Read Danger in the Dust Online
Authors: Sally Grindley
Joe and his family snatched a couple of hours’ sleep when they returned to the campsite. They were all tired from the early start to the day and the excitement of the safari. Joe thought it would be impossible even to doze in the daytime, especially since he couldn’t wait to go back out on to the savannah, but he must have dropped off almost immediately and didn’t have a clue where he was when Peter woke him again. He was upset to find that it had rained heavily while they were sleeping, and there was still some moisture in the air as they set off with Matunde for a second time.
‘Rain makes it more interesting to go off-road,’ Matunde said, grinning broadly.
‘Does that mean we’ll have to stick to the tracks?’ Joe asked anxiously.
‘We have leopards and rhinos to see,’ said Matunde. ‘If they don’t come to us, we’ll have to go to them!’
As the sun broke through the clouds and it began to heat up, water evaporated from the sodden ground, making it misty and difficult to see very far. Matunde and his group of eager travellers passed herds of zebras, several giraffes and even another pride of lions, all of which caused cries of delight, but none of which had quite the same impact as on first viewing. Joe was eager to spot an animal they hadn’t seen before, and when he saw a strange, dark-grey shape, like an enormous swan on stilts, appearing through the mist, he held his breath in anticipation.
‘Look!’ he cried, when at last it became visible. ‘An ostrich! It’s enormous!’
The ostrich came closer, its head aloof, as though refusing to acknowledge its spectators, its long pink legs scything through the wet grass. Then, before Joe could pick up his camera, the ostrich began to lope away, its strides getting longer and longer, until it disappeared behind a line of trees.
‘Cool!’ said Joe, though he was dismayed he hadn’t managed to take a photograph. ‘They can run so fast!’
‘Over seventy kilometres per hour,’ said Matunde. ‘It’s one of the fastest creatures on earth.’
They continued for some distance without seeing anything else and Joe began to think that they would leave without spotting either a rhino or a leopard. He wasn’t so worried about the rhino, because he knew he would soon be helping to release rhinos, though it wouldn’t be the same as coming across one already living in the wild. But he was desperate to see a leopard. Matunde tried his best to locate both animals by liaising with other guides in the reserve via mobile phone, but the final two animals of the Big Five proved elusive.
‘I have an idea where to go,’ Matunde suddenly informed Joe and his family. ‘Hold tight!’
He quickly left the track, heading towards an area in the distance where there was a greater density of trees and bushes and where the landscape looked more rugged.
Joe held on to the sides of his seat as the truck bounced up and down on the uneven ground. He began to feel exhilarated now that they had left the grassland and were ploughing through much thicker vegetation, turning this way and that to negotiate round rocks and other obstacles.
Wow! This is a real adventure!
He was delighted when they came across a troop of baboons and Matunde stopped to allow them to take photographs. Within minutes, the baboons were clambering all over the truck, peering through the windows and trying to find a way in. Aesha screamed when a large male tried to wriggle through the viewing gap at the top of the truck before Matunde had moved to close it, and then cooed when she saw that one of the baboons was carrying a baby.
‘They’re so funny!’ cried Joe, as a young baboon stared at itself in a wing mirror and tried to groom its image.
Disaster struck when one of the baboons, encouraged by Matunde to take a piece of bread from his hand, leant through his open window and, quick as a flash, grabbed his mobile phone instead. The baboon jumped down from the truck, mobile in hand. Triumphant, it ran off with its prize, the rest of the troop scattering, as though fearful of repercussions.
Matunde shrugged. ‘Now nobody knows where we are,’ he said lightly, ‘and nobody can tell us if they see a leopard. But it’s not a worry. I will find one for you.’
Joe didn’t know whether or not to believe him and thought he saw an anxious glance pass between his mother and his father.
Do they think we might not get to see a leopard now? Is it too late?
The sun was just beginning to set as Matunde turned the truck sharply across an area of scrub in the direction of a bank of tall trees. He had been particularly quiet during the past half hour, his eyes scouring every last scrap of landscape, his ears alert to the slightest sounds. Something had obviously caught his attention, because he put his foot on the accelerator, taking the Brook family by surprise and throwing them sideways in their seats.
‘Whoa, steady!’ said Peter. ‘Hold on, everyone.’
Joe could feel the wheels spinning on the wet undergrowth and the surge of the engine, straining to make them grip. The truck lurched forward and began to eat up the ground as Matunde urged it on – but the guide failed to see an overgrown ditch ahead. Seconds later, the truck had plunged into it, landing bonnet first against the far side, its rear bumper in the air.
Silence followed. It was as if the whole of the savannah was holding its breath in shock.
‘Are you all right, Joe? Aesha?’ Binti’s anxious voice broke through the silence.
Joe struggled to his feet from the floor of the truck. ‘I think so,’ he said. He felt something wet and warm trickle down his face and touched it with his hand. ‘I’ve cut my forehead,’ he added, ‘but it’s nothing much.’
‘I banged my knee.’ Aesha groaned. ‘What happened?’
‘We’ve skidded into a ditch.’ Peter’s head appeared over the back of his seat. ‘No broken bones?’
‘Matunde isn’t moving.’ Binti leant over the driver’s seat, from where Matunde had been thrown forward – he was now prostrate over the steering wheel. The glass of the windscreen had shattered and there was a gaping hole in it.
Peter climbed over the back of the passenger seat into the cab and checked Matunde’s pulse.
‘His pulse is fine,’ he reported. ‘It looks as if he knocked himself unconscious on the steering wheel – there’s a big bump on his forehead.’
Peter wound down a window and looked out. ‘The ditch isn’t deep, but I’m not sure how we’re going to get the truck out. It’s wedged nose-down at an angle of forty-five degrees and the back wheels are in the air.’
