The best laid plans...

 The Best Laid Plans

To quote the rest of that verse by Robert Burns:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

It was 9th April;  I was at Bicheno, staying with Pete. Conditions on my arrival on Tuesday had been lovely.  

Wednesday dawned just as nice and conditions were conducive to diving.  So we had a rather pleasant, very cruisy morning dive with visibility reasonable for the time of year.  Most of the regular visitors to the bay, along with recently spotted newcomers.  I also saw a slender whiting, a species I had not noticed before.

Since the afternoon was as lovely as the morning, I suggested a short walk and Pete suggested Dennison Beach, so off we went.  Starting our walk north towards the river at about 2:20pm.  

Again, beautiful conditions with a low tide and plenty of firm sand and the interest of a red velvet fish washed up at the low tide mark.  I have only ever seen a couple of these when diving, they tend to stay well hidden.

There were a few shells as we walked towards the river, but nothing really amazing.  We didn't walk far, maybe only a bit over a kilometre, before we turned and started back.  We walked slowly, Pete was checking for seaspurge, I was doing my best to discourage the off-lead dogs that were racing at me, and looking at the shells.  I found a small number of more interesting shells and stepped towards a small depression on the flat rocks, with the intent of rinsing the wet sand off them and.....

I had not factored in that these rocks might have the same properties as those further north at the Porches.  They were slick.  All the properties of black ice.  I went down like a ton of bricks.  I don't think I did it quietly.

I do recall, as I laid there - at the low tide mark - groaning,  my sunglasses askew and my hat relocated forward over my face, stating that I was trying to work out which bits of me hurt less.

I managed to sit myself up - Pete having assisted with my hat and sunnies, and suggested that I had probably dislocated my shoulder.  I know enough about anatomy to know that the ball of my humerus should not be somewhere where I could feel it seperate from my shoulder.

I told him he'd need to  help me to my feet - from my left hand side but the minute he stepped on those rocks he went down too - fortunately with much less dramatic outcomes.  He could not get secure footing so I wriggled myself, on my backside, to the sand - I was slightly wet and sandy by that time.

He got me to my feet and I needed to stand for a while to reduce the dizzy then made very slow, assisted  progress along the beach, my vision very fuzzy.

We had no first aid supplies between us - we were only going for a short walk, so I had just my shoulder bag with a drink bottle and my phone.  Pete had nothing.

The walk back along the beach seemed to take forever and I tried hard to resist the temptation to say 'are we there yet' 

Maps subsequently tells me that our whole walk was only 1 hour 9 minutes.

I was carefully helped into the car and Pete drove me to the Bicheno medical centre where there was a GP in attendance and not busy with other people, along with a local senior ambulance officer.