Survival: Moss for open wound

It is a rainy day deep in the forest, it is the second day here at the camp site. We named it recovery because we take some rest after 8 days walked crossing high density rain forest. Trust me, it is not easy to come here. We prepare logistic and our carrier is about 35 kg each, can you imagine my tiny buddy has to carry all that weight along the way up to this level? My weight is 49 Kg, and I am 160 cm tall, yet I am fasting during the holy Ramdhan. It is my work and I love to do so. Iris Berge, Oli Broadhead, Said Murtadha and I. Yes, it only four of us doing this non sense work. The complete story of the expedition is here

https://steemit.com/busy/@el-nailul/mountain-expedition-mt-lembu-3050-m-above-sea-level

The sun is not willing to smile at us at 2050 M above sea level (M ASL), the temperature is below normal for me, it is 14 Celsius degree. We set the fire while hearing the chanting of the mother nature around us. Sometimes, the apes are shouting loudly from the distance and the birds are flying above our temporary shelter made by tarpaulin. Today Oli and Iris has no specific plan to execute, they are only walking around to observe and register more bird and mammal species around the area. They are biologist who are doing research in this area to learn about the habitat of Sumatera Rain forest. Our target is still 5 days to go. Said and I need to think more carefully to build the right strategy to achieve it, really not an easy task. We finally decided to open the new route as it is not possible to carry our staff through the initial path as we have planned in advance. We have prepared the thing we need, I have made pancake for all of us in the morning and grab the gear without a plan to stay overnight on the road to the Peak of Gemiring which is 2986 M ASL.

The gear is ready, I take 2 blades and sit aside the rocky river to sharpen our blades. Only Said and I will go to the peak, actually to open the path up to the peak of Gemiring. While Oli and Irish are observing the camp site, I gave them a short briefing. They should give us 12 hours before taking contingency plan. The plan is wait for us to return to our camp site, but if we do not return within 12 hours they should leave us and back to the village through the road we took for coming into this camp site. We also gave them the short written message to show the police at the station in case of emergency. On the message we wrote about the possible position of trouble complete with coordinate to simplify the emergency evacuation of ourselves.

This is my blade, it sharp but the handle is unprotected with the separator between the blade and the handle. Image property of Oli Broadhead

10.30 am, we depart from the camp side with our gear and food, I am still fasting. The food only enough for one of us and so the water, only 500 ml of fresh water taken from the river. The sharp blade is on our hand and start to cut the bushes and make the path more accessible. It is lots more difficult than we thought and predicted on the topographic map. High density forest and moss covers every branch and trunks. The canopy protects the soil from the sun light, makes the land always wet and become a perfect place for mushroom. We climb up, the slop almost 60 degree and the bushes twisted over and cover the path, the wilderness that no one has ever crossed before. Sometimes, the rotten wood block our path and the rock we step on are also slick. The higher we climb, the more moss covering the land even the soil is sometime not visible anymore. We must be very careful at this stage, after 2 hours of opening the bushes, we finally take rest at 2650, it only 100 meters of high different from the camp side, it means 4 contours. But we have walked 2 hours to reach about 800 meters away from the camp site base on gps current position. I break my fasting day, my throat is too dry and I need something to warm up my body, it is rainy and the cold win blow up over and over. The temperature from Casio adventure series on Said wrist shows 12 Celsius degree. Damn cold for me, and it seems Said feel the same as well, his hand never stop shacking after resting for 5 minutes.

This is kind of density rain forest we went through to the peak of Gemiring

I take the map from Said to ensure our position is on track accordingly. We are still on track and it is about 9 contour to climb and 900 m to go. We start to move again just to make a few more steps closer to the peak. 3 pm we stop for lunch, I did not prepare for both of us, so we share one pancake for our lunch. That is not enough, but nothing we can do for a while, the field is getting more difficult to go further more. We sit under the fully covered tree by moss, the temperature is getting low, we both shacking.

