Mission Jaguar, page 15
“One hundred per cent.” He hugged her back. Then he paused and looked her in the eye. Tears were welling up as if he had been holding this moment back.
“It just means a lot to know I have a sister — and a sister like you.”
Her embrace was all he needed to know those words were true.
“All done,” said Al — two little words that covered a whole lot of legal stuff. The government official had been granting Al the right to decide who got to look after Dian, and Al had been passing it on to Kim, all in a way that satisfied the government.
Kim and Dian would stay in the country until everything was finalised, then begin a new life together in the U.S. And Al, Beck and James would then leave them to it. There had to be a clean break, and now was as good a time as any.
They were leaving that same day, flying back to London via Atlanta.
They had their bags; they took their places at the line in front of the Departures desk and shuffled forward with the queue.
Behind the airport staff at the desk, the departures screens showed flights leaving to destinations all around the world. It never ceased to amaze Beck that there wasn’t a single place on the planet he couldn’t reach in twenty-four hours if he put his mind to it.
The world really was small, and it was the only one they had.
But he would never grow tired of it.
It was still big enough to be full of wonder and excitement, and now he had a sister in it, it was just that little bit bigger and even more exciting.
Beck considered this just the beginning …
Survival Tips
Survival in the Guatemalan Jungle
TREKKING
If you’re trekking through the jungle, move slowly and walk with a stick out in front which will make sure that anything lurking in the undergrowth will scurry away before you get there. If a snake does decide to stand his ground, it will strike the stick and not you. Snakes don’t want to bite you, but might attack if they feel threatened, so it’s always best to let them know you’re coming and walk carefully but with purpose. (They sense vibrations and will normally move away.) If one does come across your path, move slowly and confidently away. Do not reach out your hands onto rocks and ledges which you can’t fully see, these are ideal places for snakes to be hiding or sunning and you don’t want to take them by surprise.
Change course as and when the jungle forces you to. There will most likely be a path forged through the thick greenery by the various animals that inhabit the jungle so stick to this and you won’t find your way blocked by trees or bushes or be caught out by hidden creatures in the grass.
The jungle is a hot and humid climate so it is important to stay hydrated. Your body is programmed to react to this climate by pumping out moisture onto the skin to carry away the heat. But, this means that your body is losing a huge amount of water so it is very important to keep drinking. If you run out of fresh water in the middle of the jungle, there are many plants that contain water. One plant called Bromelia contains in its centre the equivalent of a large glass of water, which it uses to drown insects. This is just rainwater that has fallen on the plant and so is safe to drink. Maybe take out the insects first though.
SETTING UP CAMP
If you are spending the night in the jungle, there are many things to take into account when camping out. You don’t want to be sleeping on the ground as this makes you easy prey for insects, snakes and jaguars. So, the best way to solve this problem is to build a cot suspended from a tree using branches and vines. There are several steps to doing this:
Select three large and sturdy looking branches and lay them together in a triangle with just their ends overlapping.
Use a single length of vine to lash each pair together tying a diagonal hitch around both poles to hold them together. Then wrap the vine two or three times around the combined poles, first diagonally across the hitch knot and then crossing the first set of turns at right angles. Then make some frapping turns, going around each pole individually and pull it tight. Finish with a clove hitch around one of the poles to hold the ends secure.
Once the frame is made, use longer lengths of vine and string it between the three sides to form a lattice like a tennis racket. Lay down a mattress of ferns for comfort.
Finally, look for the thickest vine you can find and tie the cot onto a sturdy branch on a tree.
In order to fuel a fire in the jungle — a difficult feat as most of the wood there is too damp from the humidity - there is a particular species of tree with orange wood, called the Caribbean Pine. This contains a resin which prevents it from getting waterlogged and allows it to burn fantastically. Also, the smoke from the fire has the added bonus of scattering insects.
FOOD
When in the jungle, there are a few options for a nutritious and delicious meal:
Rhino Beetle is a black and shiny insect with a single horn, curved and hooked like a sharp thorn, sticking up from its head. It contains more protein than beef.
Palm leaves are long and spiky leaves that grow on trees. If you cut off the base and strip away the outer leaves to reveal the core, it is thin and pale green. This inner part is a great source of carbohydrate although it tastes like bitter celery.
Any sort of fish and meat you can find, including reptiles like snakes, make a great meal. If you cook over a fire, the meats will taste great and the fire will also kill off the bacteria from the animal.
There are also some things to steer clear of in the jungle. Fruits are sometimes a dangerous choice as they often turn out to be poisonous. Figs for examples, round and purple with rough skin, have a sticky, milky sap inside that burns through your mouth and your guts.
IN CASE OF INJURY
There are plenty of snakes lurking in the jungle, many of which are poisonous. They can be either neurotoxic or hemotoxic meaning that the poison would either attack your nerves or your blood. In case you are bitten, get to the hospital as quickly as you can. Try to identify the snake to be treated with the correct antidote, so take note and do not panic. Keeping calm is key to slowing down the rate that any venom circulates around your body. Don’t try to suck venom out, or tourniquet. Both these techniques can cause more harm than good.
In the meantime, find an Acacia plant and chew on the inner part. This slows down your heart rate and stops the poison from spreading as fast.
