After my trip to Blue Mountains last week I decided to take it easy for a few days. Weather was pretty terrible anyway, particularly on Thursday it was just pouring non-stop. There was even some flash flooding in the city and traffic was quite a mess. There was still enough sunshine to go for a walk over the Harbour Bridge, the view from up there is quite spectacular.
Luckily the forecast for the weekend was much better, I decided to head back to the bush on Friday. I took the train to Royal National Park south of Sydney and started hiking along Otford to Figure of Eight Pools Circuit. The track was not quite as impressive as the one I did in the Blue Mountains but there was still lots to see and some impressive views out to the ocean from the coastal cliffs.
The track itself was pretty easy, there was still minor flooding in some parts from the day before, but apart from some poorly marked sections I had no issues. The path slowly winded down to the coast and finally entered a grassy open area. Soon afterwards I reached the Burning Palms beach and started heading towards the nearby Figure of Eight Pools.
Getting to Figure of Eight Pools involved some walking and climbing over small rocks along the shore, the path isn’t that difficult but it should still be attempted only in good weather. I felt it was pretty good day for a visit, the weather was calm and sunny, the swell was pretty low and I got to the area more or less exactly at low tide.
The walk followed a pretty narrow area between the shore on the other side and huge cliffs on the other side. There were also lots of small crabs but they kept skittering away and I could never get good shots. After stopping a couple of times to take some photos I finally got to the pools themselves. The waves were breaking on the shore well below the flat rocky area with the pools. I decided to take a closer look and take some photos of the pools themselves.
Then all of a sudden I was hit by a massive wave out of nowhere. There was nothing I could do, I instantly fell down and was carried several meters inland by the wave. Luckily the area was relatively flat and the wave didn’t try to suck me back to the ocean. Still, I was banged up pretty badly. The first thing I noticed was that my left forearm is broken, the forearm was angled in a very unnatural way. Luckily it was just a closed fracture but still nasty enough. I also ended up with bruises all over me, including one on my left knee that kept bleeding for quite a while. Additionally, my mobile phone was washed away by the wave and I couldn’t see it anywhere. At that point I felt it wouldn’t be safe to look for it, it was already flooded with salt water anyway and most of the area had no reception in the first place.
After making sure I had no other serious injuries I started the long hike back to get some help. Luckily I was still able to walk fine and had one functional arm left. Still, climbing over the rocks along the shore was somewhat challenging one-handed. I eventually got back to Burning Palms beach and headed for some nearby huts to see if there was someone there who could help me. I did meet one older guy but unfortunately he could’t offer me much practical help. He had no easy way to get back to civilization either and after some discussion we decided that my condition wasn’t serious enough to call in a helicopter evacuation.
We talked a bit about the best way to get out of the area and eventually I decided to head back the way I had come from. Soon enough I ran into a wallaby along the track which lifted my spirits quite a bit. Unfortunately the decision to head this was a mistake. Following the track in this direction was far more challenging as most of the way was uphill. I also lost the track a few times and eventually decided I couldn’t get back to the road.
I headed back to the beach and the huts instead, talked a bit more with the old guy and started following the walking trail onward. While going this way also involved some steep climbs, the path was clearly marked and I had no problems following it. After quite a bit of walking I finally reached a carpark. Luckily there was a young couple there who were just planning to head out for a weekend of camping. Instead, they ended up driving me back towards the city and calling an ambulance once we got back to area with reception. This was quite lucky too, at this point it was already starting to get dark as I had wasted quite a few hours due to my injury.
Unfortunately, the response time of the ambulance was quite abysmal and I had to wait almost an hour before it arrived. At least the guys who had rescued me stayed there with me and I did eventually get to a hospital. At this point I was pretty sorry sight with my broken forearm and wet and dirty clothes. And I even had several leeches on me.
At least things were looking up, after some quick x-rays it was very clear the bone was broken. At that point I was administered a strong sedative and the bone was set back in place. I have no memory what happened until I woke in a hospital bed next morning, probably a good thing too.
The doctors were supposed to operate the injury already on Saturday, but as it was the weekend and there were several more critical emergencies my operation was postponed to Sunday. The operation itself was relatively minor, I was put to sleep and the forearm was cut open and some small bone fragments were removed.
I might have gotten home already on Sunday evening, but as I had no one to pick me up they made me wait until Monday morning. After some quick instructions I was finally discharged and I took the train back home from Bankstown. With my forearm in a cast and strict instructions not to use the hand for anything I have taken it pretty easy this week, mostly just reading or spending time on my laptop. Which is a shame really, especially since the weather has been more or less perfect since my accident.
I got a followup appointment with a doctor and some repeat x-rays on Monday, hopefully I’ll get some good news. Even in the best case I’m probably out of diving and other physical activities for a few more weeks, the initial estimate for recovery was around six weeks.
