The Race to Kangaroo Cliff

by Alexander McCall Smith

  By now they were moving through the water very slowly, the sails having been dropped and the ship’s engines set to low power. A great sailing ship like the Tobermory always attracts attention, and smaller boats were coming out to meet her, circling her playfully, their crews waving a welcome. Several boats sounded their horns in salute, and the Tobermory replied with hers – a long, low sound that echoed over the water.

  When they reached their berth, the Captain ordered the anchor to be lowered. With a loud clanking sound, followed by a splash, the anchor disappeared into the sea, the heavy links of its chain rattling behind it. Once it had reached the sea-bed, more chain was let out to make sure that the ship would not tug itself free. With the anchor set, the Captain gave the order to turn off the engines. Suddenly there was silence, and it was in this silence, with the high, sun-filled Australian sky above them, that everyone stood on deck and gazed at the scene before them. Fee felt as if she had to pinch herself – I’m really here, she thought. I’m really here in Sydney.

  Most people were keen to go ashore straight away, but there were formalities to be completed first. The Captain had to notify the authorities of exactly who was on board and who would be going ashore, and only once he had done this would it be possible for the liberty boats to ferry groups of students to dry land. But that was soon sorted out, and the first of the boats was able to make the short journey to the nearby quay.

  Poppy and Fee were in the first boat, along with Angela, Ben and Thomas. Poppy could hardly contain her excitement, and when she saw her parents waiting on the quay she almost upset the boat with her waving, such was her enthusiasm.

  “Careful!” shouted Mr Rigger. “You’ll have us all in the water.” But he smiled as he shouted the warning, realising how excited she must be.

  Once ashore and united with her parents, Poppy introduced her friends. Then they all made their way to a café for lunch. Over the meal, Poppy gave her mother and father a full account of everything that had happened on the voyage – including the rescue of Feathers, Henry’s experience of surfing and the water shortage.

  Poppy’s father frowned as she told him of the stupidity and selfishness of Hardtack and his friends.

  “I know people like that,” he said. “You don’t want them around you in the Outback, where we all have to rely on one another.”

  “Do you think they’ll ever change?” asked Poppy’s mother. She turned to her husband. “Remember that fellow who was in that group that got lost. He made off with the food and water, thinking he’d get back to town by himself.”

  “He left them out in the bush?” asked Poppy incredulously.

  “Yes,” said her mother. “He went off by himself. He didn’t care about the others.”

  “And what happened?” asked Badger.

  Poppy’s mother paused for a moment. “What happened? Well, he tripped over a rock and broke his ankle. He dragged himself to the shade of a tree and waited. There was nothing else he could do.”

  “But you can’t last long out there,” interjected Poppy. “It’s far too hot.”

  “That’s right,” said her mother. “Meanwhile, the others wandered around, becoming more and more lost, until one of them worked out the way back. And they were well on their way home when they came across the fellow who’d run off with the supplies. He was still lying under his tree, looking pretty far gone. But they picked him up and carried him home to town. He was too weak to walk, but they saved his life.”

  “He was lucky,” observed Ben. “He thought he’d save himself, but ended up being saved by the people he’d left behind.”

  “That’s true,” said Poppy’s father. “And that’s worth remembering, I think. You may think you’re all right on your own, but you never know when you’re going to need other people.”

  After they finished their lunch, Poppy went off with her parents for some private time while the others explored the streets around the harbour. There were all sorts of shops, and having had nothing to spend their pocket money on for weeks, there was much to tempt them. Ben and Badger bought wide-brimmed Australian bush-hats; Fee treated herself to a pair of Outback boots; and Angela and Thomas bought themselves boomerangs. Then, once back at the quay, they signalled to Mr Rigger, who was standing on the deck of the Tobermory, admiring the view. He returned their signal and rowed across the harbour to collect them.

  “I see you’ve bought boomerangs,” he said to Thomas and Angela as they climbed into the rowing boat. “Do you know how to throw them?”

