Way of the Wolf by Bear Grylls Read Free Book Online Page B

just go another way?’
    First he took off all the clothes he could spare and thrust them into his rucksack. He made a protesting Tikaani do the same, though with just one layer on it was suddenly a lot colder. They each kept on a shirt and their trousers. It wouldn’t keep them warm or dry, but it would be protection if the current threw them against a stone. Beck also put his sockless feet back into his boots and relaced them. The last thing he needed was to gash a foot or twist an ankle.
    ‘And trust me,’ he said as he tied the last knot, smiling up at Tikaani’s sour face. ‘Putting on dry socks after this will be the best feeling
ever
.’
    They wrapped their rucksacks up in their coats for waterproofing, and used their home-made ropes to tie off the arms and the open ends. Finally Beck showed Tikaani how to hoist his rucksack right up and tie it so that it hung behind his neck, not at his waist as it usually did. Last of all he did the same for himself.
    ‘Here goes nothing,’ he said, forcing a smile for Tikaani’s benefit. And he turned and walked into the river.

CHAPTER 15
    With the first step, his feet merely felt cold. Then there was a trickle into his boots, followed a half-second later by a flood of ice-cold water. He winced, but kept walking. Then the water was right over his boots and working its way up to his knees.
    The cold ate into him like an army of ants gnawing on his bones. Even though this was meltwater, which meant it was warmer than ice, it was still freezing. The force of the river was like an invisible noose around his ankles, trying to pull them from under him.
    He made sure he was side-on to the current, offering the least resistance to the water, and checking for approaching hazards like logs. The river flowed from his right to his left, so the bow wave where the water hit his right-hand side was almost up to his waist. The cold seemed to paralyse his lungs so that he could hardly breathe.
    ‘You’re doing great,’ Tikaani called.
    ‘Th-a-nks,’ Beck croaked, not looking back. ‘Never better.’
    That time in Colombia, he and his friends had forded a river. They had used vines from the jungle as support ropes so that no one would be swept away. But there were no vines here and the homemade ropes tying up the rucksacks weren’t long enough. If the current caught him, there would be no fighting it.
    And so every step had to be carefully planned. He could feel the water-smoothed rocks shift beneath his feet. At least with two legs and one stick he had three anchor points under the water to hold him steady. He always made sure that two were firm before moving the third. Every time he moved a numb foot forward he had to make sure it was planted on solid ground before he put his weight on it.
    He knew he had about ten minutes before hypothermia set in: his body would be losing heat faster than it was making it. Right now, every part of his body wanted to turn round and run back to Tikaani. But that would achieve nothing, except that he would be cold, wet and still on the wrong side. There was no point in losing all that body heat for nothing.
    So, ten minutes to get across this torrent . . .
    The cold was chewing its way up his body. It had reached his hips, his stomach, his ribs. Breathing was actively painful now. He had to force each gasp in and out of his lungs –
huh! huh! huh!
The deeper he went, the more of his body there was for the current to work on.
    The water was now up to his armpits. He held his elbows out and tilted his head back to keep his chin dry. He could feel his rucksack bobbing madly against the back of his head. He hoped it would be staying dry in its waterproof wrapping.
    Now the biting chill had gone – his body was just numb, apart from an ache deep inside his bones. There was so little feeling that it took a few more steps to realize –
the water was going down!
    Beck glanced down to confirm it. Yes, with each step the water level was dropping a little