During my time in Botswana I worked at Eselbe Camp. Eselbe Camp in Nata is an eco camp focussed on outdoor living and living down to earth. The guests are treated like royalties and get freshly made breakfast and dinner every day. The camp is run by Rupert. Rupert is what you call the ultimate outback Southern African bloke who prefers to live off the grid with his dog H. Rupert does not like luxury, can’t be too bothered about anything social media and takes life day by day. If that meant Eselbe Camp being overbooked, no drama, he’d give his room (no room, just a bed on his open veranda underneath the stars) to me and my fellow Workawayer Vicky and sleep in his van.
Why is all of this important? Well, because the story I’m about to tell is exactly what you’d expect from working and living at Eselbe Camp. Rupert loved having friends over. Usually, these friends lived even more off-grid than we did at the camp. We’d drink beers, have a proper braai and enjoyed sharing the most reckless adventure stories. We had friends over who owned a vulture farm, spend years fighting for the Botswanan army or came from the most random and rural areas of Southern Africa.
One night, we were sharing stories with a couple who’d known Rupert for years. During our usual dinners at candlelight (Eselbe Camp ran on solar power but this usually didn’t last us the entire night), the woman disappeared into the dark with only a blacklight in her hand. “Hunting for scorpions” Rupert casually mentioned. After about half an hour or so, she came back empty handed and disappointed claiming that this place is usually full of scorpions. Fun fact: scorpions light up with a blacklight. Me, having stayed at the camp for about 3 weeks now, had never thought of scorpions at the camp. At the same time, it didn’t bother me much. After 3 weeks of mixing cement with my bare hands, sleeping with a roaming hippo nearby and getting into our ‘pool’ with insects, not a lot could throw me off.
But, the scorpion story did stick. Rupert had told us before about a scorpion sting he suffered earlier. He’d not known which scorpion got to him and was thus left in the dark about the necessity of needing an antidote. While some will just put you on the couch for a couple of days, others can be fatal and can kill you within minutes if you don’t get the antidote. Also, Nata is about 3h away from the closest hospital with an antidote, so knowing if the scorpion was deadly would not have made a difference. Obviously, as Rupert’s still there, the scorpion wasn’t deadly. Happy days.
While Rupert loved living day by day, he also had a vision for the camp. A vision, we worked on from a day by day perspective. He wanted to extend his land and had filled all the documents. But waiting for the answers from Botswanan government took too long. So, we started anyway. Figuring out the permits would be a problem for future Rupert. So he thought. Vicky had just left me to fend for myself as her journey continued towards Zimbabwe. On a sunny, boiling hot morning, I was put to work. “No more cement, let’s extend the property”. As I had been roaming around Eselbe Camp on my Teva’s, wearing shorts and a top (it was about 40 to 45 degrees Celsius every day), I didn’t think twice about starting to break down a rotten, thorny, bug-infested, wire fence. In the same outfit. Progress was steady and I was en route to finishing this project before lunch.
Until the scorpion.
Just before finishing, when I was taking down the last piece of the fence, I felt a very sharp pain on the outside of my left foot. It was nothing like I ever felt before and I knew straight away: this is a scorpion sting. Wearing the Teva’s made establishing that easy and quick as I threw my shoe off and saw the scorpion on it. I loudly called for Rupert. Something in my scream must have given away that it was a dire situation as he was there within seconds. The moment I showed him my shoe the scorpion jumped off and out of sight. Ruperts comment? “I think this is the one that doesn’t kill you. Sit down, take lots of water, take lots of Ibuprofen and I will come check on you in half an hour. Then we’ll know.” In other words: we’ll see if you’re still alive in 30 minutes. Strangely, I was very relaxed and calm about it. I knew making a fuss wasn’t going to help. The hospital was too far away anyways. So, I sat down, put on a nice series (something which I hadn’t done in weeks so I was quite enjoying it) and waited to face my fate. Slowly, my foot got thicker and thicker. Poison was accumulating within my ankle and there was no way I could put weight on it. But, my episode ended and I was still alive and (sort of) well.
It was the right scorpion.
The days after, I spent chilling on our veranda, watching series and seeing other people do the dirty work while I enjoyed the sun. I felt horrible but slowly but surely, the fluids in my ankle went away and I got back to work. The small tiny scar didn’t and still hasn’t 3 years later. It is a perfect reminder to me when I get myself in unknown and risky situations again (which I do plenty): there is no need to fuss, you can’t change the situation. Allow yourself to breathe and take time, most situations will always resolve themselves.