-k.

I live in the Dandenong Ranges, a beautiful part of Victoria with an abundance of nice twisty roads for a motorbike rider. Most days I commute to work on the bike. It cuts my travel time in half and there’s that undeniable aspect of fun. It was a late(ish) Thursday night, around 10:40 in the evening. I was riding back from dinner with a friend and closing in on home.

Living in the hills means there is always some wildlife around. I often see (and avoid) wallabies who like to bounce across the road at unpredictable moments. At the edge of my headlight beam possums and rabbits scurry for cover as my nice new Suzuki SV650s trundles down the road. As I rounded a corner I noticed a small wombat at the side of the road. Now let me tell you something about wombats, they look fat and slow, but they aren’t. Plus they’re as solid as a small bolder. As I approached he scampered out in front of me and into the path of my front wheel, flipping the bike and catapulting me over the handlebars. After a breif moment of fight I came to the ground landing hard on my shoulder.

I stood up and took stock of the damage to my bike and myself. My left shoulder was sore, figured it might be dislocated, but not badly. On initial inspection the bike looked reasonably unscathed. So I picked it up. Yup, I was pretty sure now that I’d dislocated my shoulder. The bike started straight up. Did some quick checks, bouncing the forces, making sure all the leavers still worked, and road the rest of the way home. A little grumpy at the fall, but feeling pretty lucky.

I parked the bike in the garage and took another look. The gear leaver was damaged and there were a few scrapes on the fairings. Nothing major and all relatively easy to fix up. I’d take a closer look in the morning.

I got inside and went to take my helmet off. My left arm really didn’t want to cooperate. My brother came up from the lounge and gave me a hand undoing the helmet straps and getting it off. I thought I’d better take a look at the shoulder. I tried to take my jacket off. A rush of pain. The world began to swim and I hit the deck. “Right, that’s it, I’m taking you to the hospital.” “She’ll be right. I think it’s just dislocated. I’ll go down and see the doctor in the morning. Let me take a look in the mirror.”

I pulled my shirt up to get a look at the shoulder, it looked ok. My collarbone on the other hand didn’t look so good. “Ok mate, you’re right, we better go down to the hospital.”

What happened to the wombat you ask? He ran away, seemingly unhurt.