Tiara in Transit

In day 2 of the Pantanal, the group moved onto a farm and into a barnyard where about 27 of us would be sleeping in hammocks.

Activity – Horse-riding through marshlands.

My dad had been a jockey for 12 years of his life before he became a professional gambler, so I grew up loving horses and horse racing until I was about 10 when I realised how high up I sat on a horse and how hard a fall might be.

But seeing as I was already on this ‘adventure of a lifetime’, back on the horse I got.. And after riding a moody camel in India, a horse didn’t seem so bad. In fact, she was very professional.

Onwards through forest and wet lands we cantered, slapping mosquito’s with a couple of girls getting stung by horse flies.

Apart from my arms looking like an alien infestation from the thousands of mosquito bites, I was enjoying riding through the fields, spotting colourful parrots and tucans. Even when my lips started itching, like really itching, and I started to use my teeth to continuously scrape over my lips in an attempt to relieve the intense itch, I was still having a good time!

I returned to the barn feeling exhausted and fell tired into my hammock.

Kylie and Orla standing over my hammock – ‘Tiara! What happened to your face?!’

T, alarmed with itching lips – ‘What is it???’

Orla, with an unappetising look – ‘Your face doesn’t look right.’

Kylie – ‘You’ve got red marks like rashes all over your face and your eyes look funny.’

T, panting and looking around for a mirror – ‘Well, I don’t feel right, and I’m having trouble breathing’

I look in the mirror to see a blotchy red face, with a swollen red mouth and watery red eyes looking back at me.

Diagnosis – It turns out that I am allergic to horses. Any longer on the horse and my head would have exploded.

Remedy – A high prescription dosage of antihistamine which cleared up the itchy swollen rashiness within 15 minutes. (Thanks Kylie!)

What did I learn? Joe, the Austrian doctor in the group, informed me – ‘You’re allergic to animals, and if you keep on living with dogs eventually you will end up with asthma (but I’ve been living with animals for years!) EVENTUALLY you will end up with Asthma… And that beer your drinking is a histamine’ (oh…)