Chapter 7: The Bathurst School Trip

Sunday Week 2

The next morning after breakfast, they packed and drove out, heading to The Entrance. After a stop for morning tea at the Hawkesbury River they drove on to Terrigal, where Peter had the obligatory surf. While he was surfing, Jill and Dave sat on the folding chairs on the roof of the RV and just watched the world go by. They actually had a good view from up there.

"Guess we better go back down and get lunch" said Dave, so they packed away the two chairs and climbed back down to make lunch.

After finishing their somewhat late lunch they continued on to The Entrance and booked into a caravan park.

"I think we should stay a couple of nights here as there are a few beaches around and a number of fishing spots if you guys are happy to stick around" Dave suggested.

"That sounds great" Peter quickly assured him.

"We're more than happy to do whatever you want, because we both enjoy being with you and just hope we aren't in your way" Jill added.

Jill cooked dinner that night and the three of them shared a bottle of red wine. After dinner, as they sat in the comfortable lounge chairs having their coffee, Jill asked Dave "do you have any funny incidents from your past you would like to share with us?"

He thought long and hard and remembered his first trip away from home – a school sporting excursion to Bathurst.

"I was only 15 at the time our High School cricket team was going to Bathurst for three day. There was to be a three way playoff between Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst High Schools. I wasn't supposed to be going with them. I was good enough to get in the team despite being two or three years younger than most of the team members, but I had another school commitment.

"However, the school captain, Tony, broke his leg at the last moment..."

"What happened?" Peter interrupted.

"Just one of those freak accidents, I think. From memory, he simply fell off his push bike. Anyway" Dave continued "the school principal asked me to go if I could. Seeing that I was released from my other commitment by the principal, my parents agreed I could go, particularly as the team was being billeted by families from Bathurst High School and the train fare wasn't going to cost very much.

"When we arrived at Bathurst Railway Station, we were met by our billets. My billet was a boy about 17 or 18, who was the Bathurst School captain. He introduced himself as Ben and then introduced a couple of girls who were with him. They were about the same age as him. There was Jane, Ben's girlfriend and Heather. They were obviously disappointed momentarily when they realised that I was to be their billet, not Tony whom they all knew, but quickly covered this up, put my bag in the boot of an old car and set off with me sitting in the back seat with Heather."

"Was Heather disappointed that you were there instead of Tony? Jill butted in.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure she was, but at least she was too polite to show it. Anyway, as we were driving through town, along a fairly narrow street, virtually just a lane, another car overtook us, and then cut us off. Two hoods jumped out of the back of the car and dragged Ben out. They roughly shoved him into their car and took off."

"Gosh, what did you do?" Jill interrupted again.

"Well Jane and Heather started sobbing and I didn't know what to do. Both girls said they couldn't drive, and being only 15, I obviously wasn't allowed to. We debated for a few minutes about whether we should call the police or Ben's parents. Of course, we didn't have mobile phones in those days, so someone would have had to get out of the car and walk to a public phone. Neither girl was very keen on doing that at night, while I didn't even know where we were, other than somewhere in Bathurst."

"Were you scared?" Jill asked.

"Yes, I was getting more than a little concerned, but just then the same car came roaring up from behind, slowed down, throwing Ben out onto the road without stopping and then sped off again.

"As Ben slowly stood up, it was obvious that he had been beaten. He was bleeding and his clothes torn. Nevertheless, he climbed back into his car and drove off. He reckoned they were going to follow us, so one of the girls suggested we drive to Ma Smith's place. Jane was sure that Ma Smith would be able help us."