Simba - 5. Simba Ch 5

Now that we had the island marked into zones, we headed back to the cottage to collect the cameras, before heading to the top off the island, to start setting them up. We managed to get all the cameras set up before we had to get ready for dinner, and we arrived at Patrick’s home with five minutes to spare.

When the door, we were caught a bit by surprised when a woman answered the door. “Come in lads, I am in the kitchen, that is my younger sister Anita, and she has brought the rest of the family with her,” Patrick called out, “Hello, I am Jacob, and these are my good friends and colleagues, Chris Harding and Will Hammond,” I said in response.

“Very nice to meet you all come in… Kids, time to come in and wash up for Dinner,” Anita shouted out the door, and soon Lance, Travis and three other youngsters came charging into the house. “Hey guys, excuse me a moment,” Lance said, as he directed the others down the hallway.

“That lot was all of my children, Lance and Travis you already know, the other two are twins Rebecca and Oscar,” Anita said to us. “Occasionally, my little sister decides to spring a surprise visit on me, by ringing me to come and pick them up,” Patrick explained, as he carried a large covered dish to the dining table, which was already set.

“Well someone has to keep an eye on you, I can’t always rely on a good report from my two eldest, as they seem to take your side most of the time,” Anita said, and Patrick just laughed. “Take a seat lads and we will eat,” Patrick said to us.

My brother tells me that you are all university students, and that you are doing an animal survey of the island?” Anita enquired, “That is correct Ma’am, we are all studying different fields of science, for me it is Veterinary Science and Surgery, for Jacob, it is Wildlife Conservation and Biology plus Biodiversity and Conservation.

Will is studying Coasts and Oceans plus Marine Biology, so in a way we have the right combination to cover a wide field of animal science and conservation,” Chris replied. “So who is the boss when big decisions have to be made, “Jacob is,” Will and Chris replied together.

“Actually we work together as a team, so the team decides together. When we discovered that we were studying at the same university and studying different types of science, we decided to form a team,” I replied smiling. “Do you have a name for this team?” Lance asked us, “No, we haven’t got around to that just yet, but I think something along the lines of Marine and Animal Conservation and Research Project is what we are looking at,” I replied.

“MACARP… that is what it spells,” Travis said, and I thought about it for a moment, “Yes it does, thankyou Travis, we will consider that for a name, but it is a bit of a mouthful, we will need to shorten it somehow,” I responded. “I have a better one, that relates to your adventures,” Chris suggested, and I smiled.

I am not sure that using my middle name is appropriate, but interesting thought, if I can come up with something Swahili would be good,” I responded. “Did you say Swahili?’ Anita asked, “Yes, our good friend here spent his first five years living at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, even though he was born here in South Australia, and he is very fluent in the Swahili language,” Chris boasted.

“Where is Kil…man …jo?” Rebecca asked, “You are very close dear, it is pronounced Kilimanjaro, and if I remember correctly, it is in Tanzania,” Anita replied to her daughter, “Yes that is correct, and it is also the highest mountain in all of Africa,” I added.

“Wow,” young Oscar said, “have you climbed many mountains Mr…?” Travis asked, “It is Blackwood, but just call me Jacob, as I am around the same age as your older brother. “Yes, I have actually; I have climbed every tallest mountain in each state of Australia.

I was very lucky growing up, as I spent a lot of time living with my awesome Uncle, as my parents have been working overseas for most of that time, although they came home for Christmas this year, which was a nice surprise.

When I was twelve, I started going on long hikes with my Uncle Nathan, who is an Australian Army officer, and for the first three years we just stuck to hiking around different parts of Australia, although I was on my Mum’s back, the first time the family climbed Kilimanjaro, when I was two years old.

When I was fifteen years old, in the autumn we did our first overseas hike, which was around Mount Cook and then up to the top of the peak, once we had acclimatised to the heights,” I explained.

“How tall is Mount Cook?” Lance asked me, “3,754 metres above sea level,” I replied, “Wow, that is high,” Oscar said. “Yes, that it is, and very cold too, and in the spring we climbed Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain in Australia, and that is 2, 228 metres above sea level,” I replied.

