Trapped

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

The rain had been relentless the rocks now really slippery, there was a slivery moist layer glistening in the beam of my headlamp, the lichen and moss had come alive with all the moisture, oozing slippery droplets, running down the crevices and onto the rocky bed. The waves were crashing into the rocks behind me as the tide slowly returned, each set of waves reclaiming a few inches of the shoreline. The rocks were formed in weird sharp ridges running parallel to the shore, each line of rock about ½ a meter high with narrow gaps between each ridge. We were hopping from ridge to ridge trying to get around the buttress before the tide made it impossible. As in the darkness it was just too dangerous along the cliff top.

The going was slow, balancing on the sharp rocky points, getting my balance and then lurching forward to the next silhouetted ridge in the beam of my light. Tired and frustrated I nervously moved on through the darkness, just ahead was Braam struggling with the same situation. The next gap was a bit bigger, I pushed off with my back foot, swinging my body forward and lunged into the darkness, my foot pushed out forward reaching for the next rock. As it landed, I felt a crunch under my shoe as the sharp rock edge splintered and gave way. With this my foot slid off and down the side of the rock, my full weight now transferred onto it, down I went forcing my leg into the narrow gap between the rocky spines.

Hitting the bottom a shudder went through my body as I felt my jaw smack closed and this burning sensation as my teeth sunk into my tongue and then the salty taste of fresh blood. The excruciating pain raced up my leg sending explosive pulses from a twisted foot now squashed between the rocks and trapped. Exploding in salvoes in my head and with this came vivid images of absolute destruction of my foot and the numbing realization of what if! It felt as if my toes were folded over each other. Braam hearing the shout turned and came to my assistance. We first tried to pull my leg out, but the foot was well jammed. Braam then managed to get his hiking pole under my shoe and leaver it straight that I could untie my running shoe. We then jointly pulled on my leg and managed to pry it out of my shoe and again with the use of the hiking pole we levered the shoe out of the crevasse. I feel if I had in any way over balanced, I would have snapped my ankle.

After a break letting my foot dangle in the ice cold sea, and the throbbing became bearable I slowly put my shoe back on and hobbled off into the night.