It was during the summer holidays 2009 in
As he walked into the kitchen, he saw a note on the table from his father John, a world famous explorer. It read,
“Important news Rick. I have gone to
“Oh blast. Why can’t Dad be home for at least tonight? He promised to take me to the movies,” Rick decided he would watch a movie, have some pizza and go to bed.
The next day when Rick was having lunch, there was a knock on the door. John came in.
“Hi, Rick. How was last night?”
“All good, Dad.”
“Rick. A new job has come up. We have to go and explore the Amazon. We leave in two days.” Rick was used to these adventures as they went on them all of the time.
“Okay Dad. Can you help me pack my clothes? I don’t know what to take.”
As the plane was taking off Rick asked John,
“Why are we going to the Amazon?” but John was busy studying a book and didn’t reply…. 14 hours later the plane landed. They boarded a light plane and flew to the starting point.
As Rick and John were walking along a path that would take them to base camp, Rick heard an earsplitting noise.
“What’s that Dad?”
“A Howler Monkey” replied John. When Rick and John got to base camp they set up everything that they would need for somewhere to sleep each night- tents, swags and a cooker. Once they had set up, John went exploring while Rick stayed at the base camp and prepared dinner. After dinner Rick went to bed while John filled out his daily exploring diary.
The next day Rick and John went exploring for the whole day. They had seen lots of things, including buttress roots, strangler figs, sloth, macaw and lots of trees that were more than 80 metres tall. When they came across a stream Rick saw a swarm of army ants close by. He called out,
“Come and look at this, Dad.” Assuming that John was following him, he crouched down to get a close up of the swarm and started to film them. When he looked around to see John he wasn’t there.
“DAD! Where are you?” There was no answer. Realising he was lost, Rick headed back the way he had came when he was walking along Rick came across a cave. He entered. While he was having a look around Rick heard some whimpering. He went a little bit deeper into the now crawling-height cave. As the cave ceiling got higher, Rick saw a Spider Monkey caught in a trap. As he looked more closely saw that it was a Red Spotted Black Spider Monkey of which there where only about three hundred left in the wild. He said to himself
“Which cursed person would do that? POACHERS?” As he freed the Monkey Rick thought, “I should be careful as the poachers could be back any minute now.”
As Rick left the cave, he saw the poachers. When he tried to get away, they caught him.
“What are you doing in the Jungle alone, boy?” the men questioned demandingly.
“I’m lost. I was walking with my Dad then he disappeared” Rick responded unaware that the men were the poachers that had set the trap to catch the animals. The men who were called Bill and Bob went into the cave and came out holding the rabbit trap.
“Is that yours?” asked Rick
“None of your business,” growled Bob.
As Bill, Bob and Rick (now with vine tied around his hands) were walking through the very sticky undergrowth towards the poacher’s base camp, Rick was trying to think of a plan. After thirty minutes of walking all Rick had done was give himself a terrible headache. When Bill, Bob and Rick got back to base camp, Bill and Bob started skinning the animals that they had caught in the traps. Rick silently smiled to himself when Bill and Bob hadn’t caught a Red Spotted Black Spider Monkey. It looked like that’s what they were trying to catch, as that is what he had freed before.
Just as they were finishing off the last animal, a group of villagers came crashing through the bush. When they saw the animal skins they instantly ran towards the men and Rick and seized Bill and Rick. But Bob escaped to find his gun. When he found his gun Bob yelled “HANDS UP!!” When the villagers saw the guns they started to run away with Bill and Rick. When Bob tried to fire the pistols there was a “Click!” instead of the expected “Bang!” The gun was EMPTY!! The villagers, realizing that the gun was empty, ran back to get Bob. Once they had captured Bob they started to head back to their village.
Midway through the return journey the villagers, Bill, Bob and Rick stopped for a break as the undergrowth was very thick and the heat was stupefying . As the group started off again a man with a huge headdress (Rick assumed that he was the Chief) started to check everyone. When he saw that Rick was handcuffed he called to his men,
“This boy doesn’t mean any harm. Free him.” When Rick was free he bowed to the chief.
When the group got to the busy village the men tied up Bill and Bob and gave Rick a present. It was a replica of the Chief’s headdress. After a few hours of explaining what had happened Rick had learnt that the Chief’s name was Olga and he had a son about his age called Songa who knew a little bit of English so he could be a translator. After all the celebrations and goodbyes Rick left the village to head back to base camp.
As he was walking back to base camp using his compass, he saw a swarm of army ants heading straight towards him! Panic stricken, he started to run in the opposite direction straight towards a stream. Forgetting about the danger of anacondas, piranhas and caimans Rick plunges straight in!
As he started to swim towards the bank after the swarm had passed, something brushed past his leg. He looked down and saw two deadly eyes - a piranha! He started to swim downstream as fast as he could. After 10 seconds of his fastest freestyle he looked back to see if it was following him. It wasn’t
“Phew” Rick thought.
As Rick turned around, he realized that he was heading for a waterway with a very fast current. As he traveled downstream he came to a giant waterfall! He struggled to swim upstream. He lost his balance and went tumbling down the waterfall then SMACK! The impact knocked Rick out for a few seconds. When he awoke, he found himself just about to be pulled under by the crashing water. Rick pulled himself up the bank and fell into an exhausted sleep for a few hours.
When Rick woke, he crawled into a nearby cave, as he was very hot. While Rick was thinking what to do, he heard a loud hissss. He pulled himself up and started to leave the cave very silently. A huge anaconda grabbed one of Rick’s legs and started to constrict it and pull the rest of his body into its grasp. While Rick was struggling he accidently kicked the anaconda’s head. In shock the anaconda let’s go of Rick who swiftly escaped.
Rick limped back into the forest bleeding from the fight with the anaconda. Suddenly a human’s voice filled the humid air
“RICK!”
“DAD!”
“Where are you?”
“Over here,” As John rushed towards Rick they rejoiced. After their joyous renunion John bandaged Rick’s leg and they slowly limped back to camp. The very next day the exhausted pair headed back to
The next day when they were leaving Rick thought
“Boy am I glad to be leaving the Amazon” as they flew away.
That is a great story!!! What is a Play Station 3???
ReplyDeletegreat story george. I like the PS3 part.
ReplyDeleteGood one, George.
ReplyDelete