Taj and the Great Camel Trek (3 page)

‘Taj! Where are you?' The morning sky was washed with grey and my father had little patience with boys who were late to work.

‘I have to find Mustara, Padar.'

‘We have twenty-two camels to load and all you can think of is your own camel? Mustara can join the string at the end.' He grumbled to Roshni, the lead gelding, while he checked his nose peg. ‘A camel that young on an exploring expedition. Mr Gile, he ask for trouble.'

He turned to me as I joined him, a rope in my hand. ‘Last night I said your camel is a good one, but I am telling you now, if he cannot keep up with the string on the way to Port Augusta, both of you will be returning home.'

‘But Mustara saved Emmeline and me in the dust storm, and he almost won the race.' That ‘almost' still annoyed me.

‘That may be so, but the wide, open desert is very different to our desert here at Beltana. Be remembering
this – the first sign of lagging and home you both will go.'

Mr Giles said I could come so I didn't argue any more with my father. I knew it was the stress of getting the camels ready that made him harsh and I nodded at him for it is good to respect your elders. We began the difficult task of loading the camels. We connected the fifteen baggage camels by their nose-pegs to the tail of the camel in front with a doubled piece of twine. That is why the line of camels is called a string. Padar used only wooden nose-pegs because a brass one would become hot and burn a camel's nose.

Emmeline had asked me once if it was cruel to have nose pegs. ‘The string will break easily if they bolt,' I had told her. ‘And besides, camels don't like a bit in their mouth as horses have. How else would we drive them?'

Padar and I led the camels into a circle with Roshni first for he was a good leader, and Padar ordered them to sit. ‘Hooshta!' Padar always said ‘hoosh' or ‘hooshta' with a long ‘sss' so it was soothing to the camels. It always fascinated me to watch them sink to the ground together, folding up their long legs as if they were a flock of birds dancing, the front legs first and then the back. But it was their eyes that I liked the most. Mustara's eyelashes were so long I was sure he winked at me.

I walked the riding camels over and we laid the wooden saddles on them. Padar can make these saddles and we would repair them on the expedition.

‘Hoy, Saleh! You are busy already I see.' Mr Giles emerged from the house. I was glad that the other explorers came out with him to help us load the camels. A man stood on each side of the beast to lift the load on, and they balanced it with their knees against the camel's side. The tall Jess Young jumped out of the way when Malik the youngest bull roared at him. He didn't look like a brave soldier then. I didn't laugh but some of the Nunga boys who had come to watch did. So did Tommy.

When we were nearly finished loading I whistled for Mustara and I found why he hadn't come before. Emmeline was there, barefoot and hatless, talking to him, and scratching between his eyes. ‘You will be good, won't you?' She was looking at me when she spoke, but I hoped she meant Mustara.

‘Padar said we will have to come home if Mustara can't keep up with the string.'

I saw the hope and pride fight on Emmeline's face before she finally said, ‘Of course he will keep up.' She was a good friend; she knew how much I wanted to go.

‘Thank you.' I almost hugged her as if she truly were my sister, but of course she wasn't and Padar had strict rules about who I could hug. Emmeline was on his list of those I couldn't, and once she turned thirteen I wouldn't be able to take her on any more rides into the desert. She walked with me back to the string. Mr Giles was ordering all the men to mount. It was time to
leave, for once camels have been loaded they can't bear to stand still. I chose to be brave like Emmeline and I smiled at her as I mounted.

I could hear her laughing as we rode down the hill from the homestead, yet I knew she didn't want me to leave. It was just after dawn. I settled into Mustara's rhythm and watched the pink sky draining across the ranges.
When would I see my home again?

Since the camels couldn't stand long with their loads on we kept marching the first day until it was time to eat dinner. I ate some damper during the day while I was riding on Mustara. Padar and I managed to stop at noon to say our prayers. Mr Giles said we could but Jess Young was frowning as Padar and I dismounted and laid out our prayer rugs. I followed Padar's example and ignored Jess Young's dark look.

We weren't long but the string set off again before we were finished. Padar put his hands on my shoulders as the string walked past us. ‘Do not worry if we are not permitted to stop or if there is no water, and only sand to wash in,' he said. ‘For we can say our prayers in our hearts and Allah will understand.' I nodded. These were the special rules for travellers; we were allowed to travel on Jumah, our holy day, too. Yet I was sad at the way Padar had to make Roshni gallop to reach his place at the beginning of the string. I took my place at the end behind Tommy. He turned and
grinned at me but I wasn't sure what his grin meant.

