It not like lights flashing before your eyes, but more like a frozen stomach and hot flashes all at once. A friend and my self were on a motorbike cruising around the Cape mountain roads. It was a lovely day, just right, the breeze across my face was refreshing and the bikes momentum was peaceful.
The road is windy; one side is mountain all the way up the other side a shear drop down a rocky drop all the way to the ocean. My friend was a competent bike rider, and we had ridden together before. It was just a fluke and when it happened, it was a total shock; we were riding along enjoying the ride, when we came across some construction. The lolly pop man waved us through; there were huge bolder moving vehicles one side, other big things and a crane. We were driving on through nice a slowly when out of the blue the crane with some thing hanging from it came right at us. Suddenly all hell broke loose, the lolly pop man yelling at the crane operator, men running and my friend trying for all his life’s worth to stay on the road away from the cliffs and the emerging crane. 
WOW, host flushes, ice knot in the stomach, life in your throat and a cliffs edge hugging us. We rode the edge of that cliff for in felt like an eternity, only seeing the jagged rocks beckoning us and the cold cold water lapping up at us. Shear silence, extreme fear, and one of the longest moments of my life.
Yes we made it I am telling the story. The panic on all the men’s faces when they saw the crane coming for us was terrifying, our lives had been in their hands, and the relief when we after an AGE made in back on to sure footing of the road, there was cheers, and a big sigh from the both of us.
My friend and I rode home in silence, what could you say! We each reacted to our new death experience in our own way. I did commend him for his steady hand and brilliant control of his bike.
It may not surprise you, but no I never got on a bike again. It is not that I avoided them, but that I never had the opportunity to do so. May be God was telling me some thing and yes I am listening…………………..
Nearly being tossed over the cliffs was not the only encounter I had in that area in the Cape. I had been having some inner conflicts and was trying to work them out, which I preferred to do my self. But on this occasion I had developed weeping excema not a pleasant thing and I seeked medical help to try and control it. (A note weeping excema is a nervous reaction that escalates when in distress, the only way to help it is to try and come to terms with your problems and to try and relax, problems only get worse when we worry and no problem is ever solved when we get anxious herbal remedies work)
Well on this occasion the doctor gave me some pills to relax me, he said that I could drive, and lead a normal life all it would do was calm me down. 
He forgot to tell me that I would think that I could fly, or that I would speed feeling nothing and that I would have no control over my senses at all. It was I think like being high, indestructible and no care in the world.
So in this state I got in my car and went for a drive with my dog Kandy, a beautiful wonderful border collie. I have no recollection of getting to the road that I was on, the same stretch that newly killed me before. Curve to curve I swung, speeding along as if there was no tomorrow, and for me the nearly was no tomorrow.
There is a viewing point on this Cape road on the way to Norduc, that people stop off at to look at the wonderful view of the mountains, rocks and ocean embracing the shores below. A long way below. For some reason they never put a railing along the edge to stop accidents or indeed the multiple suicides that happen in this area.
I was driving a manual Triumph Spitfire 1968, with the roof down enjoying the wind in our hair and fur. My Kandy being of high doggy intuition sensed that some thing was wrong. She looked at me and barked at me, I in my joy Ville state barked back. Then she put her paw on me, I shook it, THEN SHE THREW HER ENTIRE BODY ON ME WHICH SAVED MY LIFE. As she did that my foot came of the pedal and I skidded onto the site seeing curve and came to a stop right on the edge, and with only a shear drop down only a foot away.
Whatever high I had been on came to a complete abrupt stop. My reality slapped me in the face. We had come so close to death that it shook both of us for a while. Kandy cradled in my arms and I hugged her in gratitude for my life, and hers.
Had I heard the calling of the dead, the ones who had jumped to the deaths, in some way it did feel like they were calling me beckoning me to join them and being on such a high with no reality to cling to I could have easily gone to their calling with out intending to.
I tell people a lot of this miracle dog who saved our lives. With out her knowing that some thing was really wrong, I would have been dead before I new it and with the death of my Kandy on my hands as well.
Even though I have known dreadful darkness in my life and had very dark thoughts, I never would have committed suicide, be cause I always felt that life was worth it some where if only I would reach for it, and now because of my faithful friend Kandy I have my Kokomo another border collie who in some way I owe my life to day as she set me on the road that I am on now, the road worth very much living for.
