Discobikers.com is our website for our 4 month trip around europe(we took discosuits with us to bust out at weddings, parties...anything). My friend Damien Daniel some of you have corresponded with. 3 weeks ago we stopped at the top of a canyon in Durmitor Nat. park, Montenegro to take a photo. As Damien dismounted his bike, it toppled (the ground was uneven) and pushed him over a retaining wall and down a 40 metre cliff. Not straight down, rather he bounced off rocks all of the way down which ironically is what saved his life. By the time I reached the place he fell from, he was lying motionless at the bottom. I flagged down a car with 2 men who were champions that day, I don´t know what I would have done without them. After a few mintutes we saw an arm move and one of the guys found a safe-ish route down to where he lay conscious and lucid but in a state of shock and with obviously broken legs. There was little we could do besides keep Damien company and wait for the police and rescue team to arrive 40 minutes later. After an extremely difficult evacuation he was whisked away in the back of a car to the local hospital 30 minutes away where his clothes were cut off, the extent of his injuries revealed and packed straight into an ambulance 2 hours to the capital Podgorica where he went straight into 5 hours of emergency surgery and had a blood transfusion. His travel insurers were very helpful and got straight onto the case, and he was flown to Frankfurt the next day. He has since had another 15 hours of surgery on his legs, and operations on both shoulders. His fiance Hazel has been in Frankfurt for the last 2 weeks and he was flown home to Australia last night. His injuries include- multiple fractures of both legs, 3 fractured ribs, 2 stable thoracic vertebral fractures, non-displaced cheek fractures, dislocated left shoulder, both AC joints (shoulder)busted, torn cartilage in one knee, a floating bone chip in the other, both of which need surgery back in Australia. plus he was pretty bruised up, oh, and a dislocated finger which i reduced at the scene. On the positive side, his head and spine are ok and he should make a fullish recovery eventually, but will be in rehab for about 12 months. Thats my understanding of the injuries anyway, no doubt they can be elaborated on/updated later. He is alive only because he was wearing all of his protective riding gear when he fell, including his helmet which was absolutely trashed from connecting so many times with the rocks on the way down the cliff.
ps the bike, a 2002 BMW f650GS is in great condition in a garage in Montenegro(it didnt go over the cliff) and i suspect a great bargain can be obtained for anyone who wants to fly to Montenegro and ride it home, its kitted out for traveling with 2 metal mules