Rob's Back, Blip

A Greek Tradgedy - Part I

So, a couple of folk have noticed I've been absent for a week after not missing a day for 3 years and 51 weeks. The reason was this 9 shot composite astro photo from possibly the most extreme Blipmeet ever.

It's a long story but I think it's worth telling so here is the start of my odyssey.

Two other blippers, Jord & Andreas, and Alice (a possible future convert) and I decided to go up into the mountains of Symi to get away from all light pollution and try a bit of astro photgraphy. It was amazing fun to be with similarly stoked and excited photogs. We chatted, compared notes, shared settings and basically had a blast.

We chose this unfinished building for a forground and all was going well for a couple of hours. We then decided to go upstairs and add some silhouettes of ourselves. It was on the way back down that I failed to see/remember where there was a hole in concrete floor for a stairway, took a step and fell 2.5 - 3 meters onto the ground floor. It turned out I had broken my back (first lumber vertebrae). Not only did I predicitably black out and then start screaming but also knew I was one mountain away from help with a long trip in Andreas's 4x4 ahead. Then there was the fact that we're on a very small island and would need a transfer to Rhodes hospital. It was the begining of a week long nightmare. However, I could move my extremities and knew that I could have been a lot, lot worse. Seriously happy to be alive is basically how I felt and still feel.

...... more "back" blips to come tomorrow.