I woke this morning because a termite landed in my ear - and I was inside my mosquito net, so it had somehow squeezed in through the netting. It wasn't the only one, and so I decided that it was time to get up and investigate. Outside my room there were hundreds of termites swarming around. They are a regular feature, emerging from the nests, and particularly if there is stormy weather. What is not a regular feature though is me sharing a bed with them, and I wouldn't recommend it. Sitting on the back of a truck and driving at 40km an hour into swarms of them coming from the opposite direction is also I suspect a recommendation that you would dismiss - mind you termites don't hurt as much as the dung beetles do when they hit you in the face at that speed!

My mosquito net has proven to be an engineering challenge that is outwitting me. Through the use of several clothes pegs, some string, coat-hangers, and sleeping with 3 pillows, 2 cushions, and my backpack in the bed to keep the net off my face/body/feet I can now turn over, and can just about slide into the bed and not have the net simply laying over me like a sheet. Every night I attempt to modify and improve the design, and 40 minutes later finally get to a point where I am sealed in the bed with an inch between me and the net. It's certainly not the "princess bed canopy look" that I've seen in the luxury safari brochures!

I got stuck in the net a few nights ago. We returned back to camp soaking wet having been out looking for the wild dogs in yet another rain and thunder storm. My hair was wet through and as I had to be up again in 4.5 hours to go out again I put some Velcro rollers into my hair so that I could go to bed straight away and not soak the pillow (I don't have a hairdryer with me). I then crawled under the mosquito net, and immediately got stuck in it. The more I tried to free myself the more the rollers became wrapped up in the net - and with it my head too. I was trapped, like a fly in a spider's web. 15 minutes later, I managed to release myself….and then of course I had to start rearranging the mosquito net all over again!