Hike to Colombier Beach – Oops a Broken Ankle

On Wednesday morning the weather looked like it was changing for the better and the winds were dying down, so we headed off to Colombier Beach.

Colombier is at the far end of the island and is only reachable by about a 1 mile trail along the cliffs of the ocean. In many places the trail has been carved out of the rocks, complete with steps, an abundance of loose rocks/gravel and lots of places where it is very easy to slip and we all at times were finding the footing difficult. Unfortunately about 100′ from the end of the trail Brenda slipped and at the time we thought she really badly sprained her right ankle.

Unfortunately she had to hike out and with a little assistance from us we got her back to the car and back to villa where we could ice it and elevate it. The pictures are pretty dramatic of what it looked like when she first took her shoe off, later in the day and the next morning.

However after much discussion we thought it best to go get it looked at by a Doctor. The Hospital in St Barts is quite small but very efficient. After a few minutes the nurse came out to take us into the emergency room and then a young Doctor arrived. When she explained how it happened and the fact she walked all the way back on the trail the Doctor said “you must be very strong for pain”. He apologized because the radiologist was not in today, however he would attempt t take an X-Ray. After a couple tries he was able to get a clear picture and sure enough poor Brenda’s ankle was broken.

The Doctor applied a fiberglass cast, prescribed crutches, Levonox for blood clotting and  pain killer. Total bill so far was only 52 euro.

We then went to the Pharmacy and purchased all the drugs and crutches the bill was now about 268 euro. Thanks heavens for medical insurance.

Anyway she is resting comfortably however as you can imagine she is quite “bummed out” about the whole series of events.

We’ll provide updates in the days ahead.

While downtown in Gustavia we stopped in a St Barth’s Properties to see if we could check in early which should make it easier to move to our next Villa. The picture below is how you have to park vehicles due to the narrow streets.