Broken Jem

When i was working in a bike shop in Ashburton, i managed to have a little accident cycling on the way home one day. I learnt very quickly that newly laid yellow lines when wet are extremely slippery!!

This was to stop my chin bleeding everywhere, because i did this.............

I came off because my front wheel slipped out from underneath me and i was thrown into the middle of the road. I managed to slide on my front and chin for around three metres before i stopped in the middle of the road. Causing this hole in my chin!!

When the accident first happened i wasn't completely sure what I'd done. Whilst being driven in I realised that i had done something to my wrist but didn't know what. When i got to the hospital and they took my jumper off and cut my glove from my left hand my wrist certainly didn't look right. After an X-Ray they told me that i had broken both bones and dislocated my wrist!!

I was put on gas and air and given a good dose of morphine!! 

I had my chin stitched which was the most agonizing thing i have ever experienced and they tried to push my bone back into place so that they could put it in a plaster cast. I was then kept in overnight and had an operation to put my wrist back into place the next day, i ended up having a metal plate put in to keep the bones together and then had another stylish plaster cast put on, kept in again over night and then let out again the next day.

I had to keep the cast on for 4 weeks which drove me nuts and was really hot during the summer, even when i had it taken off it took a long time to get the strength back.

Kayaking - Val Sesia, Italy

In May we headed off on a three week trip in Europe. We got a van kitted out with a bed inside and storage underneath, packed everything including the kitchen sink then headed up to catch the ferry at Dover, we had it all planned we got the late ferry, we going to drive into the early hours of the morning and then take a nap. When we got to France we managed two hours driving before we decided to stop for a quick nap. At 8am we woke up after a good 8 hours sleep and decided we should get moving again. We decided before we left that we would drive through France to Switzerland and then head down though Switzerland to try and avoid most of the Toll Roads.

View Europe Trip in a larger map

This is the route we took

Me running the top drop of the Egua

We spent just under two weeks in the Val Sesia Region of Italy paddling with friends that arrived whilst we were staying there. We never had problems with finding people to paddle with and the campsite was full of other paddlers from around Europe. We eat a few times in the Campsite restaurant were they made really good Pizza's, we also found an ice cream shop in another local town that sold the best ice cream I've eaten!

Here are some more pics of our trip in Italy

Me on the Sorba Slides

Owen leading me down the Sorba Slides for the first time

The boys on the Egua

Andy on the top drop of Egua

After we finished paddling in Italy we headed up to the Soca in Slovenia. We arrived at Kamp Koren and went for a stroll up the river.

The next day we got up and headed up to paddle a grade three section, we parked up on the side of the road and had to walk down a lot of steep steps to get down to the river. The water was amazingly turquoise!

 

We finished paddling then went for a wander around Kobarid and got some shopping. As we we were eating out dinner it began to rain and then did so solidly for the next three days, the Soca went into flood and we didn't risk paddling a river we didn't know very well with just the two of us. When we checked the weather it was due to continue for a few more days so we decided to head onto Pattling in Germany.

 

Plattling is hole/ wave feature where they hold chamionship freestyle events. We stayed there for a few days before heading back to Boulogne and catching the ferry back to Devon and back to work.