My biggest fears since coming to the land of bountiful flora and fauna has been an attack by one of the 3 S's: snakes, spiders or sharks. Always lingering in the back of my mind as I step into the ocean is the thought that a great white could be lurking in the waters, waiting for me to come out deep enough that it can eat me up in one quick bite. Yet, I always rationalize in my mind that it is more risky to drive in a car than to go swimming in the ocean- statistics say that there is more chance of getting in a car crash than getting eaten by a shark. I think God was trying to drive home this point to me on Sunday and reassure me that the waters are safe and I need to be more careful on the streets.
I got up early and headed out for a morning surf lesson. A friend of mine, actually a Canadian friend of mine (she and her hubbie moved here "for the lifestyle, of course!" ) has graciously lent me her extra mountain bike for my time here, so I've been loving speeding around the gorgeous river bike paths and avoiding the buses/trains as much as possible! My journey to this beach is quite a long one- bike for about 25 minutes, hop on a train for another 15 minutes, and then another bike ride for about half an hour...and then finally the beach! It was packed yesterday as it was an amazing 33 degrees celsius with bright blue skies. For the first time, it was too hot to wear a wetsuit in the water! The surf lesson went fabulously, followed by a few hours hanging out on the beach with some friends and then I started the bike ride home.
I had just gotten off the train and was about to start my last leg of the journey home. I gave a quick head check to see that there were no cars coming and started to pull out to cross the street. This is a main road that's always busy cause it links two highways. Just as I was pulling out into the street, I looked to my LEFT and saw a bright purple sports car hooning (note: this is one of my new australian words which means speeding) straight at me! The car swerved to miss me just as I slammed on my breaks and pulled back...it narrowly missed me by about a foot! I almost had a panic attack as I stood there with my bike on the sidewalk, staring at a line of cars waiting for their light who I'm sure were all saying to their passengers, "Another stupid biker, no wonder they always get hit"...quite humiliating to say the least. On the way home I couldn't get it out of my head how close I had come to being plowed over and left as roadkill on Canning Highway in Perth, Australia. It made me think about how irrational my fears of sharks have been and how much more aware I need to be when I'm biking and walking in this country of left-sidedness. So no, I can't tell you any fantastical story about a close call with a great white or a giant jelly fish sting, but I will say that the roads are just as dangerous a place as the great deep ocean.
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