Cape Town - Two men were badly injured near Plettenberg Bay on Sunday around noon when one man was swept off rocks by a wave and his friend jumped into the sea to help him.
The two, aged 39 and 34, were hiking in the Robberg Nature Reserve when the older man was swept from rocks by an unexpected wave, said National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesman Craig Lambinon.
Seeing his friend in dire straits, the younger man leapt into the ocean to go to his aid, but was soon swept away and out of sight by the powerful surge. Battling against the ocean, the older man fought his way back to the rocks.
Extensively cut and bruised and nursing a broken arm and leg, the man was able to get to the pathway, where a group of Canadian tourists stumbled upon him.
That was how former NSRI volunteer Dr Herman Nel, his wife and daughter and his daughter’s friend found the man and his Canadian helpers. Nel and his family were also hiking along the trail when they reached the scene where the Canadians were planning to help the victim.
Nel began emergency treatment while some of his group went out in search of the younger man and others moved higher up the Robberg to try and establish cellphone communications with the NSRI in Plettenberg Bay.
Nel was able to determine from the 39-year-old man that he and his friend, both from Vanderbijlpark and on holiday in Plettenberg Bay, were taking pictures of the sea.
The 39-year-old had walked up a section at Blaas Gat, Robberg Nature Reserve, when a wave swept him off the rocks into the sea.
The younger man appeared to have been swept away, in very rough sea conditions, into a gulley.
Nel and his daughter’s friend, Andre Barnard, found the younger man among rocks in the gulley, being battered by swells in a rising sea tide and suffering multiple lacerations, bruising, a head injury and a suspected fractured spine.
Together they were able to move the man to higher ground and out of danger of the rising high tide.
NSRI volunteers arrived by road and by sea, accompanied by provincial paramedics and Med-Life ambulance services.
They had to move the younger man to higher ground for a second time, using a trauma board, as the tide rose. A helicopter from Oudtshoorn was dispatched to the scene.
The helicopter hoisted the 34-year-old man to the Robberg Nature Reserve car park.
The helicopter then picked up the older man, who was transported by ambulance to hospital in Plettenberg Bay in a serious but stable condition.
The other man was transferred to hospital in George in a serious but stable condition.
Cape Argus