Joe Swash
However towards the end of the afternoon, the situation boiled over as the issue came to a head. David spoke to the whole Camp about the situation and tempers flared.
He said ‘It seems to me that because you feel you were here first, you have some kind of freehold to your beds. In my head that’s not the case. That isn’t the situation.’
Let me tell you something else. It isn't one night that they want 2 people to sleep in that s**t house (the cave). They want 2 people to stay in that s**t house until the first elimination.’
The Group pointed out it didn’t have to be the same two people. ‘Come on David, give it a go’ said Joe.
David said ‘it feels like I’m being snookered and bullied into this, cause we've come into this late, But I know you're not trying to do it but that’s how it feels to me.’
‘What I’m prepared to do its go in for the one night tonight and tomorrow I just want to know that we’ll sit down and negotiate somebody else possibly taking my place. But after tonight I’m not going in there’ said David.
‘I don’t think its fair for George, Esther or Robert but there’s a lot of healthy people here. These beds are everybody’s. Now were here it’s a new situation. There are now 12 people.’
But Joe argued ‘We've been here for those weeks. And Dani added ‘You don’t think there's any leeway we can get. We’ve been suffering for 6 days already, jumping out of a plane, eating crocs cock, trial after trial. We've paid our dues to a point where I feel, if we have our beds. It’s up to me whether I volunteer my bed to somebody else. I wouldn’t come in and after a week nearly of people suffering and say right get out of that bed I’m taking that now because I don’t want to go there.’
Simon pointed out ‘Martina volunteered to go down there and I did. You know what got my back up. You saying whose bed am I having. You refused to see the cave.’
The two argue and Simon said ‘Don’t come in here and tell me its my ego because I’ll take your s**it and take it down there. Your bed!’
‘I asked where the bed was, that was all,’ countered David.
George said ‘I’ve been listening to everybody. And I hope you’ve been listening equally to what they’ve said. We've been here for 6 days. It has not been easy, its been raining endless rain, wet and cold, we have paid our dues. You come in after nights in hotels, and one night in the cage. You have not paid your dues. And you’re asking us?’
And Joe added ‘If you had said, I'll give it a go, you've come in and said I’ll give it a go, fair do to you. You should be saying I give it a go. But you came in straight away and you expected us to move for you. Tim’s come in and said I’m going to go down there. You’ve come in with a totally different attitude. We’re hungry, we’re cold. It’s a bit out of order. Don’t say I don’t like it because you’ve got to give it a go.
The whole discussion upset Esther. ‘It’s up to David and what it felt to him. Now let’s talk seriously about what this man has gone through.’
Nicola said ‘This is like a counselling session. I can’t be bothered with all this. It was one night in a thing (the cage).’
David explained how staying in the cage overnight made him feel. He said, ‘It’s personal really. It was really dark. It was the darkest place I’d ever been too. You couldn’t see any lights at all. No fire. It took me to a very low point emotionally.’
Nicola said ‘It’s been taking us to a low point for five days.’
Dani tried to explain ‘Timmy’s cage was only 4 or 5 feet in front of you.’
But Esther said to David upset, ‘I don’t want you to go through this. This is a game. We don’t want people to break down, to have a trauma.’