5. A (late) Summer day
Today still feels like Summer. Even the ocean is calm and in the crystal clear waters of Horseshoe Bay a seal is showing off.
The water near the shore is shallow but full of life: fishes play hide-and-seek in a dense forest of plants and colorful algae. I was missing being immersed in this amazing underwater world.
The sun is not truly strong for Australian standards (it is Autumn after all) but my sun allergy caused by optical brighteners is not yet completely gone. As I explained before, I am not really allergic to the sun, but to optical brighteners: if I manage to avoid these widespread chemicals, the sun doesn’t give me any problems. I spent most of the last six months indoors with painful rashes and nausea. It took so long to figure out how my skin got in contact with the allergen that it has not been easy to recover when I finally removed the culprit. Once optical brighteners go in the skin, it takes a lot to remove them.
As the middle of the day gets closer, I start feeling the first warning signs of my sun allergy. I have to go looking for some shadow. We spend the hottest hours of the day in the light shade of native trees of a conservation park.
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