Flight of the Jabiru (32 page)

Embarrassed, Leroy scoffed at her praise.

“Have you got somewhere to shelter if Humpty-Doo is bombed?” Lara asked him.

“There's a dry creek bed behind my house. Me and Levi can hide there.”

Leroy watched the fuel gauge on his car very carefully, so that he could get it back home and hide the car in the garage. He let the girls out a few miles west of where the Adelaide River crossed the highway and wished them well. They couldn't thank him enough for his help as he'd saved them many, many hours of walking in the hot sun. And taking them to the Arnhem Highway also saved them walking across country from the Stuart Highway. Meeting him had been a Godsend.

As they set off, Lara hoped they weren't going to be walking into a different kind of hell.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The girls had been walking for five long, unbelievably hot hours, when Lara couldn't go any further and insisted they stop to rest amid a stand of giant termite mounds that looked like sentinels. They were wide enough to provide blessed shade from the hot sun with their columns entwining to form what looked like a wide tree trunk without branches or foliage. Remarkably, the smallest of the mounds was at least seven feet tall.

Rick had told Lara about the termite mounds and explained that they were built in such a way that the inside was fully insulated from the heat. Lara envied the termites ingenuity. She'd never been so hot and thirsty in her life, or so out of her element. Every drop of water she drank seemed to leak from her pores in perspiration. Her thirst was unquenchable, but already the canteens they were carrying were nearly empty. They had to find a fresh water billabong soon.

It didn't take long after leaving Leroy for Lara to feel grateful for the protection of the ‘ugly' shoes she was wearing, and the hat. The ground was rough, pebbled, and littered with spiky weeds that would have cut her feet, and the sun was merciless. Without the protection of a hat she would've soon had sunstroke.

Gum trees scattered the area where they were walking, but they provided little shade because their foliage was still recovering after a fire caused by a lightning strike. Leroy had been right about the ants, too. Lara had never seen ants so large or ferocious. Some were an inch long. At times she had to run to escape them.

“What's that over there?” Lara asked, seeing something large and brown in the distance between clumps of bamboo. The sun was so glary that she didn't trust her vision.

“It should be the Adelaide River,” Jiana said, consulting the map that Leroy had given them.

“But its brown,” Lara said, thinking Jiana must be mistaken. Rivers weren't brown.

“That's right,” Jiana said. “It's a muddy color.”

“Do we have to follow the river?” Lara would've given anything for a cooling swim, even in muddy colored water, but she'd come to accept that it was out of the question.

“We must cross it to get home,” Jiana said as if it was a small problem.

“Cross it! How are we going to do that? We can't fly; there isn't a bridge, and swimming is out of the question.” She knew the problem wasn't entirely Jiana's, but she didn't appear to see the river as an insurmountable obstacle.

“Maybe a black fella somewhere round here with a canoe,” Jiana said quite calmly.

“A canoe!” Lara was incredulous.

“Yeah, they cut canoes from the trees,” Jiana said.

“You'd cross the river ... in a tiny canoe?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I'll tell you why not. I've seen plenty of crocodiles big enough to swallow a canoe whole and think it was just a snack,” Lara snapped.

Jiana smiled. “Black fellas do it all the time,” she said as if she thought Lara was overstating the danger.

The girls walked towards the water, with Lara keeping a nervous eye out for crocodiles. The river seemed peaceful. Lara was relieved not to see any crocodiles in the water, although she knew there was a possibility they were there. Not to see them sunning themselves on the banks was even more reassuring. She thought perhaps crossing in a canoe was a possibility after all.

“It looks like the crocodile hunters have taken most of the crocs,” she commented in a more positive frame of mind. “I can't see one.”

Jiana picked up a rock and threw it in the water. It landed with a big splash, breaking the surface, about fifteen feet from the riverbank.

“Why did you do that?” Lara asked her, noticing Jiana appeared to be watching for something.

Within a few seconds, several very large crocodile heads appeared from the murky depths of the river. One swam towards them so they could see it's whole body. It was enormous, fourteen or sixteen feet in length, and terrifying. When another large animal surfaced close by, the river erupted into white spray as they attacked each other, jaws snapping ferociously and teeth thrashing violently as they rolled over and over. Soon the muddy water was red with blood. This excited other crocodiles and more fights broke out.

Lara gasped, taking several steps backwards. “There's no way I'm crossing this river in a tiny canoe,” she insisted. “In fact, it's probably not safe to be near the river at night.”

“We be right. You'll see,” Jiana said rationally.

Lara had no choice but to trust that Jiana was right, but she doubted she'd close her eyes all night.

The long shadows of late afternoon were creeping over the ground. It was a relief for the sun to be going down, but the reality of being out in the open at night was now quite terrifying. Lara had to keep reminding herself that Jiana had done this before, by herself, and survived unscathed.

“We make a fire,” Jiana said. “That'll keep the crocs ‘way.”

Lara didn't want to say that she was starving, but her stomach was growling and she felt light-headed from hunger. She also didn't think that a fire would keep them safe from a hungry, cunning predator like a crocodile, but she kept silent, vowing to stay awake all night armed with a big stick.

Jiana chose a small clearing, near some large rocks, to make camp. After the girls gathered wood, she built a fire a few feet from the base of the rocks, using the matches that Leroy had given them to light the kindling. By this time, Lara was so weak, dehydrated, and hungry that she had to sit down. She leant against the rocks and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes a short while later, Jiana had already found some food that included juicy kakadu plums, also known as billy-goat plums, yams, and berries that were bitter in taste. She put the yams around the edge of the fire to roast while they ate the berries and plums. Lara was so hungry that she had little care for what she was eating and scoffed into the fruit.

