Key 9.
Splendid Isolation It had been a fair old climb,
But now that he was at the top,
The man knew that it was worth it.
The view was amazing,
360 degrees all round.
What a view!
He exclaimed to the four winds.
He was glad of his climbing poles,
They had kept him steady.
His headlamp had illuminated the path as dust had set in at the end of his climb.
In the distance he could just make out his path for the day ahead.
Behind him,
Down in the valley,
He could see where he had come from.
He felt quite literally on top of the world.
Only a year ago he had been told he would never walk again.
He had proved everyone wrong.
Time to eat that supper he carried all the way to the top.
It was warm enough just to bivouac that night,
So he was grateful that there was no need to pitch his tent.
He hadn't noticed the eagle,
Soaring several hundred feet above him.
It was on his last hunt before returning to its eerie.
Unlike the man,
The eagle used the thermals to climb effortlessly and to stay aloft for hours.
Unlike the man,
The eagle's food seemed to appear just when it was hungry.
The snake had been disturbed by the man's footfalls,
And it thought it would be safe to venture out,
But it was wrong.
The eagle swooped down and plucked it from the ground,
Just as it was about to bite the man.
All the man felt was a whoosh.
Strange how the wind kicks up here,
He thought.
Within seconds,
The updraft had taken the eagle way above the peak.
If the eagle could have spoken to the man,
It would have said,
Now this is what you call a view.