“Only the crazy enough would come to cross this fu*ng path”, Said said it while he is enjoying his half pancake. “Like both of us, Said?”. We both laugh loudly for our ridiculous way of life that we choose, the wanderer. “It is our day 9th in the jungle, and if we had trouble here, no one will know, we are about 5 days from the nearest village. Can you imagine how long the evacuation team to be here to help us?, it will be about 12 days since they receive the information. We would have been a rotten corpse Roy, Said said the words without looking at me.” Relax bro, everything gonna be alright”. I just response him with simple words, but we both know that is not that simple to be here, need really expert team to be come here for evacuation.

This is the river in front of our camp site, from this camp site Said and I open the new path to the peak of Gemiring. Image properti of Oli Broadhead

From the analysis we decided to return to the base camp, and we need to develop another strategy to reach the peak, most probably next time. We follow the cutting and string line we attached on the branches. It is much faster to go down to the camp site than climb up to the peak, because we have opened the path to walk through. It makes me little hurry and did not pay proper attention. Within one hour, we almost arrive at the camp site from the last position at 2700 M ASL. 300 meters to the camp site and I saw the big rotten trunk block our path, we passed this trunk before.

This is kind of the track to the peak. You can now have a figure of how we open the path to the peak of Gemiring. In the photo Iris is climbing on the way to the camp site 3 days earlier, it is about 10 hours to the camp site. Image Property of Oli Broadhead

I hold the blade (machete) down to the ground with my left hand while standing on the trunk, looking the spot to land, the sharp edge is toward up front and my grab is numb. I feel numb of my foot as well because of law temperature. I see the right spot to land below the trunk, it would be very easy. Jumped and landing on perfectly, and Said is already on the rotten trunk for his turn. Suddenly, “Roy…your left palm are bleeding”, Said shouted to me. I see my left ring finger is sliced by the blade. The handle of my sharp blade has no blade protector attached to the handle, hence my numb fingers squeezing the blade when the sharp end of the blade stick in on the rock which is covered by moss, I thought the heap was soft moss. I saw it is deep cut to the bone, and I need to stop the bleeding immediately.

Image property of Oli Broadhead

I grab a handful moss and chew it carefully and the other hand press on the wound at my left ring finger. I take the chewed moss and put on the open wound to stop bleeding. Because I knew that moss is able to stop bleeding and it can be first aid anti septic to protect it from the germ before we reach the camp site. Said is helping me to find something to cover my finger and hold the chewed moss press the wound and stop the bleeding. We have no radio nor the signal to inform Oli and Irish at the camp site. We keep walking to the camp and 15 minutes later we reach the camp side. The bleeding has stopped after the moss cover the wound and that is fine now, I only need to find something better to cover the wound properly.

Oli knew a lot more about what I just did with the moss, and he said “It is okay if you have put the moss to cover your wound, you just need to use clean bandage to protect it now, because moss is really good to stimulate the healing process of open wound. Next time you should not chew it, but grind it properly before you use it to cover your wound”. I do what he said, I took another clean and fresh moss and grind it on the rock. Oli help me to open my wound and clean it from the chewed moss with surgical spirit, it bleeds again but not as much as before. I put the mashed moss onto the wound, and use clean bandage to cover it. Every thing gonna be alright!.

I knew some other leafs that can be use for survival medical need, like Saskatoon (wild small berry) can be use for traditional medicine as well when we are at high ground or in the jungle, or wild mulberry is really good for open wound too. Both of those leafs need to be mashed well before it applied to cover the open wound.

Saskatoon wild berry

Wild Mulberry leafs can be used for medication or for open wound

This story is my official entry for NATURAL MEDICINE CHALLENGE #5: SURVIVAL MEDICINE! Win SBD (CONTEST) - DUE NOV 10TH.
please visit this link for more information : https://steemit.com/naturalmedicine/@naturalmedicine/natural-medicine-challenge-5-survival-medicine-win-sbd-contest-due-nov-10th

Thank you for reading my blog.

With my best regard

@el-nailul

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst

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