“I hate to ask this but what is the highest you have ever climbed?” Anita asked, “Kilimanjaro is the highest, which is 5,985 metres above sea level, which I have climbed twice on my own and once with Mum, but it isn’t the most difficult climbs I have done,” I replied.

“Ok, what were they?” Patrick asked, “Mount Bellamy on the Kokoda Trail in the tropical jungles of Papua New Guinea, at 2,190 metres. Then there was the Matterhorn, on the Swiss Alps at 4,478 metres and the second highest climb was the most dangerous and difficult, and that was to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, at 5,600 metres above sea level,” I replied.

“Well, that is quite an achievement for such a young man, why have you stopped climbing?” Anita asked, and Chris picked up his knife and gave my artificial foot a good tap. As Chris just demonstrated, I lost my foot, when Will and I were hiking in Tasmania, and we both fell down a steep decline and injured ourselves.

Will had a dislocated shoulder, which I was able to put back into place, and I thought that I had just a badly sprained my ankle but after we were finally rescued quite a few days later, it was discovered to be a lot worse, and I lost it, and I have an artificial one now,” I replied.

“We are sorry to hear that, but I haven’t seen you limping at all?’ Patrick said, “No, I am lucky, my folks made sure that I got the very best, which was in Canada, where my folks work, with my Mum being a doctor herself. I recently climbed Kilimanjaro again, so it doesn’t restrict me too much with hiking up steep trails, plus I had two support staff with me, to help me out,” I replied.

After a delicious casserole dinner, we thanked our hosts and headed back to our cottage for the night, and we retired early, as we had to be up early to start checking on the cameras first thing in the morning. For five days, we moved the cameras to different zones each afternoon.

The next morning we would check them to see what animals have been recorded, we were pleased to be able to record a number of different animals each day, and we wrote down all the details, about the animals, including their approximate size, and which zone they were recorded in.

Once the first week was over, we decided to have one day of rest, before we started doing the other half of the island, as well as doing an ocean survey, around the main island, which would take us a few days to complete once we have collected all of the cameras, and had a quick look at them.

Leaving Chris to do all the recording of the information, Will and I were Scuba diving to do the ocean survey, and we managed to do one in the late morning and another mid afternoon, each day, and during lunch time, Chris would show us all the information that he had recorded from viewing all of the cameras.

While waiting for our lunch to digest, Will and I would start looking at the camera footage that we had recorded underwater, and start documenting all the marine life that we recorded.

Near the end of our second week on the island, Patrick had invited us to his place for dinner on our last night on the island, with Lance being the only nephew on the island this time. “We are to understand that you are having the cottage renovated so that it can accommodate guests to the Island,” I stated to Patrick once we had all taken a seat and started eating.

“That is correct, but I believe that your Uncle Nathan is working on providing a more mobile boat or something like that for next time you come, as you are most welcome to stay here when ever you wish, as your research work fits in well with our conservation project,” Patrick replied.

“Yes he has mentioned that he is working on something to me, I’m not sure what but it is something, and we thankyou for all of your kind hospitality during our two visits, I myself have found it quite rewarding,” I responded, “I second that,” Will said, “As do I,” Chris added. “Do you have any ideas, on a name for your project?” Patrick asked.

“Yes, I have but I want to speak to someone about it first, and she is coming to Australia to visit next week, so I should have an answer by then,” I replied smiling, as I thought of the incident in Tasmania, and translating it to Swahili, which I feel is a good name for the project.

“Well, what is this name?” Chris asked as soon as we walked into our cottage after dinner, and I chuckled, “Be patient my friend, I need to confer with an important and wise Swahili women, to see if it is the best word to use for our project,” I responded.

“And that important and wise woman is?” Chris asked, and I smiled, “My Nanny Afya, of course,” I replied, and we all joined in the laughter of my response, as the lads knew all about my first few years of life in Africa.

