La Ceiba - Honduras
Up early this morning to get going . First stop was for petrol…and breakfast. The petrol station we stopped at also sold some food, so we satisfied ourselves with another E’station el culinary delught. But before that Johns bike fell over on the forecourt so we righted that and started waking up to the day. Breakfast done we set off on a very bumpy road. Towards the capital, Tegucigalpa, try saying that with a mouthful of spaghetti!!!!..or without. The road deteriorated quite quickly and by about 20 miles we were driving on a gravel with a similar consistency to sand which had the bikes swerving badly. I decided to slow down a bit as I wasn’t comfortable riding on a wing and a prayer but as I tried to drop down to first I found neutral for a second which slowed me down further still, meanwhile John had been moving at a fair rate and was having to slow quite quickly, and as he came to a stop he accidentally let his clutch out and stalled-the action of this caused the bike to lurch forward and to the left which pushed him off balance. The net effect being that the bike went over and trapped his leg between the ground between his pannier and his leg, and he was in a lot of pain. As soon as I could, I ran back and got his bike off his leg. He took his boot off and within a few minutes swelling appeared.
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The scene of the accident.....the gravel/mud combination was awful
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John(in the background) trying to establish the seriousness of his injury.
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A closer look at the road surface...and the underside of John's Dakar !
A few minutes later a Christian missionary couple appeared, the wife of whom was a nurse. A quick inspection suggested that it might ‘just’ be a sprain but John was strongly encouraged to get an x-ray. We were then filled with horror stories of costs and incompetence’s !!!…..The predicament was quite complex. The road we were following, the one that appeared on the GPS and paper maps….actually doesn’t exist in its entirety anyone. In fact, had we continued a few more miles we would have come to the end of it !! ….Lovely !! Apparently a river interrupted it’s path about 20-30 years ago !! Not only that, but because it’s not used for through traffic, traffic is minimal and so through traffic, which might have assisted us was unlikely to be an option to get John down the hill were it needed.
The couple advised us of a missionary school near the end of the road who may be prepared to house Johns bike until he was well enough to ride it. John tried to walk but it was obviously too painful for him so I set off on his bike to see if I could get him a lift and find somewhere to store his bike. I arrived at the school and was introduced to Earl, the school administrator, who quickly agreed to housing Johns bike and offered to take him to a hospital in his Ford truck. Earl picked up John, whilst I rode my bike down, and took him to a fracture-clinic, The Polyclinica. His leg was x-rayed, and I was shown the x-ray whilst John sat outside !! …..There was a clean break, but it was broken ! They called for a local orthopaedic surgeon to come and inspect the break and diagnose if surgery or plaster were required. He arrived about an hour later and plastered Johns leg. He wasn’t to put weight on it for 4 weeks, and the plaster could probably come off after 6 weeks.
Earl was keen to introduce us to some Scottish missionaries, Ian & Liz(who I thought I might have met yesterday), and so he took us to there house in La Ceiba. Earl asked on our behalf if we could stay there….I was a bit taken back as we were prepared to sort ourselves out in a Motel. Iain initially said no as they already had a large number of guests, but within a second of his no, he changed his mind to yes !. John was off-loaded and I went back up to the school with Earl to collect Johns bike. I was bouncing along the same lanes we’d driven on earlier but now it was getting dark…..which made for an interesting ride. I finally got back to Iain and Liz’s, to find John in the only reclining chair in the house with his leg in the upright position with three cushions under his leg, and ice pack on top of his cast and a cup of tea in his hand…looking very relaxed.
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John's resting position for two weeks....more tea John ?...is your leg comfortable ? ..perhaps more ice ?...he was well looked after by Iain and Liz.
Samuel, Iain and Liz’s son had given up his room to us which had two beds in it We had dinner with more people that night than I have fingers….and perhaps even toes. Iain was very quick to point out that there was no need to rush and if we needed to stay a week to get ourselves sorted out, that was fine…..whilst Iain and Liz were new to us, I was fairly sure they genuinely meant it. We’d found a haven ! Somewhere where it wouldn’t just be the two of us bouncing round a motel room. We went to bed and both slept very well.
(John is currently recovering well in the UK and will be re-joining the trip in Peru in approximately 4 weeks.)
