I'M a reporter-- get me out of here! writes Robert Johnson

Jungle fever swept the nation as a new series of I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here got under way on our TV screens this week.

Eleven million people tuned in on Monday to see glamour model Jordan successfully complete a Bushtucker task that included allowing snakes, spiders and cockroaches to crawl all over her face in the Australian jungle.

Little did I realise that the scenes would come back, like a boomerang, to haunt me.

For the next day I faced my own Bushtucker challenge -- in Horwich!

The official sponsor of the ITV1 hit show, First Choice Holiday Hypermarket, organised its own jungle-style challenge for customers: that of eating a whole host of creepy crawlie insects.

And the Bolton Evening News decided that I was the one who should take up the stomach-churning task.

On the menu at the Horwich branch of First Choice at the Middlebrook Retail Park, were barbecue and chilli flavoured worm, giant toasted leaf ants and a vodka flavoured scorpion lollipop.

The first delicacy was the oven-baked worm . . . very crispy on the palate!

The next challenge was to eat giant toasted leaf ants from Colombia, cooked with salt in a mud pot over a roaring fire.

The ants were like burnt crispy bacon . . . and left an unpleasant after-taste.

The ferocious looking vodka scorpion lollipop was the last part of the Bushtucker challenge -- and that proved to have a sweet taste. Well, it was dessert!

It was a stomach-churning experience -- but I survived.

A few brave Holiday Hypermarket customers also took up the challenge.

Gareth Dougherty, aged 31, from Bury, said after his Bushtucker delicacies: "The worms tasted fine, but the ants tasted like peanut butter.

"I'm going to take a couple of the scorpion lollipops for the lads."

Ian Fitton, general manager of the Holiday Hypermarket, in Horwich, said: "It's all a bit of fun for our customers. We wanted to bring a bit of the outback to Bolton."

According to a survey carried out by the official sponsor, Bolton comic Peter Kay is the person they would most like to be stuck in a jungle with, followed by Robbie Williams then David Beckham.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham topped the poll of people they would most like to avoid in the jungle.