A Bear Grylls Adventure 4

by Bear Grylls

  Contents

  Title Page

  The Bear Grylls Adventures series

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Target Practice

  Chapter 2: Into the Lake

  Chapter 3: Capsize!

  Chapter 4: Fresh Green Coconuts

  Chapter 5: Water, Water, Everywhere …

  Chapter 6: Circle of Life

  Chapter 7: Underwater World

  Chapter 8: Eggs for Dinner

  Chapter 9: Smoke Signal

  Chapter 10: Wildlife Welfare

  About the Author

  Copyright

  The BEAR GRYLLS ADVENTURES series

  The Blizzard Challenge

  The Desert Challenge

  The Jungle Challenge

  The Sea Challenge

  To the young survivor reading this book for the first time. May your eyes always be wide open to adventure, and your heart full of courage and determination to see your dreams through.

  1

  TARGET PRACTICE

  Chloe held her breath and squinted across the top of her hand at the target.

  Thwack.

  The rubber band shot through the air and hit the empty can on the branch. It teetered, then toppled into the bush.

  “Yes!”

  “Five out of five?” Her friend Lily was open-mouthed. “You’re so good at this.”

  Chloe smiled. It was amazing what practice you could get at home with a ten-year-old brother.

  “My turn,” said Mia. “I can totally do this.”

  There were still three cans left on the branch. Mia hooked a rubber band over her thumb on one hand, and pulled it back. When Mia let go, the band shot forward – and hit her hand.

  “Bad luck!” Lily said.

  “Yeah, good try but you had it too far down your thumb,” Chloe added. “It couldn’t fly over the top like it’s meant to. Want to see my special trick?”

  Chloe couldn’t resist showing off a bit. Just shooting a single band wasn’t much good when your brother moved fast. Shooting several all at once, though …

  Chloe got three rubber bands and hooked them over her thumb, one on top of the other. She slid the forefinger of her other hand through them and pulled them all back together. With one eye closed, she aimed.

  “Machine gun!” Chloe announced, and quickly pulled her finger away. The three bands all flew off, one-two-three.

  It was a good way of hitting a fast-moving ten-year-old.

  It wasn’t so good at hitting non-moving tin cans. One of them hit a can smack on and knocked it over. The second just made a can totter. The third missed altogether.

  The girls watched the second can, holding their breath as it wobbled.

  There was a slightly stronger gust of wind and it fell off.

  “That was totally the wind!” Lily complained.

  “That was totally skill,” Chloe said happily.

  Mia checked her watch. “Hey, I’ve got to get to my Wildlife Welfare course.”

  “Yeah, come on, Chloe,” Lily said. “We should go to the lake – it’s sailing next.”

  “One more …” Chloe said. She couldn’t resist a final shot.

  The last can bit the dust.

  The three girls set off, when Mia paused and looked back.

  “Shouldn’t we pick the cans up?”

  “Leave them,” Chloe said. “We’ll be late. No one will see them there.”

  The way to the lake led through a clearing where some of the other campers were celebrating the end of the obstacle relay race.

  Chloe had been in the race, but she had tripped and hurt her leg, and hadn’t run. She’d only needed a bit of a rest to feel better.

  Lily and Chloe got caught up with chatting to some friends about how the race had ended, while Mia headed off for her Wildlife Welfare activity. A boy with his arms full was heading towards the bin. He’d been in the race and yelled at her when she’d got hurt, Chloe remembered. He dropped some cans near the bin and one came spinning towards Chloe. She couldn’t resist it. She gave it a kick back.

  “Goal!” she shouted as it hit the bin. Her aim was bang on.

  “We should be going,” Lily said, laughing. “I’m desperate for the toilet – I’ll see you there, Chloe.”

  Lily hurried on ahead down the path.

  Chloe then heard the sound of footsteps hurrying behind her. It was the shouty tin-can boy. She stood aside to let him get past, but to her surprise he skidded to a halt in front of her. She didn’t want to talk to him but he obviously wanted to talk to her. Or yell at her again. What was his name? Oscar? Owen? … Omar, that was it.

  “Hi?” Chloe said cautiously.

  “Uh – hi.” Omar held his hand out. “I just wanted to give you this,” he said.

  ‘This’ was small and plastic and round. She took it and saw that it was a compass.

  “Just consider it a gift,” Omar added.

  “O-kay. Thanks,” she said politely. Strange kid, she thought. “It’ll maybe come in handy in, uh, sailing.”

  “Well …” He smiled bashfully. He seemed totally different to earlier. “Maybe. Either way, have fun.”

  And he hurried back the way he had come.

  Very strange kid, Chloe thought, but she pushed the compass into her pocket and set off for the lake.

  Before long, Chloe could make out the silver shine of the lake through the trees. The water was sparkling in the bright sun.

  Then, suddenly, she was distracted by a sound coming out of the bushes at her feet. Curious, she pushed a branch aside with the toe of her shoe.

  It was a small baby bird, the size of her finger, at the foot of a tree. Its body was almost featherless. Its head was huge, almost half the size of the rest of it. Its wings were tiny. Chloe guessed it must have fallen out of its nest in the tree above her.

