The Guardia Civil mountain rescue teams were called out five time during last Saturday and Sunday; a 57-year-old man who had fallen off his mountain bike amongst them.
But let’s start at the beginning; three rescue missions on Saturday: a person tripped over and fractured his ankle whilst out on a walk in the Cahorros de Monachil.
A 2-man team drove there and walked the last 700 metres to pick up the victim. They immobilised his leg and carried him by stretcher back to their vehicle. They handed him over to an ambulance in Monachil.
The next rescue involved two hikers, one of whom took a tumble in the Geoparque del Cuaternario, which is in the municipality of Gorafe. A woman had twisted her ankle and couldn’t walk. A helicopter was despatched and both hikers were whisked to Baza hospital.
Whilst this was going on, there was another rescue after a married couple became lost in the Alayos area, within the municipality of Dílar.
Again, the helicopter was despatched after it returned from Baza with its two rescue-team members on board. The couple were located and they were flown to where they had parked their car.
In other words, between 16:00h and 20:00h on Saturday the 16th the Guardia Civil carried out three rescue missions, picking up five people in total.
Then came Sunday…
The first rescue was in an area frequented by climbers within the municipality of Alfacar. The emergency number 112 alerted the Guardia Civil to a climber who had had an accident in the Dablan area of the Sierra de Alfacar. He had dislocated his left knee – silly bugger – and was unable to move.
In went the mountain rescue team again. They drove to a spot near where the climber was and walked the rest of the way. Having immobilised his leg, they slung him on a stretcher and carried him back to a waiting ambulance, which took him to Hospital Virgen de Las Nieves (Trauma) in Granada.
The last rescue involved a 57-year-old man who had come a cropper on his mountain bike and smashed his elbow. The Guardia civil arrived and put him out his misery with their service pistol… just joking!
Editorial comment: it is ridiculous the number of rescue missions that the Guardia Civil have to make because people like the 57-year-old are out pretending they’re 20-year olds with rubber bones. Or some married couple that got lost… too many of us over estimate our physical capacity and/or don’t stick to clearly marked footpaths and trails.
This isn’t some pleasant English countryside for frolicking with a flask of tea and a walking stick – it’s the Andalusian, mountain wilderness with scorpions, snakes and lots of nasty vertical landscape – Hell, we’ve got an erupting volcano in another part of Spain.
Spare a thought for the Guardia Civil that will have to lug you over kilometres of mountainside on a stretcher because you’re lost and exhausted or buckled & bent.
Amen… and sorry for the outburst.
(News: Granada, Andalucia)
Fred: I’ve reached that-Beatle-Song-age myself (64) and over these last forty years here travelled every half-forgotten forest or mountain track on an old Enduro 125… and I’ve been lucky because there were no mobile phones nor did I ever tell anybody where I was going (I lived by myself for many years and had no family out here). I was bloody lucky, thinking back now that I am older. Now when I go for walks it is accompanied and I no longer take a track bike out into the ‘wilderness.’
We just need to take precautions, in the clothes we wear and the things we take with us: decent footwear, long trousers (you might have to cut through gorse). Take a torch (a mobile runs out fast so you can’t rely on that) and some fruto seco and/or a Mars Bar of something of that kind – the idea is to still have them on you when you walk back through your door, so don’t scoff them. Above all, some water.
Anybody can twist an ankle which is why good ankle-support boots are necessary.
If you’re out walking, discovering a new track to follow, take a moment to turn round and look back the way you came when you come to a junction as it helps when remembering the way back and keeping your bearings. Don’t go down any hillside that you can’t come back up or might have difficulty doing so.
And then there’s that golden rule: you always got more energy going than coming back so walk half the distance going there that you can cope with coming back.
These organised treks put on by Almuñécar, for example, are brilliant because you’re in a group, meeting new faces, with all the logistics catered for.
Fair points made albeit we should not be discouraging older folk, including myself, from exercising. My limited experience to date is that some walking routes are poorly marked….. so rather grudgingly i turned back…. to carry on obviously heightens the risk of getting lost or injured