We were up early so we could go to Begnas Tal and enjoy a less touristy lake. We took a walk round Pokhura lake to go to the bookshop and do some more swopping but were surprised when it wasn't yet open. We hung around until 9am munching on fake chocolate croissants and sitting by the lake.
When we came back to shop street there were people playing football and badminton in the middle of the road and it didn't take long to work out that there was yet another strike! There was a possibility we'd be able to get by the road blocks on bicycle but it was quite a long way away and we had no idea how flat the road was. We'd already asked about a moped but that was no-go.
We thught through other options in Shiva Cafe by the lake. We hadn't had the famous Pokhura steak so far and they had one on the breakfast menu. It felt very decadent and a little bit gross to order it but it was quite small when it came, and very tasty indeed. The guy who ran the bar came over to chat a little and asked us whether we liked a number of herbs and spices because he was going to make us a special drink. He hopped over the fence, dug around in the bushes for a while and came back out with a handful of leaves. A few minutes later he came over with some 'Himalayan iced - tea' that he'd made from them. It was absolutely stunning! He also suggested that it might be nice to spend the day on a boat on the lake and we agreed.
Being out on the boat was great and made us realise just how big the lake was. We kept stopping for the odd game of cards and relax in the sunshine. I also think it helped Matt not to go crazy because I really am very bad at rowing. The last time I was in a rowing boat I cracked my cocyx just trying to get in the thing and I have no common sense when it comes to rowing. I always felt like I was at odds with what he was trying to do and I think he felt the same. I tried asking him to direct me but in the end it said it was best if I left him to it.
We crossed to a bay at the otehr side of the lake. There was already a group of people there who'd travelled on an awesome pedal boat so we made ourselves comfy on a little handmade bench at the other side and listened to music for a while whilst Matt came to terms with his pedalo envy. Paddle boat envy.
We hadn't been there too long when we noticed a pair of eyes and a long back gliding through the water rond the edge of the bay. Having recently been so close to man-eating crocodiles we were pretty cautious and started wondering what the hell we were going to do. We'd been told how to deal with tigers, rhinos, bears and bison but didn't have a clue how to escape a crocodile. When we saw a number of others following in the same path we were pretty close to panicking. As they scrambled on to land and turned out to be cows we felt pretty foolish. I'm not sure that I knew that cows could swim before though.
At 5pm the strike ended so we got new books and spent some chatting chatting to a group of German lads staying at our hostel. One of them was pretty tall and had the most calloused, horny feet I could imagine. He'd broken his shoes and had been unable to get any in his large size in India and so had worn sandals in all sorts of conditions. When his sandals broke too he'd had to get them fixed but the guy at the street stall had sewn up the foot holes too!
Matt and I went for dinner in one of the intimate cabin restaurants, lit by candlelight rather than noisy generator. We had a gorgeous peanut Sedeko and enjoyed some lovely tea but rest was a little tasteless. It didn't matter though because there was a nice atmosphere and we ony had a short stumble through the dark to get back to our room.
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