#24 The Incident

I woke up not in the mood travel, a feeling heightened from being woken up in a tent by rain falling. We had planned on a boat trip at 8 that morning to visit the Marble Caves Rio Tranquillo boasts. This was to be followed by a trip on a newly constructed road out of Rio Tranquillo providing access to more glaciers, including possibly a trip to the large San Rafael glacier depending on price and time constraints. But with the weather packing in all that was dismissed in favour of simply riding on to the next town. If only we had braved the conditions...

Some time later we passed a sign advising there were 30kms to go to Cochrane, and it cannot have been too much later when it happened. The road had been narrowing and to the right of us was a straight drop so I wouldn't be surprised if we had been favouring a 'lane' to the middle of the road rather than as far right as possible. Usually Reece tries to find a path of compacted gravel to take, and I think these factors, combined with the high speed with which the ute came round the blind corner towards us caused the accident.

I guess its a cliche (not the first time I have resorted to using one in this blog!) but everything happened in slow motion. We were hit by a white ute which appeared out of nowhere (many times we have commented on how Chileans love their big cars). We weren't able to get the back of the bike out of the way in time as the vehicle's left front bumper hit us near what felt like my left shin and the left pannier causing the bike to fall on its right side, spin out of control and us to fly onto the road.

Given my minor injury toll (just bruising) in true style I may have over dramatised the impact of the crash. I'm not known for dealing with pain well (I was very close to fainting at the sight of blood after stubbing my toe in Mendoza) and in the heat of the moment I was convinced my leg must have shattered. By the time Reece had turned off my music (Crowded Houses's 'Into Temptation' will never be the same), yanked off my helmut, removed my balaclava, taken off my boot, two pairs of socks, and embarassingly the plastic bag on my foot (the boots had gotten wet overnight) it seemed unlikely there was anything too serious; my toes were moving and I could bend my knee a little. That said at the time but it was pretty scary, particularly given we were surrounded by people we couldn't understand.

Two cars had stopped pretty soon after in addition to the ute that hit us with two guys in it. Fortunately the first was a father who was very kind and spoke a little English and had a ute big enough to fit the bike on the back of. A second car offered to drop off our panniers at the hospital, which we couldn't fit into the ute along with the bike, the two of us and the remainder of our luggage. Everyone was so kind and helpful and looked after us so well, helping us find accomodation and everything when we got to Cochrane.

Within five minutes naturally thoughts turn to what this meant for the trip, what state the bike was in, what did it mean that we didn't have third party insurance in a country where its a legal requirement. Of course these questions were secondary to the fact that we were both ok. The left pannier on the otherhand needed some serious panel beating. By a stroke of luck the laptop with our photos and videos (not all of which are yet uploaded to flickr) were in the other pannier.

That said, we were very nervous about how everything would play out with the other car; we were unable to get insurance for Chile and its unclear who caused the accident. I think I was admitting fault (great lawyering!) though I very much doubt my Spanish was coherent. We intended to call the NZ Embassy in Santiago for some direction but the next day it proved unnecessary after receiving an email from the driver of the ute advising that he accepted liability for the damage to his car. This was an indication to us that the accident was his fault and not ours which I know was playing on Reece's mind (that and the possibility that he would get arrested at the border for failing to purchase insurance). Hardly fear given how safety conscious Reece is: we have talked a lot about taking the roads slowly to prevent a fall, we never go more than 50kms on the gravel, and at the time of the accident we were travelling up a bad hill on worse gravel so we were going much slower than that.

On the ride to the hospital I joked (another sign I was not on death's door) that I was glad we were in Chile and not Guatamala though I think my expectations of the hospital may have been a little high. Cochrane after all is only a town of 3000 or so people and the facilities were pretty basic (my request for crutches was met with a blank stare). I'm really glad we didn't cheap out on our gear; the worst damage was between the top of my motorcycle boot and beneath the knee pad where there was no protection, but x-rays showed there was no fracture - I fought the urge to ask for copies to send home for a second opinion!

Reece suffered a sore knee, but refused any x-rays, probably because I was too busy being the star of the show, but otherwise we both came through pretty well and I personally spent the evening on a bit of a high at our good fortune. The next day the reality of our predicament took the shine off things a bit. Given I was bed ridden on orders of the doctor) it was Reece who sorted everything so I'm going to let him explain the drama of the next few days in his first ever post! Just so everyone knows we are both safe and well, and miraculously just over a week later back on the road.