🌊 My Scattered Thoughts 🌊

Cave fossils...

When the four archaeologists had set off on their expedition, they had not expected to become so immersed into the jungle life. They were overwhelmed at how welcoming the many villages had been, when inviting them to stay in their coarse mud homes. But, as they left their last village stop, before venturing off to their destination, they felt an overall sadness sweep over them. Upset that this was the last place they would get to see this whole new side to life. These wondrous people, that had next to nothing yet their happiness and kindness spanned so much more than some rich businessman in his swish new York penthouse.

The village men had helped push both canoes out, off the silt bank and into the pulsing rush of the river. Billy, the head of the archaelogical team had called out for them to steer down the left bank and take the turning off to a smaller river named the Green River because of its bright green coloured water, instead of the usual Brown that was to be seen on the Amazon. Sure enough after paddling down this smaller channel, they found themselves in condensed, algae filled water.

The sedate flow of the river carried them round a long bend and finally the village was lost from sight, the voices faded and the sound of the jungle once more filled the humid air and descended upon them like a blanket of thick felt.

Midday, on queue, the blue sky vanished behind a veil of heavy grey clouds and the heavens open as if some divine tap had been spun. Rain speared down on them sharply, drumming noisily on the
stretched-hide that made up the structure of the canoes. The river water dashed and danced; the jungle hissed and roared so loadly with the patter of millions of heavy raindrops on millions of leaves.

Before long, they reached the camp where they could spend the night before trekking up the mountainside tomorrow. The four explorers settled for the night, nestled in sleeping bags, under the ominous shadow of the seemingly endless mountain that loomed over them.

The next day, they spent the morning collecting research of fossils in the history of the Amazon Rainforest. They set off at midday, determined to reach the summit by nightfall. Billy took the lead, as he hacked away at the low-hanging thorny vines in front of them.

Soon enough they reached the thin winding path that zigzagged dangerously up the almost vertical cliff face. They set off, expectant of a long harrowing journey. But it took them no more than an hour to reach the halfway point of the climb.

Louisa, a paleontology student at Oxford, who had taken this once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the ancient site of the Rinconsaurus fossil, as part of her physical section. She had a slight fear of heights so had slung back from the other three. She stopped for a moment to sip some water and catch her breath, her thigh muscles burning from the steady ascent. They were more than a hundred feet up from the jungle floor, yet it felt like she was halfway towards the clear azure sky.

She whipped her disposable camera out of her satchel and snapped a photograph of the magnificent view. Below the canopy, it had felt like swimming along the bottom of an overgrown aquarium. But from where she stood now, the rainforest looked like an emerald sea of gently stirring broccoli heads: a receding site of peaks and troughs that billowed like the folds of a green blanket, like the gentle swells of deep ocean. The ripples of the jungle stepped slowly down towards the distant glinting thread of the Amazon River. The enchanting scenery was now frozen e in a snapshot image. As she dawdled, mavelling at the site before her, George, the other paleantologist in their group, called down for her to speed up and so she set off again up the narrow path.

With the afternoon fast approaching evening, the sun began to burn less intensely now. It rested warmly on their sweat-damp faces, casting beams of light across the rainforest, and alternate rays of shadow fanned out from the tops of some of the gentler peaks. Thin wisps of mist beginning to form, hiding from the sunlight, like pale, nocturnal children.

The sun had begun to disppear beyond the horison, casting fiery, flickering light across the jungle, when the pathway came to an abrupt end reaching the small mouth to a cave. The entrance was small and roughly arched. The Cave floor was covered in a bed of dust, the crumbling remains of dried vegetation, brittle twigs and branches and a few tufts of yellowing grass. The walls were the same rust-red rock, worn smooth near the entrance, by the elements, but more defined, sharper even, further in.
Louisa and George slunk back, put off by the caves dark humid air. It was their first time on any kind of trip like this. Billy, who often led expeditions like this, it was his job after all, scoffed at them and stepped through first. Quickly followed by Marie, a biologist with a cetain love for archeology. George looked over at louisa and she nodded at him to go first. He swung out his torch flicking the switch, and filling the cave with artificial light, and shuffled into the mouth of the cave.

"Is it safe?" Louisa called, her voice quivering like a frightened child.

Billy shouted from far ahead, calling them lilly-livered pansies.

Louisa laughed and stepped in to join George, her shallow breathing uneven with questioning fear.

"Lets go" she whispered and they both trudged further in, wary of what they would meet further ahead...

Hey, this is my first entry into my rather random book. I wrote this in a notebook a couple of years back when I visited the Australian rainforest whereI felt rather inspired by the scenery. It wasn't that good but I fixed it up and thought I'd post it here. It doesn't feel very finished though, I might do a carry on chapter at some point. But that's it for now, thank you for reading xx