Mudpoo and the Magic Tree Stump (5 page)

“HA, HA, HAAA !” roared the horrible pirates again, who thought that crushing cockroaches was very clever and funny. 

“What is the plan?” muttered Bones, who was getting tired of talking. 

“Let's trap them, where they play together near the ice-flow,” roared Snot determinedly. 

“They'll never escape if we block the entrance!”
growled Pong. 

“Sharpen the harpoon, let's get ready,” yelled Bones “we've got whale research to do!” 

“Research . . . ?”
inquired Grot, frowning and looking puzzled. 

Bones, Snot and Pong ignored him and roared with laughter! 

Indeed, Snot was correct, not too far away the humpback whales, who loved singing and eating krill, swam in a small bay surrounded by ice. Their friends, the Adelie penguins and fur seals, would cheer each time they gracefully leapt out of the water. 

Minke whales, though much smaller than the humpbacks, loved to join in the fun. 

And it just so happened that amongst those humpback whales, frolicking in that icy Antarctic bay, were Mudpoo's whale friends; the ones that he had taught his song to during their last adventure in Hervey Bay. 

Little did these singing and splashing whales know that their lives were in perilous danger!

G
us arrived safely at Woodyhead camping ground near Iluka. After the long trip, everyone patted Gus, who always beamed with pride. Harry and Mudpoo scrambled away to check the beach whilst Captain Pete chose the best shady spot to set up camp. Woodyhead is a part of the beautiful Bundjalung National Park that has many wonderful camping spots. 

“I can see lots of rocks,”
cried Mudpoo excitably. 

“ . . . and shells,” added Harry. 

After a little rest, everyone helped Gus and Captain Pete to unload and set up a comfortable camp. 

They had just finished unpacking and setting up when some visitors arrived. They were Captain Pete's friends; Rod the bush poet and Jess his blue dog and best mate. Rod called Jess ‘the princess of all blue dogs.'

Captain Pete and his friends chatted away about old times. Rod loved to write stories and so did captain Pete, so they had lots to talk about. 

Rod had just released a book and CD called ‘Frogs and Dogs and Kids,' which was a huge success (he won an award at the Tamworth Music Festival for it, but that's another story). A lot of his stories were about how clever Jess was, and how she loved frogs. Mudpoo, Harry and Jess explored the beaches around Woodyhead and Back Beach, it was great fun exploring the rock pools and looking for shells and stranded fish. 

Captain Pete had a visit from Ranger John. 

“Definitely no dogs allowed in National Parks,” said Ranger John quite firmly. 

“What about talking dogs?” asked Captain Pete. 

When he saw that Harry and Jess were talking dogs, he carefully checked his ranger manual. 

“We have special permits for Guide Dogs, so I suppose I can give you a special permit for talking dogs,” he replied, scratching his forehead. 

“THANK YOU,” replied Captain Pete, Harry and Jess, altogether as they were handed the permits. 

Ranger John smiled,
“I don't suppose I'll ever meet too many talking dogs,”
he said, shaking Captain Pete's hand before he walked away to check another campsite. 

Their friend Liz arrived in her Kombi van called ‘Kevin'. 

Captain Pete put the billy on at once. 

“You little ripper,” smiled Rod, who loved to have a cup of tea. 

That night they ate beautifully-sizzled sausages, a mouth-watering damper (made in Rod's camp oven using his secret recipe), some lamingtons, some blueberry pie that Captain Pete had bought from the bakery at Iluka and a beautiful pavlova that Liz had brought along with her and they washed it all down with hot, billy-tea. 

YUMMY!

That evening, as they sat under the shiny stars, around a small, glistening campfire, with the gentle hum of the ocean in the distance, Captain Pete and Rod took turns to tell them stories. Rod knew lots of great stories and so did Captain Pete. 

Just before bedtime, Captain Pete told the wonderful story of Grumblegoo.

(Remember . . . you have already heard some of this story).

He told the story of how a monstrous goanna called Grumblegoo, appeared in the Iluka rainforest, just as some people had cut down an enormous Karri tree. Grumblegoo was fierce and ferocious, and could breathe fire. The creature was covered with pointy spikes and was able to gobble up a whole person, quicker than a wink!
(Maybe Captain Pete exaggerated parts of the story a little when he retold it. Does that happen to you sometimes?)

Everyone listened to the story. Captain Pete said he thought that Grumblegoo might still live in the rainforest, but he also said he wasn't scared of Grumblegoo, or any other monstrous goanna. After all, he did have a blue belt in Taekwondo and could probably teach it a thing or two if it tried to attack!

“Nevertheless,” continued Captain Pete, “once Grumblegoo appeared, nobody ever tried to destroy any part of the Iluka rainforest again. Not even the people who wanted to mine there for sand in 1964. They thought better of it once they heard about Grumblegoo.” 

“Maybe Grumblegoo, the monstrous goanna, did a good thing?”
whispered Mudpoo to Harry and Jess.

Harry was too tired to answer. He fell asleep dreaming about firebreathing goannas. Jess dreamt of blueberry pie and friendly frogs. Rod dreamt of billy-tea and damper. Captain Pete dreamt that he was bravely battling monstrous goannas with his blue belt Taekwondo skills. Liz dreamt of the peaceful ocean. And Mudpoo dreamt about his humpback whale friends. He dreamt they were in trouble and needed his help and awoke with a start in the middle of the night. ‘It's just a dream' he reassured himself and soon fell asleep again.

B
ones, Grot, Snot and Pong, the horrible whaling boat pirates, slowly sailed their creaking boat towards the open mouth of the icy bay where the whales were swimming. The humpback whales had seen many tourist boats before and eyed the strange vessel with happy curiosity. 

“There are always people in tourist boats coming to see us, there's nothing to be afraid of,” said the humpback whales to the minke whales. The minke whales were not so sure. 

“WHALE-HO . . . ”
yelled Snot loudly. 

“I can see it, stop yelling in my ear,” replied Bones grumpily. 

“Prepare to fire the harpoon,” growled Pong, who had hoisted the pirate flag. 

The poor minke whale was right in their way. Grot aimed the harpoon. 

“You can't miss,” yelled Bones excitedly. 

Before anyone knew what had happened, there was a loud explosion and the harpoon shot out from the boat like a rocket, missing the minke whale by a hair's breadth and landing with a huge splash into the deep, icy ocean. 

“Who forgot to tie the rope?”
moaned Snot as the harpoon and rope disappeared under the sea.

“Oops!” replied Grot, “I'm sure I tied the rope to the reel,” he said looking rather sorry. 

“Let's anchor the boat so they can't get out; we'll have to find another rope and harpoon quickly!” snarled Bones who was very angry, he could see at least six whales trapped in the little icy bay. 

As the pirates bumbled and fumbled and searched and grumbled looking for another rope and harpoon, the whales had their own meeting. 

“They're trying to kill us” said a very frightened minke whale, 

“and they've blocked our way out!” 

The humpback whales discussed the matter. “We could all try and escape together, but one of us might get hurt,” declared the largest humpback, gravely.

“It's too shallow at the entrance to swim under their boat,” moaned another sad minke. 

Then Humpy, the youngest of them all, spoke;
“If we contact my friend Mudpoo, who I met in Hervey Bay last year, I'm sure he could help.”

All the whales looked at Humpy, the young humpback who had spoken. It was possible that Mudpoo could actually help. After all, he had, taught the whales to sing a new song called ‘The Blue Danube' and it was very popular with all the humpback whales. (Humpy was actually quite famous in the whale world for being the first to learn that tune from Mudpoo!)