Bird Island Expedition - A Mel, Tab, Mewla & Cathy story

Chapter Three
Settling In


  We got round onto the beach and everyone jumped down from the rocks and landed on the sand with soft thuds. We all got the giggles when Mrs Fisher got stuck and Mr Banmew had to go back and help her.
  "Wow, this is fantastic!" Tibbicca said, gazing all around. It was. The cove was fairly large. The sand was soft and golden, and clumps of rocks all round the beach accommodated great rock pools. Large ferns grew between the large rocks at the base of the cliffs, and water dripped from the rocks. We all grinned round at each other. The weather was gorgeous, we had landed on a great little island, and we were going to have a great fortnight with all our friends.
  "Right then, let's aim to get up the cliff and find somewhere to camp." Mr Mewan said. "The quicker we can find somewhere the quicker we can get a fire lit and make some breakfast for all of us. You must all be hunrgy by now."
  We all followed Mr Mewan to the base of the cliff, where a rough rocky path ran upwards, winding between clumps of rock and plants growing out of the cliff.
  "Sir, how are we going to get all the stuff up here?" Purla asked, as we made our way up the path.
  "Oh, it shouldn't be too much of a problem." Mr Mewan said. "The tents will be easy, and so will all your bags, and we can all lend a hand with the food."
  After twenty minutes of scrambling, Mr Mewan, Cathy, Purla and I arrived at the cliff top first. We hauled ourselves up and looked round. The cliff-top was fairly flat, and there were rough outcrops of rock here and there. Small areas of trees grew to the left of us, and further over the top of the cliff, we could see a large hollow, which Mr Mewan thought would be ideal for camping.
  "That'll be a great place to put the tents." he said, pointing. "It's quite a deep hollow, quite large, and the grassy banks will protect us from wind if there is any. There's plenty of room for all the tents, and for a large fire in the middle. There's even a stream over there, look. Yes, I think that's ideal."
  He went back to the cliff edge and looked over at all the others, who were still making their way up the cliff path.
  "Hey, you lot! We're coming back down now, we've found a great place for the tents, so we'll start unloading now!"
 
