Spent this afternoon experimenting with GIMP today…
It’s good, well worth a download!
Weight loss, a parasite & a hospital admission…
Well to cut a long story short… things didn’t really get any better! I’d lost 1 & 1/2 stone & was getting short of breath, i was admitted to the ‘Infectious diseases & tropical medicine’ ward - fortunately they didn’t keep me long 1 night 2 days - but they did send me down to the eye department!
Eventually they found out what was wrong with me: there was the parasite but also I had Hepatitis E!
For those that are interested:
Hepatitis E (HEV) - was not recognized as a distinct human disease until 1980 & is caused by infection with the hepatitis E virus, a non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Fortunately it is a self-limiting viral infection followed by recovery… phew!
Mortality rates are ranging between 0.5% - 4.0% (20% if your pregnant)
And for those dirty scrubbers of you who are wondering, it is a water bourne disease: ‘There is no evidence for sexual transmission or for transmission by transfusion.’ WHO
In hindsight it was all a bit of an adventure & I managed to reduce my beer belly a little bit… Mali is well worth a trip, really interesting place to see - so book your flights now! Now my question is: where to go next?
Still Ill in Bamako & a long journey home…
Last few days in Bamako were a bit of a blurr… I had to go back to the clinic to get some test results where it turns out they’d found a nice little paratite (Henry) who had 5 limbs & a tail! Great… Unfortunately the medication wasn’t working so the doctors decided to double the dose & add a few more things in - bit of a cocktail!
I vaguely remember eating a really rough pizza & hearing a Malian guy describing his favourite meal ‘anus de poulet’ - I’ll let you work that one out, & yeah thats what it was!
Had a really early morning flight: I wasn’t feeling great & was hampered by many a petty official… I love the chinese saying ‘a monkey in a tall hat’ - after producing my ticket & passport to everyone (including cleaners & bored people) I had to have a little sit down on the floor…
I think this was the first time I have ever wanted to go home on any of my travels! The flight must have been un eventful as I can’t remember a thing but we took the train straight back home… not a chance of going into work on Monday!
Back To Bamako
Timbucktu to Bamako was a two day drive, & by this point the air-con had broken. The homeward leg of a trip is never as exciting but we found an overturned lorry with its load spilled across the road - how that had happened I have no idea!
We stopped in Sans on the way back… the vegetarians had seen a ‘vegetarian restaurant’ on the way out & had high hopes of some healthy food - I think it was a bitter dissapointment (I didn’t go as still feeling Ill)… Nice rooms though at the guest house & was great to have some space in an airconditioned room.
We were supposed to leave early, but our driver had other plans - he rocked up over an hour late - It was clear he had no intentention of leaving on time & to top it off he’d made a friend over night & wanted us to give him a lift back to Bamako - his friend was reluctant to split the petrol money so we kicked him out at the bus station! Driver (Ton Ton) was now in a very bad mood & was rather stroppy… this obviously made the 8hour drive (with broken air-con) far more enjoyable.
Arrived in Bamako with time for Rachel to get to the airport & me to get to the Dr’s… they laced me with drugs:Cipro 500mg 2x a day amongst others & sent me off - It cost less for me to get checked out than it did Cobweb at the vets!
Still Ill…
A night in the Toureg encampment (aka death hut)….
Sahara + Tourist = Camel ride….
Our trip was delayed because of the sand storms that swept in from the north… everything went bright orange, the air was thick & sand got everywhere… after about an hour the storm died down & we were ready to go… Celeste’s camel looked evil… quite fitting really ;)
The camel journey was amusing to start with & then just got harder - the sand started blowing again & there was even a spot of rain, the sun started to fall and eventually we stopped at a toureg tent in the desert… quite a relief to get off the camel… The Toureg (Ali - all dressed in his desert gear) anounced to us that we were 20km out of Timbucktu (in the desolate Sahara…) - turning round I could still see the lights of town, my Sat Nav also confirmed to me he was lying out of his ass!
We had some more Malian tea… this time I had all three brews gradually getting less toxic as we went through… Just before we ate my body thought… 20km out of Timbucktu (apparently), only method of transportation = Camel, No beds, Lots of Sand, Sandstorm on the way, no toilets… this would be a perfect time to be Ill again :(
It was a long long night, the Sandstorm started at 9:30pm and didn’t subside until 4:30am… It was hot, but we had to cover our heads to stop breathing in the sand… morning didn’t come soon enough! We were ready to go early, but Ali had lost his camels - he’d let them wonder off over night & couldn’t track them because of the sand storm… Hours later, we headed back to Timbucktu…
