Jack was first to reply. “Yeah, sort of. You see, we had a plane crash, further over to the east.”
The man asked if we wanted to join him. He was going to look for dinosaur egg fossils. So
there were dinosaur fossils here, too! The Gobi seemed like a magnificent, untouched spot that
Earth had given us as a gift.
As the Jeep bumped along the sand dunes, he handed us a big bottle of water each, and
explained, “I am Fernando, and work for the Natural Science Museum of Spain. I came here in
search of dinosaur eggs.”
“Look! Who are they?” I interrupted pointing in front of the car.
Fernando answered me. “Those men riding on camels are traders using the Silk Road. And
you are?”
“I’m Jack, the captain of the plane.” Jack replied. “It was meant to go to Beijing, but a
sandstorm threw us off course and caused an engine failure.”
Then it was my turn. “I’m Jason des Voeux, an author who writes adventure -” I was
interrupted by a loud thud coming from the bottom of the car. Jack scurried out of the Jeep.
“Looks like we hit a rock!” he said. Fernando grabbed the winch from the back of the car, but
one glimpse at the big rock told him it was a dinosaur egg! He dug it out of the ground and grabbed
a device out of his bag. He pressed a button, and a speaker on the device said, “Air lift approaching.”
Fernando put the dinosaur egg in the car just as a cargo plane with “Museo Nacional” printed
on the side came towards us.
Fernando shouted, “Buckle your seat belts!” A rope dropped from the plane, and Fernando tied
it to a hook on the back of the car. He jumped into the car, fastened his seat belt, and we were
airborne. As we rose up, I thought of how dangerous this stunt was. Once we reached the plane,
the crew towed the car onto the plane from the back exit ramp, and closed the gates. Fernando
started spoke to them in Spanish, then turned to us. “This plane is heading for Madrid. I’m sure
you’ll be able to get a flight to Paris from there.”
I guessed there wasn’t much point going to Beijing because I had a story about the Gobi! And
that story is the one you are reading right now.
