Medical

We wanted to go on a first aid course before we left. After looking at a few that looked more like bog-standard 1st aid at work type courses, we settled on one we found at the Adventure Live expo recommended by the Royal Geographic Society, appropriately named "Far from Help" http://wildernessmedicaltraining.co.uk/explorer-series-far-from-help

which was absolutely fantastic. Very comprehensive training in how to treat the kind of things that are likely to come up, and very different from a normal 1st aid course, as it assumes help is not on the way and you just have to make a plan.

Medical Kit
Malaria Tablets: After a disasterous experiment with Lariam (Mefloquine) before the 2001 Moz/Zambia/Malawi trip, Mary was worried she wouldn't take well to it this time round, but she has done 2 weeks of a 4 week trial and appears to be no crazier than before :)

Larium will be a lot cheaper than the alternative (Malerone) and is a weekly tablet. Brett has not reacted to Lariam before so we expect no dramas there.

Other: following on from our excellent Expedition 1st Aid course, we now have a long list of kit we would like to get before the trip.

Vaccinations:

We have both been and had our jabs. We got:

• Yellow Fever (Mary's still in date, Brett's needing a renewal)
• Meningitis
• Hep A
• Hep B
• Rabies
• Typhoid
• Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio
• Cholera: this is in the form of drops, not an injection. Mary couldn't get it through the NHS so will go to a travel clinic for this. It is not something the NHS recommend at all, but the SA travel clinics are in favour and it also gives us some protection against some forms of travellers dire-rear.

We both got TB shots as kids growing up in SA.

We thought about getting Tick Borne Encephalitis jabs as well but this disease is really only prevalent in Eastern Europe in spring/summer. We will only be in Eastern Europe in winter.

We used the Nathnac website to check we had all the vaccinations we needed www.nathnac.org/travel/index.htm

Blood Types:

Brett: O+

Mary: just got this tested...O+ same as Brett.

Insurance:

Still to be arranged, but we will get some kind of Mac Daddy full Med-Evac insurance.