Day Five ***DISCLAIMER*** This next bit may sound bad but please dont worry. I have typed this up on Day Six and am totally fine and still alive. *********** Probably one of the worst days of my life. Was sleeping overnight up on the dune with some of the group who hadnt slept up there before. Dozed off normally but woke up sometime later with a churning in my stomach and feeling dizzy. I got up, aiming for the toilet tent but got disorientated and collapsed some way away from the camp and away from the guys sleeping on the dune. I crawled towards the toilet tent but before I got there my stomach clenched and I threw up all over myself and the side of a dune. My head was spinning. I laid on the sand for a while recovering, but had another cramp and was sick again. I made my way back to our tent and changed my clothes and antibacted my hands. Id left the sleeping bag up on the dune, so laid on my back covered in a jumper to keep warm. I was just drifting off to sleep when my stomach clenched again. I unzipped the tent, grabbed a headlight and ran. I made it to a nearby dune where I violently vomited over and over again. Ive never been sick so hard before. I wiped my mouth and staggered back to the tent. I mustve made a lot of noise because Ive been told since that they heard me up on the dune and Garry and Andy came to find me. I can only vaguely remember seeing them. They left me to sleep. When the sun rose, I felt dreadful. No energy, queasy, dehydrated, empty inside and stinking of sick. I brushed my teeth and Kev came to ask if Id cope with a walk. I said Id give the morning a try and see how I was at lunchtime. Realistically, I wasnt really up to it. The wind was high and sand was blowing. We left camp, with me plodding one foot in front of the other. The whole walk went by in a daze - cant remember any details. Semi-delirious, I was at the back all of the way with Kev and Andy looking out for me. The wind picked up into a proper desert sandstorm covering us all in a layer of grit. The guys wearing shorts had legs stinging from the blowing sand and we had to wear scarves over our face to help us breath. Sand in our ears, up our nose, all over us. 10km later we finally reached a space for camp. I really didnt know how I got there. I collapsed in the shade of a tree while the Berbers erected a tent. Andy dragged me over and stuck me inside in the corner. The smell of lunch made me feel queasy so I sat outside and laid on a mat in the shadow of the tent with a wet cobber over my eyes, drinking bottles of water. I fell asleep. Abdul decided to keep the camp where we were for the night but sometime later he took Mike, Andy, Garry and some of the other guys for an hours walk around the dunes. I stayed where I was with some of the other campers in the shade. As the sun went down I started to feel a little better. The Berbers built a fire and once dark we stood around it as they made sand bread. They cleared a space in the ashes and dropped in two flat breads and covered them in embers. While the bread cooked, they drummed on tambourines and empty water cans and chanted a Berber song. They took a shine to Mike and grabbed him to join in, giving him a water can to drum along and dance with. One of the Berbers, like Bez, was lead dancer of the group and took Andys hand for taught him a Berber dance. Then we all joined in dancing around the fire with Mike still on drums, chanting along with the song. They pulled the sand bread out of the ashes and we all had a taste. Then it was our turn to teach the Berbers an English song - so we did the Okey-kokey around the fire, teaching the Berbers the dance and them joining in. We went back to the dining tent but I really wasnt up to eating so excused myself and went off to bed early to sleep in the tent. *** Please remember... I am totally fine now! ***
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:50:40 +0000
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