Broken leg and “Turkish Delight”

36° 39′ 29.7936” N 28° 51′ 10.5264” E

Sarsala Bay

May 27, 2022

And there I sit, writing to children and grandchildren that I have fallen from a mountain, but that nothing serious has happened. I even include a photo in which I stare, moved but grasped, at my left ankle, which is wrapped in an ice pack.

After ten hours of sleep, the pain has gotten worse. So now, finally, this cheering idiot is ready to listen to his wife, who has been advocating for an X-ray all along. We contact the travel insurance and explain where in Turkey we are with our sailboat, Ronja. At the same time, the skipper’s wife take contact to the boss of the restaurant, we are currently moored outside.

We are as far out in the Turkish wilderness as you can get. A small bay, a restaurant and a boat jetty. No road connections at all. All traffic is by waterway.

Skipper’s wife and the boss of the restaurant, Sezyn, have made a plan. First ten minutes in a rubber boat to a neighboring bay, which has a road connection. Then 40 kilometres with a called taxi to a hospital where the boss of the restaurant has made sure we are waited. A porter is ready at the hospital with a wheelchair. A few doctors ask questions and press on the leg and foot. Four X-rays. Then the chief orthopedic surgeon is ready with the verdict: “Your ankle is broken. The good news is we do not have to do surgery, you can settle for two crutches and the foot in plaster for six weeks.”

Jubii?

A broken ankle is big for me, who has never broken anything. But what I really want to tell is the story of how helpful, engaged and effective your fellow human beings are when needed. Turks as well as travel insurance.

And the taxi driver? He was following round the emergency department, X-ray department and plaster foundry, he wanted to know what was happening, and on the way back to the boat he drove around his private residence because he thought we needed a cold glass of water and some turkish delight (sweet candy).