23 February 2010
I awoke with a start as my alarm went off, but when I stood up I realised I was not feeling at all well. I helped Siobhan back up our tent, rather badly and got ready.
We drove to the border and I felt sicker and sicker. I got off the truck at the border and filled out my departure card. I didn’t even make it to the counter, I ran for the disgusting toilet, horrified to find it was occupied, I couldn’t hold it any longer. I threw up in the sink. Fantastic.
Despite feeling awful, I managed to clean myself up and get through the non-existent border security. We had to wait for what seemed like ages to get the ferry across to Zambia and all the while I felt like I could barely stand. The visa formalities on the other side took forever and I felt weaker by the second and there was nowhere to sit. We finally got on the truck and onto a bumpy road. People started talking about food and then one of the girls opened a packed of pringles, that was it. I threw up on the truck and Dave had to pull over.
The pain didn’t end there, we weren’t far from Livingstone, but once we were there everyone had to change money at the bank, I sat up front in the truck waiting for them, every muscle in my body ached and all I wanted was a bed. It was one of the most horrendous moments of my life.
We finally got to the camp, which was full of monkeys and I made it into a tent with a bed and collapsed. I woke up at about 2pm feeling a bit better and decided to go with the group to Victoria Falls, something I probably shouldn’t have done, but how often is one in Zambia?
I managed to go down and have a brief look at the spectacular site that it Victoria Falls, or as the locals call it Mosi-a-Tunya, Smoke that Thunders. I still felt too ill to go all the way down, so I went and sat back in the truck. We got back to camp and I went back to bed, I still had to go pay for my activities, so I got up and the tent door, which was rolled up, fell closed. Thinking it was a money I jumped out of the tent flailing my arms around to scare it off, only to find myself covered in tiny ants who had made a nest in our tent flap! Can this day get any worse, I thought to myself.
There was no one around, so I couldn’t access Pumba, so Sarah lent me some money to pay for my activities and I grabbed some insect spray from the truck to neutralise the ants, which were now all over my tent and in everything. I sprayed them and then went to sleep by the pool, realising I couldn’t sleep in my tent now it smelled like insect spray.
I stayed by the pool for about an hour and then went back to the tent and slept until morning.