I headed off on my 4WD 4 wheeler bike on a beautiful MacKenzie Country day to spend the day in the hills with my two golden retrievers. They got on to the scent of a possum up a tree. I didn’t have a firearm with me, so got off the bike and shook the tree, only to find that the possum had jumped to another tree. I did the same again, with the same result. On the third try, the possum stayed up the tree. I stepped back and lost my footing on the very slippery mat of larch tree needles and ended up falling 20 metres down a steep bank. I realized I was in trouble when i had to lift my trousers to get my leg to move. I had my cell phone on me, but although I could get it to ring out, the signal was not strong enough to allow any message to get through. I then let off my beacon, which I always keep strapped to my trouser belt. Not long after I heard a helicopter in the area. I could see it searching, but as I was in an area with a lot of tree cover, I knew finding me would take a bit of time. After the third lot of gps co-ordinates were sent through and the search area was cut down, I was located. They had to fly back out to get help to bring me in the stretcher up the hill, but then I was airlifted to the closest hospital with a broken femur. One large operation later, I am thankfully now on the road to recovery.