Mike
Up early this morning to get going . First stop was for petrol…and breakfast. The petrol station we stopped at also sold some food, so we satisfied ourselves with another E’station el culinary delught. But before that Johns bike fell over on the forecourt so we righted that and started waking up to the day. Breakfast done we set off on a very bumpy road. Towards the capital, Tegucigalpa, try saying that with a mouthful of spaghetti!!!!..or without. The road deteriorated quite quickly and by about 20 miles we were driving on a gravel with a similar consistency to sand which had the bikes swerving badly. I decided to slow down a bit as I wasn’t comfortable riding on a wing and a prayer but as I tried to drop down to first I found neutral for a second which slowed me down further still, meanwhile John had been moving at a fair rate and was having to slow quite quickly, and as he came to a stop he accidentally let his clutch out and stalled-the action of this caused the bike to lurch forward and to the left which pushed him off balance. The net effect being that the bike went over and trapped his leg between the ground between his pannier and his leg, and he was in a lot of pain. As soon as I could, I ran back and got his bike off his leg. He took his boot off and within a few minutes swelling appeared.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/132029921.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
The scene of the accident.....the gravel/mud combination was awful
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/132029891.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
John(in the background) trying to establish the seriousness of his injury.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/132029943.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
A closer look at the road surface...and the underside of John's Dakar !
A few minutes later a Christian missionary couple appeared, the wife of whom was a nurse. A quick inspection suggested that it might ‘just’ be a sprain but John was strongly encouraged to get an x-ray. We were then filled with horror stories of costs and incompetence’s !!!…..The predicament was quite complex. The road we were following, the one that appeared on the GPS and paper maps….actually doesn’t exist in its entirety anyone. In fact, had we continued a few more miles we would have come to the end of it !! ….Lovely !! Apparently a river interrupted it’s path about 20-30 years ago !! Not only that, but because it’s not used for through traffic, traffic is minimal and so through traffic, which might have assisted us was unlikely to be an option to get John down the hill were it needed.
The couple advised us of a missionary school near the end of the road who may be prepared to house Johns bike until he was well enough to ride it. John tried to walk but it was obviously too painful for him so I set off on his bike to see if I could get him a lift and find somewhere to store his bike. I arrived at the school and was introduced to Earl, the school administrator, who quickly agreed to housing Johns bike and offered to take him to a hospital in his Ford truck. Earl picked up John, whilst I rode my bike down, and took him to a fracture-clinic, The Polyclinica. His leg was x-rayed, and I was shown the x-ray whilst John sat outside !! …..There was a clean break, but it was broken ! They called for a local orthopaedic surgeon to come and inspect the break and diagnose if surgery or plaster were required. He arrived about an hour later and plastered Johns leg. He wasn’t to put weight on it for 4 weeks, and the plaster could probably come off after 6 weeks.
Earl was keen to introduce us to some Scottish missionaries, Ian & Liz(who I thought I might have met yesterday), and so he took us to there house in La Ceiba. Earl asked on our behalf if we could stay there….I was a bit taken back as we were prepared to sort ourselves out in a Motel. Iain initially said no as they already had a large number of guests, but within a second of his no, he changed his mind to yes !. John was off-loaded and I went back up to the school with Earl to collect Johns bike. I was bouncing along the same lanes we’d driven on earlier but now it was getting dark…..which made for an interesting ride. I finally got back to Iain and Liz’s, to find John in the only reclining chair in the house with his leg in the upright position with three cushions under his leg, and ice pack on top of his cast and a cup of tea in his hand…looking very relaxed.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/132029905.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
John's resting position for two weeks....more tea John ?...is your leg comfortable ? ..perhaps more ice ?...he was well looked after by Iain and Liz.
Samuel, Iain and Liz’s son had given up his room to us which had two beds in it We had dinner with more people that night than I have fingers….and perhaps even toes. Iain was very quick to point out that there was no need to rush and if we needed to stay a week to get ourselves sorted out, that was fine…..whilst Iain and Liz were new to us, I was fairly sure they genuinely meant it. We’d found a haven ! Somewhere where it wouldn’t just be the two of us bouncing round a motel room. We went to bed and both slept very well.
(John is currently recovering well in the UK and will be re-joining the trip in Peru in approximately 4 weeks.)
Mike
