In the heat of the afternoon on the second day of the 2023 Challenge Caburn Chamberlain decided to refresh himself in a stream.
I was just starting to strip off, taking my shoes off, when my replacement hip sub-luxed [came partly out of its socket]. “Well” I thought “I can sort this in a moment”, as I’d done before, but then it went again – further – and entirely dislocated. That had me screaming in pain.
My pack was 5 feet away, but out of reach. I tried to get to it, but couldn’t move, with any attempt being unbearable agony. In 20 minutes, I managed to move 6 inches, and the next bit of the ‘ascent’ to my pack was a grassy/mossy bank, which I just couldn’t do.
My only hope was that I’d managed to get ahead of Arie and Yael, who had left Kinloch Hourn tea room just before me, as I’d not seen them on the track ahead of me, and I knew I’d taken a slightly shorter route to this point.
I was sooo lucky. I saw them approaching (I was only just off the path) and shouted them over.
There was no phone signal at all here, but they had a GPS tracker and were able to put out an SOS emergency call.
Arie and Yael were my Guardian Angels that day. NOBODY else came by that evening. They kept me warm, clothed, fed, watered and supplied with painkillers until the Coastguard helicopter arrived around 4 hours later. By then it was chilling off and starting to rain.
Without Arie and Yael’s tracker, Caburn’s plight would undoubtedly have lasted longer. It doesn’t take much imagination to realise what the outcome might have been if they hadn’t passed by at all.
The phone-in system is integral to the TGO Challenge’s safety procedure, but always bear in mind that if you should have an accident shortly after calling in, it may be several days before the alarm is raised.
We therefore strongly recommend that Challengers (particularly those going solo) carry a satellite tracker with an emergency call function, or a Personal Locator Beacon, and it is kept within reach at all times.
Photos: Caburn & Arie