The (True) Adventures of Mudpoo

by Peter Klein

  For Isabella, Logan, Narelle, Sam and Todd

  Acknowledgments

  Pete would like to thank: Narelle for her beautiful patience and hugs; Leon who found the enthusiasm and inspiration to draw the beautifully detailed pictures; Sam and Todd for their natural curiosity and passion that inspired Captain Pete; Elaine at Table Top Public School for her encouragement; BT for his assistance; Heinz and Eleonore for their love and support; and the crew of the Princess II who introduced us to humpback whales at Hervey Bay, inspiring a day we will never forget.

  The (true) Adventures of Mudpoo

  Written by Peter Klein

  Illustrated by Leon de Montignie

  Published by JoJo Publishing

  ‘Yarra’s Edge’

  2203/80 Lorimer Street

  Docklands VIC 3008

  Australia

  Email: jo-media@bigpond.net.au

  or visit www.jojopublishing.com

  © 2011 JoJo Publishing

  No part of this printed or video publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner:

  JoJo Publishing

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data

  Klein, Peter.

  The (true) adventures of Mudpoo / Peter Klein ; illustrator, Leon deMontignie. Edited by Riima Daher

  9780987410450 (ePub).

  For primary school age.

  Welcome to the true adventures of Mudpoo. Every story I’m about to tell you mostly, really happened. Captain Pete and Gus the talking Kombi van are real. Mudpoo is a real person and Harry is a real dog. Liz loves whales and she is a real person too.

  Mudpoo and Harry grew up together in a happy home in the very sleepy hillside town of Bethanga. They loved to build cubbies and often talked about going on exciting adventures. Captain Pete told them stories about the exciting adventures he’d had.

  One day they would all go on an adventure together.

  Mudpoo and Harry played exciting adventure games in the trees and muddy puddles in the garden. They would pretend that they were exploring Australia in their backyard. It was great fun.

  Sometimes Mudpoo and Harry would get into trouble, especially if they walked into the house with mud on their feet. “Mudpoo and Harry!” Captain Pete would say, “Did you leave muddy footprints on the carpet?”

  They were so busy playing adventures that sometimes they forgot to wipe their feet!

  One day a long time ago, Captain Pete found Gus, the talking Kombi van. He was like a little house on wheels.

  On the They packed: sleeping bags, a billy, real tea, flour (to make damper), an esky filled with food, some spare clothes, a tent, a torch and some spare batteries, a cooking pot, a gas stove, lots of cans of Irish stew and potatoes, some plates, knives, forks and spoons, lots of fruit, some towels, soap, bathers, a fishing rod, a road map of Australia and their toothbrushes.

  When they left home they were so happy they sang Christmas carols (and it wasn’t even Christmas!). Captain Pete decided that they could spend four weeks exploring the East Coast of Australia.

  He told Mudpoo and Harry that if Gus was strong enough, they might make it all the way to Queensland and if they were really lucky, they might see a humpback whale. Mudpoo and Harry had heard that whales could sing and they were very excited. They had so many real, unexpected adventures I could tell you about . . .

  Hmmm . . .

  Perhaps it would be better if I let

  the book tell you the stories.

  Happy reading!

  Signed,

  They were getting very close.

  Mudpoo and Harry knew the best roller coaster was in Queensland. The Gold Coast was full of adventure parks. When they arrived in Queensland everyone cheered. When Gus stopped at Sea World Adventure Park, they were ready to have fun. Everyone patted Gus.

  “Well done, you made it here,” they said.

  Gus beamed and felt proud.

  “Captain Pete and I have been on the roller coaster before,” said Harry. “It’s scary; at first it goes slow, then it goes up, up, up and then, wham, down as fast as a rocket.”

  Harry’s face lit up as he tried to tell Mudpoo there was no need to be nervous.

  The dolphins and the sea lions put on a wonderful show. They all watched in amazement.

