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Published: December 20th 2007
Rainbow - Coogee Beach
If you look close, the end of the rainbow falls in a cemetery. Okay... about that surf trip. 😉
Shawn and I got up early and headed to Bondi Beach to be picked up (later learned they pick-up at Coogee Beach, as well). After breakfast at a sidewalk cafe, we waited outside Bondi Backpackers (a hostel). After waiting about 15 minutes, a guy came running up and asked if we were going on the surf trip -- we then followed him a few blocks, joined some other people in the van, and off we went.
With the trip, they apparently determine which beach to go to each day depending on the waves and the crowds. We took a long drive (with a grocery run along the way) to the most southern part of Sydney to Bate Bay. (http://www.freewebs.com/thedeepblue/Boat%20Harbour.jpg).
After we arrived at the beach we had to walk a little ways and then pile into an 4WD SUV on the beach in order to drive us further south on the beach (we began at Boat Harbour and, I'm guessing, ended up at Wanda Beach). This set of beaches makes up the longest stretch of sand in Sydney and it is beautiful. It is also, I was told, the only beach that
Surfboards, Sun, Ocean, and Sand
Wanda Beach? (one of the beaches in Bate Bay) is allowed to be driven on.
After unloading and started the surf class. Similar to what I did in Santa Cruz where we laid the board down and went through the motions of paddling, arching, standing up, etc...
However, before starting, we all got to pick out our board... I quickly picked up a nice one in good shape. We then laid them on the sand and went to put on wetsuits. When I returned... lo and behold... some girl had taken my board right beside her boyfriend. I let it slide... if it had been a guy taking my board... different story. Anyway, I just stood by another board and waited. Well, another girl walks up and stands by the board next to me... I can tell she is uneasy and the board she is standing next to looks like crap, so I have to ask "Is this your board?" And it was... so I took the crap board -- how bad? Well, the board had the front nose literally duct-taped down to hold to hold it in place.
There weren't any other boards so I lived with it. After an hour of nose-diving into the
waves, though, I gave up on it... luckily Shawn was tired and I borrowed his board for awhile. I did a little better, but not much. I was still nose-diving into the waves, just not as much or as bad.
Lunch was nearing and I felt like I was improving... I stood up a few times. I felt like after lunch I would start doing a much better. But there wouldn't be anymore surfing for me after lunch. 😞
I made the mistake of getting too close to one of my fellow learner surfers (actually, I didn't even know she was near me).... and I try to catch a wave... I stand up briefly and then fall... and then I feel someone falling beside me, as well... I fall back into the wave a little bit and the fin of her board hit my foot hard. After the wave died down I lifted my foot out of the water and saw a red gash contrasted against the pale skin on the bottom of my foot.
Blood was dripping off my foot as I hopped back on the beach towards the group; I sat down on the closest
Beyond the Balcony Bars
Gordon's Bay up top, Coogee Beach at the bottom. surfboard. One of the staff tightly wrapped up my foot with his shirt. I needed to go to the hospital... but they asked if I could wait until after lunch. Frankly, I was kind of amused at how lackadaisical they were about it. During lunch the staff guys proceeded to show me their surfing scars and tell me their injury stories (with all cheerfulness)... one guy broke his collar bone and started surfing again before it healed, another guy showed me a big scar on the side of his foot where a fin had cut him, etc.). They also told me about learner surfers past that had gotten banged up (I wasn't the first person they had driven to the hospital 😊.
After lunch one of the guys drove me to the hospital and I waited about three hours before the group arrived to pick me up. Still waiting, I decide to go back to the hotel and then go to another hospital.
After they dropped Shawn and I off at the hotel, we took a cab to another hospital where they treated me right away. This is when the cut really started hurting... the nurse cleaned out
The Damage
A very lasting and memorable souvenir. my wound with a few different solutions and then injected local anesthesia -- it hurt a lot, but it was also unsettling to have it on the bottom of my foot. She then put five stitches in... with the anesthesia none hurt except the last one. She also gave me crutches and explained to me how to walk with them (this was the first time I have ever needed crutches), and prescribed me two antibiotics.
