Behind Mt. Baldy
BEHIND MT.
BALDY
C. R. Cummings
DOCTORZED PUBLISHING
www.doctorzed.com
BEHIND MT. BALDY
© Copyright C. R. Cummings 2001
DoctorZed Publishing
3
rd
(revised) edition
1
st
ebook edition
eISBN
: 978-0-9870620-7-9
National Library of Australia CiP
entry:
Cummings, C. R.
Behind Mt. Baldy: a novel about
army cadets in North Queensland.
2
nd
(revised) edition
2001
For teenagers
ISBN 1 74008 140 4.
1. Military cadets - Queensland –
Fiction.
2 Hiking – Queensland – Fiction.
3. Teenage
boys – Queensland – Fiction. 1. Title.
A823.3
This book is copyright. Apart
from any fair dealings for the purposes of private study, research, criticism
or review, as permitted under the
Copyright Act,
no part may be
reproduced by any process without written permission.
BOOKS BY C.
R. CUMMINGS
In chronological sequence -
April 2011
THE GREEN IDOL OF KANAKA CREEK
ROSS RIVER
FEVER
TRAIN TO KURANDA
THE MUDSKIPPER
CUP
DAVEY JONES’S LOCKER
BELOW BARTLE
FRERE
AIRSHIP OVER ATHERTON
THE CADET CORPORAL
STANNARY HILLS
COASTS OF CAPE YORK
KYLIE AND THE KELLY GANG
* BEHIND MT BALDY
THE CADET SERGEANT MAJOR
COOKTOWN CHRISTMAS
THE SECRET
IN
THE CLOUDS
THE WORD
OF
GOD
THE
CADET
UNDER-OFFICER
THE
SMILEY
PEOPLE
MAP 1: LAMB
RANGE & MT. BALDY
Cadet Corporal Roger Dunning, 15
and feeling quite apprehensive, took his pack from the boot of the car and
looked anxiously around. He and three of his friends stood on the lawn at the
southern end of the massive concrete Tinaroo Dam in North Queensland. They were
about to start what promised to be a gruelling 100km hike. ‘I hope I am up to
this,’ he thought.
His OC, Captain Conkey, stood
nearby. “Now you kids keep out of trouble,” he said, looking at each of the
four army cadets in turn.
“Yes sir, we will,” Cadet
Sergeant Major Graham Kirk assured him.
Captain Conkey stroked his chin
thoughtfully. If there was trouble to be found then this lot would find it. In
the three years he had known them they had been involved in half a dozen
hair-raising adventures.
But they were good kids.
He wouldn’t have agreed to their
going off on this hike unsupervised, and in uniform, if he didn’t trust them.
Nor would Graham have risen to be the Company Sergeant Major unless he was very
reliable as well as very capable.
Cadet Sergeant Peter Bronksy
smiled. “We can’t get into trouble just walking along roads and tracks sir,” he
pointed out. “It’s not as though we are heading off into the wilderness.”
“You might be,” Captain Conkey
replied with a grin while pointing vaguely at the jungle-clad mountains to the
north of the lake.
Roger, chubbiest, and youngest of
the four, cast a worried glance in that direction. That was the Lamb Range.
From previous experience he knew it was very rough. He turned to Captain
Conkey. “Where are we going sir?”
“I told you. You won’t know till
you get there. It’s about a hundred kilometres and you should cover it in five
days. All you have to do is find the clues I have put out and go where they
tell you,” Captain Conkey replied.
Peter looked at the map in his
hand. “Why not tell us now, for safety sake?” he asked with a neutral face.
Captain Conkey laughed. “Nice try
Sergeant Bronksy, but that wouldn’t test your map reading. You’d probably just
take a short cut and sit around,” he replied. He had planned the route so that
they could easily go the wrong way unless they were careful with their
navigation. That wouldn’t put them in any danger. It would just mean they would
walk a lot further.
Sergeant Stephen Bell took off
his glasses and polished them with his handkerchief. “What’ll we do if we get
lost sir?” he asked.
“You backtrack till you find
yourself and then go on.”
Roger frowned. “What if we can’t
find one of the clues
sir
?” he asked.
“Just search more carefully.
You’ll find them,” Captain Conkey assured him.
“But what if someone else finds
it first and takes it?” Roger persisted.
Captain Conkey shook his head.
“That’s unlikely. I’ve hidden them where no casual tourist would look for
them,” he assured him. “But if you really do get stuck then give me a call.
You’ve got my phone number?”
“Yes sir,” Graham and Peter
chorused.
The thought of
further inconveniencing Captain Conkey bothered Roger.
Captain Conkey was a teacher at
their school and he had already given up the first week of the June holidays to
run a ‘senior’ cadet field exercise. “Will you have to come far if we call
sir?” Roger asked.
Captain Conkey shook his head.
“No, not too far.
My family is staying with my parents in
Mareeba this week.” Checking his watch he said to them, “Anyway, it is ten
o’clock, so you’d better get going. You’ve got a nice day for it anyway.”
Roger looked up. It was a
beautiful day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was winter on the Atherton
Tablelands but the day was warm enough for them not to need jackets or
pullovers.
Graham picked up his basic
webbing and swung it on. “Packs on,” he said.
Roger picked up his webbing and
took a deep breath. This was his last chance to change his mind but in his
heart he knew he couldn’t back out. ‘If I do my friends will look down on me;
and I will despise myself,’ he thought. So he swung the webbing on and fastened
the belt buckle. Then he picked up his pack and was dismayed at its weight.
‘This is really going to test me!’ he thought.
The four boys were all members of
an army cadet unit from Cairns. They were about to start a five day expedition,
to complete the tests for their gold badge for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
Scheme.
Graham, Peter and Stephen had all
been in the cadets for three years. Roger had only served two years. By
the accident of his birthday being in February he was a year behind at school
and in the cadets. Stephen was only two months older. All four were 15
and had been mates for years. They had been on many other camps and expeditions
as a group and did almost everything together.
All four had just completed a 7
day ‘Senior Exercise’ during which Graham, Peter and Stephen had qualified for
the prestigious Adventure Training Award. Roger, being only a ‘Second Year’,
had not been eligible. But he had done part of the exercise during which he had
walked about 80 km. That had taken up the first week of the holidays and Graham
and Peter had both insisted that it would be excellent preparation for the
second week. Roger had reluctantly conceded this, but as they had only had two
rest days between the two events he was still feeling sore and worn out.
The boys adjusted their packs and
basic webbing and, after a last “see ya Sir” to Captain Conkey, they set off.
They walked down onto the bitumen road which led down to the Barron River below
the dam. The boys walked in single file on the right hand side, to face the
oncoming traffic. Captain Conkey had briefed them most particularly on this as
he thought cars would be the main danger they would meet.