My accident - Finally an update from Jos!

At the time of writing this, I was sitting in my hospital bed (Wednesday 10 February 2010) in Khartoum waiting for the doctor to discharge me.

It is now 16h20 and has been told since 11am, he is his on his way no longer than 0.5hours. It took them only 15minutes to take the scan when I arrived the day before, exactly 24 hours ago and we have been waiting for his official report since then. I can not be released without it and also need it for insurance purposes.

On the flip side is having access to a neurosurgeon is a luxury compared to my experience the day of the fall. I was taken to the local hospital for observation. When the doctor came to see me he asked me in which country I was and when I answered Sudan he discharged me. I have not paid the bill yet and due to missing funds in Aswan. I am low on cash. No cards work here, debit or credit. So if you do not hear from me again PLEASE COME AND BAIL ME OUT as I am probably still washing dishes at the Imperial Hospital Khartoum, 3rd floor. The youngsters of the group are not here to do some subcontracting.

Having watched CNN for last 24 hours I am quite bored and will try and document the events since the last time I left Khartoum.

We left Khartoum, last Friday morning on a very busy, narrow road. We were forced to ride in a single file. In camp at 160km in under 5 hours riding. 3 riders were involved in accidents that day. Had a nice swim in the Nile the afternoon and all quite normal. My knees were hurting quite a bit and the advice I got from riders & nurse was to use smaller gears. We were also discussing that it was probably better to ride on your own due to bad road conditions & traffic than in a group. So my strategy (glad to see I can still manage some corporate speak) for the next day was to see the conditions (wind etc) and to take it easy as it was another 160km day and try to rest/improve my knees before the Ethiopian mountains. We also turned on a quitter after about 50km.

The actual day (Saturday)
All went according to plan. I rode mainly with Gerald as the road was very busy again but after we turned onto the quieter road I decided to execute my strategy. I stopped to put on my iPod and selected the lifesaver play list. This play list consist mainly of my favorite dance tracks which I was going to use when I had a hard day in the saddle but nothing having had 1, other than day 2, I decided to listen to it.

Well the next thing I am aware of is some kids doing a performance, think it was karate, at our camp ground just before sunset and the nurse speaking to me to hear if I am OK and being transported to hospital with a drip in my arm.

Apparently some of the riders told the nurse I am acting funny. Still walking around in my cycling clothes and have not pitched my tent or had supper. Believe me even if the food is not good you eat after a 160km ride. She then started investigating and discovered I must had a fall of my bike as my left knee, hip, elbow and shoulder all reflecting fresh scrape/grazed wounds. They then notice that my helmet had 2 cracks above my left ear. Nobody saw the accident, so I somehow must got back on my bike and rode to camp. There were apparently quite a few turns. There is also a sweeper rider that ride at the back to ensure everybody gets back to camp but I must have arrived before the sweeper on my own.

So it is a complete mystery. I only logical explanation is that a mirror of a truck or bus must have whacked me on the head and that resulted in the fall. My flesh wounds would have been more if my fall was at normal cycling speed. My 1 bike computer shows that I cycled 163km in 6h11min but that is cycling time and not total time while my polar shows I cycled 253km in 8h55 but I think it got damaged in the fall.

Sunday & Monday
Can not remember much except that I just wanted to sleep all the time and was told I can not cycle for at least 3 days. The Monday night it was decided to transfer me to Khartoum for CT scan. A trip to the nearest town turned into a 4 hour nightmare as the driver got lost and was basically following any lights. Got into the town at 02h30 to find all hotels are full, so we ended sleeping in something that should definitely carry a negative star rating to be dully chucked out at 7h30am. The driver also disappeared and they rented a taxi (hi ace) for the trip to Khartoum. Arrived at 4h30pm and went straight away for CT Scan etc. The long and short of it is that I had a concussion and amnesia but for the rest I am fine, although I have never been so exhausted in my life but the doctor claim it is normal and part of the recovery process.