Christoff

Limping around like zombie, almost sticklike and at a very slow pace, it became more and more evident that it was a good idea to pay a visit to the radiologists in order to see what was really going on inside of Johann's chest.

All of a sudden he was faced with many problems: he could not bend over to put on his shoes and socks, or even pick up anything that was slightly heavy.
Sleeping was a problem: he slept propped up by many pillows ,while breathing were very shallow: it was simply too painful to breathe normally or deeply.

Being stubborn, it almost took the whole of the day to convince and get this downhill racer to the X ray department.

The X rays revealed multiple fractures to the right hand ribs IV - VII, while there was evidence of blood in the lung.

There is not much that can be done except to behave and to rest - which I hope he will do. The blood can be drained, but that involves surgery and hopefully this will clear by itself.
If complications set in, which we hope will not happen, further treatment will have to be effected.

Now that everything has more or less returned to normality, we can hopefully start to enjoy the summer holidays ....

In my mind I visit this site where Johann and his iron horse took the tumble. I feel much thankfulness and gratefulness that he is alive and well. It could easily have been different.
Mostly I feel lots of thankfulness and appreciation to all the bystanders who helped, assisted and lived the second commandment to the letter. It seems that everybody was more than willing to help in this situation.

And then there was George: he helped Johann back to the top ... a rope thrown down by helpers made this job possible, otherwise it simply was too steep. He also made many trips down to where the bike lay to retrieve and bring personal stuff and panniers to the road's surface.

It was not expected initially that the bike would make it to the top, yet with 4X4 equipment, the bike also surfaced. Thanks to the unknown samaritans.

We are thankful and relieved that grace abounds in this day and age.


This image shows Christoff, youngest of Blanche and Chris. Here they were on the point of taking the road back to Cape St Francis.