One week on

It’s now 8 days since the accident and Nina’s recovery is well underway thanks to the excellent staff here at Cartagena University Hospital Santa Lucia

The time spent with her parents and Martyn helped us both in so many ways

Lynda supported Nina during the days whilst the guys drove me around the area getting provisions, viewing Max, collecting essentials from the RV and vitally making contact again with the local traffic police for more accident info 

Our days have passed quite quickly really and we have a routine...

The nights have been fine and quiet for us as three of them were spent with no patient next door

I finally gave up on the recliner and accepted the fact that I simply had to use the empty bed in the room for the sake of my back and being better able to tend to Nina’s needs during the night

Nina’s injuries are healing nicely and her face has lost much of the swelling with the good work of the stitches becoming  more evident as healing debris is removed from the wounds

Her leg is the main focus of attention now and she’s been on painkiller drips and occasionally morphine injections for most of the time. Only today (Christmas Day) has the drip been removed and pain relief now based on Tramadol and occasional paracetamol tablets

No oxygen required now and all vital signs running at normal levels

My bedpan duties are now perfected and standard practice throughout the day and night and touch wood no accidents to date😀

They’ve redressed the leg twice now and the surgeon’s work to my untrained eye looks first class

Nina of course can’t look and who can blame her really but at this time she’s so positive about the future and inevitable scarring she’s a legend in her own right

Sure we’ve had many joint crying sessions and times when the pain has been awful for her but she is so positive and we both can see us returning to a normal lifestyle quite soon

They gave us the option to leave yesterday morning to our amazement but we politely declined as she was just too poorly and exhausted so think that tomorrow may be the day we are transferred back ‘home’ to the RV

She’s been sat up in bed today, legs out and has had the luxury of having her hair washed by one of the superb nurses

Some random shots followed by the best shot of all...

My amazing beautiful wife ❤️❤️

The Accident

I sadly have to report that on Monday 17 December we were involved in a road traffic accident on the coast road between Puerto de Mazarrón and Cartagena 

We were taken out on Max at the approach to a bend by a car driving the opposite way that overshot the bed and hit us on our side of the road at approximately 11.15am and were laid on the road for about 40mins receiving first aid from motorists and paramedics before being taken to Cartagena University Hospital from which I now am updating the blog in our room

Nina has sustained some very serious injuries..

A complete left leg femur break with splintered ends

Shattered knee

Broken nose

Facial lacerations 

She was hit in the leg by the car and was thrown from the bike 

I remained on it albeit sliding down the road ending up with it trapping my left leg causing the expected injuries but NO breaks

She has had extensive stitching to her top lip and nose and the leg has been left in a complete mess bone wise so required length reconstruction of the femur break and knee involving the fitting of a plate and “many screws”

She has suffered agonising pain, particularly in the immediate days after admission despite regular morphine injections and drips. Her leg was pinned and on traction for this time pre op

As of today she is back on the ward with her leg bandaged and immobilised, hooked up to a few less machines and drinking water through a syringe 

The focus of our lives now is Nina’s recovery and Day 1 starts today!

After just 4 horrendous days of trauma I have to say we are extremely grateful for the genuine love and support we’ve had so far from family and friends 

Special thanks also go out to the guys who helped immeasurably at the actual scene by placing vehicles in fend off positions, rendering vital first aid and to Tom who took some crucial on scene pictures whilst his wife Lynda did the biz with Nina and me

Passing firemen, ex military German personnel (Olaf & Cintra), Rudy & Dorine (who drove from Elche to comfort me when Nina was out of her 6hr operation)

My faith in humanity is restored and I am humbled immensely by the depth of warmth and concern from all around us at this very difficult time

Nina’s parents and Martyn flew out yesterday to be with us and it was like the cavalry arriving tbh. Nina’s siblings are a WhatsApp phenomenon in their own right and should seriously consider entering a possible Olympic on line team event for social media support!

