Mt Sylvia School Story - 'David and the Snake Necked Tortoise'

One morning during the school holidays David was walking along a track on his grandfather's farm at Mt Sylvia. He could see the school across Tenthill Creek and feel the mud squishing up between his toes.

Beside the path was his grandfathers crop of carrots with their feather green leaves stick out of the orange carrots. 'Wow. They look good," he thought, 'Wonder when grandfather is going to pick them?'

Row of Carrots
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo
by Rockinelle:
http://flickr.com/photos/ericleslie/4779114956/

The answer came quicker then he thought. His grandfather called out, "David, watch out mate. I'm going to give those carrots once last drink of water before we pick them. Watch out for the sprinklers."

David stepped back and waited for the sprinklers to start but they didn't.

"Hey grandad. The sprinklers aren't working!"

"Oh no", said his grandpa, "the intake pipe must be clogged."

David watched as his grandpa stomped into the shed, hopped onto his red Honda 4 wheel and started driving down towards Tenthill Creek. His dog ran across and jumped up onto the carryall on the front.

David jumped onto the carryall beside the dog as his grandpa slowed down and they continued on down the bumpy track to the pump shed. David ran into the shed and turned off the diesel pump.

"What next Grandpa?"

"Well, what's next David me lad is that you get to take off your shirt and swim down along the intake pipe to see what's blocking it."

"Oh Grandpa."

"Oh what a wimp. When I was your age we used to spend all day swimming around in Tenthill Creek. Come a little bit of water in your ears is not going to hurt you."

So David took off his shirt, waded into the water, took a breath and ducked under. He swam like a frog down along the white plastic pipe with the strands of green algae growing off it. Tadpoles and little fish swam for their lives as he kept swimming deeper.

He was just thinking, 'Oh no, I'm running out of breath." When he saw the end of the pipe and something round sticking out of it. There were four legs sticking out of a hard shell.

"It's a tortoise. There's its head tucked under its shell."

David swam back up to the surface and said, "It's a tortoise grandpa!"

"Yes. You can see its legs moving."

"Well, I'll tell you what David me lad. If you can pull that tortoise out of the pipe you can keep it for a pet."

"Cool," said David and he dived under and swam  down along the pipe again. When he got to the bottom he grabbed hold of the tortoises shell and pulled. It took three turns but he managed to pull the tortoise out of the pipe and he swam back to the top.

As he stood up he held the tortoise up above his head and said, "Look Grandpa. I've got it."

Grandpa said, "Watch out for the ..."

But it was too late the tortoise peed all over David. It smelt terrible.

"Hee, hee," said his grandpa, "Those snaked tortoises are really smelly when they're scared. We used to call them Stinkers. You have to hold them away from you, me lad."

His grandpa brought a bucket down to the creek half filled it with water and washed the tortoise wee out of Davids hair. "That's better. You only smell like one dead cat now. Put the tortoise in the bucket and you can take it home."

 Snake Necked Tortoise
(cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by
Shovelling Son: http://flickr.com/photos/shovellingson/5359449525/ )

"That's not your pesticide bucket is it Grandpa?"

"No it's not. I'm careful with pesticides these days. They don't go anywhere near the creek."

David gave his grandpa a hug, picked up his shirt and started walking back towards his house.

When he got home, he said, "Mum, I've got to have a shower. Grandpa said I could keep this Snake Necked Tortoise as a pet but the tortoise peed all over my hair."

After his shower, his mum said he could keep the tortoise untill its shell looked better and then he would have to put it back in Tenthill Creek. David looked up on the internet to find out what Stinkers ate and each day he would go down to the creek with the acquarium net and scoop up some tadpoles and little fish to feed to his tortoise.

When the tortoise was looking really healthy he put it in the bucket and carried it down to Tenthill Creek to let it go. "Here you go Mr Stinker. Stay away from Grandpa's pipe this time."

He watched as the Snaked Necked Tortoise swam down into the creek. "Bye."

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from P - 2 at Mt Sylvia State School on Monday 23rd May, 2011 as part of the 'Catchy Lockyer Stories - Bush to Beach - Under 8's Week Tour'. A big thanks to the students and teachers who made it lots of fun to create a brand new story about the catchment and the plants and animals that live in it and to Kaori van Baalen for organising the tour and guiding me through the catchment.)