Long Road - 11. Lon Chapter 11

Christmas for our family was once again a small event, exchanging small gifts on Christmas Eve before dinner, and a Christmas Day lunch, the first in our new home, and with no guests booked into the cabins for New Years Eve or Day, Mum elected to join us for the trip up to Mogumber for the rodeo.

Lance was in attendance again, working as a rodeo clown, which is to protect the riders, when they come off their horses or bulls, and he parked his ute and set up his swag next to the truck, so as to be with his friends, and Mum was always happy to feed an extra person, as she had packed a huge amount of food for the two day event.

When it came to the late afternoon on the second day, I had noticed that Lance was looking a little sad and unhappy, so I waited until we were alone, before I asked him what the matter is.

“Uncle Vince doesn’t have any work for me anymore, and I don’t want to go home, so I have no idea what to do now, all I am qualified for is station work, and there is not much call for that around the Perth region,” Lance said to me.

I thought about this for a moment, and I suggested that he come down to Boddington for a while and help out on our property with looking after the two horses, and helping me and Logan out when need be, and immediately Lance smiled and jumping up he wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Thanks, man, you really are a truly good friend,” Lance said, with a trembling voice, “Well if you are going to help out, your first job is to feed and water the horses, before we load them into the truck” I said after the man hug had gone on long enough.

“Right on it, boss” Lance said, and he set off to do as I asked, while I went into the truck to let Mum and Logan know what I had offered. “You have always been a good and kind person, I love you for that” Mum said to me, and I blushed at the compliment, which had Logan laughing.

“So, can we put Lance into one of the cabins?” I asked Mum, “Yes dear, put him in Cabin 3, the same one he was in before, as we have only a few bookings for each weekend for the rest of the holidays” Mum replied.

Just over two hours after leaving Mogumber, we finally arrived home, and I helped Lance to unload the horses, and get them settled back into their stalls, before we unpacked the trailer, and parked it into the shed.

When we walked back up to the house, I mentioned to Lance about the plans to relocate two of the cabins to the front of the Western Paddock, and I showed him the locations, where the stumps had already been put into place, as well as all of the power, water and sewerage services.

“I noticed them on the way in and wondered what it was for,” Lance said to me, as we continued walking, I guess the two side fences and the extra trees planted sort of gave it away too” I commented, as we arrived at the back of the house, were we removed our boots, and headed inside.

“Lance, you're in Cabin three like before, here is the key, and come over here for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Mum said when she saw us enter. “Yes, Mrs A, and thank you” Lance replied politely.

For the next two weeks, all of us were kept very busy, Lance was put in charge of looking after both horses, and Logan and I would ride them in the late afternoons, when not looking after the horses, Lance would help me with any farrier work.

This gave Logan a chance to have some fun with his new local mates, as they rode their mountain bikes and swam down at the river most days.

“With just one day left of the holidays, the day had arrived for the relocating of the cabins, with a transport company from Williams having the contract to do the moving of the two buildings for us. Lance had temporarily moved to Cabin five, to allow for the move, as it would take a few days for all the services to be connected and operational.

Mum and I had decided a few days earlier to keep Lance on as a part-time employee, to look after the horses, and to help Mum with any cleaning or maintenance work that needed doing, while Logan is at Tafe and I am at University most weekdays, and Lance was very happy, when he was told the good news.

With the new facilities, and with me buying some new equipment, for the veterinary practice, the visiting Vet from Rockingham – Clinton Harvey, had decided to increase his time in Boddington, because of the improved facilities available, and the demand for his services, so he was now visiting town every three weeks instead of six, and he would rent the other western paddock cabin next to where Lance lives, when he is in town.

On a Friday afternoon, at the end of the first week back at university, Logan and I arrived home to find a smiling Lance sitting in the lounge room waiting for us. “Ok, I know that look, you have an idea of some kind, spit it out,” I said to my good friend.

Lance smiled, and shook his head, “You know me too well, I guess I can’t hide anything from you anymore,” Lance responded. “Hey what is the kayak out the back doing there?” Logan said as he re-entered the lounge area, after dumping his backpack in his room.

“That is part of the reason why I am so happy, I went kayaking on the river today, and it was a little difficult because of the low water levels, but it was still great,” Lance stated. “So, you own the kayak?” Logan asked, “Yes, I bought it and one other today when I went into Perth to do some shopping,” Lance replied.

“Ok, so you have discovered that you like kayaking, so why are you so happy about it?” I asked. “Because, I think I have come up with another event, that we can have in town for more tourism, which will help all of the local businesses, like yours” Lance stated.

“It has to do with kayaking on the Hotham River?” I asked, “Yes, you got it, but we need to do some more exploring, to see how far we can get on the river, without too much hassle, so tomorrow we are going kayaking. Using a GoPro, I worked out that I did about 4.5 kilometres today, from the Days Road crossing, which is about 5 kilometres upstream, to the Ranford Pool recreation area,” Lance stated.

