Pain!
Woke early and packed away all our gear and additional food for the next leg south via El Bolson. On our way out of town we met a dog from 2 days previously who had taken a shine to us. He was a stray with lots of character and attracted admirers who would take his photo. He had a false limp that he would put on and went to sleep with his paws over his eyes. As we cycled past he remembered us and trotted along side with other doggy friends for about 5km, getting into fights with dogs from other neighbourhoods on the way and generally taking up the road forcing cars to hoot and veer. We finally shook him off when we reached a long downhill and he could no longer keep up. The wind today was seriously strong and we were forced to cycle in the dirt at the side again just to stay safe. Several times the gusts forced us to stop and bow our heads into a sudden blast of wind borne grit and debris. At 12km we discussed whether we should turn around but decided to head for a bend 500m ahead where we could see if there was any shelter from roadside trees. We set off again and I dipped my head as a sudden gust blasted across, when I looked up I saw John on the floor (thankfully not in the road but in the hard shoulder gravel) and then struggle to stand. I dashed over and saw a really deep nasty looking wound at the back of his knee with blood flowing freely down the back of his leg. John applied pressure with his palm whilst I searched out our first aid kit and fished out dressings which we have taken everywhere with us for the past 10-15 years but have never needed until now. I applied the biggest dressing we had in a wind which had risen to a level where talking was difficult let alone unraveling bandage. I tried to keep calm when I saw the wound close up and keep my expression neutral when I really wanted to say ‘oh my god it looks really deep and like you’ve been bitten by a big dog!’ We turned our backs to the wind and tried to get a lift back down the road to the hospital. I asked a passing woman whether there was a hospital in Bariloche but it was so windy I couldn’t hear her, even less than 1m away. When there was a downhill John managed to sit on his bike and freewheel. Eventually we passed a Police hut at the side of the road and I went in and asked for a doctor. He got on his walkie talkie straight way and told us to wait. A woman invited us in and John sat with his leg up until an ambulance arrived 10 minutes later. A woman came out with rubber gloves, unraveled our dressings and invited us into the ambulance. We arranged to leave our loaded bikes in the hut and I joined John in the ambulance to the hospital. The medic lady took our photograph and we offered smiles through gritted teeth. We were shown through into a hospital room with busy staff and waited in a corridor. The staff were extremely kind, helpful and patient despite our lack of fluent Spanish. John was eventually led through to theatre and I watched as the nurse took a ketchup bottle with a handwritten label on the side and squeezed iodine into the wound and started to wipe vigorously! When I eventually plucked up the courage to turn back I saw a needle and thread being used whilst a cleaner wandered in to empty the bins and the doctor turned his head to have a good cough. He probably wasn’t very well either! Only 5 stitches were needed and we were told to return in 2 days for an alcohol clean up and I was advised to remove the stitches in 7 days. We thanked the staff for their help and hobbled out. We looked for a taxi to take us the 5km back up the road and returned to the hut where our bikes were waiting. Thankfully, it was mostly downhill to Bariloche but all the hotels we called at were full. After nearly 1 hour pushing the bikes up and down street we finally found one with a spare room and John fell into a deep sleep. Our good luck on this holiday seems to have run out over the last couple of days…. at least we seem to have recovered from our travellers sickness!!
Doggy convoy
In the ambulance
