With a pounding headache and an outbreak of dengue fever sweeping over Brazil, Scott Mills was convinced he had contracted the mosquito-borne virus on Celebrity Race Across The World.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter, 51, felt so ‘awful’ during his trip around South America that he asked producers to halt filming as he suffered debilitating symptoms for three days.
But Scott’s illness was not what he originally feared.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘I started getting these mad headaches – I don’t get headaches – but I was getting really awful ones to the point where one day I said, “I can’t film today, I’m really sorry.”’
‘Obviously, there was a medic there and he made sure I ate and that I had some tablets to try and get rid of it but it wouldn’t go for three days.’
It was his Scott’s partner on Celebrity Race Across The World and husband Sam Vaughan, 35, who eventually found the real cause of his pain.
Scott recalled: ‘Sam said, “When was the last time you had a coffee?” And I went, “Oh [damn]”, It was massive caffeine withdrawal.’
The broadcaster’s coffee addiction was a bone of contention between the couple as they travelled from Belem, Brazil to Frutillar, Chile with limited resources, no internet, and a tight budget.
On the show, they compete against Kelly Brook and husband Jeremy Parisi; Jeff Brazier and son Freddy Brazier; and Kola Bokinni and cousin Mary Ellen to reach the final checkpoint in the fastest time.
But Scott nearly threatened their position in the race by making large inroads into their precious budget.
Sam told us: ‘Every morning when he wakes up, he has a coffee… well, multiple coffees. He’s fully addicted.
‘For me, it was frustrating always spending more money on coffee. And he was like, “Well, I need this to function.” So I was like, “Ok, I’ll let you have that”.’
Lack of caffeine wasn’t Scott’s only tribulation on the show – which he admitted he ‘absolutely hated’ at points.
During one bus journey, it all got too much and Scott said he genuinely thought it was ‘the end’ for him.
He recalled: ‘It was a heatwave and we were on a bus and the air con didn’t stretch as far as the toilet, so as soon as you went into it it was 50C.’
‘Someone had just had a poo in there and I was just spewing, spewing, spewing, spewing. And I actually thought to myself, “This could be the end.”
‘I couldn’t stop being sick. All I could smell was hot poo. I was like this is the grimmest thing I’ve ever done.’
Scott and Sam’s bus drama does not end there. On another journey, a bus broke down and the couple were stranded on the side of the road for ‘hours’ in the most ‘frustrating’ moment of Scott’s life.
He said: ‘No one speaks English in Brazil -nobody- so you have no concept of how long it’s going to take for another bus to come or for them to be able to fix this one.
‘I would say the language barrier was the most frustrating thing. It was the most frustrated I’ve ever felt in my life.
However, Scott acknowledged his own shortcomings: ‘We’re lucky normally everyone speaks English and we’re lazy with other languages.’
But Scott’s Celebrity Race Across the World experience hasn’t totally tarnished travel: he’s even taken some notes for his upcoming honeymoon.
A self-proclaimed workaholic, Scott said it was ‘horrendous’ to be banned from having a phone on Celebrity Race Across The World but ‘will lock it in a safe’ when they celebrate their marriage in October.
‘I’ve done it once, I can do it again, and I just want to do it because it really focuses your mind. I’ve really enjoyed it,’ he said.
Scott – who said the idea of camping ‘horrifies’ him – has also revised his opinion about holidays after roughing it on the BBC show.
‘I came away from this experience going, “We don’t actually need to book expensive hotels anymore”.’ Scott said.
‘As you’ll see as the journey goes on, we have stayed in places that you would never imagine.
‘So put it this way: towards the end of the trip, we got to stay in an Ibis and I felt like I was in the Ritz.’
But the star he reckons would fall at the first hurdle on Celebrity Race Across The World? Rylan Clark.
Scott said: ‘I was talking to Rylan about this the other day. I was like, “You actually couldn’t do it.” And he was like, “I don’t think I could.” I was like, “No, no, you absolutely couldn’t.
‘I get the train to work every day; I use the tube. Rylan does not. So therefore that would be a problem for him.
‘I’m quite used to public transport. I’m not that guy that needs to get a taxi everywhere – but Celebrity Race Across The World was next level.’
Celebrity Race Across The World airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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