while we got our Ethiopian visas.
We spent our time queueing at the
embassy, eating all sorts of amazing
food and hanging out with the
Sudanese bikers’ club.
Sadly, before we knew it, we were
saying goodbye to our couchsurfing
friends and heading for Ethiopia, all
that stood in our way was around 720
kilometres and a couple of nights in
the desert.
We pressed on south and easily
found a camping spot. It was just off
the main road and the local farmers
were over the moon to have us.
We gave them a marshmallow and
exchanged Facebook details on their
smart phone before pitching our tent.
I set up camp and made us some tea
because Reece wasn’t feeling great
and had to go straight to bed.
Reece had got food poisoning,
‘poor bloke’, I thought, ‘out in the
middle of the desert and he’s ended
up with a serious case of the tom tits.’
About an hour later, I sat there,
pleased it wasn’t me with the food
poisoning when suddenly I pooed
myself.
It hit me like a wave.
We didn’t stop digging holes on
that poor farmers land until the early
hours of the morning. It was truly
disgusting.
We woke up bright and early, still
feeling completely horrific and keen
to get to civilisation. While we were
packing up the tent, I saw something
shoot up Reece’s leg. It was kind of
like a shadow and I thought it was
probably just my dazed mind playing
tricks on me. I told Reece to stay
very still and I peered around him to
see if there was anything there.
“Nothing,” I said. “Let’s just be
sure, stand up for a minute.”
There, in the crevice of his knee
was a scorpion.
“Stay very still,” I said as calmly as
I could. “There’s a fricking scorpion
on your leg.”
I grabbed the closest thing to me,
a lighter, and flicked it off him. Reece
had survived. And the scorpion kept
trying to bury itself under our stuff.
With both of us weak from the food
poisoning, at least four hours from
the nearest hospital I thought, ‘sod it’,
and smashed the scorpion over the
head with a camping mallet in some
kind of ridiculous Inbetweeners 2 like
moment.
The danger was gone.
We later found out that it was
called the death stalker scorpion and
it had been killing children and the
elderly in the area. It was a close
shave.
Another easy wild camp and we
finally made it to Ethiopia where we
had the craziest day of the whole trip.
That’s a story for another time … MB
Matt says he and Reece often get asked
what their favourite country was, they
always answer, Sudan. The people are
just incredible, the culture is so different,
and the place is just so fun to explore.
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