The was only two kilometres long, but it felt like the end of the world. There were no roads, no shops and, as Jamie discovered within five minutes, no phone at all.
“This is a disaster,” he said, holding his phone above his head. “How am I supposed to live for three days?”
“You’ll survive,” said their teacher, Ms Okafor, as she unpacked the tents. The school’s outdoor club came to the island every September. The four students in Jamie’s group — Jamie, Leah, Tomasz and Ruby — had never really talked to each other before. Now they had to share a tent, cook together and complete a navigation challenge on the last day.
The challenge was simple: paddle a to a small beach on the other side of the island, find a wooden post with a code written on it, and come back before four o’clock. They had a paper map, a and a packed lunch.
Things started to go wrong almost immediately. Jamie and Tomasz about which direction to go. Ruby wanted to follow the coast, but Leah thought it was quicker to cut across the bay. In the end, they followed the coast, and it took two hours to reach the beach.
They pulled the canoe onto the sand and went to look for the post. When they found it, half an hour later, they were tired and hungry, but they felt proud. Then Ruby looked back at the beach and screamed.
The canoe was floating away. They had forgotten about the . The water had risen and carried it off. By the time they reached the , it was fifty metres out and moving fast.
For a moment, nobody spoke. It was two o’clock. Their phones were useless. The camp was on the other side of the island, and between them there was a hill covered in thick forest.
“OK,” said Leah, taking out the map. “We walk.”
“Through that?” said Jamie. “We’ll get lost.”
“Not if we use this,” said Tomasz, holding up the compass. “The camp is north-east. We just keep going north-east.”
It was hard. The forest was thick, and the ground was wet. Twice they had to go around a stream. Ruby fell and hurt her knee, so Jamie carried her bag. Leah read the map, Tomasz checked the compass every few minutes, and Ruby counted their steps to estimate the distance. Without anyone saying it, they had started to .
At ten to four, they came out of the trees and saw the tents. Ms Okafor was standing on the beach, looking worried. Behind her, pulled up on the sand, was their canoe. Another group had found it floating near the camp.
“You lost the canoe,” said Ms Okafor, “but you didn’t lose each other. That’s the real challenge.” She looked at her watch. “And you’re ten minutes early.”
That night, sitting around the fire, Jamie realised he hadn’t looked at his phone all day. Strangely, he hadn’t missed it at all.
Words from the Story
- island noun A1
- a piece of land with water all around it
- canoe
- a light, narrow boat that you move with a paddle
- compass
- a small tool with a needle that always points north
- signal noun B1
- the radio waves a phone needs to connect
- argue
- to disagree with someone, often in an angry way
- shore noun A2
- the land at the edge of the sea or a lake
- tide noun B1
- the regular rising and falling of the sea, twice a day
- cooperate verb B2
- to work together with other people to do something
Check Your Understanding
- Why was Jamie unhappy when he arrived on the island?
- What did the group have to do in the navigation challenge?
- Why did the canoe float away?
- How did they find their way back to camp?
- According to Ms Okafor, what was the real challenge?