"Slieve Donard - what to do ?" Newcastle Travelogue by Alain_Smeets

We decide to go down at the other side of the wall because we hope that this is not so dangerous for going down. It starts over grass and now and then we have to manoeuvre ourselves across some areas that seem the washed away by water. Luckily it's indeed much better then the other side and I manage to bypass most places without any problems. There are some small loose stone chippings so we have to be a bit careful. Zuzu slips several times and we start joking about it. Because she's still single, I say to her just fall down and then an gorgeous Irish guy will come to your rescue, he will give you CPR and mouth to mouth. -lol-

Zuzu replies by telling me that if the guy is ugly she will be revived immediately. -lol- But we were just joking and didn't know that part of this story will become true. During one of her slips she got a "life threatening" injury. Oh yes, it is. She hit her hand against a rock and she's bleeding a bit from a small spot. But enough to think about those rescuers again. The puts an handkerchief across it and we restart our descend again. When I look at her shoes, I see that she has a bottom without any grip, much to flat for these hikes, but dozens of others walk even on their slippers, crazy people.

We see Dirk already sitting at the saddle and he starts walking again together with 2 girls. We managed to get down without any further accidents and we reached the saddle. Here we climb over the stonewall and we take a breather and go further down towards that hard rock part. It's an easy step down and now all our problems should be over. No difficult part anymore and an easy stroll into the park. After some more grassland we enter a piece a sand bottom and a lot of big rocks and when I open the gate to enter the last 200 metre, I hear Zuzu slipping and when I turn around I see her foot sliding under her and I hear a crack and a yell. I think “sh*t” this can’t be true and I walk towards her. It's now 17h30.

I feel helpless and don’t know what to do. The only thing what comes out of my mouth is: “Is everything OK?” and Zuzu replies with “I heard a crack and it hurts” an older woman comes towards us and asks if something happened. We tell her that she probably broke something and her husband also comes in to help. A younger couple comes down the hill and both women start with loosen her shoe. I don’t know what to do and feel helpless and a bit responsible because she came with us on a hike.

The older husband is calling the ambulance and the younger guy takes the phone to tell the person where we are. But it’s not easy to get an ambulance up here, we shall have to carry her at least 200 metres. In the mean time the two women start to loosen her shoe. Zuzu has to come to the phone and she’s very calm and relaxed and even makes jokes on the phone.

As the shoe is removed I put some water on a towel and put that on her ankle, except taking some photos with Zuzu’s camera I can’t do much. The two couples go towards the parking to guide the ambulance towards us and we can do nothing else then wait and talk. Other hikers pass us while we are sitting there and waiting for the ambulance to arrive. A few almost slip on the same spot where Zuzu slipped. An 20 minutes after the call an tired girl arrives. She is out of breath and is wearing paramedic clothes, so the ambulance is arrived. I thought that paramedics were in a better shape then that. The guy that helped us before comes right behind her carrying some of her equipment. She starts investigating the ankle and gets some plastic stabilizer to put around her ankle.

10 minutes later the second ambulance arrives and the woman paramedic goes to great them and to discuss how to get her downhill. A few minutes she and two male paramedics come up the hill, they are also out of breath. They have a white plastic board with them. I see Zuzu smiling or do I imagine that, two male Irish guys. Sorry Zuzu for making fun of the situation, but remember the CPR. They put the board next to them and a few more walkers pass us and just look and go on. She has the photos in her camera to prove all of this.

Zuzu, puts herself onto the plastic board and the paramedics strap her tight towards that board. She has the easy part, just lying and enjoying the ride. We are carrying her with 6 people downhill, I can’t imagine that this can be so heavy. We have to keep an eye out where we put our feet and I can say you that it isn’t easy to carry a full grown person over this terrain. Sometimes we had to step over rocks a 20 cm high, normally one goes around them, but when you carry a strapped woman on a stretcher downhill one can just go straight.

I guess we took about 10 to 15 minutes to do this 200 meters, but like all heavy assignments things seem to last longer. Now they put here into an ambulance stretcher and in she goes. I get a ride to the carpark, but first they have to force the gate because some one had locked it and the ambulance are trapped up the mountain. I think they kicked it open and we drive at last to the carpark where I meet Dirk. He was snoozing on a bench and hears the trunk of the car closing. Then he sees me and doesn’t see Zuzu and then he sees the Ambulance. So I tell him that Zuzu has broken her leg and that we have to follow that ambulance towards Downpatrick. I shall drive in Zuzu’s car and he can take ours. If you see the size of Dirk (1m98) and the small car of Zuzu you know why. The time now is 18h30, an hour after she broke her ankle

Read further in my travelogue What do you mean this isn't Ulster hospital