Day 190 - Simplon Dorf to Schallberg and a fall: 14.3 miles (28,600 steps)

29 October, 2020

14.3 miles (Total 2020.5 miles) 28600 steps (Total 4,022,601 steps)

 

Crossing the Alps had been a looming challenge from the moment I crossed into Italy and saw the Alps to my right as I trekked across to Milan; there was a fear that the snows might close the pass before I reached it and of course of the physical demands of the Alps. Like all fears, they grow more in the mind and reduce when we begin to assail them.

On the way up to the 6,000ft pass I had never felt so good, utterly exhilarated as anyone in my position would be – see pic. I resolved that as I felt so good, I would try and follow the old Napoleonic path down the other side. This turned out not to be a smart move as the track had become covered in snow and I soon lost my way, lost my footing and slid down a ravine resulting in a dislocated and fractured shoulder.

The good news is that it could have been a whole lot worse had a tree trunk not broken my fall, and my head rather than my shoulder taken the first hit as I ended up face down in an Alpine stream with my rucksack pinning me down.

Adrenaline is such a wonder drug and I felt such a rush through my veins, which enabled me to not only haul myself out of the water but to also to haul my rucksack for seven miles (in five hours) along the rocky floor of the ravine until I connected with a road where I hitched a lift to hospital in Brig. I was then referred to Visp as they needed to manipulate the bone in the joint to ensure that the two pieces went back in together – fortunately I was knocked out for that part.

In one of those miracles of modern technology, when I came to I noticed that I had received a text from my brother, David, just after the fall saying “Are you okay? Noticed that you are at the bottom of a steep ravine and haven’t been moving for a while”. The GPS locator on my mobile phone encouraged me that some ‘thing’ or some ‘one’ up there had been looking after me.

I was kept in hospital overnight for observation, more because of the bash on my head than my shoulder. This was the first time in life I had spent a night in hospital since I was born 50 years ago and I didn’t like it any more now than I did then. I have a propensity to think too much and so having time on my hands is a very bad thing for me. After another sleepless night I woke and decided that I just needed to get moving. I caught the Post-bus back to just beyond the point where I had hitched a lift and then walked ten miles back to the hospital in Visp where I had an appointment at 5pm. I felt so much better for the walk (and for listening that evening to the Radio Five Live commentary on Stoke (1) v. Newcastle (3)). Of course I was more uncomfortable than usual; I had forgotten how much we use our arms when we walk, but I had been loaded up with the best painkillers Swiss medicine could provide by the brilliant medical team in Visp who had been very enthusiastic and supportive of my mission.

If trying to find the lost trail of Napoleon was the stupidest decision I had taken, then getting moving and getting over the slip was the smartest. Using the hotel in Brig as a base and shuttling back and forth on the excelling Swiss railways I walked from Visp to Sierre on Tuesday, Sierre to Sion yesterday, and hopefully Sion to Martigny today (see pic 2).

Of course, it is impossible for me to carry my forty pound rucksack for at least the next month but I can still make progress, as I have this week. I will also have the bonus of Xuelin coming out for the next week to hire a car and help shuttle my rucksack between accommodations so that I can reach Bern on schedule for November 14 where the British Embassy have prepared an excelling couple of days of events and meetings to promote the truce. Then, Cousin Stephen and Tom are coming out on a pre-planned visit on the 17th, which should get me into Germany on schedule.

Other implications of the injury are that writing emails now takes four times as long as normal and so the rate of responding to emails and updating blogs will be slow – apologies in advance.

Be assured that I am in good spirits and, with the exception of one limb, feeling very fit.