Sunday, February 24, 2013

A little trip to Hole in The wall, painful, with lessons!!


Well, after almost 2 weeks, I’m still sore, with battered and bruised ribs, abdomen, swollen liver, painful back or kidney – but most of the external bruises are going!

It  started with a slow ride to East London, to fetch keys from my cousin, who has a cottage at Hole In The Wall.  The 450 odd km took us nearly 9 hours of pleasant riding, with stops for keys, lunch etc.

Once there, a pleasant weekend lay ahead, with walks, swimming, a ride to Coffee Bay, lots of resting and reading being the order of the day.

Monday morning’s ride home started with a flat front wheel on my bike.  No spanner to remove my front Axle!! (lesson 1).  So, after using some spray in puncture repair, we set off.  30 km later, once on the tar road, the wheel started going flat again. After another burst of Spray, I decided to ride faster for a while, to properly spread the spray inside the tube.  (mistake 2).  Quickly had the bike to 130 km/h, and then started to slow down again,  waiting for Sharon to catch up, when I felt the front wheel starting to go flat again.  Started slowing down, but the wheel went suddenly completely flat, and lost control of the front wheel.  The bike initially tried to go to the right, but I grabbed hard, and managed to get it straight again, and thought – ok, got it! But it suddenly went left, off the road, without any control.  We narrowly missed a huge hole that had been dug on the verge, only to hit the bank of earth that had been removed.  After doing a few flick flacks, I landed on my back, only to see the bike in its final flack, fall right onto me!

 The pannier now has a very nicely shaped rib / chest shape or form!  In extreme agony, I called out to a local youngster, who helped lift the bike off me.  A roadworks truck stopped, and I asked one of the guys to please hand me my cell phone out of the tankbag, wanting to call Sharon, who had gone whizzing past, not seeing me lying in the ditch.  As I got the phone, I saw it was Bryan, a flying friend, who must have thought I was dying, on hearing me!!  So did I!!  Sharon returned a few minutes later, realizing that I was not still in front of her.  She immediately started rescue efforts, and tried to get me comfortable.

Through lots of help – mainly from our flying friends, I was airlifted by helicopter, to East London, while Sharon arranged a lift for my battered bike, and then she followed on her bike to East London.

After a CT scan determined that I had battered and bruised ribs, chest, abdomen, liver etc, fluid on the lungs, I was treated to a night in hospital. Fortunately no major damage ,as was originally suspected!!

Without the help of friends, a very calm wife, decent quality riding gear etc, things might have worked out differently!

The Hole
Close inspection
The Views
The accident - Helicopter behind
The result

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