Survivor Don Soper suffered the grisly fate of the being the first ever South African to have his torch snuffed out at Tribal Council when Survivor SA premiered on Sunday night.
Don stayed on the island for three days and ended up going over the edge completely when he became convinced he wasn't actually in Survivor at all but rather in a candid camera, Joe Schmo-type reality TV show.
I caught up with him on Monday morning after the show to see if he was still delusional:
Tashi: I was gonna say: "You've surviived!" - but that’s not strictly true - you have but only sort of.
Don: Yes, I have, but not unscathed.
Tashi: As we said our hello’s you said you've put your foot in it - please explain.
Don: From the media interviews I've had they've said to me: “Look, you committed suicide with what you said at the final Tribal Council,” and what I said to them was: “I was just being honest.”
People asked me what I could have done to have made that final challenge different and I was honest and said: “Look, maybe if we’d had a stronger man at the front we would have done a little bit better.”
Tashi: Yes this was a question I had - the comments you made about losing immunity because of a woman - there are lots of women who are upset about this.
Don: It wasn’t meant maliciously against Jacinda, I’ve got the highest respect for her. It was purely a physical thing.
Tashi: Immediately you came off the show you got quoted as saying that you knew you were going to be voted off because you’d become delusional and were convinced you’d been set up in a game that involved you as the only contestant with everyone else being actors. What exactly did you mean?
Don: What happened was that I was very sick. I was actually shocked at how bad I was feeling after three days.
I don’t know if you’ve gone without sleep for three days but your mind goes and the first thing that went was my memory – I couldn’t remember my fellow tribe's names.
In that one interview they asked me: “Who do you think you’re going to vote off at the Tribal Council and I’d say: “Well – “ and I’d have Zayn’s name in my mind but I couldn’t remember his name.
I really was feeling terrible and I was totally paranoid.
Tashi: Did that start three days in?
Don: I’d say in the last 12 hours. You’re bitten like you won’t believe and I could just
not sleep. You wake up after being rained on the whole night and then we had to rebuild the whole shelter – I just couldn’t pull myself off the ground.
Tashi: What was it about everyone else that made you so convinced they were all tricking you?
Don: They gave us insect repellent and it was called “My Bugger” and it didn’t work. I looked at it and I thought: “You know, what if this actually attracts the insects and they’re just doing this to stir the pot?"
It all just snowballed from there – I got paranoid and started to think: “They’ve told us that we have to drink five litres of water a day – is the water tainted? What’s in the water?”
It’s actually quite weird what happens to when you can’t sleep. I mean they use it as a torture in wars and your mind just flips out.
Tashi: Yes in last seasons American Survivor Guatemala there was Jamie who went over the edge and got
seriously paranoid.
Don: When you look at the American series – when they show the families visiting they're all very emotional – your emotions – you actually over-react.
In one of the series, the older guy, he was crying when he saw his family on the video they sent for him but he’d only be away from home for under a month. Your emotions – you over-react – when you're depressed you’re more depressed than you should be and when you’re happy you’re happier than you should be.
Tashi: Yes, I’ve always thought they’re making a big scene out of nothing with that whole family thing.
Don: The way you feel there is totally heightened. It’s difficult to explain what 38/40 degrees humidity feels like. The conditions were a lot worse than I thought. I was unprepared mentally for how harsh they were.
Tashi: Is there anyone who you picked up on who’s feeling the same? Anyone else not sleeping in the same way?
Don: I think none of us slept well but I think my age was a big factor. When I was younger I could go out and party until two, three o’clock in the morning and get up at six o”clock the next morning and go to work but I can’t do that nowadays. I need my nine or ten hours sleep a night and I think that was a telling factor. My age definitely did have an influence I felt.
Tashi: You’ve mentioned the lack of sleep and insects – in what other ways was the show much tougher than you expected?
Don: The heat and also psychologically. We lost the first challenge so we got the worst camp site, the other guys had fire – we didn’t and that all affects you psychologically so from a personal point of view I felt we should have bee doing better than we were. Psychologically I wasn’t in good shape either at that stage.
Tashi: Aguila got fire but what I didn’t understand was - there’s a hidden chest that Mark spoke about at the beginning for Rana and nobody even mentioned trying to look for it.
Don: We got to our campsite at about three o’clock in the morning with a hefty storm. We couldn’t land on the beach and it was pitch black. We knew there was a chest - we didn’t know what was in it - but it took us until almost daylight the next morning to find it and when we found there was a piece of rope, a tarpaulin, a kerosene lantern that didn’t work and a fishing line that was knotted so there was nothing in it that we could have actually used immediately.
They were things we could use but not things that could sustain us - there was no fire there and fire is a major factor.
Tashi: If you were to do it again from the start, what would you do differently?
Don: I’d be a lot better prepared mentally. I’d make sure that I took certain things with me to sustain me like bug spray and a flint and I’d try my best to keep these on me at all times.
Tashi: Would you do it again?
Don: Definitely. I learnt such a lot. I’m much wiser. I think luck also plays a big part. I felt that we were unlucky in that our team was physically a bit weaker than the other side so from the outset I felt we were physically weaker than the other tribe. Luck plays a big part. If we’d won the first challenge we would have gotten the better camp - we’d have been feeling a hell of lot better.
Tashi: In between all the difficulty and toughness of it – was there a moment that wasn’t? One that you’ll always remember as being the best?
Don: Ja, when I got back to the hotel after Tribal Council there was a big fillet steak waiting for me. It was fantastic.
Tashi: It’s obviously given you a new impression of people who end up staying for a month or whatever?
Don: I can imagine that being there for two three or weeks must be like a lifetime. In retrospect I’m actually quite pleased I was voted out early because having to go through that for two weeks and then be voted out – I think that’s gonna be worse.
Tashi: What was it like watching the premiere of the show on Sunday? Who did you watch with?
Don: I watched with family and it was fantastic. It looks so idyllic - you can’t imagine what the heat and humidity is like and I was very impressed with the camerawork.
I felt it's probably one of the nicest local productions that I’ve seen. I was little bit worried about it - the local shows I’ve seen like Fear Factor and that - I felt it fell short of the international standards so I‘m very impressed that the quality of the filming is world class and I think we’re gonna have a fantastic show. I was quite proud that I’ve been part of it.
Tashi: Did your family know you were the first voted off?
Don: Yes when I came back they knew because I got back early so I told them I was the first but they couldn’t tell anyone else because of our confidentiality agreement. I was very anxious before the first show - I didn’t know what they were going to show etc.
Tashi: Was there anyone that you connected with particularly in your tribe?
Don: I really had a good rapour with Lezel and also Gareth. I mean from the first time when we knew who our tribe was I tried to form alliances with them and right up until the end Lezel stuck with me and didn’t vote against me but I was very surprised by Gareth.
I felt he did sort of stab me in the back in the end because he told me he wasn’t going to vote me out and then he switched. But that’s all part of the game. That was the only surprise for me really.
Tashi: You were obviously in on the whole voting Danielle out thing?
Don: Yes I thought she was going and that was the end of the story.
Tashi: We didn’t actually see the expression on her face but from the sounds of it she was very disappointed at being in Rana - thinking everyone was physically weaker in it?
Don: When we got off the plane on the island she sort of bonded with Sam and Brigitte and I think she was disappointed to be with us because she wanted to be with them and we all picked up on that.
Ends