Alexander Gorecki was lying in a ditch, dropping in and out of consciousness and wondering if what he could see was real.
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The 26-year-old was concussed after falling off his mountain bike in the Brindabella Ranges while coming down Mount Franklin just before sunset last Sunday.
At first he wasn't sure whether he was imagining the man in the wheelchair who was talking to him.
"It was like a camera coming back into focus," Mr Gorecki said.
"He's talking to me and I'm thinking, 'What's going on?' I was on my bike and that was all I remembered."
Mr Gorecki would later learn that the man in the wheelchair, Daniel Savage, was not only real, but quite possibly a lifesaver.
Without Mr Savage's help, Mr Gorecki believes he might have been left lying in that ditch all night, in a remote area with no phone reception.
When the two men reunited on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin on Saturday, Mr Savage told the Sunday Canberra Times he was driving down Mount Franklin when he saw Mr Gorecki, a few hundred metres ahead of him, fly off his bike and land in a ditch beside an embankment.
Mr Savage quickly pulled over and got into his wheelchair, fearing a serious accident because Mr Gorecki didn't appear to be moving.
"Luckily, by the time I got out and around to him, maybe three or four minutes after he’d fallen, he’d managed to roll himself over," Mr Savage said.
He said Mr Gorecki was able to stand up, and while he was a little bit shaky on his feet, seemed OK other than the fact he kept asking the same question.
So Mr Savage, who had come to the Brindabellas to take photos for the wards of the new University of Canberra Hospital, found himself heading for Canberra Hospital to deliver a dazed Mr Gorecki to the emergency room.
Luckily for Mr Gorecki, scans and X-rays revealed no serious injuries and he escaped the incident with only a concussion, bruising, cuts and scrapes.
He said because the crash, which he believed was caused by some loose gravel, happened around sunset, he might have ended up lying unseen in a ditch all night if not for Mr Savage's help.
"I couldn’t be more grateful," Mr Gorecki said.
"I’ve got no words to describe it. I’d probably still be lying in a ditch somewhere in Namadgi if it weren’t for him.
"It’s an incredible series of events and the fact that Daniel was there was a lifesaving moment, no doubt about it."
