The Time Travelers' Handbook (15 page)
Read The Time Travelers' Handbook Online
Authors: Lottie Stride
Ouch, you've landed right between two humps on a camel's back and it hurts! It's hard to say who is more surprised, you or the camel. But there's no time to think about that, because the camel is already moving. You're off along the Old Silk Road, the ancient trading route between China and Europe.
It's not like any road you knowâmore like a dusty trackâand you're traveling with a caravan, or group of merchants, and their camels. They are taking silk, tea, porcelain, and other goods to trade with European merchants at trading posts and bazaars along the route. In exchange, your merchants will buy European goods such as gold, wool, and wine and take them back to China.
Bandits
Be warned. The Old Silk Road goes through huge deserts and some of the highest mountain ranges in the world, and it's tough and dangerous to travel. You're traveling through bandit country, so watch out for ambushes. Likely places are narrow passes, dense undergrowth, and behind hilltops and large boulders. To make it harder for bandits, you can:
⢠Vary the speed at which you travel.
⢠Stop regularly, and check the route ahead and behind you.
⢠Keep an eye out for glints of lightâit may be sunlight reflecting off something metal belonging to a crouching bandit.
⢠Make sure the members of your caravan are spaced out. You should aim to be close enough to help each other out, but far enough apart so that bandits can't completely surround you.
Sandstorms
You're in sandstorm country, too. Strong winds blowing over loose sand or soil create enormous dust clouds that move at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. If you spot one, here's what to do:
⢠Move to higher ground if you can.
⢠Cover your nose and mouth with a wet cloth.
⢠Try to take shelter. Look for a large rock to protect you from the worst of the sand. Alternatively, use your new friend, your camel. Make it sit down, and squeeze down next to it on the side sheltered from the wind. Your camel will be all right. It has good protection against sandstorms. It can close its nostrils, and it has bushy eyebrows and long eyelashes to keep sand out of its eyes.
⢠Wrap yourself in anything you can to shield yourself. The strong winds may have scooped up heavy objects and you could be hit.
⢠Once the storm reaches you, stay put until it's overâvisibility can be reduced to zero within seconds.
Vertigo
When you reach the mountains, you'll be traveling along steep, narrow tracks with terrifying drops into ravines hundreds of yards below. If you are panicking, don't fight it. Accept that you're scared stiff. Slow down your breathing. Keep right behind the trader in front of you and follow in his camel's footsteps exactly. Look out for loose ground that could trip you up. Don't look too far ahead. Concentrate on here and now, and stop worrying about that even steeper part you can see ahead.
Aaaaargh! You've just landed in the middle of a river. It's icy cold. Your teeth are too frozen to even chatter. The river is wide and fast-flowing, and though it is quite shallow, the current is almost strong enough to whisk you off your feet. You grab hold of the nearest thingâan ox.
The ox is not alone. It's part of a team pulling a wagon across the river. There are more wagons up ahead, and still more behind you. In fact, there are wagons as far as your eyes can see in both directions. You have arrived in the middle of a long train of wagons heading westward. They are filled with people who have decided to leave the towns and cities in eastern America and travel to the west in search of a new and better life. This is the west we call the Wild West!
Making Camp
Your TT handset may have state-of-the-art waterproofing, but you don't. You are drenched by the time you wade to the far bank. Luckily, the wagon master who is leading the train decides this is a good spot to make camp for the night.
Soon, all the wagons are arranged in a great big circle. Campfires are lit and big pots of food are cooking. You sit around the fire with your fellow travelers, singing songs and chatting under the stars. This most definitely beats your average camping vacation!
It's Tough Out West
Don't be fooled by the campfire songsâthe people singing are pioneers, and they are tough, because life in the west is tough.
⢠They start their day early, lighting fires and getting breakfast made before dawn.
⢠People have to walk most of the day. The oxen are already pulling heavy loads, and the terrain is bumpy. Riding in the wagons is no fun, either. You would be shaken like a rag doll, and all the pots and pans banging together makes a clanking racket.
⢠Despite being on the trail for ten or more hours, most wagon trains can only travel about 12 miles a day. If it's rainy and muddy, they manage a lot less.
⢠The children have lots of choresâsuch as collecting wood, helping cook, fetching water from the river, and milking cows.
Dangers On The Trail
Heading west can be a dangerous journey. Keep a lookout for some of the potential perils ahead.
⢠The trail itself is full of danger. Some of the trail is through high mountain passes and across rivers far wider, deeper, and wilder than the one you just crossed.
⢠The Wild West is full of wildlife. There are rattlesnakes around whose bite could kill you. Wild dogs called coyotes and other savage animals roam in the night looking for a meal.
⢠The sun is very hot and the ground is very dry. Grass fires can flare up at any time and can engulf slow-moving wagons.
⢠The prairies are very open and exposed. During storms, a lightning strike can set a wagon on fire in seconds.
⢠The pioneers are carrying everything they own, so these slow-moving caravans are easy targets for bandits. Bandits and outlaws are a constant threat, and they are what make the West so wild.
Following The Trail
After a night sleeping by the campfire, you wake for another day on the trail. You decide to catch up to the wagon master at the head of the train. He gives the order for the wagons to move on. As you go along, he shows you some of the signs a wagon train in front has left behind. At first, they just look like piles of pebbles, but as you look more closely, he explains that these piles of pebbles show you which way to go and give warnings of any dangers that lie ahead.
He asks you to help him by setting signs along the trail for the pioneers trailing behind to follow. He tells you some of the different signs he uses.
STRAIGHT AHEAD
TURN LEFT
TURN RIGHT
NOT THIS WAY
DANGER
MESSAGE HIDDEN (STONES SHOW HOW MANY PACES TO TAKE TO FIND THE MESSAGE)
