Celeste’s leg was broken, maybe in a couple of places, and there was a bone splinter poking out through her trousers! She was in a lot of pain, and she and I were on the side of a bloody mountain, on an island, off the south-west coast of Tasmania. Brilliant! No mobile coverage, of course – I needed to think, fast, as I sensed Celeste was going to get a lot worse.
We had been trying to photograph an active nesting site of the endangered Swift Parrot. Birds Australia wanted the article in-market next month, adding some urgency and probably, some ill-considered timing for our outing – the weather was terrible!
I started to look for stuff to splint her leg. I looked in the camera bag. The fall had destroyed her 600mm lens, there was a Tombola marble, lens cleaners, scissors and not much else. Her trouser leg would do, as I cut it off, and ripped it into several lengths. A Tombola?
Two stoutish sticks, and I ignored her shrieks. My teen-attained St John’s Ambulance certificate finally earnt it stripes over the next couple of days! The four-hour ascent took me fifteen, in reverse. I stumbled three times, but I just had to turn-off from the cries, that, over the journey, turned to grunts, eventually – to nothing!
For such a lightweight, she weighed a tonne. Periods between rest breaks shortened. An audit of our food came up with three muesli bars, a bag of marshmallows and two fruit boxes. I also had my two-litre water bag, and I remember thinking that the sugar intake would be important for Celeste. She had one of the sticky treats at each stop.
There was a full moon behind the clouds, it actually broke through a couple of times. I reckon it was about ten o’clock, and I just had to rest – I was utterly exhausted. My shoulders were on fire, my legs felt like jelly, and Celeste was only vaguely conscious. We both drank, she had a marshmallow, and I know I fell into a sweaty, slouched sleep for several hours.
A kookaburra was quarrelling with a murder of crows somewhere. The dawn light showed me the inlet, not far below, and our little red inflatable boat, still tied off to a tree, temptingly close, but still a few hours away!
I forced a drink and a muesli bar into Celeste. We talked, we cried a bit and my words of encouragement cheered me up. I lifted her again, up onto my shoulders.
At midday we achieved the inflatable. Water, a muesli bar each and with one pull, the motor roared into life. What a deliriously joyful sound, and we were making headway without my legs and shoulders screaming!
We rounded a headland and tringgg – my mobile jumped into service! Bloody marvelous. I called Emergency Services. I could see the harbour wall, soon I could see that ridiculous, old red telephone box. A collective sigh, a slump, tears “we’re delivered”, I said.