“I’m not surprised,” he said, handing her a large leather water bottle. “In this heat we both lose water at double-quick time. If necessary we can go weeks without food, but without water we’ll barely last a couple of days. That means that finding water, and saving what we have, will be one of our main priorities. Once we’re up on this high ground we should be able to see signs of water nearby.”

The bottle was big enough to hold a couple of litres, and Evie had to use both hands to take it. The water tasted musty but it washed the thirst away.

At the top of the hill, Evie let out a gentle wow! of surprise. She could see for miles and miles. The savannah seemed never-ending. She paused, thinking she could see something important.

“Is that a river?” she asked eagerly, pointing to a line that wiggled its way across the landscape in the distance.

“Good spot, Evie. It is a river. That’s a great result. Once we’ve got there we’ll have at least another thirty miles to go before we hit the next water source.”

Evie scrunched her eyes. She couldn’t see any more rivers around.

“There,” Bear said, pointing at the mountains on the horizon. There was a flash of white on one of them.

“Probably a glacier,” he said, “which means there’ll be melting water, and streams, and the source of that river – and where there’s plenty of water, there’s people. So, that’s our destination. It’s still early and it’s going to get much hotter, so later on we’ll find somewhere in the shade to camp for a bit. But for the next few hours, and then in the late afternoon, we’ll just press on. We need to fix the direction we’ll be heading –”

Evie remembered the compass. She had still been holding it when she was being stared at by the elephant, and it was in her pocket now. She took it out. Just four directions on it now. She squinted across the dial at the mountains.

“That’s due east,” she said.

“You’re right, well done. That river’s between us and the mountain, so if we stick to due east, we’ll get to it.”

Evie hesitated a little. Bear turned to look at her, and smiled. “It may take us more than a day to get there, but if you’re up for an adventure we’re going to be fine.”

Evie took a deep breath in. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”

They set off down the hill. This side was steeper than when they came up. Evie could feel the boots holding her feet in place on the ground. She was glad she wasn’t still in her trainers. She would have slipped on the grass and ended up on her back.