Red Knees

So I like to tell people that I have two colours, white and red. I know how to be careful in the sun and I adhere to the redhead code (Pale is the new tan!) so I felt fully prepared for my fantastic vacation to the equator. However despite my ironclad precautionary measures... well, I failed. Don't tell my dermatologist.

It was the whitewater rafting day - firstly we were told we couldn't bring anything on the raft. So we decided one person would bring a smallish bottle of sunscreen for all of us to reapply. We didn't even bring water... only to find out we could place items in a container at the back of the raft. I guess they didn't want us to overpack but really we were without two essentials - water and sunscreen. And we were on the river for a long time before we stopped for lunch, where I dutifully reapplied and loaded up on iced tea and watermelon...

Everything seemed fine and dandy even when we finished and were drying off and changing - I still looked white. And then on the two hour bus ride afterwards the heat started. By the time we stopped for our first pee break I knew something was horribly wrong. While the lower part of my legs were still whiter than white, under my capris my upper legs were glowing red and smoking hot - the damage was done. When we finally arrived at our next destination it was an epic burn on my knees and upper legs. Crapola!

Despite multiple solarcaine applications throughout the night by morning it was a second degree burn, maybe third... blisters were involved. They oozed... here's a look two days later. Click on the photo - it enlarges for a much better view!!)

The joys of being a blue-eyed, fair skinned redhead.

I can happily report however that I now have all new skin on my upper thighs and knees. And when we got to our last few days on the beach I managed to hold the line and there was no further red added.