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South African bush: beautiful and deadly

:: Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 @ 9:31:08 am

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Last week, we were taken to Magwa Falls (5 days ago) and Fraser Falls (7 days ago), which are really gorgeous waterfalls near the Mbotyi area. At one of the falls, our guide, Dave, walked off of the beaten path and ended up with dozens of tiny ticks all over his legs. I didn’t think much of it, since I spent most of my time standing in the river itself and not wandering around in the grass. But yesterday, I started to experience nausea, fever, headache, and general malaise.

I felt a little better this morning, and went out for a day on the water as usual. By noon, I was feeling pretty rotten, and we called it an early day (there was no action, anyway). I took a short nap, and then we all drove up to the airport above Port St. Johns to check out the sunset. The short version of the story is that there were little pepper ticks everywhere up there, and I discovered that what I have been suffering from could be African tick-bite fever. Many photographers who have come here for the Sardine Run have gotten it after walking around in the bush.

When we returned from the airport after sunset, I promptly threw up in the parking lot before running to the bathroom to take care of some other, urgent business. Argh.

Some of the Cape gannets we’ve been driving by daily have had to regurgitate their sardines before fleeing from the boat. Maybe it’s karma or something… :)

I have one, small skin lesion on my right leg, but it doesn’t really look like photos of eschars I’ve seen on the web (no dark center). Many online sources say that the version of tick fever here in sub-Saharan Africa don’t necessarily have accompanying eschars nor rash. I don’t really want to go find a doctor here, so I may just attempt treatment by taking Doxycycline for 4 days and suck up the accompanying photosensivity.

Nausea sucks. Ticks suck, too.

UPDATE JULY 3 Went to a doctor today (marked by “Surgery,” the signs say), and it’s probably just a stomach flu. Hope to get over it soon…


Magwa Falls: beautiful


Magwa Falls: beautiful


Me, shooting at the edge of Magwa Falls (photo: Giles Shaxted)

Popularity: 1% | Port St. Johns, S. Africa | link | trackback | Jul 2, 2006 09:31:08
  • shu

    I miss you too, Eric. Hope you feel better soon. The photo of you on the edge of Magwa Falls look too risky. You took risks for the shot. Please take care of yourself.

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    hi, mom! in the photo, it looks much more scary than it was. don’t worry about me too much. :)

  • http://www.aaronlogan.com Aaron

    Eric: “But Mom! All the other kids are hanging their cameras off the edge of Magwa Falls! You never let me do ANYTHING!” :)

  • http://www.aaronlogan.com Aaron

    BTW, glad to hear that you haven’t actually contracted a rickettsial disease. It sounds like the onset of your symptoms was too soon after your possible tick exposure for that to have been the case. Usually, one doesn’t develop symptoms for several days to a week (or even longer). As long as you do a thorough tick check soon after all your outings, you should be OK. Usually, a tick must be feeding on you for many hours before a significant amount of the infectious rickettsiae are transfered to your blood stream. Interestingly, just a few days ago, I admitted a gentleman to Stanford Hospital who had traveled to Senegal a week prior to his presentation to me and had developed a symptom complex that made us consider African tick bite fever in our differential diagnosis!

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Thanks for the note, Aaron. In the future, I will remember that all my doctor friends are, in fact, online, and that some of them will actually write or call me back should I contact them. ;)

  • Anastasia Laity

    My first thought looking at that picture was concern for the camera dangling off the edge, rather than the photographer…

  • http://www.aaronlogan.com Aaron

    Eric: Yeah, only some will call you back. Others (“… paging Dr. Liu”) may not. Ever. :)

  • Matt

    Hey, just doing a little research… What are your comments on a zip line down through this george. Would you be interested in abseiling down to the bottom in the future? or perhaps some rock climbing on those amazing rock walls… Let me know

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