We always went to the river late in December. When the school holidays started, the river started to call us. Dad gathered the tents and canvases and got the gas cylinders refilled. Mom packed boxes of canned food and other preserved food that wouldn't go off in the heat.
When we got there, we would run down the steep slope to the campsite that my dad had made underneath a huge yellowwood tree. Then we would run to the river. Casper, our dog, would bound into the river and then dash around trying to shake all over us.
There were no toilets or showers or electricity. There were no shops or cinemas. There were only mountains, trees, the sun and the river.
But if you give two kids boats, tents, hiking shoes and penknives, they turn into explorers, inventors, astronomers, geologists, meteorologists and nature lovers. We counted shooting stars and satellites and watched the movement of the moon. We predicted the weather by watching the clouds. We watched as dragonflies hovered above the water like tiny painted helicopters. We made bows and arrows from young trees. Through trial and error, we worked out how to erect a sail on our canoe and to navigate through rocky rapids. And then we crept exhausted into our sleeping bags and dreamt about the adventures we would have when the sun came up again.
But there is one night that we'll never forget. On that night we had an adventure long before sunrise.
The moon was bright. The night was still and hot. My tent was pitched under the branches of the sprawling yellowwood tree. I had to climb up ten stone steps to get to it. I listened to my parents chatting around the fire for a while and then drifted off to sleep.
I woke to dancing lights and my mother shouting: "Karen! Craig!"
I looked out of my tent and saw a wall of flame coming towards us, eating up my beautiful river valley. My mouth went dry. "Grab what you need, put on some shoes and come!" shouted Dad. I looked around, but there was nothing I needed except to be somewhere else.
"We need to get some stuff away from here," my Dad said calmly. The fire crackled, the ground was hot.
"Craig, you take Casper and the cooking oil. Karen, you take these gas cylinders. Mum and I will bring what we can."
Mum said, "Remember, when the fire gets to that rock there, we all get to the car. If something goes wrong, you get into the canoe and paddle to the middle of the river." A huge burning branch crashed down somewhere nearby.
Dad said, "Remember, stay calm, stay together. This is what learning to live in nature is all about."
We ran up and down moving things to the car for about five minutes. It was a steep slope and the things were heavy, but we had amazing strength. Then Mum looked at the rock and said, "Let's go!"
Dad drove quickly along the dirt road towards the farm. He stopped at the first farmhouse and hammered on the door, "There's a fire in the valley! We need firefighters!"
Soon people started to arrive in pick-up trucks and on the backs of fruit trucks. They had thick bags and brooms with them.
Dad unhitched the trailer. Casper, Craig and I got out of the car and sat close together on the side of the road. Mum and Dad went back with the others to try to stop the fire from reaching the fruit trees.
Craig's watch showed that it was 2:30am. The lights in the house went out and we saw someone watching us through the curtains. Then they must have gone back to bed. We sat on the edge of the sandy track and waited for some news, but the trucks only went towards the fire, no-one came the other way. We waited, we prayed, we waited, we hugged Casper, and we waited some more.
We imagined our beautiful campsite being destroyed by the blaze - our tents and sleeping bags melting away.
At about 5 o' clock we saw our parents coming back. Then we started to cry with relief especially when they told us that the fire had ruined the whole area, but that it turned away at the very last moment and left a semicircle around our very special campsite.
Later that day we went back to our campsite. Now we were firefighters beating out the last smouldering patches. We were detectives trying to find out what caused the fire. We were vets trying to save some small tortoises that fled from the flames. But most of all we were hot, tires and dirty and we all agreed that it was time to go home.
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