9. The Hardest Day in My Life
DAY 266 Unexpected
I'm tired after a hard day of riding, but I am very content, knowing that the end of very difficult day is near. There's only a light traffic, occasional car or a motorcycle. There is a traffic coming towards me in the opposite direction. I don't want to blind them with my lights so I turn off my high beam and my auxiliary lights. That, with conjunction of other traffics lights shining at me creates a situation where my forward vision is momentarily compromised.
And at this precise moment, all of a sudden I see a few cows 20 m directly ahead of me. My speed is about 80 to 90 km/h. I try to swerve to the left to avoid the cows, but there's not enough time. I hit the cows head on. People are saying that in situation like that time slows down. And slow down it did. I remember thinking “ … oh boy, this is going to hurt.” I don't remember where exactly I hit the cow or how I left the motorcycle. The flying portion of the trip is blank. But it was legal, I still have my pilot license. The next thing I remember, is me doing synchronized tumbling along with my bike. It all took only a few seconds, but there were many thoughts going through my head. One of them was thinking that it would suck if I would get hit also by my motorcycle. And another one was much darker. I recalled an accident back in Canada, where motorcyclist was knocked off his bike by a deer, jumping from the bushes on the side of the road. It was knocked right in front of a large truck travelling in the opposite lane. It didn't end well. I'm tumbling down the road, seeing stars in one moment and next I am doing a close inspection of the asphalt right in front of the visor of my helmet. It felt like I'm tumbling forever. I'm thinking OK I can get up now but then I see the stars again and I realize I'm still cartwheeling. I finally stopped, after what felt like an eternity. It is all quiet now. I don't hear the bike’s engine running. I tried to stand up. I get up and I try a few unsure steps. There is nobody around and it is pitch black.
In my entire flying career, we were taught to prioritize the problems in any given situation. And you have to set your priorities and deal with them in the order of severity. You have to solve the problems you can solve an eliminate those which are beyond your control. And that's how we deal with any emergency situation in the air and for that matter it is the same in every day's life. Every aircraft in the air has a book called “emergency checklist” which you pull out when something goes wrong. And you go through it, step-by-step trying to resolve the issue to a (hopefully) successful outcome.
Well, I don't have an emergency checklist here, but the training and those decades of experience took over. Let's start solving this situation. Can I move my legs and arms? Yes I can. Good. How about my fingers and toes? They are all moving freely. Excellent news. Any obvious cut and tears? I can see none. Are all my arms and legs straight and not in any weird shape or angle? All looks good. I don't see any blood coming out of anywhere. All my gear is still on me, my pants, jacket, gloves, and my helmet. I tried to take few steps. It's all good and I feel no pain. I'm just a little bit out of breath and feel like the wind was knocked out of my lungs, but I am instantly snapping back to reality. Well, I guess I survived this one. One issue is resolved.
The next step. Where is the bike? It is right beside me. I ended up in the opposite lane right by the curb. Extremely lucky that there was no traffic going in the opposite direction. The bike jump the curb and is lying motionless on the side with its engine not running. The lights are not on, the bike is dead. I'm looking at the position of the bike and the front wheel is literally 1 foot from 20 m tall embankment down to the jungle. One more foot and bike is down somewhere with the alligators. I won't be able to get it out over there by myself. As I can see, one of my side bags has separated and is lying a few metres away. Probably the locking mechanism attaching it to the bike was not locked properly. Other bags are still on the bike undamaged as I can see. But my tank bag with my Nikon camera is missing from the bike and is lying on the road few metres back. I look more and I find the lens which use to be attached to the camera. That's not a good sign, the lens cannot get detached from the camera by itself. The camera body lies not far from there. There are a lot of broken pieces of plastic all over the road. I find my windscreen intact but both attachment points broken. I go back to my bike and I finally take my helmet and my jacket off. I get my key and open my top bag sitting in the tail of my motorcycle. I get out of my headlamp and turn it on. Oh boy, what a carnage. There are pieces of the bike, probably at least 50 m down the road. Good job, Adam! I expected to see an injured cow there, but she was gone with all her friends. Coward. I will report it as a hit and run accident.
I took a moment at this point to gather my thoughts and start looking at my options. I remember looking at the skies with millions of bright stars thinking what a beautiful night. One thing is crystal clear to me and that is that I am unbelievably lucky. The fact that I am walking, seemingly unarmed is hard to believe. OK, I am in much better shape than my bike. The front of the bike and is in pieces. No amount of WD40 will buff it out. I don't know the extent of the damage, but it will be substantial. The next step. I need to get the bike and myself out of here into the town. The traffic was light here and I don't know when the next car is coming, but I will make it all work somehow.
