It didn’t quite start out as the best day in the world. We had to get up at silly o’clock in the morning before sunrise in order to do a long drive day. I woke up swearing under my breath and muttering expletives like, ‘if the sun isn’t up, it isn’t f$%king daytime’. I stumbled out and packed up my tent and grumbled my way to the truck. Someone then said to me “Happy Birthday Mark!” I had forgotten my own birthday! Luckily everyone on the truck is really lovely and everyone remembered for me.
We put in a good twelve-hour drive day to get to a campsite that George described as “a little bit special”. We got off the truck all achy and tired, but what a place! It had hot showers, which we hadn’t had for several weeks. They had a full bar with whiskeys and gins. This place was absolute luxury. So much so that when we had a cooked breakfast with sausages and bacon (bacon!) the next day, everyone started taking photographs of the meals.
For my birthday though, we had a full Indian meal with freshly killed goat and chickens. It was out of this world.
To my surprise the people on the truck had arranged a chocolate birthday cake, complete with “Happy Birthday Mark!” on the top. How they found a cake like that in the middle of Africa I don’t know. Yum-o! Thanks guys.
As a special gift from the campsite and the truck I also received a box of one hundred condoms. I think the campsite owner, Raj, wasn’t aware of my predicament of having my sweetheart five thousand miles away, and so we did what anyone with rubber johnnies – and nowhere to put them – would do. We put them on our feet, made balloons and put them on our heads.
I will put up pictures if I can get them from the others. I was too busy having my cake and eating it too.
1 comment:
Happy Birthday Mark. I remembered on the day but forgot email you. Besides, you forgot mine.
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