We feel for Emilja as she desperately wanted to fly out immediately to be with us but will now come out with Richard in the New Year as this will be far more beneficial moral wise for Nina when the inevitable frustration at being bed bound sets in

It would be so easy to drop our heads and say life was Shit...

But it ain’t is it? Just take a look at our recent blogs and think thats them at their happiest

That is where we’ll be again and soon...

The healing, rehabilitation and return to normal life will be long we know but with the help of so many fine folks around us it will soon pass

I’m not sure how the blog will pan out now as photos will be rare and for obvious reasons we have plenty on this subject but can’t post here

Tell you what I’ll save em all for the Solicitors!

I think the way forward now is to give regular updates on Nina’s progress and make that the focus of the blog

I have to go now as bed pan duty awaits 😂😂

Mula

We venture inland towards the Ricote Valley and do a drive-by on Archena

Idea here was to service the RV and perhaps stay a few nights but alas the aire was filling with private cars rapidly when we arrived, its occupants bound for the football pitch next door so we quickly moved on to Mula

Parking up was relatively easy and with only a few vans there we thought we'd be in for a quiet weekend. Shortly afterwards the first of approximately 150 motorhomes began to arrive in what we now gathered was a Spanish rally

Charming as ever this hillside town

After an unexpectedly very peaceful night's kip amongst the van dwellers we don boots and head up the hill behind the town

Upwards to the ruins of the castle

Could the cable really hold this beast of a rock in a mini quake?

The ridge walk gave us 360 deg panoramic views

Us, in the 'less crowded' section

Our reward for the day....

More erosion sculpturing

South to the Sun

We leave Germany and cross the Rhine near Mullhouse and make our way to the South of France via a few overnight stops in functional (think easy parking) aires

Completely against the grain for us and at extra cost we decide to clock up the mileage on the french Peage motorways reason being.....

Some days the sat nav (calibrated for our size, weight...etc) gave us journey times on the Peage of half those we would have done through the numerous small villages

As we were just trying to get south ASAP we opted for the 57mph cruise control setting and some relaxed driving instead of battling those endless chicanes the French install on the outskirts of villages designed to destroy lorry tyres

Time and fuel saved offset against Euros spent on tolls. Its a no brainer now for us and part of the costings I suppose for the move up to the RV

We got pinged at Classe 3 by the ANPR which I suppose is a bonus really as we'd been stung at Classe 4 crossing the Millau viaduct last year with the trailer I recall

Swings and Roundabouts....

Gruissan hoves in to view on a welcomed sunny day and we stay for 3 nights

A Concorde Centurion takes up residence next to us and folks have not just us to gawp at...

Probably the bar that Chris and Keith downed a few beers at?

Us at the top of the ruined fortress

An afternoon spent in Narbonne and the purchase of another coffee machine (Tassimo this time) to occupy 'Coffee Corner' in the Bus

The flimsy theory here is Nina likes her cappucino and she's spotted a variety of drinks not available with my nespresso gismo so the cash is laid down

We eventually make it to Spain!

A new Aire for us and a great find, on a working farm with free services inc lekky

These ladies make some excellent ice cream I can assure you

Out wandering one day

Some bad weather hits us and I decide to tackle the mystery of the faulty slide out lock

Several hours are spent dismantling two locks, testing electrics (with the help of Mick via smartphone link) and plenty of cussing as it was a bugger to reassemble one good lock and refit

It works! (to my amazement tbh)

A few days travelling and we squeeze in to an aire at Moncofa before the arrival of 48hrs constant rain...

We manage to step out one evening and find a nice bar to test

The Voll Damm goes down really well

A photo or two from Rudy shows the team are well on the way to creating our base ready for the new Year ( I hope we fit)

Happy days!

