Today was a bit of a write off.
Actually... not a bit. A whole lot.
We left the Masai Mara and headed north.
We had been rotating seats to keep it fair, and unfortunately it was my turn to be at the very back. Anyone that has ever been in a bus or an old utility vehicle... or a safari jeep... KNOWS how jarring and jerky it can be at the back.
Normally, I am really not one for car sickness, but it hit me hard today. Not sure if it was the horrendously bumpy road, or the fact that it was exceedingly bumpier in the back seat… whatever… but my stomach started flipping back & forth, up & down… and it did not stop.
Stomach flips soon led to nausea, which naturally led to dizzy… and then the excrutiating head throbbing began. It was not long before my entire body was slumped over, my head smashed into the back of the seat in front of me... and I was much too weak to really care.
To the best of my ability, at one point, I lied down in full fetal, crumpled form and did my best to drift in & out of uncomfortable slumber. Melissa gave me the equivalent of a Gravol and although it temporarily helped ease the nausea, it contributed tremendously to my fatigue.
All day long, I tossed and turned between wasted & weak and wide awake. In my dead-to-the-world stage, it was all I could do to pry my eyes open, but as soon as the gust of exhaustion swept over me, there was not battling with it. I was out cold. Sometimes for an hour… but usually only a few minutes.
… and then I was wide awake again, buzzing like I was on some kind of caffeine & sugar high.
At lunch, I could not stomach anything save for a small piece of watermelon. I tried some rice, but it was just not working for me.
Ugh...
Of course, I pick the perfect day to be under the weather.
Let's hit it when I'm in the back seat, in the middle of a dusty national park, on safari, in Africa, in the unbearable heat, on a trecherous road...!
Sounds good!
My timing is impeccible.
The day was lost on me... and thankfully it wasn't a HUGE day in the adventure world. We had journeyed towards Lake Nakuru, which was said to be "a beautiful wildlife haven."
Hmmmm... maybe I wasn't in the mood for a beautiful wildlife haven, because I was more fixated on the dust. Due to the drought and no rain, Lake Nakuru National Park was even dustier than the Masai Mara, if you can even imagine that. Animals were few and far between, which is odd considering that in order to protect the rhinos from poachers, the Kenyan government erected an electric fence around the entire park in 1986. So kind of an enclosure... ? Depending on which way you look at it. No great migration here...
Lake Nakuru was pinned as "home to large flocks of flamingos and pelicans, as well as black & white rhinos, leopards, lions and numerous buck. Originally created as a bird santuary, Lake Nakuru was upgraded to National Park status in 1968."
Well... we definitely didn't see all of that!
We did manage to see one solitary female rhino with her playful baby... but not much else at all. Some flamingos... maybe one or two baboons.
Just dust.
A lot of dust.
It was a lot of driving too. Driving in dust didn’t do wonders for my stomach and my dizzy, but I managed to endure the suffering and lived to tell.
I did perk up temporarily to make a new Tik Tok video with Nicole. We sang Waka Waka and even James (our driver) got in there to show us his dance moves. Dance moves, with a cigarette, I might add. Lisa had been my original partner in song, but after a few horrendously funny takes of the wrong words and disastrous rhythm, she was sub'ed out!
We finally reached the Waterbuck hotel, and I was absolutely ecstatic to discover I had been given my own room. All the singles on the tour had paid the single supplement, guaranteeing them their own room… so by default, I got one as well. Almost immediately, we all disappeared to thoroughly wash the ridiculous amount of dust off of us… and put on our best on for a lovey hotel buffet dinner.
The shower was divine. DIVINE.
You don’t truly know the power of a good shower until you’re completely caked in dust and sweat... and sick. The getting-out-of-the-shower part was quite shit though, as I realized a little too late that I wasn’t given any bath towels. Soaking wet and naked, I tip-toed to the bathroom door and quickly scoured the room, looking for anything that would do, but all I could find was a bath mat and a small hand towel.
My luck, eh.
My own quick-dry towel was buried deep in my luggage and of absolutely no use to me, as I stood dripping. So I did whatever any other person would have done in my position, I resorted to patting myself dry with the hand towel and then wandered around the room, occasionally shaking myself like a dog, until I had fully dried enough to put my clothes back on.
The buffet was exquisite, and much better than camp food. Too bad for my current ailing state, or I definitely would have indulged in much more. It did make me feel better though. Well... I think it was a combination of 1. Out of the vehicle, 2. Water, 3. Drugs, 4. A lovely shower, 5. Decent food... but who am I to say?
I got a chance to speak to a couple that were with us on tour that evening, but leaving us the following morning. Lisa and Sam. They were lawyers... and they retired when they were 51 and 53. They sold everything and just took off into the world to live the rest of their days exploring. They had just begun their 8th year as nomads.
Awww... my dream.
That’s exactly what I want to do… and everyday, I try my best to manifest it. Too bad I don't actually WORK everyday to make it happen... or SAVE! I guess I just need to become famous quick. For now though, I will concentrate my efforts on the envisioning portion. I should have been a lawyer.
Maybe Tik Tok will make me famous!
200 followers and only 1.3 million to go...