As soon as the fruit was eaten, Jiana was on the move again, searching for more food. By now it was almost dark and Lara was worried about the Aboriginal girl, but too afraid to leave the safety of the fire. She felt guilty for not helping, but Jiana insisted she'd do better on her own.

While Lara waited, she listened keenly to the sounds of night in the bush. She could hear frogs by the river, and crickets, and the odd sound in the trees. It was the rustling noises on the ground that she feared the most. Millions of stars twinkled overhead, but even with a small amount of moonlight, Lara felt safest beside the fire.

As time passed and there was no sign of Jiana, Lara became really frightened that she'd been taken by a crocodile. Panic began to set in, quickly followed by irrational thoughts. Eventually she couldn't contain her panic.

“Jiana,” she yelled into the darkness in near hysteria.

“What you yellin' for?” Jiana asked as she came into the circle of light from the fire and threw something into the fire.

“I thought something had happened to you,” Lara said, relieved that it hadn't, but feeling slightly foolish.

Jiana shook her head. “I know my way ‘round the bush,” she said. “So stop worrying ‘bout me.”

Lara smelt something cooking, but she was too exhausted to think about what it might be. Instead she leant against the rocks and closed her eyes to rest again.

In a little while Jiana was offering Lara some food on a large broad tree leaf that served as a plate.

Lara devoured it and enjoyed it. The yams were a bit crunchy, so she recognized them as a root vegetable. Something else was soft and meaty, but didn't taste bad. Then there was some sort of roasted meat. It was edible, but there were many fine bones. She was so hungry that she ate without thinking about it, but when she'd finished, and was licking the last morsels from her fingers, she asked Jiana what it was that they'd eaten.

“Did you like it?” Jiana asked.

“I might not order it in a restaurant in the future, but I was so hungry that I would've eaten dirt and not complained. To be honest, I've had the taste of burnt oil in my mouth all day, so it's good to taste something else, anything else.”

Jiana understood. She'd had the same terrible taste in her mouth. “You just ate bush tucker; yams, a small bird, and few witchetty grubs.”

Lara looked at the girl, expecting that she was going to say that she was only joking. She didn't. “In the future, if I ask what we're eating, don't tell me the truth,” she insisted.

Jiana smiled. “I'll make a black fella out of you yet, English girl,” she said.

The girls emptied one canteen of water, which left them with just half a canteen for the following day unless they came upon fresh water that wasn't inhabited by crocodiles. They built up the fire and then lay down on the ground with the big rocks at their back and the fire crackling in front of them.

“Are you sure we're safe from crocodiles?” Lara whispered, fighting to keep her eyes open despite her resolve to stay awake.

“They keep ‘way from fire,” Jiana assured her.

“What about snakes and spiders?” Lara asked just as she succumbed to sleep.

“Can't make promises about snakes and spiders,” Jiana whispered.

At daybreak, Lara was awoken by something sharp being poked in her back. “Stop it, Jiana,” she grumbled testily. “I'll get up.” She had slept badly on the hard ground and was stiff and sore. It seemed whenever she dozed off, she was awoken by something crawling up her leg or over her arm. Her screeches of fright awoke Jiana several times. Consequently neither of them had slept very much. She squinted in the sunlight, thinking the figure looming over her was Jiana, until her hair was pulled.

“Ouch,” she cried, and then realized she was surrounded by half a dozen young male Aboriginals armed with spears and clubs.

“Get away from me,” Lara screeched as she scrambled to her feet. With her back to the rocks, there was no escape. She was further alarmed that Jiana was nowhere in sight.

“What do you want?” she asked, trying to put on a brave face when she was terrified. One of them reached for her hair again. She backed away, coming up against the rocks, and screamed out for Jiana.

Jiana came from the direction of the river. “What wrong now?” she asked.

“I would think that's obvious,” Lara said in a panic. She didn't understand how Jiana could be so calm.

Ignoring Jiana, the young men began a discussion amongst themselves, but it was obviously about Lara because they kept glancing at her.

“What are they saying about me?” Lara asked indignantly. She dusted off her dress, which was rather filthy, and tried to smooth her hair. She was sure she looked a fright and that they were criticizing her.

Jiana spoke to the young men in the Aboriginal language, but their attention was completely taken with Lara. They were tall and lean, with athletic bodies, but Lara didn't know where to look because they were wearing little more than an animal skin over their genitalia.

“They can't understand why you have ‘old ladies hair' and a young face,” Jiana said, laughing.

“What do they mean by ‘old ladies hair'? I know it doesn't look the best right now, but that's a harsh thing to say.”

“They not see someone with hair that color before,” Jiana explained.

“Oh, you mean blond, of course,” Lara said, understanding. She was relieved that her hair was their only fascination. “That explains why they pulled my hair, but why did they poke me with a spear?”

“There was a brown snake on the rocks behind you so they thought you were dead.”

“A brown snake!” Lara shuddered. She wondered if it had crawled over her during the night and felt faint again, so she sat down.

Jiana had a discussion with the men.

“Apparently there's a fisherman about a mile up river and he has a boat,” she told Lara. “He maybe take us ‘cross the river. If not, these black fellas have a couple of canoes but they want a piece of your hair before they'll give us the canoes to cross the river.”

“What? Are you serious?”

Jiana grinned so Lara suspected she was joking.

Lara accepted the plums and berries that Jiana handed her. “Thank you, but I'm not caring for your sense of humor, Jiana,” she complained wearily. “These men don't by any chance have a camp nearby and a billy of tea, do they?” Rick had made her billy tea on their picnics.

“Now who be funny?” Jiana laughed.

“Let's find the fisherman. I'm sure he's civilized enough to have a pot of tea and I'd feel safer in his boat than a canoe,” Lara insisted.