Leaving Joburg

I've finished my journey around Africa, and now I'm sitting in the departure lounge at Joburg airport, ready to board my Heathrow-bound plane. It has been a fantastic month. 

I struggled with Ghana in the first week. The hospital wasn't what I had expected at all, and my presence there felt pointless. The staff had no interest in changing their practice based on anything I suggested to them, and all I learned from them was how not to do things. The Work the World house also wasn't quite what I expected, but that was far easier to adapt to, and contained some great people. Possibly the prospect of cold showers wouldn't have been so irritating if I hadn't come back to the house from a day of watching dangerous and dispassionate midwifery at Kwesimintsim. But after accepting I wasn't going to change anything about Ghanaian healthcare, and instead making small differences to individual women when I was working, it became a lot easier to detach myself from the awful things I saw staff do to women most days. Other aspects of Ghana were brilliant: the people I lived with, the day we went to Lower Dixcove and health screened the residents, meeting a village Chief, choosing fabric to make clothes with, surviving marketplaces, learning to hand-wash clothes, Busua beach, Hotel Fespa (only with hindsight...), Cape Coast Castle, crocodile stroking, catching tro-tros, Kakum canopy walk, trying Ghanaian food, learning some Fante, the friendliness of most of the people, and the 'personality quirks' of some of the others! 

For the rest of the trip the good times are almost too many to list. Collecting dozens of new stamps in my passport, exploring the Cradle of Humankind, caving in the Sterkfontein Caves, seeing Victoria Falls from both sides, and above, camping in some beautiful places, seeing hundreds of animals in their natural environment and living according to nature, driving on some stunning mountain roads, seeing the stars with no light pollution obscuring the view, trying all kinds of African food, trying all kinds of African alcohol and (apparently legal) 'traditional herbs', doing stupidly reckless things, having a bash at dancing with a tribe, trucking across the Kalahari Desert,, meeting people from all over the world, and mastering the art of walking in fli flops with numb feet. I crossed Victoria Falls, a safari, and seeing an underground lake off my bucket list (plus saving a life in Ghana, I guess), and sowed the seed for more adventures over the next few years to complete some more.

There are also little things which I'm proud of doing. The flights to Ghana were the first I've ever taken on my own. 10 months ago I couldn't stand up, but now I've just got myself across Africa and back. I had extremely good medical insurance so the moment my legs started hurting, new parts of my body started going numb, or Crohn's relapsed I could have called it a day and either got to a hospital, or gone home on medical grounds. But I didn't, and that takes a hell of a lot of willpower when the alternative is having the shits at a campsite in Zambia. I think biggest of all, after leaving Ghana no-one really knew about my medical history. It was all on a form somewhere at Acacia head office, and I think our driver knew one of us had a bit of a history, but I don't think he knew it was me - and even if he did, he didn't treat me any differently. I loved being able to take part in everything I wanted to, with no-one asking "are you limping?", or "are you sure you can do that?", or "do you think that drink is a good idea?", or "have you remembered your drugs?", or "have you missed an injection?", or "let me see your pupils", or "do you need any help with that?", or "are you getting an aura?", or "you're slurring your words, you must be smashed!", or "do you think you need to go to a hospital?". Having travellers tummy was left at that, and the only person who had 'this is actually a Crohn's relapse' or 'could this be a trigger for another autoimmune attack?' at the back of their mind was me. It was so good to feel normal for a few weeks.

A key part of my safari was camping. As a child I loved camping holidays, and I loved animals, and combining the 2 meant an unbeatable trip. I loved the sense of feeling self-sufficient, and so connected to the environment around me. Also, I love trucking. At first I saw it as a necessary evil for a safari spanning several countries, but now I've been converted. The feeling of sitting there with other like minded people, knocking back beers, swapping travelling stories, playing cards and glancing out of the window to catch a view of whichever desert, mountain or animal you're passing is hard to beat. After the first couple of days of the 2nd leg I felt so light and carefree, a feeling which I hadn't noticed was missing until I felt it again. As much as I love my job, it was the first time in 3 years that I was able to not think about it, and that was refreshing. 