If you find yourself seriously injured and in a lot of pain, there is a natural painkiller that can be found in the inner branches of a tree that is covered in sharp spikes — the ‘Give-and-Take-Tree’. Carefully cut off these spikes and strip the branch down and in the middle you will find the painkiller.
* * *
Above all, remember: never, ever, give up!
Mission Raptor
Bear Grylls
Chapter One
The growling of diesel engines cut through the icy air, so Beck Granger heard the convoy before he saw it, a bass throb rising above the gentle shush of his skis.
The road had a light covering of unbroken snow from the season’s first fall the previous night, making it a white slash through the dark conifer forest. No traffic had used it since then, so Beck and his new friend Jonas had been taking advantage of its smooth run. Further ahead, the road bent and disappeared into a cutting that had been blasted out of the rock. That was where the convoy now appeared. A bus, then another, then another, trundling along in single file.
Beck quickly aimed his skis off the road and braked to a halt on the verge with a swoosh of his skis, as he skidded them parallel. Jonas Eriksson drew up beside him. Beneath the winter clothing, Jonas was a Swedish boy the same age as Beck, blond and a little chubby in contrast to Beck’s dark hair and wiry frame, and they had got on immediately when they met. Like most young Swedes, he spoke English almost perfectly, while Beck could only manage a few words of Swedish.
The wheels of the convoy carved out dark ruts in the fresh snow and threw up sprays of dirty ice on either side, so that Beck and Jonas flinched away as the buses rolled past them.
Beck dared a glance up. He had a brief impression of misted windows and wrapped, muffled figures in the warm interior. As far as he could see, every bus was full, every seat taken. There had to be well over a hundred people, of all ages and sizes, being transported.
They watched the buses disappear around the next bend until they were all hidden by the close-packed conifers. Above and beyond them rose the snow-capped, sheer, craggy western face of Mount Storkittel — all two and a half thousand metres of it.
Silence returned very quickly, apart from the far-off, far-up cry of an eagle circling the upper crags of Storkittel. Down at ground level the ubiquitous spruce trees soaked up the sound and there was nothing else — no cars, no people — to make any noise. From horizon to horizon, apart from the road and the telegraph wires that ran along it, there was nothing here in the far north of Sweden. This was big sky country: 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The horizons were far apart and the sky was a massive grey dome above them, punctured by the mountain.
“They must be heading for the lodge,” Beck commented. “Funny — I thought the season was over.”
The only place to stay for miles around was Storkittel Fjällstation, the hiking lodge at the base of the mountain. During the spring and the summer, people came here to hike around the gently rolling pine forests and lakes, and at the height of the season the lodge could take two hundred guests. Now it was that in-between time when autumn was over and winter was not quite beginning. No one came to Storkittel to ski for fun — it was too steep on one side, and dominated by a massive glacier on the other — so until next spring the lodge would be almost empty apart from a skeleton staff, and the Green Force office where Beck and Jonas were interning.
Jonas shivered, though like Beck, he was bulked out in an insulated jacket and trousers, winterproof and waterproof, over a couple of layers of normal clothes beneath, and he wore a peaked, army-style cap with flaps pulled down over his ears. He came from Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city, a long way to the south, but he had told Beck he had spent every summer of his life up here. So he was no stranger to Swedish winters or the Swedish wilderness — but the Swedish wilderness in the winter was a whole different game to the idyllic summers.
“And the lodge is where I would like to be, so shall we move?” he suggested.
“Sure,” Beck said with a grin. “Come on.”
They turned off the road and dug in with their poles, sending themselves gliding on their way into the forest.
The real snowfall, which would coat the countryside in snow that was metres deep and which would last for months, had yet to set in. The road behind them was lined with orange snow poles two metres high, which told Beck exactly how much snow the Swedes were expecting. The last night’s snow had just been a preliminary taster of what was to come, and it would probably all be gone in another day, but there was enough of it now for the boys to have broken out the skis.
Fir trees whizzed by as they glided over the rough terrain, up and down hill. This was cross-country skiing, the kind people did for work, not sport. It used all kinds of different muscles in the legs but Beck loved it, almost as much as the conventional, downhill kind. Their skis had strips of short hair-like strands strapped on beneath them. When the skis moved forward, the hairs were brushed smooth and the skis glided freely. If the skis tried to move backwards, friction dragged the hairs upright so that they dug into the snow and the ski stopped. It made it possible to walk yourself up slopes with long, sliding steps and then ski down the other side without a break.
Even when the ground was snow-free, like a lot of it was in the shelter of the trees, with just patches of snow between the pine needles and moss, you could slide your way forward over it. It felt like the most natural way of moving there was, and Beck had missed it. He had got the taste for it as a kid, when he and his parents had stayed in a Sami village in the north of Finland as part of their work for the environmental direct action group Green Force. He had never really had the chance to get back into it.
That was one reason why, when his Uncle Al offered him a choice of Green Force offices around the world for his work placement, he had chosen this one. Beck had always declared that he wanted to work for Green Force — and one day he had every intention of doing it full-time. This first step brought him to the remote north — but what he was about to experience here would stay with him forever.
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Bear Grylls, Mission Jaguar
