It took about half an hour to get through the marsh land, and by the time we reached the bank of the lake I was soaked in sweat, tired and beginning to feel pretty ill. It was mid afternoon, and the sun beat down mercilessly on us out in the open. Once I had caught my breath, I rose from my stoop leaning heavily on the pole and looked around me. We were in the middle of the jungle. Standing on the edge of the marsh were two boats nestling in the mud which lead out onto a beautiful and serene lake. There was nothing except jungle as far as you could see and it was here that I had wanted to come. Lukas had already begun bailing out the smaller of the two boats with a jug. It was clear that we weren’t going to be leaving for a while. Mosquitoes the size of baby crocodiles flew around taking a bite whenever they felt like it, and while pasting myself in insect repellent felt good, it didn’t seem to have any effect on these ancient insects. It took around half an hour for the boat to be empty of water, and it was around this time that we realised there was probably more of us and our luggage than it would take.
‘Are there any crocs in the lake?’ Mark enquired innocently of Lukas has he finished off loading our bags into the boat. ‘No, no crocs in the lake’ came the reply, and so it was decided that Mark would swim behind the boat while I, steadily feeling worse and worse and having run out of water, would sit in the middle with the chicken and Juan. Lukas took my stick and began to row the boat out into the lake with Mark swimming behind. We paused slightly on the edge of the lake while we decided whether we wanted to go to the island in the middle which was about ten minutes away, or another camping ground a couple of hours down the lake. Having walked solidly for seven hours through the jungle, and now feeling like I was about to pass out, we decided that we would camp on the island for tonight and then head down river tomorrow morning. We were half way across the lake when a voice from the back said ‘Are you sure there aren’t any crocs in this lake? Most lakes like this seem to have crocs in!’ ‘There are a few small ones but they are back where we got into the boat and anyway they only come out at night.’ An intake of breath could be heard at the back and I noticed that Mark began looking around him as he swam through the clear water. ‘How big is small?’ ‘About the size of the boat!’ Suddenly we seemed to gather speed as we neared the island and Mark hopped out of the water like lightening. ‘That boat is about 6 feet long, there is no way I am swimming back. ‘
The island was small, very small. It had been a temple, with the bricks having been transported there by boat many, many years ago. Although the shape of the bricks were still visible, they were so covered with vegetation that you had to know they were there in order to be able to see them. I clambered up the steps to the top where we were to make camp. We knocked the scorpions out of the way and set about getting the fire ready. My head was pounding now and my vision was becoming blurred. It was only now that I knew something was really wrong. There was no way that I could still be dehydrated, I had drunk more than enough water during the day. Clearly I looked as bad as I felt because Mark came over and asked me how I was doing, and from the corner of my eye I could see Lukas looking at me with a frown on his face. I retched but as we hadn’t eaten anything that day my gut just wrenched upon itself.
Slowly as the fever descended the panic that accompanied it grew. Standing on the edge of our campsite looking out over the lake with the sunlight disappearing amongst the endless forest, I realised that if I had something serious, I was in big trouble. It only took a few minutes for that thought to settle into my head, until I could feel the panic beginning to build inside me. Keeping control of myself, I went through everything that had happened and checked to see if I had any bites. What was I thinking …….. of course I had bites, the mosquitoes had been huge! I couldn’t imagine having anything serious having bitten me though as I am sure I would have felt it. I asked Lukas and Mark what they thought but neither of them had any idea what could be wrong. This worried me even more. Two people, one who was a veteran of jungle travel, and the other who lived there, had no idea what I had. My decision was made, I was going to press the button on my emergency device and be whisked away and cured before the fever came on fully again. Once the button was pressed it only took around five minutes for the flashing light to flash in the pattern that told us the message had been received. I settled down on a rock trying to make myself comfortable and to stop my head from spinning. After a cup of sugary tea, Lukas and Juan went off to catch fish for dinner, circling the island in the boat, and disappearing into the water whenever a glint of silver shimmered past them. They were gone an hour and the light was still flashing. It was beginning to get dark. We had already discussed the possibility of walking back the same day and discounted it due to the worry of getting into even more difficulty. Trekking through a jungle at night is extremely dangerous, and losing your way is easy even for somebody who knew the jungle as well as Lukas.
Dusk was falling by the time Lukas and Juan came back with the fish. I couldn’t eat anything and the reality that nobody was coming, at least not till morning, began to sink in. I thought maybe they hadn’t got the message, but according to flash on the device, they had. The first major flaw of not being able to start up a conversation in any way using the emergency device began to dawn on me. My stomach wouldn’t take any food so I sat, coming in and out of consciousness, as I listened to Mark and Lukas chat. A plane engine sounded in the distance and a surge of hope lifted in me only for it to quickly disappear just as quickly as the plane flew over head low and without lights. ‘Drug runners!’ Lukas said from the darkness. We fell back into silence and I stumbled to my hammock to get some sleep. The words ‘muerte’ coming from Lukas’s lips resounded round my head as I settled in.
What followed was not a night that I would wish to repeat. I slept in fits and starts waking up covered in sweat. Every time I woke up the paranoia had crept in a little bit more, until I was sleeping with my shoes in the hammock to prevent me treading on a scorpion when I got out in the dark with blurred vision. Getting out of the hammock kept me feeling good, as it gave me a sense of space, this would then suddenly become too much and I would retreat back into the hammock. In the middle of the night a thunderstorm began to drown out the noise of the howler monkeys that echo through the night canopy of the forest.
At around 5am I couldn’t pretend to sleep any longer, so I got up and started to wander around. Mark got up as well to keep me company. Rebuilding the fire and getting some water onto the boil, a cup of tea was very welcome after the night. As my head still swimming, I put as much sugar in it as I could, and we settled down to wait for Lukas and Juan to wake up. As dawn began to light up the lake, Lukas emerged from his tent and joined us at the fire. We wouldn’t be able to start the trek back until full light because under the canopy of the jungle it would still be dark through the dawn. I was feeling so weak that it was tiring just to stand upright. Mark began to pack-up the camp. He put away my hammock, giving everything a good shake to make sure there was nothing left that had decided to make its home with me during the night!
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