Eating meat is a luxury in Africa, and after the first week of my trip I opted for temporary vegetarianism in view of the 'meat from miscellaneous origin' which seemed to be an ingredient of most meals. After 3 weeks of being a vegetarian I'm not missing meat nearly as much as I thought I would, and I'm toying with the idea of making this a long term choice. Ever since watching Babe (in 1996) I've refused to eat sausages, but having had iron deficiency anaemia for most of my life I've always thought, or been told, removing red meat from my diet, would be a recipe for malnutrition. Since being in Africa, I've seen first hand that meat isn't just produced from a storeroom of a supermarket; it's the goat or chicken I was stroking a couple of hours earlier. For the past few years I've only bought cosmetics and toiletries from companies which are against animal testing, so perhaps becoming vegetarian is the next step of this hippy spiral. On a sort of related side note, I also try not to buy Nestle products - but it's really surprising how difficult that was to stick to in Africa... I thought here would be the first place to boycott! 

I'll be very sad to board BA0054 and leave this wonderful continent behind, but necking champagne in the departure lounge is taking the edge off it, and I'm already making plans to return next year.

Love Emily x 

Kruger National Park day 2

Today we packed up camp and left Kruger NP (where we've been for the past couple of days) to leave for Joburg. It was very much a camp of two halves: one of us who chose to make a proper night of our last evening on safari, and the other made of those who were annoyed at being woken up by this. We started the evening off by having a liquid dinner, and watching a song and dance performance by a local Zulu tribe. It was great, and they started dragging us up and making us dance with them. It was one of the funniest things I've seen all trip. 

After this some of us headed for a bar, and when our driver/leader ushered us into a circle and whispered "what happens at the bar stays at the bar" I knew it was going to be a good one. Alcohol is crazily cheap in South Africa - even cheaper than in Ghana. I was paying R18 per drink: in my mind I thought 1 rand was roughly equivalent to 1 pound so I started off slowly, but after I got told R18 is about 87p I thought it'd be rude not to take advantage of this opportunity.

Round after round later, the bar staff were obviously getting irritated by us and called last orders 5 times (over 2 hours) before chucking those of us still standing out. The final 7 got back to the truck and carried on. And on. And on. Between us there were 3 Brits, 1 Zimbabwean, 1 Aussie, 1 Irish and 1 person from Luxembourg. It's amazing what alcohol and this melting pot of cultures can lead to: we had a bash at river dancing, the benefits of polygamy were laid bare, we observed in-truck acrobatics, played Dobble, and learned all there is to know about tax avoidance. At 3am, after we'd trashed the truck and completely drained the battery by pumping music out of the speakers, I did the conscientious thing and collected up the metal mugs we'd been drinking from, along with all the other tin crockery we'd been using. Getting on and off this truck is hard enough completely sober in daylight, so drunk me at 3am didn't stand a chance. I fell from the steps, bringing an entire steel dinner set crashing down with me, and provided the final straw for everyone else on the campsite. I think the annoyed people were expecting a degree of sympathy and mediation from our driver/leader; instead they got something along the lines of "shut up, we're drinking".

The sensible thing to do at this point was go to bed. That is far easier said than done when there are 10 identical tents and you've got to remember which one is yours, without resorting to trial and error, and then get into the right one without making your co-camper want to smother you with a pillow. It took a few goes but somehow we managed it, and were up at 6am to take down our tents and load the truck - still absolutely hammered, and feeling the wrath of lots of sleep deprived onlookers. They were seriously unimpressed when the truck needed jump-starting.

The rest of today will be spent driving through the mountains from Hazyview to Johannesburg. We had an 8am McDonalds stop, and the survivors from last night are about to bed down at the back of the truck.

Love (from a dog rough) Emily x

Kruger National Park day 1

I spent all of today on a game drive in Kreuger National Park. Our driver told us how many square miles this park covers but I forgot... the point is, it's big! When I say "all day" I mean all day - we started out at 5:45am. The company I went with have walkie talkies in each of their trucks, so if one driver spots something interesting they can let all of the others know. The downside to this is lots of vehicles rock up at one place (+ other drivers who happened to be passing by) and scare the animal(s) away.

