Taj and the Great Camel Trek (8 page)

We didn't get the string started until after midday and this time Tommy led us on Salmah, then Padar on Roshni. I watched Salmah lurch grumpily to her feet. She was going to calve soon. I wasn't worried. On trips near Beltana the cows travelled well after a birth and the calf was often tied on the mother's back for a few days until it could walk with the string.

Mr Giles rode Reechy aside from the string and was reciting poetry about Wynbring. It didn't sing like his other poems.

Jess Young didn't keep his strange smile just for Padar and me. I noticed it when he was watching Mr Giles reciting. Then Mr Giles patted Reechy's neck and called her ‘Screechy'. He was very fond of her.

We had marched seven or eight miles through the high scrub with Tommy singing songs to himself, when we found an opening in the bushes where Tommy showed us some bare flat rocks. Between them was a small hole of water.

‘Is this it?' Jess Young said. ‘How're we supposed to survive on this?' Mr Tietkens was too polite to say so but I could tell by his frown he thought the same.

‘Taloreh,' Tommy said. He sounded proud. So this was the first watering place he had mentioned. Taloreh was full of mud and rocks. Padar poked a stick in and found mud for several feet below the surface. He couldn't tell how deep it was but Mr Giles said there may be 300 gallons, not enough for twenty-two thirsty camels.

We camped in the scrub as it was getting late. Even with Tommy using English words it was difficult to understand how long it would take to travel to the next place. Mr Giles' main concern, as well as Padar's, was that the camels have good feed so they could withstand the long journey ahead. Camels will only eat what they like and will starve rather than eat what they don't.

The next day we found the second waterhole was only a few miles on and had better food for the camels to eat. What a pity we couldn't understand Tommy the night before. By the look on Mr Giles' face he thought it was more than a pity.

‘This fella Edoldeh,' Tommy said.

‘We will not stop here,' Mr Giles said shortly. ‘Let's press on to reach the next oasis.'

‘Oasis is a bloody exaggeration,' mumbled Jess Young.

Tommy said the next one was Cudyeh. ‘Close up,' he said.

‘Close up' turned out to be another eighteen miles, but it was a good place to camp. There were rocks in a hollow with holes filled with water. Since it had rained recently, the water had poured down into them and the area was under two feet of water. We took long sticks and waded in but there was a lot of mud under the surface. It was hard to tell if the natural wells were deep or not. At least the camels had a drink.

I couldn't believe how much I was learning about water and wells. There wouldn't be any reason to worry about water now, surely, if Tommy could find these. Whatever strange feelings I had towards Tommy, I couldn't begrudge him the fact he could find water.

It was the twenty-ninth of June; we had passed quite a few of Tommy's waterholes which may have been fine for a few people to drink from but weren't suitable for camels. I hoped we'd find more water. ‘Big one coming,' Tommy said. ‘Him name Bring.' Tommy kept saying
that Bring was a ‘big' one but when we finally saw it Jess Young blasphemed.

Bring was just a dry salt lake. To the south of the lake Tommy pointed out a small rock hole with a few dozen gallons of water in it. No one was happy but since Jess Young began vomiting and groaning, we camped there. Peter made a dreadful medicine for Jess Young from flour and water. I'm sure it stuck all his insides together. Mr Giles asked Jess Young if he enjoyed the gluepot, but Jess Young didn't appreciate the joke.

Rain fell in the morning, so we stayed at Bring. Mr Tietkens showed Alec and me how to make dams with clay and we had baths using buckets. Alec was happy. ‘This is almost as good as having a bath at home with hot water.' Baths made me think of Emmeline and how she hated them. I wondered what she was doing and I hoped I could write well enough to send her a letter soon.

Peter's medicine worked on Jess Young. When he felt better we left Bring. That night Mr Giles said, ‘We will push on to reach Youldeh.' He looked at the officers. ‘We will set up a depot there.' Padar and I were anxious to reach there too before Salmah calved.

Before we slept I asked Padar for another story. I knew I needed to be braver to ask what I needed to know but
I also wanted to do it when Padar and I were alone. The only time that happened was when we collected the camels in the mornings, and then Padar's mind was on the work to be done. ‘One from your country, Padar.' Alec joined in and begged him as well. Even Jess Young listened while he sketched in his book. Padar smiled at Alec and me. He seemed to enjoy his storyteller status.

‘There was one and there was none. Except for God there was no one. Once there was a powerful king who had seven daughters.'

I grinned. Many of the stories Padar told had seven sons or seven daughters. ‘One day,' Padar said, ‘the king he asked them all how much they loved him. “Sweeter than sugar,” the eldest said.

‘The king was pleased and kept asking. “As sweet as honey, as sweet as molasses, as sweet as brown sugar, sherbet, the sweetest sweet.” Finally the king asked his youngest daughter. “Beti, how sweet am I to you?”

‘“Respected father, you are sweeter to me than salt.”

‘The king, he was furious and he ordered her to leave the palace. She wandered into the forest and met an old woman. The girl wept. “I am a defenceless girl with no one to help me except God. Can I be your servant?”

‘“You may,” said the woman. “My son chops wood and sells it to buy corn, but you can share it with us.”

‘It so happened that the princess and young woodcutter found treasure and he became a jeweller. The old
woman arranged their marriage and they built a palace in the forest.

‘One day the king was hunting in the forest and came upon the new palace. He sent word that he would be a guest there that night.

