Lost

Peter was to learn an important lesson, it would nearly cost him is life.

Peter was educated he had gone to good schools and he could read and write well like most people. He also like a lot of people thought that people who can’t read and write are dumb.

Peter had yet to learned that the measure of a persons worth has very little to do with just two life skills of reading and writing. His view of the native people that lived in his area was that they were stupid and ignorant. He thought they didn’t know much. His prejudice stemmed from the mistaken thinking that all education comes from being literate.

For an educated person Peter made the cardinal mistake of not telling anyone of where he was going to ride his trail bike. He was so used to just going when he felt like it he just did it again. The difference was normally his family knew where he used to ride but this time everything was different.

Peter had been wondering how to get to the top of the escarpment. The view would be spectacular and make for some great photos but the cliff face made it impossible to get up there with out climbing gear.

This idea so persisted in Peters mind that finally he bought a topographical map which shows all the contours of the land. By this method he hoped to learn if there was a way of going around the back of the towering cliffs and coming in from the back side.

He was very disappointed to see that there was no way to ride his trail bike around the escarpment which ran for hundreds of kilometers in both directions from where he lived.

He knew the natives lived up there. How they got up and down to town was a mystery to him.

Just as he was about to throw the map away he saw a way. It was a bit crazy but there was one way in.

The map showed a river gorge that ran right through the line of cliffs. A new idea was forming in Peter’s mind.

“If I put my bike in a boat and travel twenty kilometers upstream there was just one place which showed a slow sloping incline from the river to the top of the escarpment.

Not telling anyone what he was about to do was foolish and an educated young man should have known not to have made this basic mistake.

It took quite a lot of planning to ready the boat. Loading fuel for the boat motor was different than for the bike. Food and water also was prepared, then when the boat trailer was connected to his car he set off to the boat ramp.

Unloading the boat made Peter nervous as three years ago a big crocodile had taken a lady at this place and she had never been seen again.

Finally, by shifting the position of the bike laying on its side inside the boat Peter balanced the load and fired up the outboard and set off. He didn’t want to get his cell phone wet so foolishly he left it in the car at the boat ramp. How useful it would have been!

Most trail bike riders go in pairs for safety; again Peter made a mistake that so scare him he would never make that same mistake again.

By using a map Peter found the spot where he needed to unload the bike. He nudged the boat onto the river bank. This place was so dangerous as he had to get into the water to pull the boat ashore. Getting the heavy bike out of the boat on his own was very hard slow work and Peter was carefully watching the water for signs of crocs as he worked.

Finally he could rest with the boat pulled up the bank where it could not be seen and rested it against a tree. Peter ate some food and had a long drink from one of his three bottles. He wanted to refill it from the river but the fear of crocs stopped him