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Many strange and oftentimes quite bizare things have happened to me during 'MY CRAZY LIFE'. Contained within these pages are just a few examples.
These bizarre occurances began when I was no older than five or six years of age, and they are still happening to this very day. It's CRAZY, I tell you, real CRAZY!
My Crazy-mad Life:Sally Gap Waterfall (and how I fell down it).
In this little tome I will be telling you about some of the scariest, strangest, and most frightening experience of my entire life…
Way back in the mists of time, in 1975, I went for a drive with my brother, Tony. We were living in Dublin, then, and a drive to the country in my new Ford Cortina (well it was almost new) was a real treat.
Asking where were we heading, Tony was delighted to hear that it was the Wicklow Mountains (we always called them the Dublin Mountains -I have no idea just why). It was in the spring, May if I recall it correctly, a wonderful warm and sunny day. But as I drove along the winding, country roads, with not a care in the world, I had absolutely no idea of the terrible fate awaiting me…
After enjoying ourselves in the beautiful gardens of Powerscourt, I pointed the Cortina towards the higher ground and continued driving, until I spied a beautiful waterfall running down the mountainside in the distance. I have always called it the Waterfall at Sally Gap though I am sure it has another, more correct title.
The twisting road led us all the way up the top of the waterfall and the stream feeding into it. Pulling into a small, car-parking area, I immediately got out of the car and strolled over to enjoy the wonderfull view. And walking along the sides of the stream feeding into the watterfall, (I can still remember the sound that the murky brown waters made as they gurgled along), I could feel no hint, no hint at all, of the tremendous power within it.
As I followed the increasingly rocky banks towards the top of the waterfall proper, my brother shouted over, warning me of the dangers posed by the smooth and wet rocks. And in those days, when everyone, including men, wore platform-soled shoes, it was a warning to heed. Unfortunately I had no time to heed this warning, because at that very instant my shoes lost their grip, and I slipped helplessly into the rushing waters feeding that huge waterfall. At this point the gradient must have been about 40 degrees, with the shape of the rushing stream’s bed a deep V.
As the cold, cruel waters hurtled me down the increasingly steep incline, they seemed to have taken on a life of their own, a life whose only purpose was my demise. They say that at times such as this, your life flashes past your eyes, well, in my case it most certainly did not, my only thoughts were that I was a goner, and that was that.
Suddenly I had a piece of extraordinary good luck. My right foot became jammed between some rocks. The ferocious waters continued to pound, to pour over my aching body, but I had stopped moving, falling down that waterfall, which had to be good!
Shouting to my brother, I asked him to go up to the road and stop any passing cars, in the hope they might have a rope they could use to pull me out. He didn’t, he simply stood there laughing, oblivious (or uncaring?) to the extreme danger I was in. He was of no help to me. In the end I realised that my only hope of salvation rested with myself…
Luckily, my jammed foot was not gong anywhere, and this one small point saved my life. While trying so hard not to panick, I searched frantically for any handhold that I could use to pull myself out, to safety. I was now cold, my hands were turning numb, but I persisted, until after what seemed like an eternally I managed to find a handhold secure enough to trust my life with. As I pulled myself up (while praying so earnestly) my right foot slipped out from between the rocks, and slowly, ever so slowly I escaped with my life from the Waterfall of Sally Gap.
I drove all the way home wearing only my underwear. The rest of my clothes were far too wet and cold to put on. My brother? What did he do? He laughed; he laughed, telling me how everyone was looking at me.
This really did happen. It is a true story, which I am only now recording onto paper. And to this day, despite returning to that famous beauty spot on several more occasions, I have never again ventured any closer to it than the seat of my car parked safely in the par parking area.
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© Gerrard T Wilson 2008