941 – Lewis Grantham. Somehow the Australian Army have got wind of our tunnel construction, and have sent an Engineering Regiment, led by a Colonel to assist with designing and building the tunnels, plus the airshafts and bunkers, they have set up an Army camp behind the sheds, with lots of tents located in two long rows, it’s quite a sight to see.”

There was a lot more notes about what was happening around the farm at this time, but I skipped those bits and started to read, were it mention the tunnels again. “March 1942 – Lewis Grantham. The Army has set up a more permanent camp site, near an airshaft of the tunnel, just 600 metres away from the “Dunes Bunker, as it was known.

There is a trapdoor in the side of the airshaft and ladder leading down to the tunnel, I was given a tour of the whole tunnel, that is connected to the Bunker below the homestead, to the main Dunes Bunker, which has sleeping quarters and even bathrooms, for those who are assigned to the Dunes Bunker.

Each soldier is assigned three weeks Bunker duty, followed by one week at the campsite, trucks are coming and going between the city and the campsite on the farm, and the track was now a proper one lane gravel road, as the Army trucks were often getting bogged in the soft white sand on parts of the property”.

I had to laugh when I read this, I bet the Colonel was very annoyed with the trucks getting stuck all the time. Now I understood the purpose of the tunnel and bunkers and had a good idea where the camp site was located, as there was a flat patch of land where the airshaft is, that is void of any trees or shrubs. For the remainder of the holidays, I spent my days helping Dad and grandfather on the farm, and in the evenings, I was reading the old farm diaries.

For the remainder of the year of my college studies, I worked and studied hard, even on my 18^th birthday, which was two days before final exams and when it came to the graduation ceremony, it was announced that I was the second top student for the year, my family was very proud of my results.

After a short celebration, it was back to the farm to start work on a full-time basis, as harvesting of this year’s crop for hay had already began, Father and Grandfather had decided to bring in contractors to do all the harvest this year, since we had limited machinery due to the big fire, nearly two years earlier.

I spent most of my time driving either the tractor that towed a fuel tank, to keep the hay cutter operational, or relocating the ute with the fire unit on the back, to keep it near the hay cutter, in case there is a fire caused by the machinery.

We managed to finish the harvest just one day before Christmas, and the whole family was relieved that it was finished, all we had to do now was to rake the hay into rows, and once fully dry, start the hay baling. Father was doing regular checks on the stock and ensure that the water supply is plentiful to all paddocks for the stock.

As Christmas day arrived, the family were full of joy, the twins who are nearly six, will be starting their first year of school in February, while Gertrude is turning 12, and will be starting her first year at boarding school, Nicholas will be turning ten this coming year, and will be starting in 5^th year at school, and all of them were thrilled to wake up and find lots of presents waiting for them, my grandparents, parents and I, sat back and watched the commotion happen, with lots of noise and Christmas wrapping paper been cast aside in all directions.

Quietly I was handed one small gift, I looked at the card attached, “To our dearest son and grandson, with much love”. I looked at the gift and frowned, it was about the size of a novel, but felt like a small cardboard box, and I slowly and carefully removed the wrapping paper to reveal the box, and I carefully opened it, inside there was something wrapped in coloured tissue paper, so I lifted it out and placed the box at my feet and the tissue paper wrapped gift onto my lap.

I looked at my parents and grand-parents who were all smiling at me, then looked at the gift, which was very light, and I wondered what it was, as it was too thick to be a Christmas card and gift vouchers. When the gift was revealed, I was stunned.

In front of me was a brand new Australian Passport, opening it up to the main page, was a recent school photo of me, and even my signature was in it, and I recalled my father asking me to sign my name as a witness to some documents, he had managed to cover up the document to hide what it was for.

I opened the passport to the middle section, where I found a bank debit credit card with my name on it, next there was a plane ticket, from Perth to Heathrow, departing in 4 days’ time, with a 4 week return date, and finally there was a detailed travel itinerary, which I began to read;

Dec 31^st - Arrival in London, check into Backpackers hostel for 4 nights. Jan 1^st – Relax and Recover in London. Jan 2^nd - Coach tour of London and surrounds. Jan 3^rd - Explore and relax in London. Jan 4^th – Train Journey north to Edinburgh, check into Backpackers hostel for 2 nights. Jan 5^th – Relax and Explore Edinburgh. Jan 6^th – 3 Day Train tour to northern Scotland, overnight in Aberdeen, Inverness & Glasgow. Jan 9^th – Edinburgh – check into backpackers 1 night, Rest and relax.

Jan 10^th – Fly to Dublin, Ireland, check into backpackers, 1 night. Jan 11^th – 3 Day Coach tour of Ireland, overnight in Galway, Cork & Waterford. Jan 14^th – Dublin – check into backpackers, 1 night. Jan 15^th – Fly to Liverpool UK, check into backpackers. Jan 16^th – 4 Day coach tour of lower England & Wales, overnight in Birmingham, Cardiff, Torbay & Portsmouth. Jan 19^th – London, check into backpackers, 2 nights.

I was shocked, realising that I would be in London – UK for New Year’s Eve, and I had a set plan for 20 days of exploring, I didn’t know what to say, I guess I was still stunned. “When you return to London, you can decide where you want to go from there, as you will have a week before you need to be back at Heathrow to fly home.