‘The princess ordered the servants to prepare a banquet with special instructions that all the dishes should contain no salt except some simple dishes of spinach and maize bread.

‘The king arrived and dinner was served. Pilau, chicken, sweet saffron rice – all dishes fit for a king – were placed before him. The king pushed aside the dishes after tasting them and only ate those with salt.

‘Later the jeweller asked politely if the king enjoyed the meal in their humble home.

‘“The food was good but had one serious fault,” the king said. “There was no salt in it.”

‘At that moment the princess entered the room and knelt at the king's feet. “Respected father, you are sweeter to me than salt is to food.”

‘The king was amazed to see his daughter. She said, “I gave orders for salt not to be added because you do not like salt.”

‘The king, he wept. “I beg you to forgive me. It is true your love is sweeter than salt.” The king then chose his new son-in-law to inherit the kingdom, and they all lived happily ever after.'

‘I'm sure I've heard a story like that before,' Jess Young said.

Padar was watching me. What would I say if he asked me how much I loved him? He was all I had. Would I say, more than the moon? What about my mother?
If only I could say something to her – I'd think of the sweetest thing in the world.
But what was the use?

One thing I could do: I decided never to complain about the salt in the dried beef. It might have been worse without it.

The day before we reached Youldeh something very bad happened. We had been on the march for two months almost to the day and it was the first time I couldn't find the camels. Salmah was becoming more difficult to find as she was about to calve, but this time all of them disappeared. Padar and I had walked two miles without a sight of one of them. ‘What's happened to them?' I said to Padar. I couldn't keep the panic from my voice. I knew we'd die in the desert without the camels.

‘Perhaps they found some poplar trees in the night,' he said. Now I knew what he meant about it being harder to round them up as they wandered further searching for tasty bushes.

I whistled for Mustara, but even he had gone. Padar and I split up and checked the scrub. I had walked another half a mile before I found Mustara. ‘Where have you been?' My worry made me angry with him and I was not gentle when I said ‘Hooshta'. Mounted on him I had a better chance. It took me many hours
but I found Reechy, Zaitoon and Khushi. Khushi stamped her feet when I pulled her rope to make her follow which was surprising as she was one of the best-natured camels. I caught up with Padar who'd found a few more and when we brought them to camp I was afraid Mr Giles would say bad words to us but I needn't have worried.

‘Thank you for finding Reechy, Taj. Come, William,' he said to Mr Tietkens, ‘we'll ride on to Youldeh. It's only seven miles away.' He turned back to Padar and me. ‘Follow when you have all the camels.' Then they were gone.

I put short hobbles on the camels I had found and left them with Alec and Peter. Tommy and Jess Young came to help us find the rest.

We spread out in the scrub like a huge fan. Some of the bushes were so high it was impossible to see beyond them. I prayed for I didn't know what punishment Padar and I would receive if we lost the camels. Perhaps Mr Giles' earlier good humour would wane as he thought how we would all die like Mr Burke and Mr Wills.

I saw a movement and there was Tommy's pregnant cow, Salmah. She looked as if she wished she was back at Beltana in the home paddock. I put a short hobble on her and murmured sweet things to her even though she had no appreciation for them. Then I found Pearl, a white gelding as pretty as Reechy. I came across Tommy
who was leading Sultan and Malik back to camp and I was so relieved, I said, ‘You're a good camel tracker.' He grinned at me.

We must have walked three miles in our effort and we found them all in the end. I never wanted to go through that again.

Just when we arrived back at camp, Mr Tietkens rode in on Khushi. We saw he was leading Reechy as well. I was alarmed to see both camels. Mr Giles must have fallen.

Alec was first to ask, ‘Is Mr Giles safe?' He took Reechy's rope from Mr Tietkens.

‘Mr Giles and I became worried that you hadn't arrived and so I came back to be of help. Reechy wouldn't settle by herself and kept roaring – I had to bring her too.' I felt a sudden warmness for Mr Tietkens. It would be cruel to leave a camel without another nearby: they hate to be alone.

Then I thought of Mr Giles alone at the new camp with night approaching. He would be hungry and have no bedding for sleeping. The nights were suddenly cold when the sun fell. Perhaps all the men thought of this for they quickly helped to load but it was late afternoon before we finally departed.

Night arrived as we reached the Youldeh waterhole. Mr Giles seemed to be sleeping so Padar and I unloaded the camels with Alec and Tommy's help.
Then Tommy and I helped Peter start a fire and cook the evening meal.

As we sat around the campfire later, Mr Giles said something peculiar. He said he had a dream. ‘I was curled up under a bush and felt as though I was dead yet knew I was alive. I saw the faces of people I had known and loved.'

He broke into poetry: ‘I thought I heard celestial music and voices singing, “Be bold of heart, be strong of will, for unto thee by God is given, to roam the desert paths of earth.” I awoke and you were here setting up camp. I realised that the music was the sound of the camel bells as you all came over the sandhills towards me.' He was quiet then, gazing through the fire.

I glanced at Padar. I knew he didn't think Mr Giles a religious man, but perhaps he was wrong. Padar says that being alone in the desert can change a man's heart. Jess Young was staring into his mug of coffee; his shoulders were shaking, but Alec was smiling kindly at Mr Giles.

There were no songs and I was so tired after chasing camels all day I unrolled my blanket and fell into it. I even forgot to check for centipedes.