Race across the Gobi Desert
Peak School, Zahra Hui, Fiction: Group
I
t was a freezing winter day in Mongolia. Lucy Foster and her family had to meet at the
station in the town centre at the edge of the Gobi Desert.
Mrs. Toki made an announcement. “We will race across the Gobi Desert. Our destination
is the visitors centre in 1000 kilometres away. Vehicles are allowed.” There were 25 families
in the race. Mrs. Foster rented a big Jeep. They brought a tent, 4 sleeping bags, and 20 litres of
water, fleeces, big coats, compasses, maps of the Gobi Desert, a notebook and a GPS.
A few minutes later, Mrs. Toki made another announcement. “On your marks, get set, GO!”
She fired the starting pistol. Everyone rushed out of the door. “Gobi Desert, here I come!” Lucy
shouted. She was just thinking of how fun it would be winning the race. She thought she might
get a time of being a Nomad.
The Jeep was very slow. It wasn’t doing any good. It was a 4-wheel drive. But it is still very
hard to drive on sand. The tires weren’t good enough to drive on the sandy ground. At the end of
the day, they have only travelled around 400 kilometres.
Very early next morning, they set off once again for the race. Today they did well for the first
400 kilometres, and then they slowed down, as the sand dunes grew higher. Sometimes they had
to go around a sand dune and sometimes they did not.
The Jeep would not go any further when they got to a sand dune, which was a few hundred
metres high.
When the Jeep tried to drive up the sand dune, it slid back down. “ Oh no!” thought Mr. Foster.
“This sand dune is huge!” There is no way you can drive around this giant sand dune. They did
not know what to do until Mr. Foster said “We have to leave the Jeep behind. We have to walk.”
They packed everything from the Jeep and started walking with their walking sticks. At the
beginning, it was all fine the children were happy. But soon they found walking on the sand was
not so simple. They had to double the energy they used to walk on the flat paths.
Not for long, the chilly winter night of the Gobi Desert has arrived. They set up their tent, and
put on their fleeces and big coats.
Mr. Foster set a fire and burned some hot stones for everyone, and covered it with thick layers
of sand, so that they can sleep on them and keep warm. “The stones are hot and NOT comfortable.
I feel like I am lying on the hottest rocks in the world.” Lucy was fidgeting from side to side.
Everyone soon fell asleep as they are very tired from walking.
The next morning the Foster family packed up and started walking. They caught up to the
Ring family.
Suddenly, a raging sandstorm struck and blinded their eyes. Their mouths were full of sand.
The Foster family puked out the sand. They did not say a word, unless the sandstorm ended. They
stopped for 1 hour until the sandstorm was gone.
Sam saw 3 families ahead of them. “We are not 1st. We are 4th. We are not in the lead. We
must hurry up!” Sam said. Sam ran up to a small sand dune. Sam saw 3 camels. That’s when an
idea hit him. “Mum, Dad, Lucy, come!” Sam called his family. Mrs. Foster, Mr. Foster and Lucy
went up the sand dune to see what Sam was talking about.
“Camels!” Lucy squealed with excitement. They were just about to pat the camel, when a
