Last few days in Sth Africa

End October, 2004

On the Wednesday we took the boys to an indoor play area for a run around. They enjoyed it. It was quite small but the activities were familiar to them. But within 24 hours Oliver was vomiting violently and had diarrhoea with it, we were up all night with him, vomiting every half hour. Poor little fellow first the other injuries, the finger and now this. Benjamin seemed unaffected by it.

We tried to cram some more tourist things in like going up Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch gardens etc, but every time in the car, Oliver would vomit in spectacular fashion. Poor Merille.

On Friday, with Oliver still a bit poorly, throwing up if he ate or drank too much, we went over to Camps Bay for a bbq for Beryl and David, thrown by Bernie to say goodbye. What an afternoon, I ate a good lunch and Oliver had a bit more than usual and vomited on the table. Benjamin was on Bernie and Marion’s bed having his afternoon sleep, we got an frantic message from Hettie that Benjamin was awake and crying and had vomited (while lying on his back) on their bed. Benjamin had the bug. Not long after this I started to feel yukky and vomited also.

Merille and Neil arrived and took us back to Milnerton, Benjamin and I spent the next few hours, until around 2am vomiting with diaorea every half hour or so. Stuart, already very tired and well fed up with the boys demands had to look after Benjamin through the night as I was too ill myself. We managed to be coordinated in our vomiting.

I think we managed to go through all Merille’s spare linen, most of the boy’s clothes that had been washed ready for our leaving. I was alright by morning but Benjamin wasn’t. This was the Friday and we were leaving the next day!

We managed to pack and say goodbyes and get out to the airport. Oliver was now on the mend but with diaroeah and Benjamin vomiting half hour before we left. We took spare clothes for the plane and off we went.

By the time we boarded, Stuart was starting to feel unwell. Our plane was diverted to Namibia for fuel, so we were stuck on board for an hour. The plane got very hot and the next thing I see Stuart on his hands and knees on the floor looking very grey. My first thought was not now! He went and locked himself into one of the toilets to get some air and I scrambled to find a steward to help. A bit of drama later, a Dr was on board and whisked him down the front of the plane for some fresh air. Thankfully, that was all it was. The boys slept for most of the flight to uk. We were about ½ hour out of London and Benjamin and Oliver both had v full nappies that seeped onto their pjs. We changed them and threw the pjs out!
Anyway, we managed to get back to Rotterdam and the apartment safe and sound, if not very tired. On the whole, the boys travelled well.