Within a couple of hours I had seen the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo) and over the rest of the day I saw giraffes, zebras, hippos (in and out of the water), crocodiles, kuda, waterbuck, springbok, eagles, wildebeest, hyena, and lots more animals I'm too tired to remember the name of. Seeing these animals in their natural habitat was awesome, and is something on my bucket list which I've been able to complete.

It's been a great day,

Love Emily x

Zimbabwe day 3

Most of today has been spent on the road, driving from Gweru in Zimbabwe, through the infamous Zimbabwe/South Africa boarder point, crossing the Limpopo river, and arriving in Tshipise. We managed to cross the boarder in under 2 hours which is apparently a result!

Antelope Park, where we had been camping, is the centre for a lot of research into rehabilitating captive bred lions into the wild. We had the opportunity to do a nighttime game drive to see the results of this in action. This sounded incredibly exciting, and we all got on the truck (driven by a sober bloke, this time) to watch these lions catch and eat their prey. There were 2 key problems with this which seem very obvious now, but didn't before we set off. Firstly, it was dark and secondly, these lions were crap at hunting. The guide was explaining to us that they tried only feeding the lions every third day and chucking a zebra in there to see if their hunger could help trigger the 'kill the zebra' instinct in them, but ultimately the lions just lost weight and played with zebras. The more questions we asked the clearer it became that these lions were never going to make it into the wild, but the Park had to continue making this seem like a plausible objective so researchers would keep chucking research funding at the place because hey, everyone loves lions. 

The campsite we arrived at today was nestled between several koppies, which was a stunning place to sleep. The drive through Limpopo province to get here was also amazing, made even better by knocking back the beers, playing cards, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The campsite also had thermal springs. I gave this a go, but I knew after putting one foot in that my lesion wouldn't be happy about it - it felt like an uncomfortably hot bath. I joined some others in a heated outdoor pool (at the perfect temperature for my legs), and got cracking on the drinking again. We went back to the tents to rustle up a dinner, and I was taught the rules of Flip Cup (much of the description is in the name). For the 2nd time in about as many months I impressed a bunch of blokes (who think they're boozers) with my ability to take my drink, and successfully anchor a boat race team. Stringer blood.

Tomorrow I'll be travelling through the mountainous area of north SA to get to Hazyview, and ultimately Kruger National Park.

Love Emily x

P.s. The cracks on my iPad screen have been growing since my first day in Ghana when I dropped it. I've been trying to keep it together with micropore, but bits of glass are starting to fall out now, and I think it's only going to take a couple more pieces to go and it'll be completely unusable. If communication suddenly stops, that's why!

Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

We had a hungover 5:30 start this morning to get our tents packed up and in the truck for 6am. That'll teach us to get drunk and play with wild animals. Today has mainly been a day of driving across the kalahari desert to reach the Antelope Park. "Because where else...?" is their official slogan, and I think there's something in that; where else would name themselves after an animal which I have yet to see here? We were given a list of optional activities to do before we arrived, and the idea of giving a lion cub a bottle (like I used to do with Jaws...), and riding an elephant really appealed. When we arrived I was told there were no lion cubs (fair enough) and the elephants had gone (where...?!).

The campsites in Zimbabwe have been seriously impressive, especially compared to all of the European ones I've been to... although that could just be a negative reflection on them. The place we're pitched up in for tonight is next to a river, we've been allowed to make a fire, and the showers are so, so, good.

The next few days will be spent on the road; getting to South Africa and then exploring Kreuger National Park. This means the internet access available will be patch - at best! Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of iMessage would have my undying gratitude if they could explain to Megan that I can't read any of the frantic sounding messages she sends until I have internet access, at which point I would have replied to them anyway!

Love Emily x

P.s. the Crohn's situation still isn't great, but isn't trip-threatening any more. I just keep ringing that bell in the truck!

