Thanks for all the good wishes. Thought it was about time I contributed!! :-)

I am now recuperating at my parent's home in Somerset. Apart from the obvious effects of the injuries, I'm OK and don't feel too bad at all. My neck and shoulders are constantly sore and I've strained muscles in my chest and arms from shifting myself about with limited mobility, otherwise, no pain.

It seems I fell about 60ft down a scree slope. Don't know if I damaged it too much. Apart from scratches, cuts and bruises, my C2 vertebra (in the neck) is smashed (that's how the doc described it!), the skull is fractured in four places, the malloleus (bottom of fibia) is broken in the left leg and some lumbar vertebrae are damaged where the ligaments were pulled off. I have also nadgered my right ankle which is just soft tissue damage. By the feel of it, I think I may have caught the right foot in a hole or rock and this may have caused my fall.

Fortunately I don't have any memory from well before the incident until waking up in the hospital in Newcastle.

Apart from the frustration of limited mobility, my only annoyance is that I lost my wallet, phone and camera in the fall as my rucksack tore open. But there again, that my have saved me!!

From an assessment at Taunton hospital, I will now need to wear the halo for between 3 and 4 months. So effectively I'll be out of action for the rest of the year. But I will be back. With the Quantocks so close here, a few easy walks will get the confidence back.

Oh, and Maggie May! I'm native Welsh!! And I can report that all the nurses have been fantastic!! :thumbup:

Lastly I wish to convey my big thanks and gratitudes to the Keswick MRT and Great North Air Ambulance teams. Once I fully fixed I'll be popping up to buy you beers :thumbup:


Mark