The Battle with the Waves (Day 51 of the World Trip)

25.10.2019

This morning we woke up and it wasn't raining!!! Yay!! The surf school also texted us that they would pick us up at 7:20 am as usual. Perfect :)

On the way to Black Beach, we picked up the other couple again and I was a bit unsure because there were FOUR surfboards on the roof (one for me??!!). When we arrived at the beach, the fourth board was put aside, so I could fully concentrate on my role as a spectator and hobby photographer :p

As a surf instructor, Krishna was in action again (the one from Day 2, when I gave up... -.- ). At first, he stayed with the girl, so her boyfriend and Jonas could try it out on their own.

The water was wild again. The current was strong and the waves were coming sideways again. I wasn't there, but I could see (and later hear from those involved) that it was super exhausting to go out into the sea to catch a wave! :O

When Jonas could try it out on his own, it wasn't so bad! He didn't have to "paddle" because the wave was already strong enough and he could simply stand up as we had practiced in the first two hours. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at pressing the button at the right moment, but I think I caught him a few times with the camera :)

Besides the three, there was also another surf school, but the students had to fight hard there too. After about 15-20 minutes, the couple from our class gave up. They reached the beach (if you can call it that :D ). Actually, there's the sea, then the beach, and then the rocks. Today, however, the water often reached the rocks. I even nobly saved the couple's things when a wave came up so high :p

The two of them sat on their boards for a break and Jonas had a bit of one-on-one attention from Krishna. Jonas kept fighting through the waves, but he was slightly less successful with the instructor than when he tried it on his own before. Hmm. At some point, Jonas also came out because he needed a break. He was completely out of breath and looked so exhausted :D

By the way, at that moment I was glad that I didn't attend my additional hours. In conditions like today, where even the couple was "struggling", I would probably have been pretty lost ;-)

For a while, Jonas was back in the water with Krishna and the couple decided to go back to their hotel. Before that, the girl remarked approvingly that she was surprised that Jonas had lasted so long in the water until the next break :O The other surf school had also given up by now, but another school with three students and three trainers arrived.

As we observed the day before yesterday, the students there were allowed to simply lie on the board and be pulled out by their teacher instead of "fighting" there :D I don't think it would have been possible for the female participants there any other way :O While this group was trying it out, Jonas had more success again and although he often looked exhausted, he still smiled and had fun. He generally enjoys physical exertion ;-)

His last two attempts in particular were really good again! Once he surfed all the way to the beach and then could jump off the board instead of falling! Not bad^^

After the class, we walked back to the hostel and finally had breakfast!!! Along with oat flakes with coconut milk (refined with chocolate cookies of course) or toast with peanut butter (without trans fats! :D), each of us also got a piece of cake. Somehow we have to finish it up :O :D Jonas finished his piece, but I struggled a bit. Unfortunately, if necessary, we will have to throw away the rest, but Jonas had some of it again tonight and maybe he will have the last bit for breakfast tomorrow ;-)

After breakfast, we wrote the blog from yesterday, and then we went to the Darjeeling Cafe at noon, as we had originally planned for yesterday. They do offer vegan and vegetarian dishes, but when we received the menu, we also found some dishes with chicken or seafood.

Actually, we had planned to alternate between local cuisine and Western food, but even though we had Western food yesterday, Jonas and I both ordered noodles again today :D What can you do? :p According to his statement, his spaghetti with olive oil and garlic were the best he ever had :O We will probably go there again tomorrow and maybe he wants the exact same dish again^^

(By the way, I had penne with eggplant and olives, and the taste of olives will probably remind me of Fatma forever :D)

Oh, and while we sat there and ate, with a sea view as in all cafes here, we suddenly saw dolphins!! At first, I didn't believe Jonas when he said he saw one, but then I saw several of them frolicking there <3 It was probably the first time for both of us that we could see dolphins in the wild. Really cool :)

After eating, we went to the beach. Since the sky was bright blue today, it was super hot and I convinced Jonas to rent a parasol! Yippee! For 200 rupees (about 2.50 €), we could have the umbrella for the whole day - a ridiculously low price compared to umbrella rentals in Europe, for example ;-)

It was really nice in the shade and I didn't complain that it was too hot :p

Fortunately, today we were allowed to go into the water, even if only up to our hips, but thanks to the waves, we still got completely wet if we wanted to :) Unfortunately, a lot of garbage had washed up due to the current :( With every wave, there was various trash around us or sticking to us :/ Lots of plastic bags, food packaging, but also a whole dress or a kitchen sieve... Some tourists pulled the trash out of the water, but there was just too much. Really a shame!

The crazy thing is that you can't simply blame this on India and its garbage problem, but this garbage can theoretically come from anywhere; from the boats, for example.

Julie told us yesterday that there are women who get paid to collect the trash on the beach, but they can hardly keep up. Shortly before Jonas and I wanted to go back to the hostel, we saw a middle-aged woman with a straw hat and that trash grabber that we all know from school and cleaning the schoolyard. She was accompanied by an Indian and both of them had a huge cloth bag to collect the garbage! That in itself is cool, but what impressed me even more was that the tourists they passed stood up and helped pick up the trash <3

Two girls our age even accompanied the two of them until we couldn't see them anymore! Spontaneously, just like that, and without expecting anything in return ;-) Awesome! :)

When we finally left the beach, the sea had calmed down quite a bit. We're curious to see if it will look like that tomorrow morning, and if so, Jonas might even be able to improve his surfing skills even more. We're looking forward to it!