“This is a cool way to travel!” called Zoe, as they paddled their kayaks across the grey, choppy water, heading for the ice floe. They had their hoods up and goggles on against the cold.
“Certainly would be if you fell in!” said Ben.
As soon as the children had told Erika that they needed to get out on to the floe she’d taken action. She’d hired the kayaks from the visitors’ centre with the cover story that they’d be off for two days’ exploring. Once out of sight of Fairwood, their “mother” had left them and headed off further along the coast towards the site where the proposed oil drilling would take place.
“These kayaks would be really fast if it wasn’t for the ice in the water,” said Zoe, skilfully steering a path through the floating obstacles. “I’m glad we brushed up our canoeing skills during our training week.”
In some places the ice lay in flat pieces looking like a shattered mirror; in others they formed natural ice sculptures which towered above them, glinting in the afternoon sunlight.
Ben slipped his BUG out of his pocket. “Good thing Uncle Stephen thought to give us these special thin gloves.” He laughed. “We’d never manage to hit the right buttons if our fingers were as thick as sausages.” He called up the satellite map. “We’re heading in the right direction,” he said. “About another twenty minutes and we’ll reach the southern tip of the ice floe. Then we’ve got the trek across it.”
“Not so much a trek – more a whiz,” said Zoe. “I can’t wait to try out my RAT.”
“There’s a problem up ahead,” said Ben suddenly. “The satellite picture shows we’ll be going into thick fog. It’ll be hard to see and much colder.”
Soon they could see a bank of white dense vapour swirling on the surface of the sea in front of them. There didn’t seem to be any way around.
“Thank goodness we’ve got our BUGs to guide us,” said Zoe. “We’d end up going round in circles otherwise.”
They paddled into the thick fog. It was impossible to see much further than the end of the kayak.
“Stay close to me,” called Ben urgently.
Following the northwards course on their BUGs, they made their way blindly through the thick, freezing air. The paddling movement was keeping them warm, but they could feel droplets of ice clinging to their hoods and balaclavas. The only noise was the splash of their oars and the occasional clunking sound as ice blocks clashed together.
“I’ll be glad to reach the floe,” said Zoe. She was paddling as close as she could to Ben’s side to keep him in sight.
“Me too,” answered Ben. “This is creepy.”
Something dark loomed up in the fog. The children slowed their kayaks.
“What’s that?” Zoe whimpered. “It looks like a row of grey people in hoods…and they’re crouched down. I don’t like it.”
Now they could hear sounds as if someone was tapping on wood. Zoe back-paddled as fast as she could.
“Surely it can’t be humans,” said Ben, trying to sound braver than he felt.
He tapped a key on his BUG to identify the sound. When the result flashed up on the screen he burst out laughing with relief.
“Come back,” he called to his sister. “It’s just a pod of walruses. It was their shapes you could see – they’re on the ice floe.”
The fog swirled and cleared a little, and in the small shaft of sunlight they could see the walruses lying on the edge of the ice. Their pinky-grey bodies were covered in short hair and their snouts bristled with stiff whiskers. Each one had a pair of gleaming tusks, pointing downwards and looking very sharp.
With a shamefaced grin, Zoe brought her kayak alongside his again. “Well, they looked scary back there,” she insisted.
“We don’t want to land amongst them,” said Ben. “I know they don’t usually attack humans, but they’re huge.”
“And those tusks look vicious,” agreed Zoe. “I vote we give them a wide berth.”
One of the walruses was watching them with its little eyes, turning its head to follow their movements. It raised its snout to the air, whiskers twitching. Suddenly it gave a harsh, bellowing cry. The other animals took it up and they began to shuffle towards the sea.
“They’ve caught our scent and they’re scared,” said Ben, plunging his paddle into the water. “We should have used the scent dispersers on our BUGs, but it’s too late now. Get away as fast as you can. Walruses always take to the sea when they’re frightened.”
Just as he spoke, the walruses plunged into the icy ocean with tremendous splashes. Waves of water surged towards the kayaks. Ben and Zoe rowed madly back into the fog, but more animals were diving into the sea. Shiny heads were popping up all over the place, giving terrified cries as they swam away.
Zoe let out a yelp of fright as the wash of water tipped her sideways. Ben twisted in his seat to try and spot his sister through the wall of fog. But Zoe was nowhere to be seen.