I have lost the sense of time, but I think it wasn't more than 10 minutes before a lady on her moped stopped by. Then more cars stopped and in a short time, there was a about a dozen people helping me. Somebody brought a rope which few people were holding onto so the bike doesn't slide into the ravine when we right it up. With so many people we brought the bike on the road in no time. The front end of the bike looks horrific, but the engine and everything from the tank backwards looks intact. The ignition doesn't work, not even lights but but we can push it along. I got my other side bag and tried to put it back on the bike. It slid right into its place no problem. I also put the tank back in his place with my broken camera inside. Well, I've got all the pieces together, now I need to get it to the town. And here comes another piece of my luck in the unlucky day. There is no house within dozens of kilometres in either direction but there is one about 200 m up the road. And the guy from there is helping me with the bike. And he has a pick up truck and he agreed to take me to the town. With the help of all other people, we push my bike to his house and in five minutes the bike was loaded and strapped on the top of his pick up truck. I said massive thank you to all people who help me there, and they all went on their way. My driver with his wife and their young baby got in the truck and we were on the way to my hotel about 50 km away. We got there in about 45 minutes and unloaded the bike. I checked in and few people from the hotel staff helped me to unload my bags and bring it to my room. I was very glad as I was in the end with my strength, and it was still extremely hot and humid. We put my bike into the gated hotel parking lot. I got into my room, turn the air conditioning on full blast and I sat down trying to take it all in. What the hell just happened? It has been less than two hours since I crashed and I'm sitting in my hotel, unharmed and my broken bike in the garage. Absolutely unreal!
I'm thirsty, but I have only about five dollars equivalent of cash on me. They gave me 1 L of Coke from downstairs. I have R$6 left, that's less than $2 … I am not hungry anyway, I will have the rest of the cookies I still have in my bag.
I finally can sit down and have a closer look at the damage of my gear and my body. The most of the adrenaline already left and I started to feel pretty sore. Everything looks good, except for a few bumps, bruises and scrapes. All my protective gear did a good job. The left side of my chest is hurting like hell. It feels like bruised or broken rib. I know I cannot do anything about it, but I checked online for the symptoms. I have all of them, but I don't have any side symptoms which is good. I probably took heavy impact on the left side of my chest. I don't know if I hit the cow or it happen when I landed after my test flight. So I will have to suck it up for a few weeks, I guess. If this is all my damage, I'm doing really, really well. I have finally got to use my medical kit and I cleaned all my scrapes. I keep saying that what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. But it was very, very close this time. And I don’t need to be any stronger …
I am looking all over my gear and equipment for damage signs and there is almost no scratch or damage anywhere. There are a few of stitches broken on one of the pockets on my riding jacket. Big deal… there is a hole in my pants at the knee, but I was probably dragging it on the pavement. The plastic armour underneath protecting my knee is intact. Then there is my tank bag. That's where I keep my big Nikon camera. I normally keep the zipper close only halfway so I can take my camera out quickly. Unfortunately, the bag got separated from its mount and the camera saw this as a good opportunity to escape. The lens has broken off the camera and may be used only as a fancy designer doorstop. It is beyond repair so I won't even bother to take it with me. The camera body is in very bad shape as well and I don't know if it can be salvaged. I will take it with me and I will try. But I am ecstatic that all my communication gear is intact and working. my phone which was in the chest pocket of my jacket has only a hairline crack on the screen. it works well. Incredible. My laptop, which was protected in my metal tail bag. It's all good in working condition. On the top of it, my reading glasses, which were right beside my now damaged camera, are all in one piece. Very, very lucky. Nothing in my music
That is the extent of the damage of my bags and myself. I fully realize that I am extremely lucky not only to be alive, but to have virtually no injuries whatsoever. I guess I am like Mick Jagger, Keith Richard or cockroaches. I know nothing about music, but we all are hard to kill.
I have no idea how badly the bike is damaged but my initial assessment is that it will require a very extensive repairs. I need to put her on a life support in BMW ICU unit. I give her 50% at the most that she will get through it. It's amazing what you can do by yourself when you have an Internet connection. There is a zero chance that any other shop than a certified BMW dealer can fix the bike. I find out that there is a BMW dealer about 500 kilometres north and another one about 1,000km east on the coast. I would like to take the bike back to Belo Horizonte, where I was three days ago, but that is more than 1500 km behind me. But I sent messages there asking for an advice where should I take my bike. They replied very quickly that my best bet is the dealership in Recife on the coast, where there is a big BMW motorcycle dealership. It is 1,100 km away. OK, there will be my next step.
It has been an extra ordinary day. What should have been a six hour bike ride today, took me 13 hours and that was before the crash. It was the most memorable day in my life. Again, I am very much aware what could have happened. And that I should walk with a horseshoe in my pocket for the rest of my life. I broke my own rule and I paid for it dearly. I survived a head-on encounter with a bovine kind with nothing but few bruises, and maybe a broken rib. Many people helped me today. I don't know their names. I don't know anything about them, but I am extremely thankful for their help. If nothing else, this trip renewed my hope for mankind. This is not the first time on this trip I was helped by people I didn't know and who wanted nothing in return. And this is a very good feeling.
I took few Advils and went to bed. I hope I will wake up tomorrow and it all will be just a bad dream in Sae Raimundo