Well, that was interesting… After hurting my ankle in the dead of night while wandering the barren moonscape of rural Spain, the next morning I think I knew deep down that it wasn’t sprained. Once I had hobbled back to the tent I broke out my first aid pack and using the big bandage wrapped my anke as tight as possible, but the next morning I knew I had to get towards civilisation, so I decided to wrap my ankle in duct tape for additional support. Its an old Military trick. I always carry a roll of duct tape and WD40, but in this instance, the WD40 wasn’t needed… Once I’d managed to get my boot on I broke camp and got on the road. Downshifts are easy but upshifts were a little more difficult so I would jump from first to third, then third to sixth gear – which worked.
I was planning to take a cross-country route but instead I headed to the coast the fastest route possible – which meant motorways and after Murcia I hit the Mediterranean Highway. I was making for Moril, which is about 40 miles east of Malaga, and where I intend to get the ferry to Morocco when I’m able. The nearest campsite I could see on iOverlander was at Castel Dee Ferro – which was 14 miles to the east of Moril. After riding 300 miles I reached Castel de Ferro just in time for the shops opening at 4.30, so hopping off the bike and limping into the shop I bought some more provisions – just in case. After that I went to find a campsite. There was one in the village, which was adjacent to a beach, but they wanted 20eu a night so I ended up on a small site 2 miles outside the town for 10eu a night.
I’m the only person on the site and there’s a large hut with a shower, toilet, water plus electricity for charging your accessories. The site can accommodate about 30 camper vans and its nestled in a valley surrounded by small mountains, and it’s not a bad find. There is very lively bar next to the site, and the bar owner owns the campsite – which is where you pay.
The Next day – reality arrives….
The next day I knew deep down that it was more than a sprain so I hopped on the bike and headed into Moril. My first port of call was a nearby Decathlon to get another mattress as the one I bought a few weeks ago deflates overnight. That done, and armed with google translate, I headed to the hospital.
The hospital were superb. I was seen by a nurse within ten minutes, who seemed quite amused when confronted with the duct tape. He asked another nurse to come in and help, and then another came in to enjoy the spectacle. There seemed to be a lot of raised eyebrows. The hardest part was that some hair on my leg was caught in the tape. That hurt more than the ankle… I saw a doctor within another 20 minutes and not long after was in X-ray. Yes, I had a broken ankle. Soon I had my ankle wrapped in a cast, and because I couldn’t get my trousers back on, they gave me a pair of pyjama bottoms. The doctor had asked how I was getting back to Castel de Ferro so I said I was being picked up. They wheeled me from the treatment room to the foyer and then left me there for my ‘lift’ so I simply waited about half an hour, and when things were quiet – quietly grabbed my rucksack and limped around the corner to my bike and gingerly rode back to Castel de Ferro. It was a strange feeling riding in a pair of pyjama bottoms with a cast with no shoe on my left foot, but I could feel the gear change with my toes so it was back to 1st, 3rd then 6th gear…
Since then its been like living on a desert island. With the food I already had and the food I bought I have been managing to survive on two meals a day. There are orange trees all around so I am also eating plenty of free oranges to supplement my diet. I was carrying 2k of rice and 2k of pasta which was for general cooking on my trip, as well as tea, coffee and powdered milk. Fortunately I also had six pouch meals which I had bought from peppers.co.uk before I left. These are the meals they put in ration packs for the British Military and I had bought six with me solely for emergencies – and this was an emergency.
Groundhog Day…
I think a lot of people would have gone stir crazy being in this predicament but I had 32 years in the Royal Navy and was used to being ‘away’ or being in isolated places, so to me it was just a case of getting into a ‘routine’ and then biding my time. Fortunately, I have my laptop, my phone, 5G and electricity. I also have my kindle which is loaded with books and because I love reading, that’s what filling my days and my evenings.
I don’t want to put any weight on my ankle as I want to be out of here within two to three weeks so I spend each day lay in my tent until 9.30, then sat outside my tent with my foot up reading and drinking tea. In the afternoon when its too hot to sit outside anymore I retire to the large hut where I wash then spend the rest of the day in a large chair with my foot up. About 7pm I then hobble back to the tent, cook my evening meal and retire to my new air mattress until the next morning… Its a bit like groundhog day, but it has to be done.
I am determined to carry on with my trip, and I WILL do, but before that I need to make sure the ankle is able to carry on. I am due back to the hospital in a week’s time so hopefully I’ll have another Xray and hopefully some time after that I’ll be able to continue with the journey.
Bye the way, the MT500 mattress I bought from Decathlon is pretty good. Its not as comfy as the Unigear Camfy P3 but it does the job and so far hasn’t lost any air – unlike the steadily deflating Unigear mattress. It also packs down pretty small too, smaller than the Unigear. Perfect. Also, I brought with me a sachet of Dragon Fuel Gel for my trangia stove. I already have three bottles of meths for the cooker for the trip but the last time I was in GoOutdoors I saw this gel and thought I would give it a go. I’m not impressed with it at all. It’s slow to burn and slow to cook, and thankfully it will be all gone by the time I leave here. Plus it makes a horrible mess of the burner.
Anyway, back to my reality and my groundhog day. Its been a week since I broke my ankle and I am hoping in another ten days I will be able to get out of here. Hopefully….
