Return of the Sidewinder

So, I threw out my back on safari. I feel pretty old.

Hours and hours of bouncing around rough trails in the back of a land rover laid the groundwork... the ATVs didn’t help much either. I think it was finally triggered by a sustained gallop as we were riding horses in the bush; I suddenly discovered I couldn’t walk anymore.

It was otherwise one of the highlights of the week: zebra herds were generally indifferent to us when we were on horseback, and we could get close enough to feel like we were strolling among them. We got uncomfortably close to a Rhino too (ack).

I made Jacqueline go on the last couple game drives without me; I could barely even shuffle around the tent without help. At the campsite we all laughed at the jokes about the ranger having to put me down, or about the lions picking off the weakest and slowest of the herd, etc etc. Some fellow guests kindly offered me their spare voltaren (ahh...) which held me for a couple days out in the wilderness, until we could get to some stronger meds in Hong Kong.

Three days later, at the Johannesburg airport, Jacqueline had me placed in a wheelchair, and I got to experience the novelty of "special needs preboarding"-- I would have felt vaguely self-conscious, if not for the voltaren... I had people pushing me through special doors and gates, and cutting to the front of various lines...I've never gone through immigration & security so effortlessly.

I've been seasick in Cape Town and paralyzed on safari. We still laugh remembering the Johannesburg couple's remarks to us at the Italian laundromat: "Yeah, Africa's not for sissies-!"