Moonwalk

Busy work time coming up!  Get my kit packed for four days away.  A quick phone call and I've got a lift organised so the following morning I'm on the bus to Elgin and on through to Inverness, a large double shot latte provided enough of a fix to see me through the next few hours, in the meantime I waited while Mark  completed the final exam of his nursing access course!  About forty minutes later a text "I've finished, where are you?".  I swallowed off the last of my coffee and shouldered my ruck sack, walked across the bus station yard  to the library and a couple of minutes later Mark pulled up, as soon as I'm on board we're off on our way to Fort William.  With the increase of tourist traffic and the road works on the A82 it was a good two and a half hour journey to Mark's, time for a wash and brush up, load the car with Mark's family, Nic, Ashleigh and Bethany and down the road to the Stronlossit for a 'completion of exams' meal (with the obligatory glasses of red!).
Morning and not at all bleary eyed, a shave, a coffee and pack up to go and help Ellie, Paul's wife and the lynch pin of the Rescue Medics coordination for the equipment transfer to the Moonwalk base in Edinburgh. 13:00, a final vehicle check and we were off along the Laggan road and then south on the A9, a fuel and coffee stop near Perth and we were away again.  Around 17:00 the big pink Moonwalk marquee was visible   in the distance above the roof tops, another five minutes and we were being flagged through the perimeter fence by a security guard.  The medical tent was still having lights rigged up by the sparks team, but along with Paul who had been there all week providing medical cover for the rigging teams, admin and security, got the Sprinter ambulance unloaded, attractive items (any drugs, defibrillators etc.) were stowed in Paul's caravan and the empty vehicle used by Mark and myself to get to a nearby Travel lodge where we were booked in for the next two nights.

The Moonwalk marquee (medical tent front right)

The Moonwalk is held in aid of breast cancer, the walkers, mainly women, although many men take up the challenge as well, raise sponsorship for doing a marathon length walk, or 'The Half Moon', a half marathon course.  This year there were supposed to be in the region of 6,000 participants.
The following day (Friday) and most of Saturday Mark and I would be rigging the medical tent with screens to form a 'field hospital' with two resus bays and four examination / treatment bays, a control station and a waiting / resting area, but first things first, a drink then food followed by another drink(s).  It had been a longish day and would be followed by another one, while the Saturday would be even longer!!  So, back to't Lodge and bed!

Muck, Mallaig and home

Eigg

Final day.  A slow start gave everyone the chance to sort out kit, slurp coffee and enjoy the sun.  The ferry was due at 13:00 so there was plenty of time to get packed and make our way along the shore track to the shop and tea room.  Clutching a large coffee and slab of flapjack I joined some of the others outside, this was the hub of the community on this side of the island, the postie stopped for a brew, the guy delivering supplies to the other side of Eigg had a cuppa while his food orders were made up.  There were other folks waiting for the ferry, locals were calling at the shop for bits  and  pieces, there was even two sea canoeists who had paddled the eight miles from Arisaig, were having a brew and cake before heading back to the mainland.  Eventually it was time to wander the couple of hundred metres along the pier to wait the last fifteen minutes or so before the ferry arrived.

Norm having a snackattack!

About to disembark in Mallaig

All aboard, and the ferry was off.  13:45, a quick call in at Muck then off again this time homeward bound.  At 14:30 alarms began to sound! is this for real or what??  It turned out to be a full crew fire exercise, guys in breathing apparatus, the whole works!!  After about fifteen minutes things were back to normal and the canteen was back open.  In the meantime the skipper of the ferry had invited Ian and the junior part of our team to visit the bridge!  Apparently this is something very few of the ferry captains permit!!  15:30 Mallaig, off load, stash the gear into the car and van and away up the road back to Elgin and on again for Norm and myself to BH.

Off tae Eigg

Heading doon!

Just a couple of pics from the previous day.

