Departing as usual at 6.00a.m on Friday morning,we had an uneventful 900 kilometer road trip to Cape Town. Collecting a bright and happy Little along with his friend Stephen,who was joining us for the weekend.
Edwin was expected at the sports pitch to join his rugby team at 7.15 a.m on Saturday morning for a 7.45 kick off against Rondebosch Prep.
Dutifully we arrived on time, and before we knew it Edwin was warming up with his team mates and promptly at 7.45 the whistle went and the game began.
After only two minutes Edwin caught a long pass out to the wing and was set upon by three small Rondebosch boys,he stayed upright and dragged them along behind him..his famous "steamroller" move. It took another two boys to bring him down. And he stayed down!...Bossy and I were called over...something seemed horribly wrong with his leg...the knee cap had been totally displaced and had found itself realigned with his calf!. His screams of pain could be heard across all pitches.
An ambulance was called and Edwin was gently lifted in,the slightest jolt causing more agony. 3 minutes more and he was gently offloaded at the Vincent Palotti Trauma department.
To cut to the quick,several shots of morphine ,several x-rays and a difficult relocation of an errant knee cap and joints!,and Edwin was taped into a soft cast and told not to weight bear for two weeks,to keep his leg straight, and to return and see an orthopaedic man on 2nd September.
Little & his friend Stephen at the Mansions Saturday afternoon!No one can say at this stage exactly what long term damage may have been done..if any....we are simply keeping our fingers crossed and have returned to the farm with Little, who is hobbling around on crutches ,still in a great deal of pain,and quite rightly feeling extremely sorry for himself.
Our plan is to return him to school next weekend,when hopefully he will have mastered the art of crutches and be capable of attending to his most basic of functions. The thought of Maam having to help on this score,fills both of us with horror and is providing something of an incentive for the sharp learning curve Edwin is now experiencing.
Not a routine drive back to the farm, somewhere two thirds of the way home we had a blow out of ANOTHER TYRE!!!!!
Blow out en route!Thank fully and solely down to Jessie and Toms experience in Augrabies..we knew how to put on the temporary one...but were restricted to 80 kms an hour..so it took us 9 hours to get home!!!!!
The plus side to this..and yes there was one,was that I was able to photograph some of the flowers that this trip is known for at this time of year.
Sadly I could take none of the wild Arum Lillies that grow in HUGE clumps about 100 kilometers north of cape Town..They hug the verges in great abundence just like our rather diminutive wild flowers do in England!
This photo is typical of the landscape for the last 250 kilometers before we get home!Wednesday at the farm and Little is at last mastering the art of walking on crutches,very happy to plug himself into his X Box ,and grimacing whenever I send him to do a circuit of the rooms.He can at least wash himself now and attend to his basic functions without our aid..which is an important step forward if he is going to survive at school,without suffering the thinly disguised irritation of Maam!
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