We trust you will be responsible and stay safe” my mother said to me. Later that day, back at the cottage, I grabbed my laptop, turned on my Wi-Fi internet, and began researching the places mentioned in the planned itinerary, and everything looked great, I was looking forward to this new adventure, on my own getting there but I hoped to meet new people and make lots of friends.

Once I checked the places on the timetable, I began to check other options for the last week of my holiday. I spent most of the following day in the cottage, researching placed to go, and eventually I worked out a rough plan for the second part of my journey.

I decided to explore the Scandinavian countries, I learnt that I can fly from London to Copenhagen - Denmark, and I decided to spend three days exploring the Danish capital and surrounds, before travelling by ferry across to Sweden, and catching a train north to Stockholm, where I would spend three days exploring, before flying back to London.

This was what I was hoping, but this all depended on what budget that my parents and grandparents have given me for the journey. At the end of the day, I showed my parents the planned itinerary for the last week of my holiday, and they said that I had planned it well, and wished me a great holiday.

The following day was my last day at home before catching the plane to London, and I spent most of it sitting on a motorbike, checking the water supplies in the paddocks, as the last few days had been quite hot.

When I returned a bit after lunch time, my grandparents were at the shed waiting for me, they said that I had everyone worried because I had taken so long to get back, I informed them that I was fine, and that I had to do some minor repairs to a water trough in the far south west paddock.

After eating a late lunch, I went to my cottage, along with the suitcase that my grand -parents gave me to use, even if it was old and a bit battered.

Grandfather gave me a large wool lined jacket that he wore when he visited England and Scotland many years ago, I tried it to check if it fits and it did, and it was indeed very warm to wear, once I had checked that I had everything that I needed for the 28-day trip, I carefully packed it all into the suitcase, I then packed one set of spare clothes into my backpack, along with my laptop, camera and spare sneakers, in case the suitcase was misplaced during the journey.

That evening, I said good night and goodbye to my four siblings, telling them that I would send them post cards from places that I visited, and an hour after they went to bed, my father was driving me south to the city, at the airport I checked in my suitcase, and said goodbye to my father and headed upstairs to the international departures area.

Two hours later I was for the first time in my life on board a giant aircraft, about to take off into the early morning skies, and I was terrified, so I tightened my seatbelt, closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my breathing and nothing else.

About fifteen minutes later, I could feel the plane starting to level off from taking off, I had managed to block out the time from when the plane began to taxi up the taxiway, and then roar down the main runway, all I could remember was the vibrations of the engines shaking the whole aircraft.

I opened my eyes to see a pair of eyes looking at me, “Victor it is not polite to stare, please turn around and sit down” I heard a women’s voice from the seat next to the young boy, I smiled and gave a small wave before he turned and sunk into his seat in front of me.

A steward walked down the aisle, and I signalled to get his attention, “Yes sir how may I help you” he said very politely, “A glass of water and some cashews if you have them please” I asked, and the steward smiled, nodded and headed forward from the direction that he came from.

When the steward had delivered my order, I put the headphones on and selected a classical music channel, that I hoped would help me to relax, for the whole 26-hour journey to London, including a three-hour stop-over in Dubai, I either slept or listened to music, when not eating the meals they provided. During the stop-over, I went and did some shopping, remembering to get some postcards to send to my siblings.

When the plane finally arrived at Heathrow, I was tired and aching from the cramped seats on the plane, I passed through customs and quarantine with no problems, after retrieving my suitcase, which was one of the first to appear on the luggage conveyor belt, and I made my way to the outside to find the bus, to take me into the city to the backpackers that I was booked into, where I checked in and collapsed onto my bed and promptly fell asleep.

When I woke up, I looked at the bedside clock, which read 3.28pm, that’s when I remembered that it is New Year’s Eve, and so I had a shower, got into a fresh set of clothes, remembering to put on my warm jacket, and I went down to the reception area, before I reached there, I noticed a large notice board, and on it was a poster.

“Along way from home? Come and join us for New Years at the Batavia Hotel, London, discount drinks for all backpacker visitors”.

At reception, I asked for directions to the Batavia hotel, and I was handed a leaflet, which was a smaller version of the poster, and a map on where to find it was on the back. With a map of London in hand, I decided to do some exploring of the area nearest the backpackers, the Batavia was 9 blocks away, and was an easy walking distance, so I decided to look around and see what there is between the backpackers and the Batavia hotel.

Time seemed to pass by very quickly, it was very cold as darkness approached, a lot earlier than I expected, and so I made my way to a small arcade that had lots of interesting shops, it was a little warmer in the arcade, and I took my time looking at the shop windows, about 2/3 of the way, there was a little café that was still open, so I went inside and sat down, looking at the menu, I ordered a cup of tea, a large slice of quiche with a side salad and a caramel slice for desserts.

As I waited for my order, I saw two young men around my age sitting in the corner, they were talking very quietly, or one of them was, the other looked very upset, and he had tears on his cheeks. The one who had been talking, stood up and walked to the door, where he stopped, glanced over his shoulder at the other young man and walked out.

When I looked back at the young man remaining, he was openly crying, and the waitress approached him and tried to comfort him, but he just kept crying. When the waitress left, he flopped his head down onto his folded arms on the table and remained there.