'I feel very lucky': Man who fell from Torbay cliff warns of dangers on trails

A man who fell from a cliff while out iceberg spotting in Torbay this weekend says he didn't know the trail he was on could be dangerous, and is warning others to be cautious while out on the province's coastlines.

David Akenhead, 68, headed out to Torbay with his partner on Saturday to get a good look at icebergs close to shore.

Akenhead said his partner Brigid Kellett remained behind in the car because she didn't feel up to a trek in the woods, but he ventured out to try to get a closer photo of the iceberg. He could see it through the trees, but wanted a better shot.

He walked on a trail close to the edge that he thought was safe, but that's when he fell over the cliff.

"Little did I realize that those straw paths are treacherous because inside, under that straw, are streams that rush down the cliffs into the sea, but I didn't know that. A complete rookie, you see," said Akenhead.

"That was lesson number one. I walked on that path, on that grass, and the next thing is I'm flying."

As he was falling, Akenhead grabbed out to try and catch himself on some rocks jutting out from the edge. He managed to catch himself, but the sharp rock he grabbed sliced open his hand.

Akenhead guesses he fell roughly 12 feet and realized he wasn't going to be able to climb his way back up. Instead, he shimmied down the cliff's face the remaining 40 feet to try to swim to a different spot.

"What was I to do? Just stand on this rock and just wait for the evening and then the dark and then I'd be a goner from exposure anyway you know, or take a chance and swim," he said.

However, the swim was a more strenuous task than he anticipated. Akenhead suffered whiplash two weeks prior during a flight and his injured neck made it difficult for him to swim in the frigid Atlantic for very long.

He found a brief reprieve when he swam his way to a small cave where he could stand up in the water, but a "massive wave" washed him out and a strong current dragged him back out into the water.

It was at that point he swam to a large rock and used the last of his strength to climbed up out of the water and try to call for help again.

'You've got to have a sense of humour'

Little did he know, his partner had knocked on the door of a home near where they parked their car and she had alerted the family that Akenhead was gone longer than expected.

The family went out looking for Akenhead. A young girl was the only one who ventured far enough to see him stranded on the rock.

"I actually prayed. I don't often do things like that but I said, 'Help me God, I'm a silly bloody idiot. Please help me,' and then this little girl appeared at the top and said, 'I've seen you and called 911,' sweet thing," said Akenhead.

"I waved and she said, 'You're all right, you hang on in there,' and I said, 'I'm trying,' and a few minutes later, you've got to have a sense of humour — I tell you, you've got to have a sense of humour in all this — all these firemen appear from nowhere alongside her and say, 'You'll be all right mate.'"

A high-angle rescue team was unable to get down the cliff to rescue Akenhead and had to call coast guard, which Akenhead estimates took another 20 minutes or half hour.

As he waited, the girl and firefighters remained at the ledge and continued to talk to Akenhead, and it took him a bit of time to realize one of the voices he was hearing had come from behind him and coast guard had arrived.

"This chap said, 'Oh, you'll be all right mate,' and I said, 'That's what the fireman said.' I was still lucid."

'That was bravery'

He doesn't remember much after that, but said he believed the coast guard responders put him on a board and carted him onto their boat and took him to the dock where he was then loaded into the ambulance.

"I thought I was going to die. I thought, oh, great, it's like a big class movie. I've managed all to get this far and now I'm waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting," he said.

"How'd those guys get up there [on the rock]? That's dangerous, believe you me,that is dangerous, and to do all that in gear and pick me up and put me in that boat, they deserve a medal those guys, I tell you they deserve a medal. That was bravery."

Akenhead said while the experience was traumatic, he feels luck was on his side because other than the hypothermia, some stitches for his slashed hand and medication for a heart arrhythmia, he survived mostly undamaged.

"I feel very lucky talking to you guys."

Akenhead said he wanted to share his story to warn other people — local and tourists alike — to be extra cautious while out trying to view icebergs this season.