I almost made it through the summer without getting burnt. Either this summer was mild or I’m only just getting used to the weather again after 4 years. The house I’m living in faces west and traps the heat. For three summers I have cursed the 4 months of hot days and sleepless nights, but this year there have only been a handful of days that were unbearable. There seemed to be more time between heat waves this year, more time to cool down.
Spending two years in Bhutan, where there was 2000m less atmosphere to filter the UV rays, the sun frequently caught me by surprise. By the end of that time, I’d built up a good tan and, I thought, a resistance to the sun. My first day back in the Australian sun showed me how wrong I was. I was seared in the time it took to mow my mother’s lawn. I learnt my lesson and have been cautious ever since. Despite a number of beach swims (taken early morning, before the flags were up) and even New Years Day on a yacht on the harbour, I have managed to avoid shedding my scalded skin this year.
The last two weekends, when summer was officially over, the sun decided to show us its power. AFS Volunteers and students met for a game of volleyball at Coogee Beach and the hot sand took layers of skin off my feet. Last weekend, at the AFS camp, it was cool and cloudy and seemingly safe, yet the sun was asserting itself from beyond the clouds and occasionally pushing them aside. I neglected to wear a hat and came home glowing red and dehydrated. No amount of aloe vera was going to save me from peeling.
Why is this lesson so difficult to learn? Australians have known how strong our sun is for centuries. We’ve known about the hole in the ozone layer for decades. I’ve been blasted with ‘slip, slop, slap‘ since I was at school. But if you go to any beach in Australia, you’re bound to find bright red people lying in the sun trying to get more colour and they’re not all tourists. The outdoor culture is important to us, but you’d think that we’d have worked out how to balance the time outdoors and how to protect ourselves when we are. Perhaps we deserve to be scorched.
I promise to cover up this weekend on my camping trip.