The further south we venture the warmer it gets and we make it to San Fulgencio for an overnight stop

A long walk to the nearby Urbanisation and a craft visit to 'The Steak House' for that essential mouth watering T Bone

Next up was Murcia and we manage to get on the aire at the top with some adept manoeuvring and we of course visit the City taking in the usual haunts

Three nights here and then off to a new site again, this time at Mula

A Change of Direction

The two days up at Saltzhemmendorf were a welcome distraction and the restaurant on site once again failed to disappoint

Schnitzels done to perfection

We treated ourselves at our next location namely Blomberg

We thought this was a dress rehearsal somehow

Novel but practical trailer...

Hooplah!

Apart from the two rogues in the foreground can you name all the actors?

This is a photo of a few consolation beers we downed at Fritzlar having picked up the package and discovered the new replacement Victron inverter remote control panel just didn't want to work with our Victron Inverter

All that waiting for no result!

 Next day and after several emails back home to the RV garage with suggested remedies returned we drove around 120km south eastwards knowing there was now no point staying put so we continued our travels with the hope a solution would be found for the problem

I gave the Victron support line a bell in Holland as I'd been told they were really good with customer queries

The very helpful Denise suggested we visit one of their dedicated electronic workshops in Germany at either Dortmund (Soest) or Leipzig

Well here was the thing...

The nearest to us was Dortmund but back in the direction from where we'd just come from

The upshot was we turned the Bus around and went to Soest for what turned out to be a huge result for us

Marcus (the boss) and Thomas did a fine job of fitting a new (but far more expensive) uprated colour display panel to the RV that compliments and works perfectly with our big inverter

Victron telephoned them ahead of our arrival to instruct them to fit and test the whole set up, take out and keep my 'New Panel' and bill me for the difference

Can't say fairer than that really....

It turns out the panel that was sent out to me in Germany is actually an old model (but new) technology wise and has been superseeded a while ago with the result that sometimes the units work fine together, sometimes they dont...

We squeeze in on a stellplatz on the outskirts of town and avail ourselves of all things naughty after wandering the short distance in to the centre

Double top!

The very nice local Brauhaus has two restaurants across from one another and next day we consume yet another superb schnitzel each to accompany their fine beer

The quality here at Brauhaus Zwiebel is first class and we make the most of our time left here in Germany to top up on the things we'll soon start to miss

We'll both look like him soon at this rate!

In town they're getting ready for a week of festivities following Halloween

This means, in addition to the vast fairground being constructed, they are busy building this temporary meeting place which is actually a full size wooden house

A 'solid' beer and bratwurst hall that will surely be left up for the Christmas markets coming soon

A change in direction...

Having got a result with the panel finally and having had to retrace our steps across mid Germany we reconsider our flight plan

Its a bit late now to be chancing a trouble free crossing of Austria and down in to Tuscany given the weather has definitely changed for the worse

Not enough time either to do the regions justice by whizzing through them in a short space of time so we decide to cut and run to Spain albeit at a leisurely pace

When the sun is up and we are out walking all is well but we are getting fed up of the very chilly mornings and enduring the novelty of burning LPG in the RV's 'Furnace'

Our first jaunt south then finds us in Schwetzingen parked all of 100m from both Aldi & Lidl but more importantly this fine emporium

€16.90 each for the buffet and we are not expecting high quality as the ones in Spain (our main experiences) leave a lot to be desired and tbh the best we've had Chinese-wise has got to be the Lucky Star in Alfreton back home

How wrong we were...superb quality, smiles and a good feeling when we left followed by a good night's sleep

Fabrication of a huge bridge on site aside the autobahn

The beginning of the Schwarzwald and some excellent driving routes through this beautiful landscape

We hole up for two nights on the edge of Lossburg deep in the heart of the Black Forest

A 16km walk one day starts near this quaint summer house on the edge of a vast area dominated by very tall trees

Now thats a chopper!

Why?

At the top of the town lies a huge modern fabrication plant making high end 3D printing machines and the like for sale worldwide

How much profit do these guys make given the quality of the building they work from?

The frontage housed I guess a dozen hi tech machines which we thought initially was the production area but then realised it was in fact a showroom!