  “They understand everything that their trainer says to them,” said Captain Pete.

  “Look over there!” said Mudpoo.

  “Where?” asked Harry.

  Over there, it's the roller coaster said Mudpoo.

  It was so big that the roller coaster could be seen from very far away. Even Gus who was in the car park could see it. When the last sea lion and dolphin waved goodbye, they walked to the roller coaster.

  “Don’t be scared Mudpoo,” said Harry. “It’s huge and fast and goes upside down and it feels like you could fall out.”

  Somehow this didn’t reassure Mudpoo very much at all. As their turn got closer Captain Pete looked kindly at Mudpoo.

  “You’ll be ok, just close your eyes if it becomes too scary.”

  Mudpoo didn’t say a word.“Hop in; it’s your turn,” said the smiling attendant.

  Harry, Mudpoo and Captain Pete sat in the front seat. Some other people sat in the seat behind them. As soon as they were safely strapped into their seats, the roller coaster began to move.

  Slowly at the roller coaster climbed up, up, up and UP!

  They could see Gus far away. He was a tiny speck in the car park. Captain Pete smiled confidently at Mudpoo as it climbed as high as it could go. Suddenly, whoosh, it took off like a mad train out of control. It was going to crash when, ZOOOOM, it suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, then, WHAM! another sharp turn to the left and then it climbed even higher.

  “Oh no!” cried Harry, burying his head in his paws.

  A terrified Captain Pete screamed, "Whahoo,hoo,hoo!"

  Mudpoo stayed calm. The roller coaster went round and round and round in circles slowing down until very gently it came to a stop.

  Shaking, and with very wobbly knees, Captain Pete and Harry climbed out.

  Mudpoo confidently stepped out and looked at them both with a huge grin and said, "Can we do it again?"

  Harry and Captain Pete looked at each other; their heads were spinning and they were holding their tummies,“Oh no Mudpoo, not today!”

  It was morning and the start of another exciting day.

  After a yummy breakfast near the ocean, Harry and Mudpoo brushed their teeth. Then they happily helped Captain Pete pack up their camp and neatly place everything inside Gus.

  The sun was shining; it was going to be a very hot day.

  “Who feels like an ice cream?” said Captain Pete.

  Gus stopped at the very next ice cream shop.

  “I’ll have the ice cream with the bubblegum in the middle,” shouted Mudpoo excitedly and Harry nodded vigorously in agreement. With ice creams on board, Gus was chugging up the road without a worry in the world.

  Captain Pete was so happy, he sang a little song to himself.

  Mudpoo sat on the back seat next to Harry.

  They had both eaten their ice creams and had come to the best part; the juicy bubble gum centre! Harry was carefully chewing his bubblegum when he turned to see Mudpoo looking very concerned. You see, Mudpoo had chewed his bubblegum until it was just right.

  “I’d better check the bubblegum,” thought Mudpoo and he popped the sticky ball in his fingers and gave it a squeeze. But instead of being able to roll the
bubblegum back into a ball, each finger had bubblegum firmly stuck to it.

  “That’s odd,” thought Mudpoo to himself, who knew the best thing to do was to wipe his fingers on his shirt. “That will fix it.”

  Now there was bubblegum stretching from Mudpoo’s shirt right up to each finger.

  “Now look here!” said Mudpoo looking very crossly at the bubblegum.

  “Look where?” replied the bubblegum.

  Mudpoo was so cross he wasn’t even a little bit surprised that the bubble gum could talk. “I’m the stickiest bubblegum in the land and . . . I’m the messiest.”

  Mudpoo looked concerned, ‘I know what’ll fix you,’ he thought. ‘I’ll wipe you on my trousers.’

  So Mudpoo wiped and wiped as hard as he could until his hands, shirt and pants were a sticky, tangled web of bright bubble gum strands going in all directions.

  Harry sat quietly and watched. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

  This made the trip even more interesting, he thought. Gus decided it was time for a rest and stopped near a small water tank and a huge shady tree.

