Big Daddy was stopping by a few weeks ago to nibble on the lucerne we had delivered from Daisy’s Den. The bush is much greener after recent rains, and the wildlife seems less interested in the lucerne.

“Sighting of the Day in the Bush”

Oxpeckers eating ticks and fleas off the hide of a kudu.

Update on yesterday’s missing post: On Thursday night when it was still very hot, we all decided to forego our usual Thursday night buffet dinner at Ngwenya. Instead, since Rita and Gerhard had never been there, we decided to go to Phumula, a nearby restaurant we’ve visited a few times since we arrived last February.  

We didn’t love the focal lodge and restaurant food, ut it was always fresh and acceptable and they had aircon in the main bar/dining area.  It was a good choice. I didn’t drink much wine, only having a few glasses of light dry rose with ice in the hot weather. I ordered beef, veg, and salad, nothing too exciting but proved to be fine although my meat was way overdone.  I prefer it rare.  It was medium but tender so I didn’t complain.  

The four of us were so deeply engrossed in our conversations, not having seen each other in a week, we didn’t pay much attention to the food. We’d arrived at 1700 hours, (5:00 pm) and were out the door by 2030 hours, (8:30 pm).

Once back at the house, which was as hot as an oven, we decided the spend the rest of the evening watching “America’s Got Talent” on my laptop in air-conditioned comfort in the bedroom. 

Most of the wildlife groom themselves quite well.  Other than warthogs, they seldom appear dirty.

During the second episode I dozed off for a few minutes and Tom awakened me. A nap wasn’t good before going to bed for the night which would tend to make it hard to fall asleep later. I awoke from his gentle nudge with a shudder.  A wave of nausea washed over me that literally made me jump up and run to the bathroom. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I felt so dizzy I could hardly stand.

Something was terribly wrong. Was it food poisoning? What could it be? It was 2200 hours, (10:00 pm) and I knew I had a long horrid night ahead of me. I had never in my life felt so nauseated and dizzy.  

No doubt, I put Tom through hell with me when I was up and down all night, stumbling my way to the bathroom only to (gross, be prepared) have the dry heaves. I hadn’t puked in 20 years nor was I going to now.

I even found myself groaning and moaning (how disgusting) when the dizziness and nausea were almost more than I could bear. What was going on? The night was so long. I literally watched the clock on my phone waiting for it to be over.  Things are always worse at night, aren’t they?

As much as the kudus eat the vegetation, they still enjoy pellets and an occasional marula that falls to the ground from the tree in our garden.

At certain points throughout the night,  I imagined having to go to the hospital in Nelspruit, over an hour’s drive away. But I couldn’t imagine sitting up and riding in the car.  It was entirely impossible to sit up.  The room was spinning.

After a while, I took a Tylenol (aka Paracetamol or Panadol, here in SA).  It didn’t help at all. I knew I just had to wait it out.  

In the morning, I contacted Rita.  She’d eaten the same meal I had but hadn’t suffered any consequences. Thus, it wasn’t food poisoning—more than anything, I wanted to know what was going on and why I was feeling this way. I was too sick to look it up on my laptop.

In the morning, still as awfully ill, I managed to shower and get into a comfy nightdress, heading straight back to bed.  Tom brought me my usual first-thing-in-the-morning lemon water and a large mug of iced Sprite Zero. No doubt, drinking a lot of fluids was important, regardless of the source of this scourge.

Kudus are good at making woeful eye contact indicating they are looking for pellets.

During the day, I had so much on my mind. On Monday afternoon, longtime friends Linda and Ken were arriving to spend the upcoming week with us, staying upstairs in the house. On Monday evening, we had Rita’s birthday dinner party planned at our house with an extensive menu for 10.

The weather predictions for Sunday and Monday were over-the-top, expected to be well over 40C, (104F). The thought of cooking all that food in such high temperatures was daunting particularly if I wasn’t going to be fully recovered from this awful bout of nausea and dizziness.

On Thursday night, unprompted by me, Rita suggested we move the party to later in the week when cooler weather was predicted. This thought stuck in my mind all day yesterday when I trashed about in bed in a dreadful dizzying state.

I didn’t eat a morsel of food all day long. Tom had taken a container of great leftovers out of the freezer for his dinner with enough should I decide to eat. By 1800 hours, (6:00 pm) I knew eating was vital to my recovery. Not eating alone can cause nausea and dizziness.  

Recently, we’ve seen less helmeted guinea fowl in the garden. WTheymay has found better areas to search for grubs and worms than in a dry garden. with recent rains

Tom made each of us a bowl of the food, heated in the microwave and we ate in air-conditioned comfort. It was hard to sit up to eat so I managed small bites, using a spoon to get it down. Much to my surprise, I ate most of the food, leaving only about 25% which I managed to finish a few hours late. I began to feel a little better.

We watched a few episodes of the show, and by 2200 hours (10:00 pm), I took an over-the-counter Somnil and slept straight through for a full eight hours. I awoke this morning weakly and bleary-eyed, but nausea and dizziness were almost completely gone.

Today will be a resting day but at least I can write today’s post with my head up. That was the first time out of 2359 posts, over a period of 6 years, 9 months, 29 days, that I failed to do a post due to illness. We didn’t begin posting daily until sometime in the first year.  

Thus, there’s been 2495 days past overall since we started doing the post on March 15, 2012, which may be found here at this link. But we didn’t leave Minnesota until October 31, 2012, with the link for that day’s post found here.

Frank and The Mrs. and some friends stopped by for a visit.  Frank is on the far right, the Mrs. on the left.

I deliberated over whether or not I should go into the details of my 36-hour illness but thought perhaps someone out there has experienced something similar and could offer some insight. Please feel free to write a comment at the end of this post or write to me via email.

Had I had a heart condition or some other serious type of condition, surely I would have sought medical assistance.  But, I must admit, I’ve had similar occurrences in years past, although not quite as severe as on this occasion, and recovered just fine. I’ve had recent medical exams and blood tests and all is fine. Go figure.

Tonight, we have plans to go to Jabula with Rita and Gerhard for dinner. Since it is so scorching, I have no desire to cook a meal. If I spend the rest of the day resting and recovering, I’m planning on being able to go out to dinner.  

Will I ever know what caused this? Probably not.  But, all I can do is move forward and pray this never happens again on a travel day! Traveling the world while taking good care of one’s health is no guaranty one won’t get sick or encounter situations such as this.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, January 12, 2018:

Chef Ramsey would be proud of this perfectly cooked medium rare 800 gram (28 ounces) sirloin steak at La Cabrera Restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The ribeyes looked good but had more fat, and Tom prefers less fat on his meat.  For more great food photos, please click here.