While Chris and Will are entering their second year of university studies, I was about to enter my third year, and close to mid way through my double degree courses, which I will finish a year ahead of Chris and Will, as their degrees will also be six years long to complete.

When we arrived in Adelaide after two weeks of being away, I was a little surprised to see that Uncle Nat was there to greet us. “Hey, I thought we would be catching a minibus back home,” I said as I gave my uncle a welcome hug, “Usually I would be at work, but I have taken a little bit of time off, as Afya has caught an earlier flight and she will be arriving in less than half an hour,” Uncle Nat replied.

Awesome, I can’t wait to see her, I have missed being around her,” I said, and Uncle Nat smiled and nodded his head. “She will be staying for a month, so she will have your parent’s bedroom while she is with us,” Uncle Nat informed me.

“What about Mrs Fogliani, won’t there be a bit of conflict there?” I asked, “No, I have given Afya strict instructions that she is to do nothing to do with house work while she is here, as she is on holidays, not here to work,” Uncle Nat responded.

“Yeah, I can see it now, Nanny will be trying to work doing something, I am sure of it, especially on days when Mrs F isn’t here,” I said. “Yes well it is our job to make sure that she has a complete holiday without any work,” Uncle Nat said to me with a grin, as we headed to a café to grab a bit to eat and a drink, while we waited for Nanny Afya’s flight to arrive.

As expected, Nanny Afya hugged me tightly and speaking in Swahili told us how much she had missed her little Simba, which was quite embarrassing as Uncle Nat watched with amusement. Once we had collected all of her luggage, we headed to the car park, and loaded the entire luggage in before heading for home.

On arrival at home, Chris and Will were there waiting for our arrival, and were very polite when introduced to Nanny Afya, and helped us to collect all the luggage, while Uncle Nat showed her into the house, and gave her a tour of the house, while we struggled to carry the luggage inside.

While Nanny Afya had a rest to recover from her long journey, we headed out to the tennis court for a few games of tennis, as it is far enough away from the house to not to create to much noise.

After over two hours of playing, we were a little surprised to see Nanny Afya heading our way with a tray containing a jug of cool drink and classes, so we stopped playing to rest.

“No doubt, this is my Nanny’s famous lemon squash drink, you will like it,” I said to the lads, who thanked her before accepting a glass of the drink and they agreed with me that it was very nice, but their face told a slightly different story, which made me chuckle.

“Ladha kama kawaida asante Nanny Afya,” I said to Nanny in Swahili, thanking her for the delicious drink, that I have drunk many times before, “What is in it?” Will asked, “Nanny’s favourite recipe for cooling us down and all of it is freshly made too, so no double Uncle Nat here did some special shopping to get the ingredients,” I replied.

“Of course, you know that I love the drink too,” Uncle Nat said. “It is fresh lime and lemon juice, guava juice, a pinch of salt, and a few drops of a secret family ingredient,” Nanny Afya said to the lads. “It is certainly different, but I am getting to like it,” Chris said.

When Uncle Nat’s mobile rang, he stepped away to answer the call, “Yes sir I am… yes he is, just a moment please,” I heard my Uncle say, as he indicated for me to follow him back to the house, and once inside the house, Uncle Nat put his phone on speaker.

“Ok sir, you are on speaker with Jacob present, “Good afternoon, Corporal Blackwood, this is Federal Defence Minister Luke Atkinson speaking, I believe it is you that has made this submission to me for recommending a trial of Ten Fold Engineering’s technology out in the field.

I would like to ask you some questions before I take this to the defence committee for consideration…” the Minister said to me, and Uncle Nat and I spent the next twenty minutes answering a series of questions. “Ok, that is all for now, thankyou for your time, goodbye,” the Minister, said to end the phone conversation.

“Wow that was intense; he certainly wanted a lot of information, and where is this Grindal Island that you mentioned as a possible test site?” I said to my uncle, who just smiled. “Grab your laptop and have a look?” he suggested to me, so I went upstairs to get my laptop and sat down at the dining table where Uncle Nat was enjoying a cup of tea.