Beach traffic

We were up by 7, and out by 8, and had a long drive up the beach. There's lots of traffic, which is why it's dangerous. Since there are no lanes, when a truck is coming you're not sure if it will pass on your left or your right. You are supposed to bear left, and signal a left turn so you don't crash in to each other, but we were the only ones signaling. You also have to watch out for washouts, places where water has washed away the sand. I gave it a go, and surprisingly had not problems after not driving for two months. Shifting with my left hand turned out to be easy; the hard part was the turn signal, which was on the other side. I kept turning on the windshield wipers. It was fun, though, and I got up to 50 km/hr (31 mph)), which seemed pretty fast on the beach. I even got to drive briefly on an inland road, which was like driving a train, since the truck follows the grooves in the sand.

On the north end of the island we had to cross through knee-deep sand. We just had to put it in second and floor it, and we passed right by a truck stuck in front of us. However the campground was all deep sand, and we got stuck several times, and had to push. The flies here are really bad; wherever you go you have your own personal swarm. That, the heat, and the sand made me quite uncomfortable. There are no showers, so a dip in the Champaign Pools helped, but I cut my hand on some rocks when the tide knocked me over. On the walk back to camp we saw a whale or a dolphin, and there was a fearless dingo on the beach.

After dinner we found we had a dead battery. Luckily an Aussie camping nearby had jumper cables. He had some beers with us, and said he has never had Fosters. Real Aussies drink VB, XXXX, or Toohey's New. Like most Europeans, the Swedes smoke like chimneys, but they said they normally use something called "snuz," which is a little ball of tobacco you put between your upper lip and gum, which you can only get in Scandinavia. I tried one, and it made my lip feel hot and tingly. Not a big fan. Since they talk in Swedish so much, I learned a little. The Welshman said to say "Yavay Svenska" when they do this, which means "f***ing Swedish." People kept wandering over to our campsite since the other groups went to bed so early. We were up till 1.