The day after my last post I found out that I had Malaria. It was really bad to get it but it wasnt as bad as I had expected it to be. I got tested pretty early for it so it was still in the early stages. It felt strange though because I knew that I would feel terrible the next day so I could prepare myself. I set my room up with lots of water and a book to read (Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer) and Ian sorted me out with a breakfast chapatti in the morning. Malaria is hard to describe, I looked quite normal, but I had a terrible headached and pains like Ive never had before. I felt really tired and slept for most of the day. It made me feel really confused, and quite disorientated and my limbs were heavy any time I tried to walk. By Christmas eve I was improving and Zoe (who also had the disease but worse than me) and I shared a bodaboda to the Hairy lemon. It was a funny journey with the motorbike quite overweight with 3 of us plus gear and Zoe and I talking crazy and making little sense the whole way down. I wasnt allowed drink any alcohol while I was sick but in my head the disease made me feel quite drunk. Everybody else was partying for Christmas eve, christmas day and the day after. And they also had many sessions on the Nile Special wave. It felt bad not being able to kayak or even have a beer on Christmas day, when everybody else could, but I was happy that I didnt feel worse. Ive heard many bad Malaria stories so I think I was lucky. And also the food on Christmas day was amazing; we ate a spitroasted pig and 10 roasted chickens with lots of gravy.
On the 30th we headed back to NRE with a minibus taxi packed to the brim. New Years eve was crazy at the NRE bar, and in the first few days of 2009 I gradually recovered my strenght from Malaria. I finally did the full day 1 section with the rafts and was happy with myself for doing the Overtime waterfall. Then just as I was getting back to normal form I had a crash on a bodaboda (motorbike). We were driving from Adrift to NRE on the main road with a driver who is not used to driving with a kayaks. The driver forgot that I had a 6ft kayak on my lap and misjudged his clearence around an obstacle. It also didnt help that he was driving too fast. With the impact he lost his balance and the bike slammed into the road. I managed to use the kayak to break some of my fall, so that I had no injuries on my face or arms but my leg got a big cut on it. Unfortunately I was wearing shorts and as my leg was scraping along the road to help me slow down, lots and lots of dirt was driven deep into the cut. Also while cleaning the wound, I was unaware that some Iodine is supposed to be diluted before its applied, so I ended up burning the cut. My cut from the crash then got infected, so the nice lady at the clinic had to thouroughly scrub the cut clean, twice :( Now im on some antibiotics to help with the infection and beers are not allowed. So for the second time im hanging around Bujagali not able to kayak and not allowed any beers, which doesnt leave that much to do. I did however get some good new books. And some afternoons I go over to Eden rock campsite with a handful of samosas to watch a movie on their tv. Hopefully I should be back on the water soon. I have added more pictures to my picasa account so have a look
http://picasaweb.google.com/sendittofinn/NewsAndPicsFromMyTravels?authkey=AhNv0uweUcc&feat=directlink
Progress so far
Sevilla!!!
On the road to Sevilla!!!
What a nice place to spend the night :) 
Trip to Sagres
View from my tent of the beautiful rural town of Odeceixe at 7am
Sines
Bye bye Lisbon
