Oh shit......

Oh shit indeed, a day with two unplanned hospital visits, one minor, one a bit more serious.

The first one was to get me some antibiotics for conjunctivitis caused by the amount of dust and crap that has blown into my eyes over the last week. We’ve got Medicare ( Australian NHS) so that covered it. And the Kiwi nurse has a daughter who lives in Morden of all places. Small world.

None of that took very long at all, so we were underway quite early, along dirt roads to Nymagee and then Cobar. It was hot  of course, with an expected top temperature of 41º.

We were making good progress and were probably 3/4 of the way to Cobar when Gordon crashed. He hit a patch of sand and went down in a big cloud of dust and gravel. Fortunately, because we always ride staggered, I was far enough to one side of him to avoid running him over, and stopped safely behind him.

I knew it was quite a bang because of the amount of crap in the air, but I wasn't prepared for him to be out cold on the deck, trapped under his bike. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Worse still, road trains use that road, and we'd passed several that morning, and we were just over the brow of a hill. Even if one saw us, it would be nigh on impossible for it to stop, so unconscious or not, I had to move him.

Even though the posties are small, they still take a bit of effort to move, especially when  loaded with the amount of stuff that Gordon carries. But adrenalin is a magic potion and to my surprise, I dragged it off him without too much difficulty. 

Trying to drag him was much harder but again, the adrenalin thing kicked in and I’d got him almost to the scrub and to the shade when he partially woke up and started kicking so that momentum helped me over the last little bit.

It was bloody hot too and I was soaked with sweat and covered in red dust. Gordon, bless him, was still oblivious to everything, even the heat. I got him into a sort of recovery position, but couldn’t wake him up, so I tried triple zero           ( Australian 999) but there was no signal; too remote. Oh crap. Then I realised we were surrounded by ants, big bitey ones so I put up the inner net of his tent and dragged him into that. 

And then he started to wake up, albeit rather confused and a bit punchy, and after about ten minutes he was mumbling about pains in his back and his chest. He had been out cold for about ten minutes and semi conscious for another twenty, but now he was alert and responsive, so I left him and rode for help. 

After about 15 kms, I got a dodgy signal and an even dodgier triple zero operator who just couldn’t grasp where I was, despite me giving her GPS coordinates. And why had I left him?: 

" because there is no signal there lady"
" Well what if you can't find him on the way back"
"I will, its a straight line, I know exactly how far it is and I have his GPS coordinates anyway"
" But what if he runs out of water?"
" He bloody will at this rate and so will I. But we both have plenty for now. Please can you send somebody to help me?"
" oh, oh yes....sorry"

But she did call the ambos and I went back to Gordon, and waited with him.

As it was, the ambos got lost because she gave them the wrong coordinates anyway, despite me making her repeat them twice.  So I flagged down the one car that passed all day and got him to call triple zero again further down the track, so two showed up within minutes of each other, nearly three hours after I’d first called. They were really good though, sorted him out, and gave him some morphine. 

However, although by now he was fully awake, they were very edgy about him having been unconscious so the helicopter was called. After about 90 mins, he was flown to  a specialist head trauma hospital in Orange, five hours drive or 1 hr 20 mins in the air.  

And then they all went, and I was on my own, in the bush, with empty roads, two bikes and a load of gear. Great.

Nothing this way.....

 Nor this way...

The Cobar ambulance crew kindly took some of it back to Cobar and lodged it at the police station for me to collect when I could, but there I was, in the middle of nowhere, filthy dirty, sweaty and being watched by a local emu. And that made me laugh; whilst I hadn’t wanted Gordon to get hurt, I do like a bit of a challenge, a bit of an initiative test in extreme conditions, and that's exactly what I got.

While the ambos worked on Gordon, I’d prepped a few things like sorting out his stuff into ‘valuable and could be left stuff’,  drained the fuel from his bike into my spare can. I had plenty of water, some food, my swag, a knife, firesteel, a map, the GPS, and I charged my phone from his bike. 

 When they left I dragged his bike in the bush, locked it to a tree with some pacsafe steel cables, lashed his panniers to the frame and covered the whole thing with the plastic camo tarp that I always carry. But I still had way too much stuff, so  hid some more under the tarp and loaded the rest onto my bike.  I marked the trees opposite with a yellow carrier bag, but just as I got on, my bike tipped over under the weight. Luckily, I caught it before it was too late and shuffled onto it.

The subsequent ride was the worst ever, over laden on a very dodgy surface, with me praying that I wouldnt come off as I knew I’d be stuck for the night. 

But after 25kms, I reached bitumen, which took me 112 kms to Cobar.  I would have got off and kissed it that tar, had I been able.

I found a campsite, but the office was shut so I went in, unrolled my swag, showered in all my gear ( except boots) and got rid of the red dust and sweat. Then I got in the swag and slept until the sun woke me.

And you know what they ridiculous thing is ? We have one of those emergency beacon things, but it never occurred to me to use it. I think, looking back, there was an element of me thinking this was not a serious enough incident to use it; although it was difficult, I never felt helpless or out of control, and I was pretty confident that Gordon would be OK. But the helicopter doctor told me that this is exactly the sort of incident it's meant for and next time, use it. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but if there is, I will. Definitely.

But I did overlook something else....the bloody sun. I’d taken my jacket off while I dragged Gordon about and while I sorted the bike and stuff. But I forgot the sunscreen and it was only when I had packed everything up and put my jacket on that I  realised that my arms were a bit sizzled.........

Next Day.

My head just wasn’t working when I woke up. The overload from yesterday had short circuited my thinking process and I was in full dithermode, not sure where to start or where I was in relation to where I needed to be or what I needed to do. Then Nadine rang me and snapped me out of it; thanks mate, I needed that shove.

Gordon was ok, although still in the hospitial with a fractured rib and a bit of a head injury. But far better for him to be there than here without any medical care should he need it.

The woman in the office (Michelle) was really nice and rented me a cabin. When I told her what had happened, and the bike being 140kms away in the bush, she kicked into finding me a tow. An what a star she was. After several phonecalls and no response, she spoke to Ian, her fiance’s father who said he would help. And that's how this afternoon, I ended up in a rural Fire Service ute, riding through the bush with him to retrieve the postie.

I was a bit worried because although I was pretty sure I knew where the bike was and had marked it for retrieval,  I could have got the distances wrong. There were no landmarks and it is very remote out there. And I had had quite a lot on my mind when I rode the route.

But as it turned out, I was correct. I had estimated 140kms to the spot and it turned out to be 138.8 exactly. What’s more, everything was still there, the markers worked and it was still all well camouflaged. 

He quizzed me on the way about what emergency gear we carried, and what preparations we’d made before setting out, and I was a bit concerned that we had missed something really obvious. He’s a bloke who runs disaster and recovery operations in the bush, so is well aware of what poor prep and inaccurate info can do.

But not so; he was very happy with our prep and especially what I’d sorted after it had all gone tits up, so I was pleased about that. A very nice man, and a big ask. Many thanks Ian!