It’s not easy living in paradise you know. The inevitable has happened and we’ve succumbed to travel bugs. Not THE travel bug, as in the desire to travel, which I got when I was 7 years old, but travel illnesses,which we managed to avoid for a whole week. My symptoms of complete fatigue and dizziness are, according to our trusty guide book, indicative of heat exhaustion and probably due to the extreme sun and lack of fans/cold drinks on Zanzibar. Dave on the other hand, has an ear infection from bacteria in the water where we were diving. For the last few days it’s been very painful for him and very annoying for me as he’s deaf in one ear. Poor DaveB. Last night we continued our tour of foreign doctors when I took him to a medical centre. Thankfully they had more high tech equipment than the doctor I went to in Malaysia for a similar problem – he looked down my ear with a plumber’s torch. This doctor at least had the an ‘ear torch’, although the batteries were intermittent so I’m not sure how much use it was! What amused me most was the eye chart which had only the letter ‘E’ but in various rotations – on its side, upside-down etc. It must have been a Swahili version. Dave had to pay an extortionate $50 for the 5 minute consultation – Mzungo prices I suspect. The (lady) doctor’s advice to me was to take off all my clothes and sit under a fan. Not the most technical advice and certainly not practical when you’re travelling

We’re both now in recovery as we’re back on the mainland with access to continuous fans for me and ear drops for Dave. The ferry ride here most certainly didn’t help our conditions though. The sea was extremely rough and the boat kept crashing down and lurching from side to side. The crew handed out sick bags, which many of our fellow passengers had to use, but we’d sensibly taken anti-sickness tablets and survived with mild nausea.

Whilst we’re on the subject of bugs, you might like to know that I’ve so far shared my shower with geckos, spiders, giant snails and mosquitoes (they know where to find naked flesh). Oh the joys of travel…