though there was nobody else about.
“Not everything top of the range with a button for going down hills (for heaven’s sake), and brand new is better. And what's with all the tinted windows...you’re not famous!” I jest.
“What’s wrong with my car, it's still Landrover” he tells me, “though it's never roved any land except tarmac.” He giggles.
“You can find one on every continent; they’re as well developed as cockroaches.” I remind him.
“You win, let’s get moving, we only have half a day before it gets dark, and I really don’t fancy being out here in the dark...even with you Tharie,” he adds quickly as I pout. I wink at him, take a deep slurp of water from my chrome bottle with a screw lid, add it to my backpack between our seats, I am not looking forward to hauling it on. I hate backpacks, if my Burberry was deep enough I’d have brought that, backpacks are synonymous with hairy armpits, cereal bars and Birkenstocks, Yuk! I shiver at the thought!
Apologies to any of you who match this description, but this is my story....please pick up a Vogue next time you're out!
Stopping in a opening at everyone’s request, a beautiful spot, we all have our phones out taking photos and group shots, like were on holiday. The scene is quite stunning and we’re finally having a tea break.
Daniel has the map spread out on the series bonnet and he and the Professor are perusing the texts and routes. He has the translation of his tattoo imagery sealed in a clear plastic Ziploc pouch and they discuss a heading... “According to my directions...and I’m not even going to consult you on this matter Tharie, you’re rubbish at directions!” He kisses the end of my nose. “We head in a westish heading once the Prof. translates the standing stone and discovers its meaning. We're guessing it's a marker to lead us to another similar stone marker.”
“Westish…?” I giggle, “That’s not even a real word!”
“Fine,” he admits, I fake hurt, and points, that's better, toward that mountain.
“Then when we get lost and no one finds our poor starving long dead bodies, clinging to each other, it’ll be your fault...westish!” I check the signal on the satellite phone Stan has procured for us, clearly not the rented kind, it's too new, too complicated, it's likely from an unknown military source, I do like intrigue in my story don't I?
HXF collected canter.
Certain Stan himself is from similar sources, I look over at him and he's checking all the equipment, again. Yep. Nigel cleans his glasses and Liza unties and reties her ponytail several times. We all have our coping mechanisms don't we?
Free walk along the long side of the arena.
Five almost complete strangers heading out for an adventure, a motley crew I’d have to admit. I look around at us all, but a more dedicated and knowledgeable bunch you couldn’t find.
“This is incredible.” We hear the Professor calling. He has already reached the tall stone and is studying it's markings over his glasses as before. “It's a key to our destination, it's the missing link and gives us a slightly new heading, watch out here.”
He gestures with his hand gripping the map tightly, “Might be a matter of hitting our target or being shy of it by about seventy miles.” He looks again at the stone's surface. “This is odd though.” he says.
“Odd in what way Prof.” asks Liza.
“It talks about walking in darkness, and only when I lay this section of your own tattoo over this part here, you see where these birds match up?” We didn’t notice it at first, but once we creep closer we can see clearly.
“Yes, we do see.” Liza adds, flicking her pony. (That's hair, not small horse of course).
“It talks about 'under the great mountain', walking in darkness.”
The Professor looks up at all of us. My brain is not happy about the sound of that at all, and an ache begins to bloom up there.
“That's why no one ever found the hiding place before you see?” He pushes his glasses further over his nose and continues reading the hieroglyphs as before. Almost forgetting there's people with him hanging on his words like there's nothing more important.
“Prof.?” I say, “We don't all see, perhaps you could explain it for us.” I check my watch, its 8am, we are ahead of schedule, we planned at least an hour at the stone to understand its meanings, we have only needed 20 minutes.
“Yes