Zoe and the view from Takakaw Falls. Phenomenal.
We left this waterfall, with me in the front passenger seat and drove up the road past 2 RVs (basically big caravans), when I started to cough. Real bad! Wheezing, and couldn't breathe properly. Nicht gut. I thought it was just me, but then Phil (our driver/Trek leader) started to cough the same, and the lad sat behind me. By this point the van had stopped, diagonally across the road, with driver and passenger doors flung open, me spluttering trying to breathe by the side of the road, Phil doing the same and a few others on the van coughing.
We both thought someone had sprayed something back up the road so we ran back the way we came looking for who it was. But there was no one. By this point I was pretty much OK but my throat sore. It was pretty surreal. As there was no one we wondered if one of the RVs had perhaps let out a chemical from the sanitary facilities on them and it had got caught up in the vent system, but couldn't be sure. Anyway, we all seemed to recover bar a odd feeling throat. So back down onto the Freeway we headed, with everyone but me feeling, to say the least, a bit dodgy. Anyway, I blew my nose and that was it. My nose, throat, lips were burning. Then my tongue as i licked my lips. Then my cheek as I had touched that. It just got worse. I thought, "this is not good...". Phil (our driver/trek leader) kinda saw I wasn't 200% and I asked if there was some pharmacy like place we could head. Pretty much in the middle of no where but we managed to seek out Golden, a smallish town 30 miles away. All the drug stores were shut, but one lady suggested we try the clinic. We English call them by their proper name; that is, a hospital. But I didn't care, my face felt like it was burning off. All I could do was cover my face in wet tissues.
Phil drove us there, and by this point another girl with us (Rhian) was starting to go extremely red in the face.... didn't care how much this was going to cost my insurance....just wanted to know what it was....
Saw the doctor right away - it's not the NHS here! Looked like and pretty much felt on fire. Although in quite a bit of pain I did notice that it looked very much like I'd been the only patient in there for 50 years. It certainly wasn't the Royal London! Absolutely empty and they looked, if anything, pleased to see someone who needed treatment.
Diagnosis. Bear Spray irritation causing throat, skin irritation. It turned out that the Bear Spray Rhian had in her bag had gone off when someone's foot touched the bag in the van, and it hadn't had the safety lock on. (The bear spray having been bought for hiking in bear country i.e. in case one attacked...). It's basically a massive can of pepper spray beafed up a bit over the typical one the cops carry in England, to allow it to incapacitate a HUGE bear. So as you can imagine, but exactly the best thing to come into contact with....
The doctor said that he pretty much knew exactly what it was as soon as we walked in (apparently ir's unbelievably common in this neck of the woods, quite literally) It turned out Rhian didn't have the initial symptoms because she didn't breathe in any of the particles first time round - just touched something in her bag which had been, then her face a little while after. But I must have taken the full brunt and was definitely worse off... Fully laden with 30 minutes of Almagel, giving me a nice white appearance
Thankfully, the Almagel worked well, and with time (about an hour) all the symptoms disappeared. The doctors prescription -> Find a big lake and swim in it, better than a shower as you don't rub it in, or over other parts of the body, and better than a sink as it doesn't transfer onto other surfaces. So that's just what we did, found a big lake - though it was cold! And o longer did I have a white face! So an eventful day, just a few pictures though - here I am, outside the hospital.
A good end to the day though, as we drove a 10 mile dust track to the middle of NO WHERE. A primitive camp site in Yoho National Park where we were the only people. A place where you could shout your name and all you'd hear was the echo among a whole mountain range for 10 seconds or so. Didn't get around to taking pictures of the view and the landscape, not sure if it's a shame though, as not sure I could have captured just how vast and amazingly desolate it was. I loved it - and it even had a sauna, where you chop your own fire wood!
Managed to shot gun the sofa in the barn / living room area, and so with a log fire and no more bear symptoms (and a swim in the river near by at sunset) I drifted off, being too hot for a change! Not Banff's extreme night time coldness!
1 comment:
Had to laugh about bear spray although I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time. Sorry I didn't think of that in the medical kit.
Simon
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