Hwange NP

I had a nap at 2pm yesterday, and woke up at 8pm. "In for a penny" I thought, and rolled over. Monkeys jumping on my tent made me stir sporadically, but it was the 'I need to get to a toilet NOW' urge which came at 4:30am which properly woke me up. If you're a Mitchell & Webb fan (and if you're not, I suggest you become one!), think of the run (and also the expression) Sir Digby Chicken Caesar does at the end of each of his surprising adventures. That's how I must look each time I leg it to the loo. I returned to my tent, got back into bed (these aren't 'proper tents' at this campsite - there's a bed, a lamp, a fan and a bin in there) and nodded off again. I woke up at 6:20 (the monkeys were shaking things out of trees), which perfectly coincided with the 'I'm going to vomit NOW' urge which struck. I grabbed the only object fit for the job (the bin) and got the first load out of the way. Then I went outside, knelt on the floor and profusely chundered, many times, everywhere.

After clearing myself out I went to reception to hand my key in and explain the bin situation. They were very unimpressed, and clearly thought I was doing a good job of fulfilling the Brit abroad stereotype! I felt a lot better so I returned to the truck to try some solids for breakfast. After this we boarded the Acacia truck (a huge 24 seat vehicle with enough room for everyone's bags, a fridge, tables, and even a bell we can ring if we want to let the guides in the cabin know we'd like to pull over!) and crossed the Zambia/Zimbabwe boarder. Seeing the Falls from the Zambian side was very impressive, but viewing them from the Zimbabwean side completely re-defined amazing!

If you're thinking of visiting the Falls (and I'd urge you to do so), my advice would be to stay, and do activities, in Zambia - but go to the Zimbabwe side to view them. Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe means everything is crazily expensive compared to prices over the boarder. Zimbabwe has the better ground view of the Falls by far (admission to the park is $30, + visa fee to get into the country), but activities like helicopter and microlight flights are far cheaper in Zambia. Although Zambian aircraft aren't allowed into Zimbabwean airspace you're at a high enough altitude for it to not compromise the view. The monkeys are equally intelligent, though: they're opportunistic in Zambia but resourceful in Zimbabwe. I spotted one who bent a bin over, rummage through it, and drink the last little bit in each bottle/can.

We left the Falls and drove to Hwange National Park, the former home of poor Cecil. We set up camp and then headed out on an open top safari truck. Hwange has no fences to allow the animals to roam freely (but this has the disadvantage of helping poachers do their thing), and we saw a herd of ~200 elephants before we were officially inside the park. Our guide spotted some fresh lion prints and drove us around a good chunk of the park to spot some, but we didn't have any luck. We did get to see lots more elephants, giraffes, antelopes, crocodiles, warthogs, and even some hippos considering getting out of the water. It was a great drive, and we finished it by watching the sun set behind a heard of elephants who were having a wash. 

We had an amazing dinner (some kind of vegetable stew) made for us, and then our day got really fun! We were at a bar and saw the Hwange guide we had earlier, who took us for a night drive. We grabbed a couple more beers for the road, and jumped in the truck. He drove us down a track and the engine cut out. We waited for a few minutes, had a look at how clear the stars are in a place with no light pollution, re-started the engine, and drove off again. What could go wrong?

Turns out the routes game drivers take during daylight (when their boss could be watching) and nighttime (when their boss is asleep) are very different. We were definitely off-roading, in an area teeming with wild animals, in the dark, with no lights (they scare the animals), in a less than mechanically sound vehicle, being driven by a man we saw drinking lots of G&Ts less than half an hour before. I see no possible problem there.

Predictably, the engine cut out again. The driver hopped off the truck, fiddled with something underneath, and got back on again. Admittedly that solved the problem, so we carried on. Some of us had finished our first on-truck beers and were standing on the seats for a better view. Our driver wanted to keep things interesting, so he drove us through some trees. We quickly got the hang of ducking each time a low branch was coming, so then he increased the difficulty by varying the speed of the truck. Some people ended up with bruises; I am glad I was wearing glasses. As we approached the end, he said "wanna know a fun fact, guys? I've got no idea who's land that was".

Once we came out of the woods, we arrived at a watering hole with 4 elephants drinking (2 adult female, 2 little ones). We could see perfectly from where we were, but our guide took us to within touching distance of them. He turned the engine off, and we sat there drinking beer in an open top truck, in silence, in the kind of darkness I've never seen in the UK, listening to 4 elephants slurping, less than a meter away. If I had to pick my favourite moment of my trip so far, this would be it. 

