The Wildlife Games (4 page)

A STRANGE FEELING HAD COME
over Jason. As he watched the other contestants talk to the camera, his breathing became shallow. He checked his heart rate. Definitely higher than normal. He wasn't sure what was going on. He saw Declan launching into an over confident speech
on turtles, and then he looked back at his own hands. They were definitely shaking. This was not good. There was no time for pre-match nerves. His dad usually buoyed him up, kept him focused and hyped-up. But he wasn't here and the film crew were all busy with their jobs. Tara would look over at him occasionally, check he was still there, and then her eyes would track to the next contestant.

His shaking got worse. This was a disaster. He knew he needed to find a quiet place to refocus. He'd just slip off for a moment, do some stretching, and be back in time, super-confident, for his intro.

Without being fully aware of where his feet were taking him, he found himself in front of the perentie enclosure. He'd always admired the poise
of the perentie. Strong, focused and, despite their short legs, when they decided to run they were incredibly fast.

You never saw a reptile lose its cool. That's what Jason loved about them. He was just starting to feel better when a small Japanese child over near the zoo's entrance spotted the Komodo dragon, which was situated next door to the perentie. The boy ran headfirst for the enclosure, tripping over his feet at the last moment and flying face first into the perspex wall of the enclosure.

Jason grabbed the small child a moment later, before the shock had set in, and the child, who was about two years old, buried his face in Jason's chest and began to howl.

Jason looked around but the child's parents were nowhere to be seen. Jason hugged the little
boy. ‘Hey, little guy, you're okay. You're okay,' he said, gently rocking the distraught child.

Bindi rounded the corner and spotted Jason perch the little boy on his knee. Jason began talking to him about the Komodo dragon as the boy continued to sob. Bindi wondered if she should intervene, but Jason looked like he had the situation under control.

‘So I'm guessing you're like me, a reptile guy. Well, of course you'd run straight for the Komodo dragon, because he's an amazing specimen, the biggest lizard in the world.'

The little boy looked up into Jason's face, tears still running down his own face, and then looked at the Komodo. While he was focused on the lizard, Jason took a quick check of the boy's limbs. He had a graze that was bleeding
on his knee, and he was going to have a nice egg-shaped bump on his forehead, but aside from those minor injuries he'd be fine.

Jason grabbed a bandaid from his pocket and, still talking to the boy about the Komodo, placed it over the sore knee before the boy noticed the blood.

Bindi smiled. Jason didn't seem like the kind of guy who would show his compassionate side, but here it was for all to see. Shame the cameras weren't here to catch it.

A shout followed by a Japanese man running towards the boy disrupted the moment, and the boy jumped off Jason's lap and ran towards his father. The father picked him up in a big hug and walked over to Jason, patting him on the shoulder gratefully.

‘No worries, mate. Your little guy loves the reptiles, right?' He pointed to the Komodo dragon.

The father nodded. ‘Very much.'

Jason turned to go, and the little boy struggled out of his dad's arms and made a noise. Jason turned back around as the little boy stood up straight, and then bowed to Jason. Jason nodded and bowed back.

Bindi walked over to Jason. ‘Everything okay, mate?'

Jason was startled, and looked at his watch. ‘Gee, sorry. Completely lost track of time.' He took another look at the boy, and a parting glance at the perentie, and then jogged back with Bindi to the film crew.

On the jog back, Jason turned to Bindi. ‘You
didn't see any of that, did you?'

Bindi looked innocently back at him. ‘Any of what?'

Phew!
Jason's was relieved. His tough-guy image remained intact.

AFTER A FILMED INTRODUCTION
for Jason, where he started talking about a camping trip he'd been on when he'd woken to find a red-bellied black snake in his sleeping bag (he didn't seem to understand Stan the director's hand gestures to WRAP IT UP and continued with the
yarn for five minutes longer than anyone wanted), Bindi could finally call the Wildlife Games officially begun.

‘Mimi, Declan, Anastasia and Jason, the first of the day's challenges will be a Trivia Treasure Hunt,' said Bindi solemnly. ‘You will have three clues and 30 minutes to find the three places in the zoo that will take you to the next destination.'

A bird handler made a flicking movement, and a blue-winged macaw flew in and dropped an envelope at Mimi's feet. A moment later, a sulphur-crested cockatoo did the same to Declan, and two other parrots deposited envelopes to the other two contestants.

Bindi took out a large stopwatch. ‘Your time starts NOW!'

The contestants ripped open their envelopes.
Unfortunately, Mimi ripped so hard the actual clue got ripped in half too. After quickly putting the two pieces together, she read, ‘Listen to the beat of the drums.'

She glanced over at the other contestants, who were all frowning at their pieces of paper. She thought hard –
Drums, drums, rock bands have drummers?
She couldn't think of a rock band or an animal that had anything to do with a rock band.
Drums, other types of drums?
She closed her eyes to concentrate, and under the myriad sounds of the zoo, she heard a distant rhythmic beat. She opened her eyes, and began running.

Up at the African Savannah, the second-unit film crew were focused on Robert and two African
drummers. They each had a drum between their knees, and were taking turns beating out a rhythm. One of the drummers would start, and the other two would answer. They were having such a great time, they'd forgotten that they were providing the answer to clue number one.

At least, until the cameraman left them and started running down the hill. They realised the contestants were on their way.