Since I was a foreigner there was a charge for the medical care... $100. That was it. The prescriptions cost $31 and the crutches cost $40 (actually, $5/week, but I had to bring them with me for the trip home). Total cost - $171. For equivalent treatment in the States... it would likely cost upwards of $500... that is at the least. When everything in Australia seemed to cost so much more, the health care cost far less than what I pay in the States. Granted, some of that is probably subsidized by taxes (Australians don't have to pay at the counter... just foreigners). I'm still on the fence about nationalized health care. I would love it in the States if our government was,
oh, I dunno -- disciplined. 😊 A national health care system in our current political environment, though, would probably be a one-way ticket to national bankruptcy (actually, we are only a hair away, anyway). Moving on... 😉
And that was the end-cap of my weekend.
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During the week... work, work, work. Eat, eat, eat. And hobble around everywhere on crutches while being asked dozens of times what on earth I did to my foot.
Shawn got to make the most of it, though. He went scuba diving on Monday and did two dives. And on Tuesday he got to do a little surfing. On Wednesday, though, he headed back to Bahrain. When I got back from work that day I was a little sad. Traveling with family and friends is generally a lot better and more fun. However, my co-workers were still there and we had a pretty good time.
On Friday, one of the guys from work gave me a quick tour around the area. We headed to Marouba Beach and La Perouse. Beautiful scenery and Marouba Beach is, I think, better than both Bondi and Coogeee. Great surf and less crowded than
Bondi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Perouse%2C_New_South_Wales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroubra,_New_South_Wales
On Friday, we took off of work a little early... around 3 PM, I think, and headed to Marouba Beach. After seeing it in the morning, I persuaded my co-workers to go there. We were going to go to a cafe or bar, but the sky was clear and it felt 80 degrees F with a light breeze, so we bought a beer for each of us from a nearby bottle shop (liquor store) and walked out to the beach.
We sat and talked in the sun while slowing sipping our beers, watching the waves, the surfers, and, um, the girls 😊. It was a great way to kind of cap off the trip. It was kind of serene, you know... it was alright... mate. 😉
That night we went into town and had dinner at the Quayside Brasserie restaurant right in front of town. On a Friday night, getting to town -- whether or not to take a car -- is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't". If you take a car, there is almost nowhere to park and probably nowhere close to where you want to get. If
you don't take a car, good luck hailing a cab at 11 PM when everyone is trying to get home; we actually parked out a bit and took a cab in (since I was on crutches -- and I actually hailed the cab while passing in front of it... hopping quickly on one foot as I crossed the street and waving one of my crutches at him -- it got his attention and, apparently, was quite a funny site to see as they were laughing pretty hard).
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The next day I packed up and headed to the airport... leaving the sliding glass door open -- with thesun shining in and the ocean breeze gently blowing through the curtains. And as I left the hotel room from the other side I watched the view to the ocean disappear as the front door slowly closed ... the journey home had begun... on crutches no less.
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Being on crutches is strange enough, while traveling on a 24 hour in-transit journey from Sydney to Kalamazoo with crutches is stranger. Luckily, I could put pressure on the ball of my foot (the cut is right in the back-middle part
Menu and Water
At the Quayside Brasserie - http://www.quaysidecafe.com.au/ of my foot - as you can see in the photo above) and make it around without the crutches. It still was difficult, but I was able to move my luggage from place to place (crutches in one hand, pulling my rolling duffel with my other, and with my carry-on backpack on).
After the three flights an 24 hour transit time, I arrived in Kalamazoo to 20 degrees F and snow... yes, snow. This was untenable, so I opened my bag, pulled out a tennis shoe, and loosened the laces as far as they would go in order to fit my foot in (it was still a little swollen). I then made my way to the car wearing my sweater. At my car the first thing I did was grab and put on my hat, gloves, and coat. I then knocked off the snow off of my car. It snowed eight inches that night.
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Awwww
Just wanted to say that I like your pics, I live in Chiang Mai - Thailand, but spent some years when I was young at Maroubra...brought back memories. Thanks. Sorry about your foot, what a bummer.