Most of the sky in Australia is never visible from Europe. Here, I don’t know the names of most visible constellations. But I can still see Orion, surprised to be head over heels*.
* The whole sky is upside down in the Southern Hemisphere compared to how it looks in the Northern Hemisphere
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There are so many more stars in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere! The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud are real “dwarf” galaxies that, despite their classification, actually take a big chunk of the sky.
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I don’t think I will never get used to the Australian night sky. Taken as accounted for by most Australian-borns, it looks just impossible for an European. In particular in Italy it is hard to escape the reddish glow coming from cities and roads. There are just too many people to have such dark skies.
I love the shape of the native Australian trees sketched against the stars.
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The wind always blows from the ocean, creating huge curly waves that break on the rocky shore. Even today, with the calmest ocean I ever saw on this coast, the currents are strong and can slam you on the black rocks that emerge like long blades amongst the sand.
We stay where waves are at waist high water, but some locals venture far away from the shore.
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I love Petrel Cove Beach, in any season. I am happy to show this place to my partner’s aunt, that came visiting us. We enjoy a true break for the first time in a long while. The beach is always almost deserted, a paradise for someone with MCS like me. No-one means no perfumes nor pollution, just wilderness.
There is only the wind, blowing from the ocean.
We are happy.
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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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We found a beautiful campsite at an organic farm near Port Elliot. No pesticides nor weed killer! Our tent looks like a blue pyramid at the top of the hill. If you never saw one like it before… it is because you couldn’t! We made it.
Being allergic to a toxic chemical used in all textiles (with rare exceptions) is not easy. I discovered that I was allergic to optical brighteners a couple of years ago. It has been an incredible challenge to find clothes that I could safely wear. Still, I have not found yet a company selling cotton fabrics completely free from optical brighteners. Let alone a tent! But we loved camping…
I managed to get fabrics made in Germany that were almost OK for me. “Almost” because they still have contamination from optical brighteners, as we discovered later on. My partner Mike engineered the tent you see in the photo and built it with my dad about a year ago. A true, tangible proof of love.
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Eventually, my inflamed body catches an infection. Nothing much to worry about in a healthy person, considering that a simple antibiotic should easily clear it up. However, in my case, it is a red flag. A recent study has found that antibiotic use is associated with chemical intolerance (CI or MCS), demonstrating that
“prolonged courses of antibiotics were associated with increased risk of CI, and with every additional course of antibiotics the odds of CI nearly doubled.” 1
My doctor, with good reason, awaits for the test results before deciding that antibiotics are necessary. Fingers crossed. She says that one course of antibiotics might be sufficient and maybe I will not need a second. Time will tell. We decide to increase the odds by going camping: hopefully my body will react better if I am in a healthier environment, away from the weed killer that caused my health to worsen in the first place.
Finally I can breathe and sleep. In the clear air, a smiling moon waits for the sunrise, next to the morning star.
The longer I stay in the house the worse I get.
It is not just an observation: the doctor told me that I can become more chemically intolerant if I keep getting exposed to the weed killer that our neighbours sprayed. I cannot stay in my garden anymore, I feel immediately too unwell to stand up. Even indoors the air filters we installed are not enough.
We go for a few hours in a natural park on the hills, trying to reduce the mounting pain. My body finally gets a bit of relief. I look up: the native forest is so beautiful. A laughing kookaburra keeps me company on a far tree.
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Every story starts with a challenge to overcome.
Autumn is at the door: it’s weed killer season! All our neighbours’ gardens are sprayed. I get ill: what have I caught? The doctor tells me it is a new side of the MCS: the polluted air is poisoning me.
Let’s go to my favourite beach to breathe. At Maslin Beach, only its stunning beauty takes my breath away.
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