Lijiang at Last

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Day 7Lijiang at Last Bad news all round today. I succumbed to Beijing Belly last night and had a very bad night. No breakfast but managed to ride all day on very little to eat, three biscuits in the morning and a bowl of rice at lunch. The road this morning was quite cool until late again, I think because of the altitude, which was about 2300m and rising. After morning coffee we turned up the old Lijiand Road, which was 10km of hairpin bends followed by more hairpin bends and 2km of further climbing on to a plain where potatoes were the main crop at 2,800m. However on the descent of a very rough road indeed Roger fell off on a very poorly surfaced bend and when the next rider arrived he was unconscious for about 3 minutes. Deborah, our doctor was soon on the scene and made him comfortable on the road. Someone also went back the the nearest village 2km back and summoned a local doctor. They did not do much but rang for an ambulance from Lijiang 25km away. Roger had broken a collar bone and looked like he had a hip injury so was not moved and we had to control the heavy lorries passing very close to him on the road blowing loads of dust his way for at least an hour. When he was later x-rayed in hospital it was found that he had two fractures on both his collarbone and his pelvis. John, from America, contacted his brother who had contacts at a major hospital in the US and we emailed him copies of the x-rays. He said that the fracture of the pelvis was unstable and must be operated upon quite quickly. Elaine rang her insurance and eventually they arranged to send him to Hong Kong or Shanghai in an Air Ambulance from Lijiang for his operation. We await news tomorrow of the flights and we will then send the bikes back home. Poor Roger and Elaine. We wish them a good journey and a speedy recovery.

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