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From the moment we stepped off the plane at O.R. Tambo International Airport, this has not felt like a normal Lions tour. All of our gear was sprayed down with disinfectant at arrivals and we had to wear gloves to pick up our bags.
As we were taking off from Edinburgh, South Africa was just going into a tier four lockdown. Our head of medical, Prav Mathema, addressed the team and reinforced that we were travelling into a country still gripped by the Covid pandemic.
We have not stepped outside of the hotel or training ground this week. On the bus journey to training, we drive past a couple of townships. People are basically living on top of each other.
Dan Biggar (right) told Sportsmail he thinks it's the right decision for the Lions tour to go ahead
It's a real eye-opener and you can see why the rates of infection are so high. There are hardly any cars on the roads. Pretty much everything looks closed.
We have a couple of local security guards who travel everywhere with us. They make the security guys who travelled with us look like pussycats! It's a different world here and you need guys with local insight. People are just desperate to survive.
In our bubble, we're quite far removed from the tragic events that are going on around the country. The security guys give us an insight — we're fortunate to have the protection we have.
Our hotel is a bit of a tourist complex. Normally it has restaurants, shops and casinos but they are closed. We've got the whole place to ourselves. It's a bit of a ghost town but it's not too different from what we all experienced during the Six Nations.
The British and Irish Lions tour was under threat of being cancelled or delayed due to the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic in host country South Africa (pictured above)
We get tested frequently. Players, coaches, security, hotel staff…