Before we set off we were specifically told not to use flashes on our cameras, but someone forgot that nugget of information. The flash scared the elephants, and they started making noises to warn us away. These noises got the attention of Daddy elephant, who came out of a bush on the other side of the truck. We had to sit quietly and let them 'haruuuumph' it out before we could risk scaring them again with the headlights or engine noise. They piped down, so the guide started tapping on the side of the vehicle to prepare them for headlights. They didn't like the lights though, and were flapping their ears and trunks (a sign of aggression), and started to encircle the truck. The people at the front of the vehicle were getting pretty scared by this, but at the back we were well into our 2nd beer on the truck and a bit less bothered. Slowly, though, even the tipsiest of the group recognised the very real possibility that our truck was about to get tipped. 

At this point I did the mental risk assessment which it might have been sensible to do earlier in the evening. I was a Brit in rural Zimbabwe with no phone or first aid kit, in a temperamental truck being driven by a tipsy bloke, with angry elephants capable of killing us all to our front and sides. We'd riled these elephants up too much to sit and wait, but we'd be exacerbating their anger by starting the engine. And even once the engine was going we had to rely on it to keep going, otherwise we'd just dug our own graves. We heard "right guys, hold tight!" coming from the driver, the engine started, and using his last bit of sobriety (and some kind of mechanical miracle) the truck shot backwards and we got away safely.

"I don't know how you guys stayed so calm", he said, once we got back to camp. "I was fucking petrified".

Zambia day 2

I'm loving Zambia! Today I went to the Zambian side of the falls which was great. I'd read a lot of information before, but I think the numbers involved are so huge that they start to lose meaning. I was viewing them from the other side of the gorge, and the spray I felt was welcomely refreshing! I don't think anything can prepare you for the size and the power of the falls, but I'd urge you all to put it on your bucket list! Unfortunately my little gadget which lets me transfer photos to my iPad has broken so I can't post any more photos until I get home. 

Whilst walking through the forest to get to the Falls we saw monkeys... lots of monkey. There were baby monkeys being groomed, and then riding on their mothers back. I was walking along a path with my hands by my sides; holding a water bottle. An adult monkey came up to me, swiped my bottle out of my hand, and then started to drink from it. I didn't realise they were that clever!

As for the Crohn's situation: I think I'm making a (tentative) recovery. My pulse is still consistently >110bpm, but it's heading in the right direction - pulse there are so many other factors which could be exacerbating this (heat, dehydration, not eating much) that I'm no longer worried. I've not needed steroids, and I've got codeine and morphine with me (both are painkillers with a constipating side effect; win-win!) for when the pain gets really bad. I'm finding the new sensible mindset re. my medical conditions quite strange. When my B12 and Hb dropped to life-threateningly low levels, prompting my pernicious anaemia diagnosis, I knew that I'd been badgering my GP with symptoms for months and the outcome wasn't affected by anything I did, or didn't, do. The same applied to Crohn's and sepsis: I presented at the hospital early enough for antibiotics and steroids to do their job, and the only long term issue was the Crohn's diagnosis - which entirely incidental and no-one could have prevented. However, with transverse myelitis, I often wonder if I could have prevented it by taking the meningitis symptoms seriously earlier. Maybe if I acted on my excruciating headaches earlier, and acknowledged the uncharacteristic behaviour changes, I might have been diagnosed and treated sooner, which could well have stopped my immune system going crazy and creating a spinal lesion. Instead I kept thinking "I'll go to my GP once I've finished moving", or after I'd had some chats with James, or finished a string of 12.5hr shifts, and now I'll live with reduced leg function, neuropathic pain, and a broken bladder for the rest of my life.

Because of the Crohn's flare I didn't get to go to Devil's Pool, which is a shame. I spoke to some people who managed to do it and they said it was terrifying! I had a mental image of a nice little rock pool where you could float, have a cocktail and marvel at being so close to the edge. Wrong. I was told by the others that you spend all the time in there fearing for your life, so maybe it's for the best that I didn't do it!

I'm heading to Zimbabwe tomorrow, so I'll be off grid for days at a time. From now on I'll post blog entries as and when I have internet access, not straight after I've written them.

Love Emily x