Chapter 27 Following the Map (1/2)

Luke waved his satellite phone in the air and the long retractable antenna caught the signal of a passing LEO satellite.

He asked for the maps of the area and also informed about their getting lost. The receiver promised to send the maps and also informed that their problem will be conveyed to their government who in turn will convey to the local area in charge, to follow up. With the maps in hand, they could progress towards getting out of their problem. Tomorrow at the same time he will connect with the camping group again.

They should be ready with the satellite phone. In 5 minutes the map was received and downloaded and everyone gathered to see the map to pinpoint their location.

The soon pinpointed their position. As per the map, it was very similar to the ones we could get on our mobiles if we wanted to get a satellite view.

They could see the view of the village towards their right about 5 km away. Apparently, from the river bed and valley they should have headed straight a little more say about 2 km then turned left. They had turned left at a wrong place. There was no need to retrace their steps; it would unnecessarily delay them by an hour or more.

Luke put his satellite phone away and asked, ”Is anyone of you carrying a compass? We need to head north after a short walk.”

”If no one has it, then I will see if there is a compass already available in the satellite phone itself.”

Zia immediately started checking the outer pockets of her backpack and found the compass.

Luke realized that she would be carrying the compass. She had had a hunch that it would be required and so she had placed one in her backpack.

”Here it is,” saying this she handed over her compass to Luke.

”As per the map, we are to walk about half a km and then turn to the right for heading north.”

”Everyone follow me,” saying this Luke took the lead and everyone followed behind.

But the 500 meters were also crossed and they went much further without turning right. It was much later that he realized about their mistake.

”Now what to do?” said Sunny. ”It is already 3 pm. If we cannot reach the village in an hour we will need to pitch our tents and make camp. The night will fall real quick here,” he added.

Sunny was right. How could they have gone ahead so much? They could not use GPS to follow the directions as the signal issue was there for mobiles in this remote area. The satellite phone was also not usable so much.

Anyway, just then Sunny saw a small cave on the side of the parrot grass hill before it merged into the normal one ahead. There was a small stream beside the cave.

”There is a cave on the left which we need to check out. There is a stream adjacent too on the cave on its left side towards the normal hill. Perhaps we can spend the night here?” he inquired.

”Danny, don't go there alone, I will accompany you,” Luke shouted as he saw Sunny trying to go towards the cave. ”Sherpa, we will be right back you look after the rest as we check out the cave.”

Sunny and Luke went to see the cave. The entrance of the cave was small. A person could enter by bending a little. There was sand on the floor and no footprints were on the sand. It seemed that this was not a cave that housed any animal. Hence, it was safe. Luke flashed his mobile light around the inside of the cave.