Day 4:  Same again, an 05:00 wake up!  My knee is feeling not too bad, the test will come when I'm up and about on it then we'll see!  Porridge made and scoffed, then, clutching a brew, crawl out to greet the day.  Oh no not more sunshine!  Perched on a rock in the lee of a wall I was able to enjoy the early warmth while drinking my tea, what a place to be!  I've no doubt it could have been a different tale if the weather had not been so kind to us or the breeze had not kept the curse of the west of Scotland away, midges would have made things dismal.
The troops were up and about now, busy preparing breakfast, sorting kit out and packing tents.  At 0840 we were all packed and off back up the track to Kinloch.  It was a short sharp pull to the high point of the trail followed by a long steady descent to the village hall (tea room).  We were aiming to catch the 1300 ferry  to Eigg via Canna, the ferry due to arrive at Eigg at 1400.  We had made good time to Kinloch giving us ample time for a stop off at the village hall to sample their coffee and sticky buns.  First class!!  After tea or coffee and stuffing our faces we vacated the village hall and made our way past the castle and along to the new pier.  My knee was holding out although stiffening up while sat at the tea shop but a few strides along the track got it going again!  Next stop was at the pier waiting for the ferry to turn up,  About ten minutes sitting in the sun was all we had before the ferry was spotted coming around the headland, another ten minutes and the bow ramp was down enabling vehicles and passengers for Rum to disembark, a few more minutes after that and we were offering our tickets for inspection and boarding for our next destination, Eigg.

Ian pointing out Halival while walking back to Kinloch

The ferry's first port of call from Rum was Canna where a few passengers got off along with boxes of supplies for the island.  Back to life on the briney, at least for half an hour or so!  14:00 and we were going up the slipway onto Eigg, it was then a short walk around the bay to an area where we could camp.  Tents were pitched, stoves lit and brews made, some of the team wandered back to the store, I think they were lusting after ice creams!  I sat in the sunshine enjoying a coffee with Paracetamol and Ibuprofen while waiting for my knee to ease down on the throbbing, in the meantime I'd pulled off my boots and socks and was sat with my feet soaking in the burn running close by the tents, magic!!

With a meal inside me and another brew I was feeling much better but decided to have an early night  and rest the knee rather than go for an evening walk and chance messing it up further.  A last brew of hot chocolate, a few pages of my book and sleep!

Halival

The Remains Of The Original Mausoleum

Day 3.  Another crack of dawn wakening! the Parkinson's drugs really mess with your brain!!  For the past three months or so I've been waking up around half past four, wide awake and can't get back to sleep, at least in my tent I'm not disturbing anyone, I read until nearly six, make my porridge and a brew and crawl out of the tent into the start of another bright sunny day.  Signs of movement from Norm's tent, another early riser.  I slipped my boots on and wandered off past the Doric temple and up to the remains of the original Mausoleum, only a tiny part is still exposed, it would be good to have seen the whole thing even if it was reminiscent of a public toilet!!  Back at the camp site it was 7:45 and the troops were stirring.  Time for a second brew and get my day sack sorted, muesli bars, giant bag of glacier fruits, 1st aid stuff etc.
Our goal was Halival and our route took us up along Atlantic Corrie, a long hoof over some horrible tussocky ground before gaining some height and finding a faint track making the going a bit easier.  The track gained height steadily and then went up with a vengeance!  At last the ground levelled off giving a chance for a breather before the last scrambly few hundred feet to the summit.

Ian on the rocks

Thijs breakfasting

It's the only pic I've got with Zaphod Beeblebrox in it!!

