After a super few days at Cape Maclear we intended to rise early and hit the road for Mount Mulanje for a few days of mountain hiking. Ross had not been feeling well starting the night before and because he had been paranoid about malaria since we left Gaborone he thought that while waiting for me to pay the breakfast bill it was time for him to self-administer a malaria test. This process includes pricking your finger to draw blood. I turned around from paying the bill to find him passed out in a cold sweat on the couch.
Once I finished laughing, I helped him into a sitting position and proceeded to join in the activity of pricking Ross’s fingers. We ran out of finger space without successfully drawing enough blood for the test but decided to run it anyway with the few drops we had. It came back negative so we hit the road. We meandered southward on lake Malawi passing small towns and villages as often as Ross passed in and out of cold sweats and hot chills. It wasn’t until we were close to Blantyre that I noticed he had come out of his torpor enough to google the closest hospital and update our mapping app to send us that way.
After consulting a doctor, Ross gave more blood and we went to find food while waiting for the results to come in. Blantyre is not an epicure’s paradise so we settled for Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant hoping for the best. My food was terrible but not as bad as Ross’s. It had him in the bathroom puking after only a few bites. Maybe he had Malaria after all? We headed back to the hospital and though he was still negative for malaria, blood test confirmed an elevated white blood count which meant malaria or something worse was headed his way so best to start the malaria treatment antibiotics right away.
Blantyre was a forty-five-minute drive from Mulanje so we pressed on to make camp and prepare for his recovery. Twenty minutes into the drive Ross signaled to stop the car, he was going to be ill. He managed to get the window down so none of the violence erupted inside the car but he was chundering away as I slowed from 80 down to 0. Only when I came to a complete stop with Ross hanging out the window heaving his last did I have a chance to take in our surroundings. It’s important to note that roads in Malawai are not wide and many shops and restaurants are 2-3 meters away from the road. So as Ross appeared to collapse the top half of his body out the window to rid any remaining fluids in his body out the window, I focused on the cacophony of laughter and shouting that was coming from the passenger side of the car. We had stopped right in front of a local pub where 15-20 locals were enjoying Sunday afternoon beers.
They were shouting, laughing and taking pictures of Ross’s vomit violence out the window. Once it was apparent Ross was done, they swarmed the car to tell us Ross probably had Malaria and we should go to the hospital. They became more and more boisterous (on the verge of a drunken but still peaceful mob) as I declined multiple offers to buy them beers as recompense for puking outside their bar – as if none of them had ever done it!! I did exit the car to use one of our large canteens of water to start washing the puke off the street front of their pub. The owner thanked me and we were finally able to get on our way.
At Mt. Mulanje, with Ross in a delirium and me anxious about the rain, I set up the tent and we settled in to hibernate and wait out the malaria. I had a nice three days to read books, drink coffee and experiment with some of the food supplies we had bought on the road. Meanwhile, Ross just slept.
Joburg to Scotland 