  Both shook their heads. Thomas had seen a film of somebody throwing one, though, and he thought it looked quite easy. Angela had been reading the small instruction leaflet that came with her boomerang. This made it look simple, but instruction leaflets often do that – and she was not confident.

  Mr Rigger laughed. “I’ve thrown a boomerang before,” he said. “Would you like me to show you?”

  Both Angela and Thomas agreed. Mr Rigger was good at showing you how to do things, and they had confidence in him.

  Once back on the Tobermory, they gathered around Mr Rigger for the demonstration. “You hold it like this,” said Mr Rigger, grasping the end of Angela’s boomerang in his right hand. “Then you draw your arm back – like this. And then …” They watched with bated breath as he hurled the boomerang into the air. Angela gasped as she watched it fly at high speed over the water. Further and further it went, showing no sign of coming back. She was sure that sooner or later it would lose momentum, fall into the sea and be lost. But then the boomerang suddenly started to turn to the left.

  “Look!” said Thomas. “It’s coming back.”

  And so it was. Almost as if being controlled by some hidden force, the boomerang began to return towards the Tobermory. As if by magic, it swooped up to and over the deck, still wobbling in its curious way, but more slowly. Angela was worried that it would not stop – that it would spin across the deck and disappear over the other side, but she had not reckoned for Henry. The Captain’s dog had been sitting near the main mast, enjoying the sunshine, when he suddenly saw a strange flying object coming towards him. Unable to resist the temptation, Henry leapt up, launched himself into the air and with flawless judgement caught the boomerang in his jaws.

  This feat was greeted by a great cheer from all who witnessed it.

  “Well done, Henry!” shouted Angela, relieved that her trophy had not been lost forever.

  Henry wagged his tail and made his way over to Mr Rigger and dropped the boomerang at his feet. Rewarded with a pat on the head and a promise of an extra dog biscuit that evening, Henry trotted back to his place near the mast.

  “You see,” said Mr Rigger, with a wink. “Easy, isn’t it?”

  Later that day the entire ship’s company gathered on deck to say goodbye to Feathers. Although there were many who wanted the penguin to stay – not least Feathers himself, who had become quite comfortable on board – the Captain had decided that it would be much kinder to the bird to arrange a new home for him with other penguins. Fortunately, the large zoo on the other side of the bay was home to a colony of penguins, and the director had been only too willing to give Feathers a new home.

  “Penguins are sociable creatures,” the director explained when he came on board the Tobermory with two assistants and a portable penguin carrier. “They’re never really happy on their own. They need the company of other penguins.”

  Everybody could understand that, so when they said goodbye to Feathers, although they felt sad, nobody felt that sending him to the zoo was the wrong thing to do.

  “I’ll send you photographs,” said the director. “And we’ll make sure that there’s a notice outside the enclosure saying that he was rescued by the crew of the Tobermory.”

  From inside his carrier, Feathers could be seen peeping out at his friends. Henry came up and gave the bars of the carrier a lick; this was his way of showing he was sorry his new friend was going. But he, too, appeared to understand that going to the zoo was the
best thing for Feathers and did not make a fuss when the carrier was lowered over the side into the zoo’s waiting launch.

  It was now time for a briefing by the Captain. Standing on the quarter-deck so that everybody could see him, Captain Macbeth addressed the school.

  “Members of the ship’s company,” he began. “We have had an exciting voyage, but now we are here in Australia and about to begin the next stage of our adventure. Tomorrow morning, at first light, we shall sail out of Sydney Harbour and begin our journey up the coast. Our destination is the Great Barrier Reef, where we will spend a day or two before going into harbour at a town called Cairns.

  “Cairns is where the Tall Ships race begins, and once that happens I want every single one of you to concentrate on the business in hand – which will be the race. For two weeks there will be less school work, as you will all be busy with the demanding task of trimming our sails and ensuring that the Tobermory sails as fast as she possibly can.