The views were tremendous but a few clouds were now in evidence and a cold east wind was blowing so a few photos later and we were off again, scrambling down the rocks and soon heading for the corrie floor, after a long grassy descent we were able to get back onto the fairly indistinct path and eventually down to the awful tussocky ground in the bed of the corrie.  It was in this ground that my left foot skited off a wet greasy rock hyper-extending my knee, pain shot through the joint and a few choice words were uttered. Five minutes of massage, flexing and extending my knee and it was bearable to walk, I'd seriously damaged that knee about ten years previously and spent a few weeks in hospital getting it put back in working order, I knew it wasn't that bad because I could stand and move!!  A slowish hobble got me back to my tent at 18:20.  Soup, a meal, a large brew, two Ibuprofen and two Paracetamol and bed, I just knew it was going to be another early wakeup though!

To Harris (Rum)

Camp site, the mainland and first ferry of the day in background

 Waiting for the last ones to finish packing before putting our best foot/feet forward.  Five minutes along the track we were walking past Kinloch Castle, a huge sandstone edifice which is undergoing some big renovations.
The track to Harris is about eight miles but we had not  planned any particular itinary and so were making plenty of stops to look at the view, take photos etc.  Eventually from a high point we were able to look down into the bay and see where we would be camping for the next two nights.  A great site, views of the hills, the sea and the mausoleum!!

Kinloch Castle

John Bullough (1838-1891), a textile millionaire bought the island to use as a hunting estate, on his death his son George inherited and had a mausoleum built to his father, the first one was decorated with ceramic tiles but someone likened it to a public toilet so it was destroyed and the Doric temple built in its place.  George also  had the castle built, the sandstone was shipped from Perthshire!  The mausoleum now houses the remains of John, George, Monica (G's wife) and Hermione their only daughter.  As a place to be planted it's got beautiful views but not much company!
Four hours after leaving Kinloch we were sorting out our tent sites, getting the stoves flashed up and  

The Bullough Mausoleum

putting the water on for another brew.  We were still blessed with blue skies and midge free!!
The plan for the rest of the day was to explore the area, sit/sleep in the sun, drink tea and relax!!  What more could you ask for??

Off to the islands!

The players (senior team): Norm, Ian, Graham and Moi.  (Junior team): Tom, Thijs, Christopher and Adam.
Mass exodus from E to W!  Norm arrived spot on time at 0630 to collect me and bulging rucksack.  It was bright and sunny and hopefully going to stay that way as we sped off along the back road past Kinloss RAF (soon to be Army) Base to Forres, where we met up with Ian and a packed car.  We off loaded some of the rucksacks from his car boot, along with Tom who came to sit in the front of the van with Norm and myself.  The journey westward was uneventful, the sunlit views across Loch Ness looking as good as ever.  About two hours saw us turning off the A82 near Fort William and onto The Road To The Isles heading towards Mallaig.  A brief stop at Glenfinnan and then on to Mallaig.  At the Cal-Mac ticket office disaster!! my bus pass had recently been renewed in Moray and it's only Highland Region pass holders go for free!  £25 for a ticket to Rum, then on to Eigg and back to Mallaig, not a bad price really I suppose.  Time to spare so a second breakfast was called for!  Just around the corner from the ferry ticket office is the Seamen's Mission, where a brew and bacon and egg roll was the choice for me.  An hour or so later and we were well under-way, many of the passengers enjoying the sunshine and on the lookout for dolphins or the chance sighting of a whale!
Rum, sunshine and NO midges!!!  A five minute walk along the track brought us to the camp site, dry ground, a tap and toilets close by, that, and the views across the loch what more would you want!  Tent sites were selected and the camp began to take shape, time for another brew.  Some of the guys walked up to have a look at Kinloch Castle while the more hardy wandered down to the old jetty for a dip!  Having visited Rum a number of times for work it was great just to relax, enjoy the sun and general ambience.
Eventually time to eat again (well you've got to keep your strength up!).  My mini Trangia was ideal, all I

