On day me and Justin decided to get out of the town and go find this man made beach that we had been told about. As with the other experience on his motorbike getting lost trying to find a waterfall, this road trip was also eventful with us stopping for directions about 3 times, then driving up the motorway the wrong way before being barked at by scary dogs when we took a wrong turn up an alley way.
Finally we made it. The town had created a man made beach around this huge tranquil lake framed by mountains. We grabbed some beers, some retro deck chairs, had a little paddle in the green algae lake before chatting until the sun went down.
As well as the Peace Cafe family I also got close with the London brothers, Jonny and Justin, and spent many a night drinking and chatting till the early hours. Now these two are a perfect example of how traveling breaks down boundaries, we even joked that if we met in a pub in Manchester we wouldn’t give each other the time of day based on looks and the persona that gives off.
Justin is a chain smoking stocky cockney geezer covered in tattoos with a skinhead. From the outside I reckon he would be tagged as a guy not to be messed with that uses his fists rather than words in a fight and he said he thought I would have been a stuck up poser.
But I am defiantly learning not to judge a book by its cover and quickly discovered that underneath all the ink he is such a gentleman (albeit with a potty mouth), very intelligent and has lived this chequered interesting life that has seen him travel the world with mind blowing stories to be told including mixing with royalty, being addicted to heroin, and living the punk life with a full on Mohican! I was fascinated spending time with him.
I have mentioned before on this blog that backpacking strips you down as there is no way you can be glam in a vest top and shorts (unless you are Lara croft). I showed Justin pics of me on recent nights out in Manchester before I left and he agreed that if we had been in the same bar in England we would have walked straight past each other. I think it’s so important that we don’t act on whatever perception we have of people who may look a particular way, as if either of us had done that then we wouldn’t have had so much fun together.