They stopped drumming. Robert called out, ‘And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three, four,' and the three drummers changed the rhythm and started to beat out the same pattern.

Ta, ta, ta, ta-tata, ta, ta.

Under his breath, Robert sang the tune quietly to make sure he kept the rhythm.
No you can't get friendly with a crocodile. Don't be taken in by his
wel-come grin . . .

The film crew caught Mimi, followed closely by Anastasia, Declan and Jason, who, once he saw the camera, broke away to take the lead, run up the brow of the hill and race towards the drummers.

He reached the drummers and stood there expectantly. When they kept on drumming, he looked around.

‘Ahh, so I got here first. Don't I win this leg of the challenge?' he asked the camera.

The drummers smiled but kept on drumming out the same tune.

‘Where's Bindi?' he asked, looking around.

Anastasia hadn't even reached the drummers before she let out a ‘Huh!' and began running in a different direction.

Jason looked around, baffled. ‘I'm missing
something, aren't I?'

Declan and Mimi reached him. ‘Whatever you're missing, I'm missing too,' said Declan, gulping in deep breaths.

Mimi was so out of breath she just nodded in agreement.

They all caught their breath and looked around for signs of their next clue, with the drums beating in the background.

Declan frowned. ‘It's not a very African-sounding rhythm, is it?'

Mimi turned to him, concentrating. ‘But it was earlier, remember? They've changed it.'

It came out before Jason could stop himself revealing the answer to the other two. ‘It sounds like “Ne-ver smile at a –”.' He swallowed the last word, realising his mistake.

Declan laughed. ‘Thanks, mate. Race you to the
crocs?'

The boys took off.

Mimi trailed behind, grinning.
Nice clue, Bindi,
she thought to herself.

Over at the croc enclosure, Bindi was getting restless. Now that she had a few minutes to wait, her nerves resurfaced. Was this a good idea? How were the contestants doing? Was it making good television? The sun was blasting at full heat now. She felt a bead of perspiration on her forehead.

She pulled out her walkie-talkie. ‘Where are the contestants, over?'

The runner of the film crew radioed back. ‘Ana's in the lead. She's just jumped off the shuttle. She'll
be with you in about five.'

‘Is she wearing a sunhat?' Bindi knew it was a strange thing to ask, but she wanted to know.

The runner hesitated before responding. ‘Ahh, yeah, I think she was last time I saw her,' he answered, a question in his voice.

‘And do you think she's hydrated? It's hot out here, you know, over,' said Bindi, grabbing a drink from the esky beside her.

The runner now understood. ‘They're all fine, Bindi. We'll make sure they're okay. No need to worry, over,' he replied.

‘Okay, thanks, over.' Bindi ended the transmission, resting a foot on the esky. She glanced in the direction she knew Ana would be coming from. ‘Come on, guys, you can do it!' she called out, hoping the wind would carry her
encouragement to the contestants.

The camerawoman sidled over. ‘Hey Bindi, while we're waiting, would you like to film an update? Keep it short and suspenseful.'

Bindi was grateful for something to pass the time. ‘Sure.'

She looked over at the crocs. ‘Hmm, which set of crocs should we have in the background?' Weipa gave her a wide open grin while his girlfriend, Lucy, remained swimming daintily in their pond. ‘Ah, perfect. Weipa and Lucy are our background crocs.'

The director signalled, ‘And . . . action!'

‘Hi guys,' said Bindi, beaming at the camera. ‘Just wanted to give you a quick update. So the contestants were quick off the mark for the first clue, racing up to the African Savannah at cheetah-
like speeds. My brother Robert was there to give them a musical clue, and it sounds like it was Anastasia Hunter who picked the tune first.'

Anastasia zoomed into the frame, almost bowling Bindi over in the process. She took over the commentary. ‘Along with being a great gymnast, my parents have also made sure I've been involved in musical theatre since I was four.'

Bindi smiled, pleased to see Ana was wearing a hat. She grabbed a bottle of water from the esky and handed it to her.

Ana unscrewed the lid and took a swig, while managing to keep talking to camera. ‘So I was eight years old when I starred in a performance of
Peter Pan
. Unfortunately, I was only the understudy
for Tinker Bell, which I thought was totally unfair, because I knew all the lines and would have done a much better job than Miranda Hopper! I kept hoping she'd get sick and take a night off, or perhaps just fall out of her harness and sprain her ankle –'

Bindi thought she'd better intervene. ‘Interesting story, Ana. But more importantly, congratulations on being the first contestant to make it over to the croc enclosure.'

‘Oh yeah, I'm first. Of course. So what's my next clue?'

Bindi reached into her back pocket, momentarily panicking. The piece of paper was there, wasn't it? Ah, the back right pocket, not the back left one.
Phew!
She cleared her throat. ‘Who am I?'

Ana stopped her right there. ‘You're Bindi
Irwin. Duh. That's easy.'

Bindi shook her head. ‘Let me finish, okay?'

Ana looked a little embarrassed. ‘Oh, okay. Thought that one was a little too easy.' She shrugged at the camera. After a second's pause, she mouthed to Ginny the camerawoman. ‘You can edit that bit out, right?'

Ginny raised an eyebrow and turned the camera back to Bindi. It was going to be a long day filming with contestants like these!

Bindi cleared her throat and began again. ‘Who am I? I'm naturally found in north-eastern India, Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo, the Philippines, Sumatra and Java. I have stiff white whiskers, love to wander along treetops . . .'