  “You might be wondering what lies ahead,” the Captain continued. “I’d like to be able to say to you that it will all be easy, but the one thing a captain must never do is mislead his crew. So I shall tell you that it’s going to be really tough. It’s going to be a hard task, and we’re up against some stiff competition. The other crews will fight this race right to the end.

  “And there’s something else. At times it will be dangerous. There are things you are going to have to be extremely careful about. There are great big crocodiles, the saltwater crocodile, or ‘salty’ as it’s called. They live as happily in fresh water as in the sea. Look out for these and remember they are among the most dangerous creatures in the world. Then there are jellyfish that can give you a very nasty sting. And there are sea-snakes that are among the most poisonous snakes in the world. So I want you all to take great care – not just when you think there might be danger about, but every single minute of the day.”

  The Captain paused, to let his words sink in. And they did. At the mention of crocodiles there was a buzz of anxious conversation as people sought reassurance from their friends and deck prefects.

  But not everybody took the warning seriously. “Crocodiles!” sneered William Edward Hardtack. “I’m not sacred of them. They’re just overgrown lizards.”

  “That’s right,” added Geoffrey Shark. “If I see a crocodile up there, I’m going to make it into a handbag for my mum!”

  “Ha!” said Maximilian Flubber, not to be outdone. “I’d like to meet the croc that would dare take me on.”

  Hearing these remarks, Badger shook his head in amazement. How could anybody be so stupid as to talk like that about such dangerous creatures? He had read all about these Australian crocodiles, and he knew what a threat they could be. Only a few months ago the newspapers had carried the story of a teenager who had been eaten by a saltwater crocodile when he had been fooling around on the banks of a river. Everyone knew that there had been crocodiles about, but the boy had seemed to think they would not be interested in him. But he had been as wrong as he possibly could be. Crocodiles are very interested in people and like to get really close to them. In fact, crocodiles like people so much that they like to have them inside them . . . in their stomachs.

  Poppy had come back from her outing with her parents in time to hear the Captain’s talk. She told her friends that everything the Captain said was true, and that if Flubber thought he knew better, he was in for a nasty surprise.

  “Australia’s a great place,” she said to Fee. “Some people get the wrong idea and think it’s full of things that will bite or eat you given half a chance. That’s not really true, but there are times when you have to be careful.” She paused. “Most creatures, you know, will get out of your way if they possibly can.”

  Fee thought about this. She was comfortable enough with most animals, but she was not too keen on spiders. The trouble with them, of course, is that they are so small that most of the time you do not even see them. Of course there are also some rather big spiders – and Australia has plenty of those – but you might not notice them unless they get very close. And hadn’t she read somewhere about a girl who had discovered a nest of spiders in her hair?

  Tanya was more frightened of snakes. She asked Poppy whether she had ever been really close to a snake – and what was it like?

  “Oh, we see snakes all the time in the Outback,” said Poppy. “There’s a snake called the eastern brown snake – you see lots of them. Sometimes they even come into our house.”

  Tanya shuddered. “Inside the house?” she asked in a shocked tone. “Actually inside?”

  Poppy smiled. “It’s not that bad,” she said. “They don’t come in and sit at the table and try to eat your breakfast, or anything like that.”

  Tanya did not think this funny. Nothing about snakes was funny in her view.

  “They just slide around on the floor,” Poppy continued. “They like to curl up in cool places – under the bath-tub, behind the cupboard – that sort of thing. You usually see them in good time.”

  “And then?” asked Tanya, her jaw quivering.

  “And then my dad comes and takes them outside. He uses a special pole with a hook at the end. He picks them up and puts them down on the grass.”

  “And if they bite you?” asked Tanya.

  “You try not to let them,” said Poppy calmly. “But if one of those brown snakes bites you, you’re in trouble. We have an antidote to their poison in the fridge, but you can get pretty sick all the same. You can die, if you’re unlucky.”