  She looked up and could see a small nest on one of the lower branches, and she could hear more high-pitched cheeping coming from it.

  “Aw.” Chloe pulled a face. She would like to do something. She didn’t want any animals to suffer. But then nothing she could do would make much difference, she reckoned. Animals die every day. And anyway, she was in a hurry.

  She heard the sailing instructors calling to round people up on the lake shore, and she didn’t want to be late.

  “Gotta go,” she said quietly to the chick. “Sorry.”

  2

  INTO THE LAKE

  The dinghies were all pulled up on the gravel shore in front of the boathouse. The first job for everyone was to put their mast up.

  Chloe and Lily helped each other slot the foot of their mast into a metal track in the bottom of the boat. They pinned it in place and sorted out the ropes that would pull the sail up and hold the boom in place. Last of all, Lily helped Chloe untangle the trapeze. This was a wire that fastened to the top of the mast, with a ring buckle at the end of it that attached to a canvas harness. When they were out on the lake, whoever was wearing the harness would swing out over the side of the boat, so their weight balanced it against the push of the wind.

  It took a lot of practice but it was the bit of sailing that Chloe really enjoyed. It made the dinghy zip along.

  An instructor checked their work when they were done.

  “Okay,” Lily said to Chloe. “Grab the gunwales.”

  They each gripped the sides of the boat and heaved the dinghy down the gravel into the water. Chloe was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, with the harness around her hips and lower back. The water was soft and cool against her bare legs.

  “Um – forgotten anything?” the instructor called.

  “Lifejackets!” Lily exclaimed. She hurried back to the boathouse to get the lifejackets while Chloe waited
, standing up to her knees in the water and holding the dinghy in place.

  Chloe looked casually around. The lake was a couple of hundred metres across – big enough for a few dinghies to zip about without hitting anyone. Some boys were on the shore about fifty metres away, throwing flat stones so that they skimmed across the water. A gentle wind whipped the surface up into ripples a few centimetres high, and the sun was shining warm and bright.

  Chloe was excited – she loved sailing and the conditions were perfect.

  So the wind is from the south? Chloe thought. She pulled the compass out and glanced at the dial as she felt the wind. Yup. South.

  “Where did you get that?” Lily asked in surprise as she came back with the lifejackets.

  “This boy gave it to me. I thought it might be fun to try it out.”

  Chloe put on her lifejacket and tried to slip the compass into her pocket, but dropped it in the water. The case was made of rubber so it floated. The water was clear and shallow, and Chloe could see the stony bottom of the lake as she bent down to pick it up. Something glinted below the surface. It was a glass bottle and it had been there for some time, because it had a very faint covering of weed. Small black fish were nibbling it. She thought about picking it up.

  “So, are we going?” Lily asked impatiently.

  Chloe wanted to get some sailing in with just Lily, before they had to get together with everyone else, so she decided just to leave the bottle. It would take too long to go up the shore to the bins.

  “Okay,” she said, “let’s catch this wind!”

  They gave the dinghy a final shove out into the water and clambered aboard.

  Lily took the tiller to steer while Chloe hoisted the sail. It unfolded from the horizontal boom and slid up the groove in the mast. The boom was fixed to the mast by a hinge at one end, so it blew around as the sail caught the wind.

  Chloe attached the harness to the wire.

  “Okay,” she said to Lily. “Let’s go.”

  Lily pulled a rope attached to the free end of the boom and hauled it in against the gentle breeze. Immediately the sail went tight.

  The wind chose that exact moment to blow a gust. It caught the sail and in one swift movement, forced the dinghy right over on its side.

  3

  CAPSIZE!

  Chloe was braced and ready for it.

  She felt the harness take her weight as she put one foot up onto the gunwale, then the other. Now she was standing on the edge of the boat, leaning back over the water. The wind couldn’t tip the boat over because of her weight, and her weight couldn’t pull the boat too far in the other direction because of the wind. The dinghy was balanced.

  They zoomed across the lake with Lily at the tiller. Chloe whooped in glee as she trapezed out even further. This was the best feeling ever. When spray was flying from the bow and the water was zipping past right beneath you, it felt like you were doing a million miles per hour.

  They were getting close to the far shore, and running out of lake.

  “Get ready to go about,” Lily said. She pushed the tiller and the boat began to turn. Chloe quickly swung herself around the mast. As she went, she felt something uncomfortable rubbing against her. Of course, the compass. But there was no chance to do anything about it. She needed to trapeze straight out again, as the dinghy started to pick up speed towards the boathouse.

  All the other boats were in the water now. A couple had their sails up and were sailing near the shore. The instructor was waving at Chloe and Lily to rejoin the others.

  “Hey, let’s have some fun!” Lily said. Without waiting for a reply, she changed course towards a row of floating orange buoys the size of footballs. Chloe immediately knew what Lily meant. They were going to slalom, zigzagging back and forth between each buoy. She smiled. “We’ll show them how it’s done!” Chloe braced herself.

