16 July 2011

Our least favourite wildlife encounter

From where I sit right now my right leg looks deformed, midway between my knee and foot, off to the outside of my shin, is a lump which has moved from golf ball sized to approaching tennis ball. There's a similar lump forming on my left leg, just below the tendon at the back of my knee. Apparently we shouldn't have complained about the mosquitoes on the descent from Mount Elbert – they've sent their friends in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks to pay us a (not so) little visit. These ones haven't played nicely either, biting in all the irritating places, my lip, between my fingers, my toes, the arches of my feet, my Achilles tendon, as well as all accessible skin, and some not (apparently these guys can bite through t-shirts). I'm covered in bites to the point where I might be scaring small children, Brad has about five though you wouldn't know it to hear how much he hates them. Gil has fly screens, but apparently these aren't entirely mosquito proof. They do keep out the lion's share, but enough to make life irritating somehow get through, we think via the air-conditioner in the roof – moths to arrive via this entrance point. This has seen the arrival of two games, flicking at the window screen so that the 30 on the outside fall off, and the more annoying, Brad getting angry and slapping madly at 3am.

Yesterday I concluded it was time to turn off the laptop when I Googled “mosquito borne diseases in North America”. But if I am ever to get one, it won't be in some tropical third world country, it'll be here.


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