Sorry for being a bit quiet lately....

So I moved to Liberia 3 weeks ago and have obviously been busy with getting settled in a new country, getting the kids in school, buying a vehicle, carrying out an inspection on our aircraft, hassling the shipping company about when our belonging will arrive (yet again)....etc etc. However our last couple of weeks in Uganda did not go quite as planned.....

Two weeks before we left I joined a group of 12 friends for one last bike tour for me of the north of Uganda, up the east side of the country just skirting the Kenyan border, through Kidepo National Park and back down. Plan was 1200KM over 4 days with as much dirt as possible :-). Unfortunately 3 of us never made it to Kidepo.... On the second day, mid morning, the lead guy went down hard where the road did a sudden drop and twist and drove his KTM950 straight into a concrete culvert laid at the side of the road. None of us where bunched up or doing crazy stupid speed for the stretch of god hard open dirt road but 4 of us ended up going down. Unfortunately I ended up getting it the worse...the others all got thrown off and hit the ground so some bruised ribs and VERY sore hands, shoulders etc. I got thrown as well but unfortunately hit the same culvert head first, as in superman dive straight into it, on the top of my head. I have no memory of the first 45 minutes afterwards although was conscious and talking, asking the other guys who they were, where was I and what happened repeatedly. My helmet was wrecked but had done its job. So, I end up getting put in the back of a minivan with a backboard made of one of the guys screens and a cargo strap and driven 30KM to the nearest airstrip and getting medivac'd by one of my organisations aircraft back to Kampala. Following a CT scan of my spine and head and a chest X-ray they found nothing broken or leaking (amazing!!!) but thought my spine looked straighter than it should. Apparently the force on the top of my head was transmitted down though my spine and caused the muscles in my back to spasm and pull my spine straighter. After 2 days in hospital they let me out and then followed some torture sessions with a psycho-oppps I mean a physio-therapist. Joking aside there is a lot of truth to the saying there is no gain without pain!
Right now, 5 weeks later, my back is a lot better and I have pretty much got back full mobility but it still gets sore at times. For those out there that pray I would appreciate some coming this way for continued healing :-). I often wonder what I would do differently next time but not being able to remember what happened makes this tricky. I know were weren't doing stupid crazy riding and I conclude that something like this is possibly gonna happen to any of us. Best thing we can do is be kitted up and ride for the conditions and our skill level to minimize the chance and severity of it.
Oh and the biggest lesson I learnt was confirmation that if your gonna have a big one...don't do it on your own bike. I'm now off to find a triple clamp and front forks for a friends (yes he is still talking to me) XR600R....anyone got some laying around?

Wow glad your sort of OK Mark....guess there was only 2 options really ride slow with lower risk or ride fast and risk doing what you did, that's life unfortunately. I don't do much over 100 on my road bikes now and spend most of my time sub 30 on my XR/DT @ times flies have been known to pass me lol....
Speedy recovery and hope your up and about soon and settle into your new country

Well Mark,

that's a story and a half eh? Glad you're back, you lucky git you!
Memory loss hmm?
Don't worry, happens to the best of us - but now that you're back fully, when will I get that US$ 1500.- you borrowed from me?

BuRP wrote:Well Mark,

that's a story and a half eh? Glad you're back, you lucky git you!
Memory loss hmm?
Don't worry, happens to the best of us - but now that you're back fully, when will I get that US$ 1500.- you borrowed from me?

LOL Mark,

I can't help notice you're back allright..... dayum, was worth a try, silver platter & all
You seem to trot the globe a lot, what work you do - Liberia of all places?