 needed was the pan for water as all my meals were
freeze dried, this evening was Thai chilli chicken                                                                               
soup with lemon grass, followed by a meat and
potato hot pot, pud was an apple  and another brew, then before bed a mug of hot chocolate.  A clear night brought the temperature down but was not uncomfortable and around three am it was easy enough to see to read, and around five the sun was hitting the tents.
Breakfast, a sachet of porridge and hand full of raisins in my mug with a good squeeze of condensed milk, some boiling water and a good stir! Yum!    A smidgin of water to swill the mug, throw in a tea bag and more water and that's breakfast done.  Sleeping bags were pushed into their stuff sacks and tents were packed away, boots pulled on and we were about ready to head off to Harris, a bay on the south west of the island.  The route was straight forward, about eight miles of hard packed 'landroverable' track so rucksacs shouldered, a last check around the camp site, best foot forward and all that, and off we went.  Some more from Rum later.                                                                                   

Sunday, horsey day!

I'd opted for a bikey event at Glentress but was asked if I'd mind covering a Pony Club Trials event near Kirrimuir instead.  "Don't like horses" I said, "They've got a mind of their own, with bikes if the rider falls off the bike stops, it doesn't work like that with horses, and they're big and heavy, they've got teeth and they can kick!"  However, come 0500 I'm meeting up with medic colleague Anna and we're on our way past Loch Laggan heading for the A9 south then through Blairgowrie east to the event site.  We were there, full of coffee and bacon rolls and ready to roll by 0800.

Our main brief was to cover the XC event but were free to watch the dressage and other horsey trial things until the XC kicked off.  Driving over to the dressage area gave us an opportunity to sus out the lower end of the XC course as well.  Turning left through a gate way took us past a spot where a big grey horse was standing peacefully, Anna insisted on leaping out to converse with this equine version of Schwarzenegger! While doing her 'horse whispering' I saw she had leaned against a low white ribbon of fence, yep, you're right it was electric! suddenly both horse and Anna leaped apart, the horse looking most put out! Anna was 'shocked' by the whole event (that's bad, sorry). 1100 we were in our assigned position, like coiled springs waiting for horses to run amok savaging small children and the like!  It all turned out to be quite sedate in the end, I was vaguely disappointed!

The rules for the riders included one saying that if they fell off or were thrown they had to be checked over by the medical crew before being allowed to ride again.  This was sounding promising after watching young ladies in tight jodhpurs leading their horses around!
Could this be a customer?  I'd spotted a couple of officials pointing us out to a bod now walking up the hill towards us.  "Hiya, what's the problem?" I asked her.  "Fell off my horse in the warm up area and they said I have to see you guys before I'm allowed to ride again".  "Ok", I ran through the usual questions, "What happened?  How did you land?  Any pain at all?  You're normally fit and well?  No dizzy spells?"  Checked full range of movement  for head/neck and filled in patient info form.  Her biggest problem was embarrassment at falling off and then having to see us for clearance to ride again, if all our casualties were like that the day would be a doddle!

It must have been about Anna's turn to get the coffees when a 4x4 pulled up by the ambulance and off loaded two packed lunches plus two steaming mugs of coffee! What stars these folk were!!

Anna and I were busy arguing the merits of mountain bikes against horses.  Mountain bike and rider, one brain (usually) controlling things (sometimes).  Horse and rider, two brains (usually), the horse knowing what it wants to do, the rider thinking it knows what it's going to get the horse to do!  Part way through this philosophical discourse we were disturbed by shouts of "collapse", the 'coiled springs' sprang! Adrenalin pumping! Where's it happened??  Then at the bottom of the slope close to the finish line we see a horse on the ground having buckets of water poured over it and the Vet kneeling by its head doing what ever it is that was needed to try to resuscitate it!!  We rolled down close to the incident to ensure the rider was ok and not  injured when the horse went down.  Unfortunately it wasn't the horse's day, a tarp was placed over it and a farm truck was brought to take the body away.  I guess a veterinary post mortem would be done  to satisfy insurers etc. But I'm not sure, anyway, it would have been a bit insensitive to haul the carcass straight into the back of the burger van!!

the young lady riding the horse was fine but devastated by what had happened, it transpired that she had borrowed the horse from a friend and now had to deliver the bad news!  Fortunately the Vet took over the phone call, as the girl could barely speak, and he explained the circumstances.