  The dinghy shot between the first two buoys and Lily immediately pushed the tiller across. The boat swung around and aimed for the gap between the next two buoys, now leaning the other way. Chloe danced nimbly around the mast to the other gunwale. As she did, she felt the compass press into her again.

  She tried to slide her fingers down between the harness and her shorts. Maybe she could adjust the compass a little if she loosened her lifejacket? She took off the tape and then …

  “Look out!” Lily shouted suddenly.

  One of the other boats was heading right at them. Chloe hadn’t seen it because the sail was in the way.

  Lily had to push the tiller right over to get out of the boat’s way. The boom swung around with a loud thwack and the dinghy leaned over on Chloe’s side. She tried to pull herself up, but her hand was stuck in her pocket.

  At the last moment she managed to yank her hand out, still clutching the compass. Then – SPLASH.

  The dinghy had gone all the way over. She felt herself hit the surface of the lake and water closed over her face.

  Chloe spluttered in annoyance as she surfaced and released the harness from its wire. The lifejacket lifted her up so that she floated with her head and shoulders out of the water. She couldn’t touch the bottom with her feet. Chloe shook her head to clear the water so that she could see her way back to the boat.

  Then, SPLASH again. A wall of water hit her from behind and bowled her over. Her body twisted and spun in the middle of a million white bubbles. Her loose lifejacket pulled free. And – yuk! Her mouth was open and the water tasted disgusting.

  Chloe bumped into something solid. The dinghy must have righted itself to be level again. Thank goodness – she could pull herself up before she went flying again. Still blinded by the water in her eyes, she swung herself back onto the boat and clambered to her feet. She watched as her lifejacket floated away on the waves.

  At the same time, she thought – waves? How could there be waves like that on the lake?

  And that revolting taste in her mouth – it was salt. The water in the lake ought to be fresh.

  Chloe shook her head again, then opened her eyes.

  The trees that surrounded the lake had gone. Fifty metres away, a long beach of white sand gleamed beneath a tropical sun, and stretched as far as she could see in either direction.

  “Lily –” she started to say in surprise. Then she looked down.

  She wasn’t in the dinghy. She was on a much larger boat. A yacht. White water rushed around her knees.

  “We’re sinking!” a man’s voice shouted.

  Chloe whipped her head around. In the cockpit, at the back of the yacht, a man was rapidly pulling at a rope with one hand as he held the steering wheel with the other.

  “Time to abandon ship!” he called, as the water swirled around his feet. “Before we go down with this thing!”

  4

  FRESH GREEN COCONUTS

  Chloe didn’t wait to be told twice. She put her hands together and dived over the side into the swirling sea.

  The water boiled with bubbles. Her head broke the surface and she started to swim towards the beach. Every few seconds a new wave lifted her up and carried her a bit further. Soon Chloe was so close to land that she felt her hands brush the sand. She waded the last few metres while the water seethed around her legs.

  As soon as Chloe was out of the water, she could feel the sun starting to roast her through her damp t-shirt. It was like a burning spotlight in the blue and cloudless sky. But that didn’t worry her half as much as the question of where on earth she was.

  The beach rose up to some sandy dunes and a scraggly row of palm trees. Left and right, the white sand stretched as far as she could see. She turned and stared back towards the sea. How had she ended up here?

  All Chloe could see of the sinking yacht now was a mast sticking up out of the surf at an angle. The man who’d shouted was wading towards her. He had a tanned, friendly face and wet, dark hair that was flat against his head.

  He held up a dripping backpack.

  “I managed to save a few things that might come in handy. Apar
t from that, it looks like we’re on our own.”

  “Um – right,” Chloe said. She looked along the beach again, trying to see her friends. “But where are we? And who are you?”

  “I’m Bear, and right now we’re a long way from anywhere.” He smiled. “But I’ll do my best to help guide you back home safely.” He smiled. “Don’t worry. We’ll be okay.”

  “I’m Chloe.” She smiled back. “I really hope you’re right, because from what I can see we’ve just lost the boat.”

  “Well, in that sense, Chloe, you are dead right,” Bear added, looking back at the wreck. “But I guess it also means we are in for some real adventure.”

  “You mean, more adventure than jumping off a sinking boat?”

  He smiled and ruffled his hair dry.

  “That was only the beginning.” Bear looked up the beach. “Okay. Let’s get out of the sun while we assess the situation.” Chloe followed Bear up the beach towards the dunes and the shade of the palm trees.

  Bear put the wet backpack down and started to pull out waterproof ziplock bags. He opened one up and dug out a hat with a wide, floppy brim, and a cap with a long flap at the back. Bear jammed the cap onto his head and the hat onto hers.

  Then he pulled out some clothes in Chloe’s size that were like the ones he was wearing – a long-sleeved shirt and trousers that looked light but tough.

  “Try these,” he said, “while I check out the lay of the land.”

  A moment later he had gone over the dune. Chloe changed into the new clothes and immediately felt cooler as the air flowed between the dry fabric and her skin. She left her old wet clothes in a heap on the sand.

  Chloe followed Bear’s footprints, and got to the top of the dune just as he was coming back.

  “Well,” he said, “we’re not going that way.”