“Ok, I will go along with this, but we will need to get Mum to come along, as we will need vehicle support,” I responded, “I have already agreed to it dear, we don’t have guests checking in until 2 pm tomorrow, so we have all morning to give it a go,” Mum said.

I looked over to Lance who was smiling broadly, before he picked up the remote and turned on the television, then play, for a recording he had made and transferred to a USB. Over the next twenty minutes, we watched a recording of Lance kayaking down the Hotham River, fast forwarding a few times, to speed up the recording.

“A lot of trees in the way, how do you plan to get that problem sorted?” I asked once the recording had ended, “Easy, I have a meeting organised with the WA Minister for Water and River Management,” Lance replied, and I gave a small laugh at his smugness.

“You do know that there will be plenty of red-tape if you want to get those trees removed from the river?” I said to Lance, and his smile turned to a frown, “Yes, I know, but let me at least try to do something good for my adopted home town,” Lance responded.

The next morning, everyone was up early, with Logan helping Lance to feed the horses, before taking them out to their paddock, and Mum had prepared some food and drinks for the morning. Using my vehicle, we set off East towards the highway, where we turned left and crossed over the bridge before turning left onto a property.

“Don’t worry, we have permission to come onto the property, Glenda Kirkby and I have become good friends since we settled into town, and she was happy for us to launch the kayaks from the property, just down from the bridge” Mum explained, as we followed a farm access road along the north side of the river, and stopped at a small clearing, and the river looks to be about 8 metres wide.

Once we had unloaded the kayaks, Lance and I put on our helmets, and PFD jackets, before Mum handed us a walkie talkie each, which we attached to our jackets. Once on the kayaks and we were ready to go, we did a radio check, before setting off downstream.

Lance had his GoPro with him to track our travels down the river, and although there was plenty of trees on the river banks, the first 45 minutes of paddling was easy going for us. “Base to Mobiles, how are you going boys?” we heard Mum say over the radio.

“So far, so good Mrs A, the river is fairly narrow in places, but we have not come across any obstacles so far, which is… scrap that last bit, we have our first tree blocking the river, but it is high enough for us to squeeze under it” Lance stated, as we approached the fallen tree.

After nearly two hours of kayaking, we finally arrived at Days Road crossing, where there are two box culverts to allow the water to run freely under the road crossing. Although they are at least 900 mm wide, it was too dangerous to even try to kayak through the culvert drain, so we stopped about 20 metres before the crossing, where there is a bit of a clearing, and where Mum and Logan were waiting for us.

Once we had had a snack and a drink, I suggested to Logan that he take the kayak and do the next section along with Lance, which he was very pleased to hear. Because Lance has already done this stretch of the rover, he knew what to expect, and he spent a few minutes explaining to Logan about what to expect before they set off for the next stage of the journey.

After packing up the picnic basket, Mum and I drove to the next stopping point, at Ranford Pool, which I estimated would take them about an hour to get there. After a bit of a look at the recreation area at Ranford, I took Mum home, so she could prepare some lunch for us, and to do some laundry, before I headed back to Ranford Pool to wait for the kayakers to arrive.

A bit over an hour after leaving the road crossing, Lance and Logan arrived at the recreation area, and Logan was looking very happy. “That is so awesome, I want to do more of this” Logan said as he beached his kayak and took a drink from the water bottle that I handed him.

After a good rest, Lance and Logan set off again, for the last section of the kayak trip, down to the Foreshore Park, next door to the caravan park, and I set off into town, where I sat and waited for them, listening to them chat between them over the radio.

When they finally arrived, I helped them to bring the two kayaks onto the park, and once he had his jacket off, Lance checked out the GoPro, to see what the total distance was. “A total of 16.4 kilometres which we did in 4 hours, not including the rest breaks” Lance announced.

“Well that is pretty good going, how do you feel bro?” I replied, “Tired and a bit sore, but it was good, I really enjoyed the challenge,” Logan said to me as he sat down on the ground to rest.

After they had both rested, I helped to load up and tie the kayaks onto the back of my vehicle and we headed home, where Mum would be waiting for us.

After lunch, Logan went to have a lay down for a while, and I just relaxed in the lounge reading a book, while Lance was transferring the GoPro recording onto his laptop computer, before reviewing it, and taking notes as he did, to mark the locations of each of the trees that are blocking the river, plus noting where the few large rocks are located in the river.

Later in the afternoon, Logan came out of his room, and he was dressed ready to go riding, so I quickly changed and we walked down to the stables, to give Bonnie and Nugget a good ride around the paddock, before giving them a good feed and putting them in their stalls for the night.

You know bro, I am glad that we moved to Boddington, I really like it here, and I have made new friends which is awesome, and soon I will be working for you, which isn’t too bad either” Logan said to me, with the last part of his comment making me laugh.

“It will be good to have you working for me too mate, and we will be close to Mum which is the important thing” I responded, as we headed out the small gate at the back eastern corner of the paddock, and onto the river reserve, where there is a track that leads past the caravan park and onwards to Ranford Pool.

The End.