Going Orange

No, I haven't succumbed to the magnetism of Bagwan Shree Rashneesh. I've joined an even more insidious cult. The State Emergency Service (SES).

The SES wear orange clothing. Bright orange clothing. Its intended to stand out. Its screams here I am to anyone within ten kilometres. This is pretty disturbing to someone who has spent years trying not to be seen at all while lurking in dark and shady places.  But I'm sure I'll get over it!

So far its been great fun. We did communications and traffic control for the Killarney and Border ranges motorcycle trail ride. That meant setting up a radio repeater on the top of Mount Leslie and then standing on the road at a crossing point for the trail ride to prevent carnage as motorcyclists sped out of the scrub and across the roadway.

We only had to call for an ambulance once during my stint. One rider stacked his bike about 150 metres short of our checkpoint. He cracked his helmet but walked away with only bruising and a dislocated thumb. Another did a hamstring and couldn't continue, or even get off his bike. Both within a few minutes of each other. Not bad for a first outing. They tell me it was tame this yeas, at the same event last year there were five helicopter extractions.

Its vertical rescue training in a couple of weeks. (dangling orange clad people over cliffs on a rope) Advanced first aid a couple of weeks after that.  Should be interesting.