Today marks 3 months! I left on Sunday 11th August and in the last 3 months I think it's fair to say that quite a lot has happened! Therefore it only seems fair that I celebrate this occasion with yet another toilet tale.
Yesterday was rather uneventful until the sun set and then as usual, I was kept on my toes a little. Shortly after my dinner and bed offer, I finished my blog and then felt the common rumblings of gas that experience has told me never to trust. The building that I'm in is next to a busy road (the only road) and it sticks out away from the village. There is no cover whatsoever so dashing behind a nearby tree is out of the question, I am in a desert after all!
I had to make a quick decision to either expose myself one side of the shelter for halve the cars driving past and all the village to see or go inside the shelter, unhygienically in the vicinity of the village water pots. It had to be inside I'm afraid, after all, everyone cleans their teeth in the bathroom, we don't all squat at the bus stop....
I did very well to get to the corner in time and due to proper preparation I had my head torch already in position. I didn't have much time for baby wipes though so then had to waddle over to Nigel to get them. In doing this, either the neighbourhood watch or inquisitive driver past has spotted a strange figure in the normally vacant water shelter and driven over to investigate.
Luckily I clocked the headlights were from a car coming straight towards the shelter and not just passing so had to convert from man to cat faster than you can imagine, finished up myself and covered the evidence with sand before leaping onto the camp bed and into the sleeping bag. I was still flicking sand half naked as the car stopped the other side of the wall. Two men got out the car and called out "hello?" As I tried to relax my fluster I replied "hello" then "ok?" then "me sleep" and they said "ok" and got back in the car completely oblivious that they were literally seconds away from a sight that would probably stop them using that water shelter ever again.
I am very happy now that I didn't take up the kind family's offer for a dinner and bed!
I woke up this morning with the most monumental hang over. The effects of the late night stops must've made me extremely dehydrated as my head was banging and my stomach was cramping up like a beating heart. This was another day in bed watching Jeremy Kyle if I was at home but I wasn't, I was in a water shelter in the middle of the Nubian desert surrounded by flys.
I tried to roll over and sleep off the stomach cramps but it wasn't working. People were coming and going as they collected their water for the day and the lattice strapped camp bed wasn't exactly comfortable to start off with. I decided I just had to suck it up because the desert is not going to care for you if you're ill, it'll just burn you to a crisp.
The first hour I actually felt ok. This is a common trap that I've fallen into before but I felt I could put some decent miles in and although I may not be able to clear the rest of the desert in two days, my health seemed to be stabilised.
As it got closer to midday, the sun as always got stronger and my health took a massive turn for the worse. My stomach that was just twitching lightly throughout the morning had turned into a rotivator and the skin on my arms was starting to get very red.
My headache had gone and luckily my head was the one thing that stayed strong. I knew I had to get out the sun and I also knew I had to go against desert logic and stop drinking water. The water was going straight through me and in turn making me more and more dehydrated.
Hours wore on and there was literally nowhere to stop. With legs drained and my insides twisted I found myself in a very bad way but luckily still able to think logically, I kept doing simple maths sums to ensure my head was still with it. Looking upto the heavens again for help, a car pulled up by my side. I recognised the stickers on the back and it turned out to be a guest from the hotel I stayed at in Dongola 2 days ago. I never spoke to him but he was friends of the manager and he stepped in my photo randomly. I asked him where the nearest town was and he said about 40km away. My head sunk onto the handlebars, that was way too far and his car was too full despite him offering to take me. I thanked him and said no but I did accept the little water he had (I knew the consequences were going to be bad but I needed just a sip)
As he drove away I didn't have a clue what to do. I couldn't do anything but carry on otherwise I would need to be repairing the skin on my arms when I arrived in Khartoum aswell as sorting out my bowels. Just 100m or so down the road I saw a hut next to a telegraph pole about 500m from the road. It was going to be a tough push through thick sand but there could be someone there who could at least drive to get help, it was a push that was worth it I thought.
I got to the hut, nobody and nothing. There was shade though and I collapsed in the shade for as long as there was sun in the sky. I had to get up every now and then to clear myself out, but not being able to drink to replenish meant I was becoming weaker and weaker. The hut was made up of random bits of wood and rags so I ended up dismantling some of it for clean up purposes.
As the sun set and the night cooled I looked at my situation and evaluated. I was 250km from Khartoum, after going to the toilet no less than 17 times that day I found myself physically a hollow shell but mentally I was thinking clearly. Hitchhike was my first option. Now I am not the person to quit and I am most definitely the person that will try and think of every possibility before admitting defeat. Therefore to have hitchhiking as my first option for tomorrow hopefully can show you that I was in a bad way and as I was starting to pass blood I thought that the seriousness had stepped to a level that getting on the back of a truck to get to Khartoum in 4 hours, is better than what could happen trying to fight the heat of a desert.
Just get some rest and be up early tomorrow I thought. At least by the end of the day the stomach cramps had stopped but that was purely because I had nothing inside me to squeeze. The desert night sky was as beautiful as ever but for me, I was in hell.
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