On Saturday I was out riding in the desert south of Lima with a good friend of mine, Gary. Were were riding in this vally with gentle, rolling dunes, relatively flat. In the distance I could make out some machines excavating sand for construction and so I figured the ground would stay level seeing they were roughly about the same elevation we were. We must have been doing about 50km/hr, thankfully not as fast as I normally ride in this type of terrain.
I think I turned around to see where Gary was or maybe I was just distracted as we had already been riding for a couple of hours, but all of a sudden in front of me I saw the ground in front of me fall away. There was no time to brake, I knew I was about to fall down into a deep, man-made quarry. Sometimes these things go here down vertically 40 or 50 meters and so I panicked and threw myself off the bike in an effort to escape.
I followed the bike onto on a steeply sloping section leading to a vertical drop of unknown height.
It was strange but time did not at all slow down.
I remember desperately trying to spread myself out to prevent myself from going off the edge but to no avail, I went off with quite bit of speed. I remember being upside down and hitting something with my ass quite hard before I found myself in a thick cloud of dust rolling down another slope. Eventually I came to stop but there was no time for reflection and by that time the shock and adrenaline had kicked in big time. It took me a moment to work out that I was not dead, and somehow I had survived a 10 meter fall. My relief was almost instantaneously replaced by fear and I leaped up and screamed out in an vain attempt to warn off Gary on my tail.
Next thing I see a cloud of dust and a spinning bike coming out of it above me. It came crashing down above where I landed, and I was confused because I did not see Gray come with it. I looked up and realized the cloud of dust was him scrabbling up off the slope. He had also bailed out and managed to stop before going over over the edge after his bike.
Needless to say the good Lord gave me a soft landing, things could have been quite different indeed. took us quite while to get over it.
Gary managed to get his version of events on tape, unfortunately the lens was badly misted but I think its clear enough for you to see the event, and how quickly it appeared. Kind of scary. By the way Gary tells me he was so shocked all he could do was laugh nervously.
[flash=600,380]https://www.youtube.com/v/x1Uy-HZlocI[/flash]
I had no injuries apart from a very stiff neck and bruised backside. Gary had to replace his fat bars, which were bent in the incident. My bike was fine.
I think I turned around to see where Gary was or maybe I was just distracted as we had already been riding for a couple of hours, but all of a sudden in front of me I saw the ground in front of me fall away. There was no time to brake, I knew I was about to fall down into a deep, man-made quarry. Sometimes these things go here down vertically 40 or 50 meters and so I panicked and threw myself off the bike in an effort to escape.
I followed the bike onto on a steeply sloping section leading to a vertical drop of unknown height.
It was strange but time did not at all slow down.
I remember desperately trying to spread myself out to prevent myself from going off the edge but to no avail, I went off with quite bit of speed. I remember being upside down and hitting something with my ass quite hard before I found myself in a thick cloud of dust rolling down another slope. Eventually I came to stop but there was no time for reflection and by that time the shock and adrenaline had kicked in big time. It took me a moment to work out that I was not dead, and somehow I had survived a 10 meter fall. My relief was almost instantaneously replaced by fear and I leaped up and screamed out in an vain attempt to warn off Gary on my tail.
Next thing I see a cloud of dust and a spinning bike coming out of it above me. It came crashing down above where I landed, and I was confused because I did not see Gray come with it. I looked up and realized the cloud of dust was him scrabbling up off the slope. He had also bailed out and managed to stop before going over over the edge after his bike.
Needless to say the good Lord gave me a soft landing, things could have been quite different indeed. took us quite while to get over it.
Gary managed to get his version of events on tape, unfortunately the lens was badly misted but I think its clear enough for you to see the event, and how quickly it appeared. Kind of scary. By the way Gary tells me he was so shocked all he could do was laugh nervously.
[flash=600,380]https://www.youtube.com/v/x1Uy-HZlocI[/flash]
I had no injuries apart from a very stiff neck and bruised backside. Gary had to replace his fat bars, which were bent in the incident. My bike was fine.