  “I’d die of fright,” said Tanya. “Just seeing a snake would be enough.”

  Poppy thought of something. “If you think brown snakes are dangerous, you should see the western taipan.”

  Tanya did not want to see a western taipan – and would have preferred not to talk about them, but Fee was interested.

  “That’s even more poisonous?” she asked.

  Poppy nodded. “If one of them bites you, you’ve got no chance,” she said. “But fortunately they’re very rare. You only find them in a very small part of Australia, close to the middle, where New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland meet.”

  Tanya’s hand shot to her mouth. “But isn’t Queensland where we’re going?”

  “Not the part they live in,” Poppy reassured her.

  Fee had had enough of snake talk by now. “Let’s talk about nicer animals,” she said. And then she added, “Like the duck-billed platypus …”

  Poppy smiled. “All right, but there’s one thing I need to tell you: the platypus has a poisonous spike on its tail. They look nice and cuddly, but I wouldn’t get too close to them.”

  Tanya groaned. “I’m staying on board ship,” she said.

  “Fair enough,” said Poppy. “But be extra careful not to fall in the water.”

  Tanya waited for an explanation.

  “Great white sharks,” said Poppy simply.

  It took them almost a week to sail up the coast from Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef. It would have taken them even longer had the winds not been so favourable, but with a strong breeze on their beam they were able to make better progress than the Captain had imagined. They sailed as quickly at night as they did during the day, checking their position by the stars as they travelled and then plotting their course on paper in the chart room. The skies were clear from dusk onwards – great sweeps of dark velvet with the constellations scattered about them like silver dust.

  Mr Rigger was the expert on the stars, pointing out the Southern Cross and other constellations that could tell you exactly where you were if you had the right tables to work with. “Don’t rely on your GPS,” he warned one day in class. “Things can go wrong.”

  Everyone on board knew this was true. “Anything can happen at sea,” was one of Mr Rigger’s favourite sayings – and, like a number of his favourite sayings, it was absolutely true.

  But now Mr Rigger asked a question. “And just what can go wrong with your GPS?” he asked.

&nbs
p; “The battery can go flat,” said Poppy. “Without any power, you can’t pick up the signal from the satellites.”

  Mr Rigger nodded. “Good answer,” he said. “We rely on batteries, don’t we? And then, when they go flat, we don’t know what to do, do we?”

  Hardtack put up his hand. Badger turned to watch him. Hardtack could usually be relied upon to come up with some smart remark.

  “Yes, Hardtack?” said Mr Rigger.

  “We can recharge them,” said Hardtack, with a smile. “You plug them in and recharge them. Simple.”

  Flubber and Shark both giggled, but were silenced by a look from Mr Rigger.

  “I suppose you think that’s funny, Hardtack,” Mr Rigger said.

  Hardtack pretended to look surprised. “No, sir,” he said. “I mean it seriously. Don’t you recharge after your battery runs flat? I do that with my phone, sir – not that you allow us to use our phones on board.”

  There were sounds of agreement from one or two people. Not everybody liked having their phones taken away from them at the start of a voyage, although some students were quite happy to be out of touch with the world when at sea.

  Hardtack smirked as he continued. “I recharge, sir. Then things work. It’s like magic, sir – but it’s really just electricity.”

  Again Flubber and Shark giggled. Then Shark said, “Hardtack’s right, Mr Rigger. If your battery runs flat, you plug in and recharge.” He paused. “I could show you, if you like, sir.”

  Mr Rigger very rarely lost his temper, but it was clear that he was now being pushed to the limit. “If you think this is so amusing, Hardtack, perhaps you might care to go and tell the Captain all about it.”

  This worked, and Hardtack said nothing more. Talking back to Mr Rigger was one thing; showing disrespect to the Captain was quite another.

  “So,” continued Mr Rigger, now that Hardtack had been silenced, “the reason why you wouldn’t be able to take Hardtack’s advice would be that …”