She landed on the dune about three feet before he’d done, and he noticed she kept her gaze on the top of the dune where he’d finished. She’s copying my line of approach. Very sensible.
She slowed down a bit then sped up again. She’d obviously not anticipated the drag from the sand under her feet, but she overcame it well. By the time she reached the top her face was red and her mouth a tight line, but she was still moving reasonably fast and there was no likelihood of her failing. She stopped at the top and raised her arm in the air in a victory salute.
“Well done!”
“It was harder than I remembered, but it feels really good to be up here.” Her breathing was heavy but not labored, so she’d done extremely well indeed.
Sierra stood beside Fergus and they watched Cam.
He ran fast, although not as fast as either of them, and bogged down about one-third of the way up the dune. Fergus managed not to laugh, but was about to call down some advice when he noticed Cam laughing. Okay, the man was taking it well.
Cam almost rolled down the dune, dusted himself off, and walked back to the start again.
This time he moved a lot faster, but his angle of attack was incorrect. He made it about two-thirds of the way before he bogged. Sierra was laughing as well this time. “Having a bit of difficulty there, Cam,” she teased.
“I can fix the problem.”
Fergus watched as Cam took off his shoes and tossed them up onto the top of the dune.
“Will bare feet really help him?” Sierra asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
This time Cam moved much faster than any of them had before. He ran up the dune between Fergus’s tracks and Sierra’s tracks and arrived breathless at the top. “Third time’s the charm,” he panted.
“Well done,” said Sierra.
They sat for a while on the top of the first dune, admiring the view, which was stunning. On one side of the dune there was sandy soil with a few sparse trees and bushes growing out of it, and on the other there was almost a forest.
“What an amazing geological formation this is,” said Sierra.
“It’d be interesting to know what they took out of the quarry. Was it sand?” asked Cam.
“No, limestone, but there was only the one area that was worth mining, and that was over fifty years ago now. Are you ready to start jumping?” asked Fergus.
“Sure,” said Sierra. Cam nodded.
“Okay, we’ll walk up to the end so you can take a good look at it. Do you want me to do the first jump ahead of you so you can watch me, or would you rather do your own thing?” he asked, thinking of Cam’s three tries before he got up the dune.
But it was Sierra who answered. “It might be good to watch you first.”
Fergus looked at Cam and he nodded, so they all walked to the end of the dune together.
Fergus pointed out what they needed to watch for. “You need a clear run up to takeoff, then a bit of clear space to land. You don’t want to have to limit yourself because of rocks or something. This next one is pretty easy. Anywhere along here would do,” he said, pointing.
It wasn’t a big gap. None of these dunes was very far from the next one. They were all easy jumps with a good run up to them. He walked back along the ridge for half a dozen steps then ran to the end and jumped. There was a momentary adrenaline surge at the feeling of flying through the air, then he landed, took a couple of steps, and turned around, moving out of Sierra and Cam’s way. Both of them jumped like champions, with no dramas.
Companionably they walked along the next ridge, then jumped to the third, and on to the fourth, and then the fifth. Each time he loved the feeling of being in the air. Each time it ended all too soon. He was almost sad as they reached the end of the final dune, but he knew what he’d planned next and that should be a pure adrenaline fix for them all.
They stood and looked out over the quarry. ‘Wow. No wonder it’s called the Blue Quarry. I’ve never seen such blue water,” said Sierra.
“I reckon that’s because it’s very deep,” said Cam.
“Yes, over a hundred feet in the middle, but much shallower at the sides of course,” said Fergus.
Once again he watched their faces, but there was no sign of fear, only amazement and wonder at the beauty of the scene spread out before them. He took them to the edge of the dune, which overhung the quarry.
“Now we jump off the dune and land in the water,” Fergus said.
* * * *
“You’re not fucking serious? You just said it was one hundred fucking feet deep.” Either Fergus was insane, or he thought she was. No way was Sierra jumping into that lake.
“Don’t tell me you can’t swim?”