|
|
By Debbie Colyer, PKU adult, Sydney, Australia
I left home about 6.30 AM on January 22, 1999 with a friend to catch the bus from Central station in Sydney, Australia, heading for Melbourne. Melbourne is an 8-hour drive south of Sydney. Mum and dad traveled down to Melbourne in dad's car before us, to attend a family friend's wedding. We arrived about 8.15 PM that night with mum and dad waiting for us to get off the bus. I was very excited as this was my first trip away since I had restarted the PKU diet seven years ago.
I took extra tins of Maxamum xp along with us just to be on the safe side as I would rather have too much than not enough. I also took my bread machine as I made up the ingredients before I left home. To make life easier for myself, I decided to take some pasta, biscuits, veggie chips, etc.
Tasmania is south of Melbourne, the island that is broken away from the mainland (as they call it) by bass straight. We caught the "devil cat," which is a huge catamaran that takes up to 200 cars and 500 passengers. The trip across bass straight takes six hours.
The motels that we stayed at were mostly family rooms, which had a kitchen provided, so that the only meal we ate out was dinner. I didn't have any problems with ordering vegetables, and salads as most places were pleased to help in any way possible. As always, there are the odd places that did not want to or could not provide what I wanted so when all else fails I order "wedges" or "fries."
The Tasmanian people are so helpful and pleasant in every way, which made traveling so much easier.
Tasmania is a very lovely place with the most amazing hills and countryside. The cities are beautiful and have mountains surrounding them with the prettiest rivers.
As we traveled by car around Tasmania it was easy for me to take the bread machine, which was great, but if I were going overseas I would contact their support groups and find out how to get their low protein products (especially bread). I would also take a letter from my clinic to explain about my PKU.
Travel is possible with PKU and I would recommend it to everyone. Don't let PKU stop you from doing the things that you want to in life!