I’ve a feeling this purple and painful ankle is going to need a little physical therapy. We need a ninth team member. I figure that ninth team member ought to have experience in healing bones, tendons, and ligaments. Interested, qualified parties should contact Drive Around the World.

Journal and photos by Nancy Olson

My second toe, the one next to the Big Toe, is long. It’s as long as the big guy, and it’s actually longer if I stretch it out. They say if your second toe is longer than your big toe, you wear the pants in the family. Well, I haven’t got any family of my own, but I can’t imagine wearing the pants if or when I do have a family. Sure, I like to have my way whenever possible, but that doesn’t mean much. When it comes right down to it, I don’t mind being told what to do. Not at all. As long as what you want me to do also happens to be what I want to do. Haaaaa.

I’m staring at my toes because three of them are purple. The three in the middle. And this journal is supposed to be about the day I twisted the heck out of my left ankle.

I was on my own, exploring. The night sky was alight with zillions of bright stars. The Milky Way took on the glow of phosphorescence on a clear, dark ocean. In the darkness, I could see the outlines of what must be a crater, with high walls encircling a dark divit in the lunarscape of our campground. I didn’t have time to be bothered with searching for a head torch. I was there to see the crater, doggonit, and I didn’t need the assistance of artificial light.

I climbed up the loose, rocky walls of the crater, my teammates laughter and chatter echoing mildly in the background of my perception. Before me, I saw the crest of the little hill. I figured the lip must be five feet or so in width, and I paused briefly before deciding to take a step forward. There was a curious dark line around the lip of the crater, and I reckoned it must be a shadow, or maybe just some dark rocks. I was suffering from a bout of space madness, and I knew it, but somehow that didn’t figure into my decision-making process. I stepped forward, left leg first, into the darkness.

What happened then was surreal. I plummeted for a split second, and then I landed, in a twist, on my left ankle. The dark patch I had contemplated was actually a ditch. A two-foot-wide, 3-foot-deep moat of sorts surrounding the hole I meant to explore. I had stepped forward with the expectation of landing on solid ground, and, actually, I did land on solid ground, but that solid ground was several feet below where I thought it would be. All of my weight landed on my ankle, which twisted inwardly, rolling in so far that my pinky toe and the top of my foot were scratched and bloodied. I felt the cracking and popping, so I knew it was bad. I sat and grabbed my ankle. It was swollen. Taut. From Achilles, to ankle bone, to mid-foot. It was huge. Instantly huge. I called out for Todd.

Todd performed a brief inspection and called for Nick. Nick and Neil carried me down the walls of the crater to the lunar module (Land Rover Discovery, Vehicle D2), the only one that hadn’t yet popped its tent. I was going to the emergency room, insurance be darned, and there was nothing I could do or say to get out of it. Secretly, I figured it was for the best. This ankle thing was worse than any ankle thing I’ve ever had before. Nick said I was half joking, half crying, saying they shouldn’t have put that ditch there, etc., etc.

Todd and Chanda took me in. We found our way there by some miracle, without a single hitch. Drove straight to it. It probably has something to do with the fact that the town is only about the size of four city blocks, but we like to think it was a miracle. They X-rayed me, and they gave me “Brufen”, which is Australia’s version of Ibuprofen, I guess. They also gave me a few tablets of something stronger, called Panadiene. I took one of them, just in case. But no crutches. I’d have to hop on one foot.

So, I hopped out of the car (the nurses said I wasn’t broken, but that the doc would have to read the X-ray in the morning since they weren’t actually qualified) back at the campsite, and I realized I needed to use the bathroom. If you’ve never tried squatting with only one leg, then you ought to. It ain’t easy. When I was hopping, my right flip-flop caught a little, and I fell forward. The momentum of my fall on the stuck flop caused the she to rip at the point where the toe piece joins the sole, and it ripped out. Broken. I’d bought those leopard-skin-print flops in about ’98 or so, in Carlsbad, California, in a surf shop, and they’d served me very well. Sure, they didn’t smell too right, and they were a bit worn out, but they were my trusty flops. And now they were dead. Totaled. Kaput. And that was the great tragedy of the evening. Sure, I’ll be miserable and out-of-action for the next several weeks, and everybody will soon tire of my complaints about not getting to exercise, but the great tragedy is the loss of those old flip-flops. Guess I’ll have to find a new pair in Asia. A better pair. A step pair to fill in for the real pair. Nothing like the originals, but a pair to fill the void. I’m on the hunt, and I’ll fill you in later when and if I find a new set of flops.

Logbook for May 13th, Day 195
Start: Meekatharra, Australia
Time: 10:00 a.m.
S: 31* 53.363
E: 116* 02.032
Finish: Maida Vale, Australia
Time: 2:00 a.m.
S: 31* 53.363
E: 116* 02.032
Mileage: 475
Notes: We decided to have a hot breakfast in town, and then we split the convoy up. Two vehicles, D2 and D4, went on toward Perth so Justin could call a radio station from Mount Magnet, and D1 and D3 stayed in Meekatharra so Nancy could get her X-rays from the doctor and so Nick and Chanda could download some stuff to the Internet. D1 and D3 were in town until late in the afternoon, and D2 and D4 had left Mount Magnet hours earlier. We didn’t meet up again until about two in the morning, in the parking lot the tyre shop, where we camped for the night.
(N.O.)

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.