I thought my backside couldn't ache any more by the time Mr Giles gave the order to camp for the night. He called it ‘encamp'. I'd never ridden all day but I was determined not to complain. Padar grinned at me as I dismounted and my legs spread two different ways. I nearly fell and Tommy laughed. I gritted my teeth and tried to stand tall. How was I going to do this for months on end?

‘It will be getting better,' Padar said. Then he winked at me.

We unloaded Zaitoon, the kitchen camel, first. She had to carry an important load and I whispered in her ear as she knelt, ‘You've done a good job today, little olive.' That's what Zaitoon means: olive. She was fond of the sound of her name; she put back her ears and nibbled at my arm. Peter Nicholls was the cook. His smile was friendly as he and Tommy unpacked the kitchen equipment to make a meal, but Tommy's silly grin annoyed me. I knew he was making fun of me.

Everyone helped to set up the camp while Peter Nicholls prepared the flour and water for damper. Mr Giles told me where to put the wood for the fire and where to put our bedrolls. He strode up and down supervising the activity.

The explorers didn't bring many personal things, just a bag containing clothes, a gun, a bed roll and a blanket. They all seemed to have a book, and Mr Giles
had more than one. He also had another leather bag and boxes. He called it all ‘equipment'. In the bag were trinkets – mirrors, necklaces and pocket knives – ‘gifts for the natives' he said. He must have chosen well, for Tommy was fascinated by the things in that leather bag.

In my pack saddle were two shalwar qameezes, sets of clothes, extra cloth for a turban, a prayer mat, a blanket, a small tabla that the Beltana blacksmith called a hand drum, and one of the blue ribbons Emmeline tore off her hat after the dust storm.

I helped Jess Young by carrying his bag. I discovered he had just arrived from England; he had been an officer in the English navy in India. Jess was a friend of Mr Elder who owned Beltana Station but he had never seen our desert before and he spoke in a strange way.

Jess Young saw my interest in his bag and showed me what was inside. ‘Two flannel shirts, my good young man,' he said, ‘two pairs of socks, two pairs of boots, and blankets. Oh, and two pairs of leather inexpressibles.' He didn't show me those. ‘Now is that not dandy?' He also had a red handkerchief that matched his hair, and a concertina. I hoped he would play it one night. The blacksmith at Beltana played one and sang songs as well. I wished to know what inexpressibles were, but I dared not ask.

The second-in-command who came to our hut with Mr Giles was also an officer. Mr Tietkens had kind
eyes and talked much of the time with Mr Giles. They seemed old friends but they didn't say much to me.

After we had eaten, the men with books took them out and wrote in them, leaning close to the fire. Mr Giles had a candle stuck onto a box to see by.

Alec Ross sat beside me. I watched him sharpening his pencil with his knife. He caught me staring. ‘So Taj, you are our youngest camel driver.' His eyes were smiling and it gave me courage to speak to him.

‘I wish I could write what happened to me each day,' I said. Perhaps it wouldn't matter so much that you had no place where you truly belonged if you were forever on the pages in a book.

‘Do you want to know what I am writing?'

I nodded.

‘See, first I write the date. Today is Thursday the sixth day of May, 1875.' I knew that was only the English date. Padar said that the month was Rabiulakhir and the year was 1292 in the old country. ‘We made a good distance today on Camel Road because the camels are not fully loaded. Thirty miles.' He wrote that down. Padar had taught me to recognise numbers and how to use them. ‘A camel driver must be knowing the English numbers,' he'd said, ‘or he will not have a successful business.'

Alec continued, ‘Then I have to write the temperature, where we are and what plants I saw.'

‘Why?'

‘That's what explorers do. I want to be an explorer, so I have to learn all I can from Mr Giles and Mr Tietkens.' Then he said, ‘What do you want to write? You can write it here.' He turned to the other end of his book where the special place for the pencil was. I grinned, for Padar always opens the back of a book first. He said in Afghanistan where he was born all the books open that way. Now, the only book that Padar opens is the Koran. I don't think he reads it for it's written in Arabic, but he can read Persian words.

