Where do I start? After crawling into the bunk below Grant I became aware of the lack of space and air. I was now past the stage of worrying about rats crawling over me or even bothered by the stench of urine, vomit & faeces.....my own little demon right now, which had been festering since getting stuck in that tiny lift back in Amsterdam, was now paying me the old surprise visit. Knock Knock....Who's there? "Why it's only your old mate Claustrophobia and I'll be staying a while..." Yes, that's right I had the major league panics....I tried to deal with it. I tried to concentrate on how the other passengers weren't having a London Palladium style song & dance about it...but those walls kept closing in and it got warmer and warmer........to add to the fun the bunks are supported by chains and this made you feel even more snug and secure. After 30 minutes I cracked and had to get the hell out of there and so scrambled out into the aisle having the merry shakes and palpitations. I really had to pull myself together over this. The lower single bunk opposite the other 6 was free and I lay on that grateful for the space......I even managed to get about 30 seconds sleep when our chum The Conductor shouted at me to get out as this was the inspector's bed, and once more I crawled back into my own personal hell. There was one dim light working and I hoped it wouldn't get turned off. Click, off it went. I silently whimpered to myself and braced myself to a horrible waking nightmare that even Edgar Allan Poe would have been proud of.

About an hour later there was movement from the lower bunk and a hand turned on the light. a body arose and turned to see me looking back. She looked like the Grandmother from The Kumars at No. 42. She jumped when she saw me. Probably at the thought that some fat Welshman had literally been lying on top of her for some time. Then she woke up her husband, much coughing and shouting and then he too gave me the once over. She had woken him up as he was diabetic and needed to take medicine and tablets. That took about 20 minutes and at least distracted me from my own dreadfulness. Then the light went off and I was alone again. I was extremely grateful that Grant was sleeping through all this. He was clutching his wallet and lying in the foetal position. I prayed for daybreak and when daybreak finally came I only wished that it was still nighttime. The true state of this traveling dungeon had been revealed.