Regards the accident, Cynthia now has a a write-up explaining precisely what went wrong, and what her current medical status is; that’s augmented by Phil Hawksley who has been talking to her, and we who are the members of her vicarious maillist are organising pledges for a potential fund-raiser to send retired bike mechanic Reg Moule to fix the bike, if it is assessed as fixable.

An extract from Cynthia’s explanation:

After this the rule was to ride at our own speeds, but regroup every 30km, and the truck to be sweeper. The track was reasonable gravel track, but with heaped gravel in betwen the tyre tracks. It was also very windy as we re now east of the Andes and on the Patagonian plain. I was running nicely at around 50mph; a gust of wind caught me and forced me on to one of the heaped gravel bits; the bike went into a bad weave which I couldn t control, and of course slowing down is absolutely not an option. There then loomed a sort of stone parapet at the side of the road, and the bike was heading for it; I really couldn t do anything about it so I hit it. I remember hearing my collarbone break, and then I was on my back on the ground facing back the way I d come and the bike was behind me. I was pretty scared at first as I couldn t breathe – this was presumably because the punctured lung deflated suddenly and the other one was taken by surprise. But I tried to breathe slowly and it got a bit better.

One of the Dutch (Ron, I think) ran over and asked if I was OK, so I said No. We established that my legs were OK, and I d already managed to open the front of my helmet (a System 4). They managed to get me to my feet, and gently remove my helmet as we were by then fairly sure my neck was OK as I could turn my head no problem.

They put me in the truck, and even found my specs which had flown off but not broken. Skip the truck driver took me back to the Argy border with Roberto the local guide on his 1150GS and did the exit stuff for me, then down the road back to the Chilean border where they got me out and sat me inside the office next to the stove. I was feeling pretty second-hand by then. Skip took my keys and Carnet and said he d go back for the bike, get it out of Argentina and back into Chile for me. Meanwhile the Carabineros put me in their pickup and took me to the local clinic where a male nurse checked me over, inserted a drip and put me on oxygen. He very carefully listened all over with his stethoscope – there were all sorts of strange noises and he was clearly pretty worried. I gather from Francisco that they were considering sending the helicopter for me, but eventually a Paramedic ambulance came out from CQ and they brought me to the hospital here. It s the only one for over 600 miles. This whole thing took about 6 hours.

Once in the ER I was checked by Dr. Hernandez (Francisco) who speaks excellent English, so I was able to explain what happened and where I hurt. Had the usual X-rays and stuff, and they took me to a room and helped me get the rest of my bike kit off. I had to stay on the drip and oxygen overnight. They were checking everything once an hour, and I had to explain that my blood pressure is normally this low (110/60) although at one point it dropped to around 95/50 which is a bit low even for me.

On Saturday Francisco looked at me again and said he thought they could no nothing much more and that I was clearly pretty healthy and that they would discharge me. That s when they discovered that I was in fact on my own (they thought I was part of the Dutch group). So Francisco said he wasn t happy about me being alone in a hotel, rang his wife Fabiola, and insisted I come and stay with him.

So here I am. They are all lovely people. I was even taken to a BBQ party on Saturday night. Fabiola has been brilliant, taking me round to do the necessary paperwork and see the orthopod (who says 4 not 3 broken ribs).

…and an extract from Phil’s latest posting about Cynthia:

I’ve spoken with Cynth this evening and she sounds in very good spirits – the bottle of Chilean red may have been a help though. I think she’s kind of staggered and embarrassed by the interest and generosity that everyone is showing here and, I don’t think, realised how many of of us have been sharing her Journey with her. She sounded well and claims her breathing is improving but she has been told not to ride for a least four weeks which is unlikely to be possible anyway. It seems that the Doctors wife is insisting that she stays for a while and I got the feeling that Cynth is enjoying making friends with the real people of Chile and is so far highly impressed with the friendliness and hospitality of the people she’s met so far – these memories are what a trip is all about and will remain with her for life as, I’m sure, will all the new friends she’s making.

First descriptions of the bike make it appear that it may be possible to repair it in which case your pledges may well be required in the next few weeks so… in the event that it’s decided that Reg should go out to give Cynthia a hand to get the bike up and away again are there any folks out there who would be able to offer their services with anything such as arranging cheap flights, shipping of parts etc etc or any other type of useful and practical services??

…and this is the state of the bike:

click to enlarge

… more pictures are available at [www.cynthia.boxerman.co.uk] ; the pledge fund is currently sitting at a little over 900 quid, and if the usual pledge attrition rate of 50% applies then it is probably going to take a couple of thousand quid of pledges to find the grand that’s necessary to help Reg help Cyn.

Wanna help? 😎