[RumiDude]

So just a shout out to some mtn bikers for the tremendous help they offered to my wife and me here in Ireland 🇮🇪. My wife and I are here in Ireland for two months on a mix of hiking/backpacking and regular dinking around in megalithic and more modern ruins. One of our first adventures was to backpack the Wicklow Way. We planned 6 days to do this 85 miles or so of what they call marked footpaths. On our second day on the Wicklow Way we were on a plank section of the trail, similar to boardwalks, when my wife stumbled and went down hard on her knee and shin. When I got her rolled over and looked at the blood stain on her pants I knew we were likely going to get off the trail, but I still needed to see the wound area. She was wearing zip-off convertible pants so quickly I could see the two deep gashes, one across her knee cap and the second about two inches lower. Both were bad but the lower one was very deep and almost three inches wide. Because my wife has a platelet disorder that doesn't allow her blood to clot well, we carry a good FAK. We put on two large bandages and started figuring out what we were going to do. Right at that time two mtn bikers stopped to see what happened. We asked if there was a hospital near by and how to get there. They took it upon themselves to make sure we got the help we needed. We were about a mile from a car park so they escorted us there, even carrying her pack. Once there they did all the phone work to get us help. Their friend came and took us to a place to meet an ambulance that was stationed at a mtn bike race event. They would not leave us until they were assured we could get to a hospital. Another ambulance arrived and took us to Dublin, an hour plus ride, and got us to St Vincent University Hospital. Ambulance ride = $0.00 euros ER visit = $100.00 euros We have travel insurance that should cover out of pocket expenses due to this accident. Anyway, a huge shout out to Irish mtn bikers Timmy and Kevin as well as their friend Sean who drove to take us to where we could get help. In general the Irish are friendly and helpful people, but these three gentlemen, all between 40 and 55 years of age, went way beyond the call of duty to assure we got the help we needed. Can never thank them enough for their care. Mtn bikers ROCK! Meanwhile we are scaling back activities till my wife is able. They closed the lower gash with stitches and the upper one with steristrips. So we are drinking pints of Guinness and Bulmers, riding trains and busses to get around. Also staying in B&Bs for the next week. The accident happened on July 9. We have more adventures planned till we return to the US August 28. Rumi

[Stefan]

Humans are good people. Yay!

[treeswarper]

Yay. And good for you for being flexible about your trip activities.

[Eric Hansen]

Rumi, enjoy the Guinness and the good vibe. I spent a year in Europe when I was 20 and encountered a lot of kind folks. Seemed to be a rite of passage for young Danes to circumnavigate Europe on their bikes.