kilometres down the road, I couldn't
believe the scene I had encountered.
I noticed a group of riders had
pulled over again, a motorcycle lay-
ing on its side in the middle of the
road, and a hoard of people gathered
around creating chaos. I had a gener-
al idea but was unsure of exactly what
had happened or who was involved. I
quickly parked my bike and ran over
to the group where I noticed a couple
of riders had a Nepalese local guy in
the coma position. The local man,
bleeding from the head and nose, was
unconscious but breathing stable.
As I turned to look for the rider in-
volved, I noticed the locals were start-
ing to get a vocal, restless, and very
hostile. I knew I had to quickly diffuse
the situation. This is when it became
apparent, which rider was involved,
and as I literally lunged myself be-
tween the locals and riders, I demand-
ed the riders not to engage and move
away.
I spoke to the 60-year-old rider who
was involved, and noticed that he was
clearly shaken up, as anyone would
be. At first, he seemed physically fine,
but when I asked him how he was, the
answer was not good.
He told me that he was having trou-
ble breathing and was in great pain.
Having endured that kind of pain
myself, I knew it had to be ribs, and
I quickly ushered him to the backup
vehicle in preparation to visit the local
hospital.
Dumbfounded that no one had
bothered to call or try to organise
help, I started yelling out to the locals,
"Call an ambulance, someone call an
ambulance”.
“Taxi, TAXI!”, astonishingly I heard
one of the locals yell out.
“NO NOT TAXI, AMBULANCE! AM-
BULANCE! DAMMIT!", I yelled back,
thinking ‘what the hell are they think-
ing?’
What happened next, almost made
me throw up. I was on the phone to the
ride leader to turn around as we had a
situation, where right in front of me,
TRAVERSE 75