Excitement over and back on standby.  By the end of the day we'd had two check up's (fell off horse), one collapse (faint) caused by excitement of competition, lack of food and dehydration.  Tx: Casualty into shade, a bottle of water with two Dioralite sachets stirred in, and a dish of stovies, it worked wonders!!  I was walking to the organisers marquee when I had to do a rapid swerve to avoid a couple in the midst of a domestic!!  (we would treat any 'collateral damage' but counselling costs extra).  After checking on our 'faint' patient (all ok), collecting the two way radios and stuffing our faces with big pots of stovies, we were back on the road to Blairgowrie, the A9 and back to Roy Bridge.

Bikes on Saturday, horses Sunday!

Ten Under The Ben.  A short drive along to Nevis Range, into position and all set to receive patients by start time at 0900.  It was a warm, dry day, so for many places on the course the loose gravel would be like riding on ball bearings!  Would you believe!  About an hour into the event and the first casualty arrives looking as though someone had taken a cheese grater to him.  Skin shredded from ankle to buttock with the forearm and elbow thrown in for good measure!  Tx included lots of swabbing and picking out bits of gravel, liberal application of Betadine (an iodine solution which stings!!).  Dressings were cobbled together to try to cover all the raw bits and the deeper holes were patched.  The injuries needed to be seen at hospital to ensure the deeper wounds were thoroughly cleaned out prior to suturing so his support crew (long suffering wife or girlfriend) loaded him into their car and off to the Fort.

Most of the customers passing through Med Base were bumps and scrapes with one or two suffering effects of the heat.  Riders had been briefed to keep well hydrated, but some of the less experienced ones were just drinking water, not realising that they were loosing assorted salts it their perspiration.  A couple of sachets of Dioralite in a bottle of water sorted the problem out, along with advice about proper hydration for endurance events.

Our base unit was all of ten metres from NR's Pine Marten Cafe, a first class source of coffee and, for a late breakfast could turn out a mean bacon and egg roll!  To be fair though, between breakfasts and getting 'wired' on Americanos we did sort out a fair number of broken riders.  One guy was embarrassed about his injury and had sent his pal over to the ambulance to ask for a 'home visit', he was sat in the back of their van clutching his testicles having been coming downhill, bike hit a root and stopped suddenly, he continued forwards until his gonads impacted with his handlebar stem!!  Ouch!! (that's what I'm told he said!).  I suggested that he count them.  Two, that's good, how many did you start with?  Two, that's fine then.  Any sign of blood or bleeding from your JT?  No, good.  Any blood in your urine?  Not been for a pee yet? ok, but when you do go, if there's any sign of blood give us a shout, if you're pulling out and heading back down the road and it starts just get yourselves to an A&E unit to get checked out.  Pelvis was checked and no bony injuries were apparent so paperwork was completed and advice given about how to get the best price for a bike on e-bay!

We were in the throes of packing up when a shout came through about a rider crashing a short distance up the track, by the time we'd picked up the 'grab bag' the injured rider had got back onto his bike and managed to roll the last few yards and finish his lap.  Like our first casualty this guy had shredded himself from ankle to hip sustaining some deep lacerations, and had gouged some sizeable lumps out of his knee and elbow.  All this stuff needed anaesthetising and scrubbing, the wounds were dirty and agony for the guy when we started attempting to clean them.  The obvious solution was just to get any gross contamination off and apply non-stick dressings over the damaged areas and get the guy away.  As we had a vehicle to re-fuel our casualty got a ride right to the A&E door.
Back at Base we were packed, all riders were accounted for (either in or on their way home), so it was time for offsky and ready for an 0500 start to drive to Kirimuir!!

Saturday done, Sunday next post.  Bed time.