Read Online Monsoon by Di Morrissey - Free Book Online Page B

both a paddle and pushed them off. Tom settled in the stern of a slightly larger canoe, and Captain Chinh lightly stepped into the centre and set off. Tom had a paddle that he cheerfully dug into the water following the captain’s lead.
    Sandy and Anna handled their kayaks with ease and skimmed across the sunny calm morning water following Chinh and Tom. Then they paddled into deep shadow as they rounded Pagoda Peak and went behind a smaller outcrop that hid a narrow slit in the rock face. Captain Chinh stroked confidently through it. Sandy and Anna paddled through the opening to find themselves in another world. They were in a beautiful broad chamber where it was dim and cool, the water strangely luminous. With a deep plunge of his paddle Chinh took a turn around a wall of rock, disappearing from sight. Sandy paused, glancing to see Anna was behind, and did the same.
    They had turned into a passage cut by centuries of wind and waves and suddenly they came out into an incredible light green lagoon, surrounded by dripping moss-covered limestone walls. The huge sheet of water was brilliant and calm. Far above, there was an opening to the sky. A fairytale grotto. They glided across the vast chamber only to find another smaller grotto. The towering walls shone in the reflected light and across an overhang marched an army of stalactites.
    Captain Chinh and Tom stowed their paddles and drifted, Tom reaching for the small digital camera in his pocket.
    â€˜Wow,’ breathed Sandy as Anna drew alongside.
    â€˜This is unreal.’ Anna trailed her fingers in the crystal water. ‘Better than being in a cathedral at dawn. So cool, clear and calm.’
    Captain Chinh and Tom drifted by. ‘Stunning place,’ said Tom. ‘How deep, Chinh? Anyone know what’s down there?’
    â€˜Very deep. No fish.’
    â€˜Can we swim?’ asked Anna.
    â€˜Yeah, and how do you get back in the kayak?’ said Sandy. ‘Just enjoy the view, Anna.’ She caught Chinh’s eye. ‘How far back does it go? Can we get out the other side?’
    â€˜No boat go through. You take picture and we go,’ said the captain. ‘Not many people see this place. Just special people. You special.’
    Anna and Sandy exchanged an amused glance. Tom, looking through the zoom of his camera, pointed to one side of the grotto. ‘There’s a ledge there. Someone could stand on it. Is this tidal? Does the water come up higher?’ he wondered.
    â€˜Little bit. When moon right,’ answered Captain Chinh. ‘You take picture and we go.’ But he paddled close to the ledge, raising himself to see it more clearly, then sat down again and turned the canoe away.
    Anna and Sandy manoeuvred their kayaks, handing Anna’s camera to Tom to take a picture of them both. The flashes glittered on the craggy stone walls as if studded with jewels, illuminating the two friends holding hands in their orange life jackets.
    Captain Chinh firmly dipped his paddle in the water and led them back into bright sunlight and the openness of the bay, where the brooding peaks dwarfed them all.
    â€˜That was amazing,’ said Sandy.
    â€˜Sure was, though I kept thinking that a monster could rise up, or a whirlpool start or something,’ said Anna.
    â€˜There are stories from many years ago of people disappearing in such places, never to be found,’ said Sandy mysteriously.
    They headed across the bay to where a finger of water led into a cove. Along one side was a small rough beach littered with boats, fishing nets, bamboo fish and crab traps, empty fuel drums and rubbish. Next to it, jutting into the shallow water, was a collection of thatched and wooden houses on stilts, mostly small with narrow verandahs only wide enough for two or three people to sit on woven straw mats. Below, pontoons sagged next to fenced water ‘paddocks’ and rickety ladders led up to the fronts of the houses. As they drew