  Captain Pete was still singing;

  He stopped singing when he looked into the back of Gus. The sad expression on Mudpoo’s face told the story.

  “It was the bubble gum,” explained Mudpoo. “It came alive!”

  With lots and lots of soapy water and a lot of scrubbing by Captain Pete, Mudpoo was slowly cleaned up.

  “I’ve learnt my lesson,” said Mudpoo.

  “Bubblegum is not a toy to play with.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  It was a beautiful morning to be camped near the ocean.

  Harry and Mudpoo had slept in a tent near the edge of the Red Gum forest. Laughter and screams could be heard coming from the tent.

  Captain Pete got out of bed, stretched and yawned and put the billy on.

  “Weet-bix with honey for breakfast,” said Mudpoo and Harry together.

  Captain Pete looked stern, “You can get breakfast ready for yourselves today,” he said trying to look as grumpy as possible.

  Without too much extra mess Mudpoo and Harry prepared their own

  breakfast.

  "Let's go down to the rocks," said Harry who wanted to scramble away at once.

  “Wait just a minute,” said Captain Pete. “What about the washing up?”

  Looking as sad as they could Mudpoo and Harry helped with the washing up.

  “There, that’s better. Grab the fishing rods and let’s go,” said Captain Pete.

  In less than one minute they’d walked to a beautiful beach with large rocks everywhere.

  “There are more rocks than yesterday!” said Harry a little surprised.

  “That’s because the tide is out,” said Captain Pete.

  Indeed the tide was out and it had left hundreds of tiny rock pools filled with interesting sea creatures.

  Mudpoo and Harry carefully walked between the rocks, studying the rock pools. The rocks were often jagged, very slippery and sometimes very difficult to cross.

  “Here’s a nice big water hole with little fish in it,” cried Harry very excitedly.

  Captain Pete dropped in a fishing line.

  They all watched as the fish played a game with the bait. No sooner was the hook in the water, than a sneaky little fish would eat the bait without being caught.

  “Hey, cut that out!” said Captain Pete as he fumbled to re-bait the hook.

  He was so busy that he didn’t notice that Harry and Mudpoo had walked to the very edge of the rocks where the ocean was gently lapping at their feet.

  “What’s over there?” yelled Harry pointing out to sea.

  Captain Pete looked up, “That’s the Pacific Ocean and the next land is Chile in South America.”

  “Is that far?” asked Harry.

  “It’s a very long way,” said Captain Pete. “It would take a month in a boat.”

  “Wow that’s far!” said Harry.

  By now Captain Pete had realised Mudpoo and Harry were very close to the rocky edge.

  “Get back from the edge!” yelled Captain Pete urgently.

  Mudpoo and Harry came over at once.

  “Why, what’s wrong?” they both asked looking very surprised.

  “Well, I know the water looks calm, but every now and then the ocean can get quite dangerous with giant waves,” said Captain Pete.

  “You mean like a secret wave?” said Mudpoo.

  “Errr . . . Yes,” Captain Pete replied.

  “Like that one,” said Harry pointing to a giant wave heading towards the rocks.

  Captain Pete looked up and had less than one second to tightly hold Mudpoo and Harry as the giant wave washed over the rocks where they had been standing.

  The seawater washed over Captain Pete’s wobbly knees as Mudpoo and Harry hung on. In a moment the sea was calm again.

  “Now we know why it’s dangerous to go too close to the edge of the rocks,” said Mudpoo, Harry nodded his head in agreement.

  A secret wave almost washed them into the sea.

  From that day on, they were all a lot more careful!

  The smell of adventure was in the air and Gus was excited.

  Gus loved camping by the sea, but after three days at the camping ground, Gus was very keen to get moving again. Mudpoo and Harry were brushing their teeth. This seemed to take longer than usual.