Binti opened a bottle of water, tipped some on to a small bandanna she had brought with her and handed the bandanna to Peter. He tried to lift Matunde away from the steering wheel in order to apply it to his forehead, but it was difficult because of the angle of the truck. Instead, he tried to revive him by holding the bandanna against the guide’s neck, reapplying fresh water when it became too warm. Meanwhile, Binti saw to the cut on Joe’s forehead with a plaster she found in a first-aid tin that was stowed in the pocket of the truck door.
‘Will Matunde be all right?’ Joe asked.
‘I’m sure he will,’ Binti replied. ‘He must have taken quite a bump, though.’
‘How are we going to get out of here?’ Aesha asked the other question that was playing on Joe’s mind.
‘That’s a bit of a conundrum,’ said Peter.
He turned to smile at them, but Joe could tell he was troubled. The light was fading fast and, as far as they knew, they were a long way from anywhere.
‘We can’t even phone anyone because of those stupid baboons,’ Aesha grumbled.
Joe stared at her.
Nobody knows where we are!
In the driver’s seat, Matunde stirred and muttered something incomprehensible, before falling silent again.
‘When he comes to, we’ll have a go at seeing if we can shift the truck,’ said Peter, though he sounded extremely doubtful. ‘If we all get out and push –’
‘Looking at the angle of the truck,’ said Binti, ‘I don’t think there’s even the remotest chance we’ll be able to shift it.’
‘And I don’t want to get out,’ Aesha added. ‘What if an animal spots us?’
Joe shivered. He was glad his parents were with them. He had wanted an African adventure, but this was turning out to be more than a little scary.
How long will we have to stay here?
he wondered.
We can’t even sit properly without sliding off the seats.
The only way he could stay in his seat was to put both feet against the seat in front, so that he was half-sitting, half-standing. Aesha had done the same, though she complained that it hurt her knee. Binti and Peter were half-standing up and half-leaning against the driver and front passenger seats, both of them deep in thought.
They don’t know what to do!
realised Joe
. They always know what to do, but they don’t know what to do now!
Joe was shocked to grasp that for once his parents were powerless to make things happen.
Matunde stirred again. Peter applied the damp compress to his neck and reached forward to wipe his face.
‘I hope he’s all right,’ said Binti.
‘It’s his fault we’re in this mess,’ Aesha complained. ‘We should never have let him take us away from the tracks.’
‘We can’t blame him for doing his best for us,’ Peter replied. ‘He knew how much we wanted –’
‘Dad! Look behind you, Dad!’
The urgency in Joe’s voice and the fear in his eyes made Peter stop what he was saying and spin round.
‘Where?’ he asked.
‘Just behind that boulder.’
Joe pointed through the windscreen. Just visible above a large boulder was the head of a rhino, its eyes focused on the truck with its stranded passengers.
‘Let’s just keep calm,’ said Peter. ‘We’re safe in here.’
‘What about the hole in the windscreen?’ Binti pointed out.
‘The ditch will protect us from an attack from the front,’ Peter replied.
‘I thought black rhinos were supposed to be rare,’ Aesha whispered. ‘I can’t believe one has appeared just when we least want to see it!’
They stared back out at the rhino, which flicked its ear to remove an irritating fly but continued to gaze in their direction.
I wanted to see a rhino in the wild
, thought Joe,
but not like this
.
‘It looks awesome with the sun setting in the background,’ Peter observed, picking up his camera.
‘Surely you’re not going to take a photo when we’re in danger of being crushed!’ protested Aesha.
‘It’s my job,’ Peter said simply.
He bent down, put his arm round the side of the driver’s seat and picked up Matunde’s shotgun.
‘I’ll only use it if I have to,’ he added, seeing Joe’s consternation.
Joe hardly dared pick up his own camera, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Imagine what my friends will say when I show them the photo and tell them the rhino could have attacked us!
The rhino seemed quite happy to stand behind the boulder and pose while Joe and his father took one photograph after another. Binti and Aesha watched anxiously for any sign that it was developing anything more than a passing interest in its audience. When it took a few steps towards them, Aesha let out a scream, but it stopped, turned away from them and disappeared into some bushes.
‘Thank goodness for that.’ Binti sighed, after waiting for a few moments to see if it was going to reappear. ‘I might be used to dealing with large animals, but I prefer it to be on my terms.’
The night was closing in fast when Matunde finally began to move again. He leant back awkwardly in his seat, swaying precariously, and tried to work out where he was.
‘What happened?’ he asked when Peter put a hand on his shoulder and told him everything was all right.
‘We seem to have landed in a ditch and we can’t get out of it,’ said Peter.
‘It’s my fault.’ Matunde shook his head. ‘It was too wet, but I wanted to find you a rhino and I know one lives here.’
‘We’ve seen it!’ piped up Joe. ‘It was behind that boulder there. We got some amazing photos!’
Matunde pulled a torch from under the dashboard and switched it on, but then thought better of it and switched it off again.
‘I need to see if the truck will move,’ he muttered.
He turned the key in the ignition, but Peter restrained him.
‘The truck’s not going anywhere,’ he said. ‘We need someone to come and rescue us.’
He didn’t have time to say any more. There was a loud bang and the truck shook. Aesha yelped. Joe held his breath. Peter took hold of the shotgun. Matunde tried to grab it from him, but Peter refused to let go.
‘You’re still concussed,’ he hissed. ‘It’s better if I have it.’
‘Hold on tight to the seats and keep together in the middle of the truck,’ Binti told Joe and Aesha, as it shook again.
‘It’s the rhino!’ Joe whispered. ‘It’s barging us from behind the truck.’
‘Shhh!’ Binti warned him.
‘What if it tips the truck over?’ Aesha was terrified.
‘It won’t,’ Peter said firmly.