She grabbed hold of the bars up above the jeep and hitched herself up. She stayed standing and lifted up her bag. She gave a hand for her two younger sisters to help them up, as they were too small to reach the bars. When everyone was up she was disappointed to hear that for the first part of the journey she had to sit down, but she did and they got on the road.
Their first stop was the firm itself, as they had to meet the other jeep that was to be travelling with them, this was for safety reasons. Briony thought this was highly unnecessary, as what could possibly go wrong? But she went along with it anyway. They also had to meet their tour guide. He was the driver of the other jeep, but he was the one who spoke English. He was middle-aged, quite tanned and thinning hair. They also met two more people who were coming with her on our jeep, an Irish couple who were getting on a bit in age but Briony thought they were nice enough, and just wanted to get going, but first they had to be told where they were going and where they would be stopping and why.
Finally the guide said that they could get going and there were cheers, and Briony felt a rush of excitement run through her body and was glad that the safari was finally happening and couldn’t wait to get to the very top of the mountain.
They were told that when they were on motorways and public roads they had to stay seated but when they reached to the country roads they had the choice of standing up. So for the first thirty minutes of the journey Briony had to stay sitting down, but still had a thrilled feeling in her stomach. She was enjoying it so much already!
When they finally got to the country roads they were told they could stand up, and not a moment too soon in Briony’s eyes. She felt it was great, she was going at forty miles per hour with the wind in her face and running through her hair. They started off in the countryside where they took their first stop. It was a field full of exotic fruits such as melons and such. The guide stopped and started to tell the two groups about the fruits, what they were and how they grew in the conditions. But Briony was not interested in this and was more interested in how hot she was getting. She got out her bottle of water, which was now warm, but it was liquid so she didn’t care at this point.
Once the guide had finished telling them about the fruits they set off again, further and further up the mountain. The next stop was not at a field this time, but just simply in the middle of the road. They had stopped here because on both sides off the road were fig trees. The guide started to talk about them and Briony could sense that this was another boring bit of the trip so went off in to a daydream. But awoke again when she heard the guide say that she could try a fig. She wasn’t too sure but she like fig biscuits so she did. Before the succulent fig touched her lips she smelt the fragrance of it and wanted to remember the smell of fresh figs, but that was not the most significant memory on that day.
The next time they were driving for much longer until they were half way up the mountain where they stopped at a lake. It was a chance for them to cool down and Briony jumped at the chance. So she stripped down to her bright blue bikini and dived straight in. She immediately felt refreshed and didn’t need to spend long in there.
They only had to drive for ten minutes for the next stop, which was lunch. There was a big feast set out for them with salad for starters and chicken for main course. With wine and juice for drinks. But Briony was hungry, but didn’t eat much because she wanted to get back on the road.
After lunch they drove up and down hills very fast until they reached their next stop which was about tree quarters of the way up. It was a distillery, a place where they made the wines. They spent a while there and the adults got to taste the wines, which was disappointing for Briony as she wanted to taste the drinks too! But the adults bought a few of the bottles so before they could set off again they had to strap the bottles in so they wouldn’t fall out but they did and Briony's journey continued.
As they carried on to the top of the mountain, the jeep was getting faster and faster, and Briony was getting higher and higher. As they were going over more bumps and hills it was getting more and more enjoyable and Briony’s stomach kept on turning.
When they were at the fasted Briony had ever been in a car, they came to a corner. It bended to the right and the driver didn’t seem to slow down. As the corner was getting closer and closer the driver wasn’t getting any slower. And as they turned the corner Briony heard the two barmen saying,
“It’s going to go over”
And suddenly the car tipped. It threw everyone out to the side but the jeep was still moving along the road. Briony felt a strange feeling rush through her; she didn’t know what was happening to her. She was being dragged along the road when suddenly she felt a huge weight in top of her. It was painful, but she was in too much shock to feel pain.
When she came round to what was happening she suddenly felt a lot more pain and it went dark. After which felt like hours to her, she heard someone who sounded like her mother screaming for help and suddenly she saw light and felt the weight being lifted off her. She looked up too see what was happening and saw her mother and the barman lifting up the jeep. They were screaming at her to get out but she felt like she couldn’t move. But as she looked up again she saw the strain on her mother and the barman’s face and knew they couldn’t hold it for much longer. She knew she couldn’t let the jeep fall on top of her again, and so from somewhere got the strength to move out the way. She couldn’t walk but she crawled as fast as she could. She didn’t know where she got the strength from, probably the same place where her mother got the strength to lift a jeep! Briony knew she had no choice, she had to get out otherwise she did not know what would happen.
When she had crawled out she lay on the burning hot ground. She felt like the floor was on fire it was that hot, not just because of the weather but because of she had gravel burns on her arm, which was on the floor. Once she had been on the floor for what felt to her about an hour already but was only about 5 minutes she really started to feel the pain. Her arm was burning and she had this severe pain in her hip. She couldn’t cry because she had all dust and gravel in her eyes, and now she didn’t need to she felt like she couldn’t open her eyes.
While Briony was lying on the ground she heard heaps of screams and shouts and a sound of another motor. She suddenly found herself very frightened as she thought the car would not see her and speed round the corner just as the jeep did. But her mother reassured her and told her that it was just the jeep that was with travelling with them. She felt like she had been on the ground for days before the ambulance came, but it finally did. But her journey to recovery wasn’t over she still had a lot more to come.
Briony spent the night in hospital being wheeled round on a bed to and from x-rays and accident and emergency rooms with people talking to her in another language. She was terrified as her mother got taken away from her, but this was because she had a broken foot. Briony was the worst injured, as she had a fractured pelvis front and back, but she wasn’t the only one. The Irish woman broke her leg, but was not told this until three days later; the Irish man had a broken arm. One of the barmen had fractured ribs, and one a broken jaw. Her two sisters had a fractured arm and a deeply cut finger between them. This was not how Briony had hoped the journey would end.
Briony was in hospital in Portugal for a whole week before she was air ambulanced home. When she got back to Manchester, she then spent 8 weeks in hospital, and then another 8weeks on crutches. She then had to learn to walk all over again. This happened in the august, and in the May of the next year Briony still does not know how to run or can still not do exercise. This journey was not as she expected, but still feels very lucky because if the jeep has tipped the other way, who knows what would have happened.