  With all the packing to be done and the breakfast dishes to be washed, Captain Pete was patiently waiting for their help.

  “Right Harry,” said Captain Pete. “You finish packing the tent-poles and Mudpoo you finish drying the breakfast dishes.”

  Mudpoo thought for a moment, “Oh, I did the drying yesterday,” he said rather hopefully.

  “Ah, that’s great, so you’ve had good practice then,” replied Captain Pete.

  Mudpoo looked at the breakfast dishes, “I’ll do them,” he promised. “I’ll do them over there so I can see the beautiful birds.”

  Mudpoo moved the box of wet cups and bowls and sat next to them, wishing they would simply dry themselves.

  Harry was helping Captain Pete to load Gus; it was a cheerful, steady job. They weren’t in any hurry, though Gus was keen to go. Mudpoo decided that one more little walk, to find one more interesting seashell seemed like a good idea.

  Everyone was so busy, they didn't notice Mudpoo walking slowly towards the beach.

  As Mudpoo followed the sandy track his eyes searched carefully for exciting, colourful shells. Mudpoo always found the best shells by carefully studying the ground.

  “In go the sleeping bags and the tent,” said Captain Pete.

  “In go the folding chairs and the billy,” said Harry. “We’ve got water in all our containers.”

  Captain Pete checked Gus, “We’ve got oil in the engine and plenty of air in the tyres.”

  “That’s everything isn’t it?” asked Gus excitedly. “Jump in.”

  Harry and Captain Pete jumped in and closed the door and away they went. With a roar and a cloud of dust they were gone.

  At this very moment Mudpoo decided he had found just enough shells and walked slowly back to camp. When he reached the camping spot he rubbed his eyes.

  Everyone had gone, but not quite everything.

  The little box of dishes and the tea towel were still sitting near the tree, just where he had left them. Trying as hard as he could not to be worried, Mudpoo dried the dishes.

  The familiar roaring sound that Gus made could be heard coming over the hill. Inside sat a smiling Captain Pete and Harry.

  “You’ve done a wonderful job with those dishes,” said Captain Pete.

  “How could we leave you behind?”

  Mudpoo with both pockets full of seashells grinned.

  He was so glad to see them that he promised to dry the dishes again tomorrow.

  “Good for you Mudpoo!” said Captain Pete and away they went on a new adventure.

  Slowly, Gus roared his way up the h
illy, winding road.

  He knew when he reached the very top he could stop for a rest. Mudpoo, Harry and Captain Pete were in Nambour in Queensland to visit their friend Liz.

  Kevin, Liz’s Kombi, was parked in the driveway. He gave Gus a warm smile as he pulled in

  .

  "Yahoo!" cried Mudpoo and Harry together.

  Everyone piled out of Gus.

  A beaming Liz waved a cheery hello, “You must be exhausted, come inside for a nice cool drink.”

  It wasn’t too long before Mudpoo and Harry wanted to go exploring. Harry was looking around the garden when he noticed something odd. George, Liz’s cat, was sitting beneath a tree grumbling to himself. He was staring up at the tree in the way that cats do when they’re annoyed.

  Harry followed George’s gaze and so did Mudpoo. They saw something that made them run as fast as their legs could carry them, up the stairs and into the kitchen.

  “Excuse me Liz,” said Harry politely, as Mudpoo tumbled into him almost knocking them both over.

  Harry knew he had to be polite even if he had to interrupt.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Liz noticing the look of excitement on Harry’s face.

  "There's a very large snake in your tree!" said Harry.

  "And it's GREEN!" exclaimed Mudpoo.

  “Oooh, it must be a python,” smiled Liz excitedly.

  Everyone ran down the stairs to the tree.

  It was a tall, green tree that leant against the side of the house. There, in the middle of the tree, moving gracefully through the branches was a beautiful diamond python.

  The python had decided today was the day it would shed its winter coat.

  Meeting an angry George added more than enough excitement to an already busy day.