***

  In all, it took us about another hour and a half to get all the equipment out of the boat and up the cliff path. We all took our own bags up first, then all of the class helped Mrs Fisher and Miss Mewola with the food parcels and cooking equipment, while Mr Banmew and Mr Mewan brought the tents up. All us girls quite often stopped to watch Mr Mewan and Mr Banmew struggling with the tents; they were like some thing out of a comedy programme. We had ten tents in total; the teachers all had a small one each, and there were six for the rest of us. We were all sharing in groups of three or four, and the school had provided really nice, huge roomy tents for all of us. We had a huge tarpaulin to cover up all the supplies, which would be kept by Mr Banmew's tent.
  Tab, Cathy, Mewla and I were sharing, as were Tibbick, Mewbellan, Purbelle and Mewlarka. Tibbicca, Tibleau and Purla had wanted to share as a three, but they had had Mewbellinne put with them, much to her dismay and theirs. Mewbellinne was very rude to Tibleau on her first day at Tibcot, and both Purla and Tibbicca have never forgiven her being being mean to their best friend. Purlibya, Alimew and Purbecca, who were sharing as a three, were thrilled not to have Mewbellinne with them for once, as she usually always gets put with them for groups and things. Tom, Francis and Mewfal were sharing (a recipe for disaster, Miss Mewola had stated at the time), and so were Mewlip, Mewliam and Mewbile.
  It was each little group's responsibility to put up their own tent, as as soon as everything was removed from the boat and brought up to the hollow, we were each given our tent, and set about putting them up. This, of course, gave us ample time to play about. Cathy wrapped our groundsheet round her back like a cape and went racing around the hollow pretending to fly. Mr Mewan stopped when he caught sight of her and couldn't help but burst into laughter. Mewbellinne was watching angrily from where she and her group were assembling their tent, and was so busy glaring at Cathy that she dropped the tent ridge pole on Tibbicca's head.
  "For Christ's sake Mewbellinne!" Tibbicca stuck her head out from the collapsed tent and scowled at Mewbellinne. "Pay attention!"
  The boys got their tents up first, as they weren't messing about as much as the girls. Tom strolled past us, flexing his muscles.
  "Not finished yet girls?" he said airily, and hurriedly ducked as a tent peg left Cathy's hand and went sailing past his head.
  When Mr Mewan had put his tent up, he gathered the boys together and told them that they would be going with him and Mr Banmew to look for some wood to light a fire. So it was just all the girls and Miss Mewola and Mrs Fisher that were left, finishing off the tents and finding suitable places to store the food. All the food we had brought was in tins and packets, but we had such a wide selection that there was something for everyone, and most of it was good healthy stuff. The only thing we brought that wasn't tinned were lots of boxes of eggs, which had been packed very very carefully!
  It wasn't long before Miss Mewola gathered us all together in the middle of the camp.
  "Right then girls!" she grinned at us all. "I am intending to let the boys know that this trip is a completely equal opportunity holiday and that we are going to do our fair share of stuff too, and that we will do macho jobs just as well as the boys, so this is why I intend for us to go and gather that wood I spotted over there, and get a fire lit for when they come back!"
  We all started laughing.
  "Cool, Miss!" Purla laughed. "Come on, girls!"
  So we all hurried over to the small copse of trees where Miss Mewola had spotted all the rough wood on the ground, and between us all we gathered it all up and took it back to the centre of the camp. Miss Mewola and Mrs Fisher then produced some firelighters, and very soon we had a great fire going. Mrs Fisher then proceeded to get out the frying pan and the metal contraption that stood over the fire to hold the pans, and she started to cook breakfast while the rest of us finished putting up our tents.
  Tibbicca came over to us, fuming.
  "I can't stand it any more!" she said in a low voice. "We've only just got here and already Mewbellinne is doing my head in! She's so busy looking out for Mr Mewan to come back that she's already bent one of the tent pegs by not watching while she's hammering, and she's dropped the damn hammer on Purla's foot twice!"
  We looked across to their tent, which was only half-up. Purla was sat on the grass scowling, holding her foot. Tibleau was inside the tent trying to get the poles to stand up, which was hard because the pegs weren't in place to keep the fabric taut. Tab laughed.
  "I think this is going to be a fun two weeks." she grinned. Tibbicca pulled a face and wandered back over to her tent crossly.
  Soon, the smell of breakfast cooking floated across the camp. When we had all finished getting the tents up, we all unpacked our things into the tents while we waited for Mrs Fisher to finish the breakfasts. Our tents felt quite homely by the time we had finished. Cathy had taken up a post near to the cliff path and was poised with her digital camera to take a picture of the boys' faces when they got back and found all the tents up, a fire going and breakfast ready.
  Ten minutes later, the boys arrived back.
  "Hey!" was Mewfal's exclamation when he saw the very homely and organised camp. "They got a fire going!"
  Mr Mewan's mouth dropped open as he stopped and dropped his wood in amazement and Cathy pounced with her camera.
  "Just in time for breakfast!" called Mrs Fisher, smiling, as she ladled food onto plates.
  The boys dropped their firewood where they stood.
  "Where did you get the wood?" Tom asked.
  "Over there, in the trees." Cathy pointed. "We've got everything under control, boys!"
  The boys, still looking amazed, came over to get their food, grumbling amongst themselves.
  Tibbick, Mewbellan, Purbelle and Mewlarka were already sat down eating their breakfast. Tibbicca's group had just about finished putting their tent up. Purla and Tibleau wandered over to the fire, talking together in low voices, both of them scowling. We laughed at them.
  "Is she really that bad?" I laughed, as we all lined up to get our breakfasts.
  "Worse." Tibleau said. "You should see all the stuff she's brought with her - her bag is like a bottomless one - it's amazing the amount of stuff she unpacked - she's swamped all our things!"
  "Yes, I think there's going to have to be a lesson in keeping the tent tidy." Tibbicca said grimly, overhearing our chat as she came over. "Meaning if you don't have respect for others and keep your stuff tidy, it'll get moved."
  "Yeah - outside the tent!" laughed Purla.
  I think that breakfast was one of the best we had ever had. We were all starving after a morning of hard work, and the large helpings of eggs, sausages and beans were delicious.
  "Well." Miss Mewola said, as we all sat and tucked in. "I think the rest of the day can be devoted to having a rest and doing as you please. We've all had a tiring two days' journey to get here and you've all worked hard so far today. There'll be plenty of time to do work over the fortnight. Just don't go cliff-climbing or doing anything dangerous!"
  Little by little, as we all finished eating, we piled our plates up by the fire and wandered back to our tents. Cathy had brought a battery-powered CD player with her and some great CDs of old, feel-good music, and very soon, her CDs were blaring out over the camp. The sun was hot, the sky was blue and cloudless, and everyone was very relaxed; some of us in the tents, some lounging outside, some wandering round exploring.
  "This is heaven." Cathy said. She was lying on her stomach with her head poking outside the tent. Mewla was sat outside, and Tab and I were sorting out our things.
  "Mel!" Tibbicca called us from their tent. "Come and see our tent!"
  We took this as a signal that really meant "come and see all Mewbellinne's stuff everywhere!" so we all scrambled out of our tent and went over to Tibbicca's. Mewbellinne was inside, lounging on her sleeping bag with a magazine. Tibbicca pulled the tent flaps back and we peered inside. Cathy stifled a laugh.
  Tibbicca's cosmetic case and a small pile of magazines were in one corner, alongside Purla and Tibleau's cosmetic cases and a few books. Mewbellinne had taken up the entire width of the back of the tent with two cosmetic cases, another bag full of toiletries, a pile of books and a separate pile of magazines, a personal tape player AND CD player and a pile of snacks.
  "Mewbellinne, if you have any snacks you can give them to the teachers to keep, to save room in the tents." Tab said.
  "Well I didn't want to." Mewbellinne said obstinately.
  Tab rolled her eyes at the back of Mewbellinne's head and withdrew her head from the tent.
  "It's no good." Purla said quietly. "She'll have to go."
  We laughed.


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