Alec held out the pencil to me. I checked his face to make sure, then I wrote Taj in Persian on his cream-lined page.

‘What does it say?' Alec asked.

‘My name.'

‘Write some more.' Alec eyes shone at me. ‘I've never seen this before.'

I let the pencil drop onto the book. It took him a moment to realise I knew no more. ‘Never mind, I can write something for you if you like.'

I was embarrassed and shook my head. I glanced across the campfire and saw Tommy watching me. I couldn't tell what he was thinking but what did I care? I stood up too quickly and my sore muscles complained.

‘Good night,' I said politely to Alec with my hand over my heart in the way Padar had taught me.

My first night camping on Camel Road was colder than I had imagined. And it was only May. There would be many months of cold desert nights. I could see the stars but I missed the warmth of our tin hut, the noises of Beltana Station at night: Emmeline's mother calling her to come inside, a dog howling, the joking and laughing that went on in the blacksmith's hut. At least I could hear Mustara's grunts and a growl from a camel that remained near the camp. I edged my blanket closer to Padar and grinned when I heard his snore.

In the morning I was so stiff I could hardly move but I began the routine that would be part of my days for the next seven months. First I washed, put on my white prayer cap that used to be Padar's, prayed, wrapped my turban around my head, then helped Padar to find the camels. It took over an hour to round them up. ‘That wasn't so long,' I said to Padar as we joined them by their nose ropes.

Padar studied my face for a moment. ‘We will be
longer finding them in the desert. There will be less feed and the camels will stray further.' I didn't take much notice of his warning, but I found out soon enough.

Padar had put bells on all the camels. ‘These are called zungwalla,' he said when Alec asked. Mustara had one too. Padar could tell how far away the camels were by the sound of the bells. I wanted to learn to do that. Mr Giles liked long hobbles used on the camels so that they could find their own feed. It was good for the camels but not so good for me finding them early in the morning. At least Mustara didn't stray far, and came when I whistled.

After we loaded the camels with the equipment Mr Giles rode Reechy up and down the string making sure we were ready to leave. I watched her legs lift gracefully as she trotted past. He seemed taken with her; that very morning I saw him murmuring in her ear.

It was a relief to find that Mustara kept up with the string and Padar never mentioned his warning again. Tommy rode Salmah. Even though Tommy had ridden her in the race he was still frightened of her, I could tell: he took a long time to mount. This morning the old cow turned her head and spat at him.

He screwed up his face and made a nasty sound as though she smelt. ‘I don't notice the smell of camels,' I told Tommy. He didn't answer – he was too busy trying to make Salmah rise.

Jess Young heard what I said. ‘That's because you smell like one, Camellia.'

‘My name is not Camellia.' I struggled not to show my feelings.

‘Don't worry, Taj,' Alec said, ‘camellias are sweet-smelling flowers.' He was laughing so perhaps it wasn't so bad.

Padar rode Roshni at the head of the baggage string. Even though Roshni was a gelding he thought he was the jemidar, the boss of all the camels, but really Padar was.

That day all the aches and pains of the day before intensified. I hoped I'd soon get used to riding all day. I watched the other men. They all seemed to walk normally without pain after they dismounted. Alec didn't seem to be sore at all. After we unloaded that evening, Padar told me to let the camels sit awhile and chew their cud. ‘They will not stray so far in the night if they are settled at first.' I stored away all Padar's advice.

A strange thing happened later on. At the campfire Mr Giles was watching Tommy and he said, ‘Tommy and Taj will be good company for each other. They are the youngest on the expedition.' I don't know who he was telling, for he didn't look at my face as he spoke. At times I was pleased Mr Giles showed me little attention for his eyes were like blue daggers that made me want to look away, yet once when I saw him laughing with
Tommy I wished for that too. Mr Tietkens grunted as though he agreed with Mr Giles, but I couldn't agree, for I didn't think Tommy cared for me. He grinned a lot but he had never spoken a word to me.

I said this to Alec just before we went to our blankets. It looked as if Alec would laugh but when he glanced at my face he smiled gently. ‘You're imagining it, Taj. Tommy doesn't have a mean bone in his body.'

Perhaps Alec was right but that night Tommy knew there was a centipede on my blanket and he didn't warn me. He must have seen it; he was standing near the fire when I came back from the scrub to unroll my blanket. Fortunately, I saw it myself or I could have been bitten. The bite from a centipede can make a grown man cry. It's almost as bad as a scorpion's sting. The look on Tommy's face was the strangest thing. Emmeline would have shouted and shoved me, but Tommy just stared at me with a sideways grin on his face. Why did he not say? Did he want me to get bitten?

The next day was the Christians' holy day just as Friday is for Padar and me. Padar and I said our prayers together at sunrise apart from the camp but Jess Young saw us leaving with our prayer rugs. ‘Don't fly away on that carpet now, Saleh. Are you sure God can't hear you unless you do those exercises?'

‘Take no notice.' This was Padar's advice about any teasing we received. Padar was more worried about Mr Giles. ‘Mr Gile is not a religious man. Not once has he come down from his camel to pray. Nor does he ask God which way is best to travel. Always he is looking at his compass.'

After prayers I watched Mr Giles packing his box. He kept a few instruments out to use while he was riding. He hummed and smiled to himself. Alec came to help me load the camels and I asked him about Mr Giles. ‘Christians pray in their hearts at any time, even when they don't have to ride camels,' Alec said. He also said he was seventeen years old and had just celebrated his birthday. ‘On the first of April actually. My sisters held a party before I came away to join Mr Giles. They made pastries and a cake.'

‘You have sisters?' I thought of Emmeline and wondered what it would be like to have a sister who lived in the hut with Padar and me, who cooked pastries and cakes. Even my mother never made pastries, although Padar had taught her how to cook mutton and rice in the Afghan way.

‘Yes.' For an instant a shadow passed over Alec's face, then it cleared. ‘Sarah is twenty-two, soon to be married. Rebecca is twenty-one, and Henrietta is twenty. We call her Hennie.' Alec glanced at my face. Did he see the longing that I felt? ‘I have a brother too – John. He'll be
sixteen this year.' Then he said more quietly, ‘I miss him the most.' All this talk of ages and I didn't even know my own. Emmeline had thought that strange.

‘When's your birth date, Taj?' Alec's face was close to mine as we loaded a water cask.

I felt caught out as if I'd been doing something haram, forbidden. I was forced to answer, ‘I don't know.'

Alec almost dropped his end of the cask. ‘What? Don't know your birth date?'

I shrugged, and tried not to show I cared. ‘Padar never makes much of such things.' In a sudden effort to explain I added, ‘I know I was born within two years of him coming to this colony with the camels.'

Alec knew about that. ‘Only three cameleers came with those camels that Mr Landells brought out from India. So Saleh, your father, was one of them?'

I nodded. ‘There was a man called John King too.'

‘Yes,' Alec said. ‘The only survivor of Mr Burke and Mr Wills' trip to the north. Your father is an Indian?'

We steadied the cask and grunted as we lifted it onto Malik's back. Malik turned his head towards Alec and bellowed, but Alec was used to him now and knew his roar didn't mean a bite. ‘Padar was born a Pushtun in Afghanistan but he lived most of his life in a town called Peshawar. Many Afghans lived there as well as Indians. The English called it India, but what are borders to an Afghan, especially an English border?'

Alec watched me tie the ropes around the cask as he kept it steady. I looked up to find he had a strange look on his face. With all this talk of Padar, I didn't want him to ask about my mother, but his next comment was about India. ‘Did your father fight in the Afghan War?'

‘Certainly.'

Alec said quietly, ‘I suppose he fought against the English.'

My hands stilled. I hesitated to answer but Alec guessed by my silence. ‘Don't tell that to Jess Young. He might not like to know.'

I knew what Alec meant and replied carefully, ‘India is a long way off and this is Padar's home now.'

Alec was smiling again as we moved to the pile of kitchen utensils by Zaitoon, talking about birthdays. ‘So, you were born here like me and must be nearly thirteen. I will pick a birth date and you will have a birthday too.'

It was good that he was concerned about my birth date but talk of John King made me wonder about other things. Padar wasn't on that expedition to the north with Mr Burke and Mr Wills but he knew they died – the camels too – all except John King. Padar said John King didn't understand enough about camels to keep them alive and if they had taken a true camel driver the story may have ended differently. What would it be like if all your camels died and there was no way out of the desert? I hoped I never found out.