Day 2 of Narmada walk. Distance covered 17 kms
Total Distance walked:3070 km
Total days:150 days
The last night in the forest was unbearably cold and the rats in the room kept making noise. First thing we did in the morning feed some cookies to the dog who slept hungry last night because of us. 8 AM, we filled our water bottles, wished goodbye to the signature baba and stated our walk.
[ ] First 12-13 km were into the forest only. Trees weren tall, healthy and green. All the time we were next to the river and the sound of river and silence of forest were composing a soothing rhythm. We saw no animals except few wild langoors. Hitesh lost his t shirt which was tied to his back and he didn't bother to go back and look for it. Catalina started developing strain in her legs and a big blister too. At one point she had to stop and remove her shoes.
Hitesh left shoulder pain is visible now and he has to readjust and repack his backpack. For me, I think I have become very immune to walking as a physical process specially after walking in ladakh but there is a constant struggle with the storm of thoughts which comes and gets silenced. There are moments when I'm thinking all kinds of possible things I can create and next moment I walk with no ideas or thoughts. Some time I take a pause to look and admire the huge tree. The sky here is blue most of the time with patches of clouds and many kinds of birds fly above and around.
Eating a wild berry: before crossing the forest, we found some wild fruits. I remember seeing the same tree somewhere near ashram and it made me assume that the fruit is eastable. I ate 7-8 fruits, first it tasted nice but a moment later, everything was burning. My throat and tongue was on fire. I drank water and it didn't help. I knew it wasn't deadly poisonous but that didn't help the pain I was having. Next village was 3 km. So, I kept walking and walking until I reach the village.
I drank 3 bottles of water until I vomitted everything. We ate samosa and drank chai and kept walking.
Afternoon, all the blisters Catalina had on her feet started bursting and she was in crazy pain, angry and anxious. I know it pains a lot but somehow I don't get affected and was very neautal of her pain while hitesh trying his best to help her in all possible ways. The pain was obvious and there was no proper path to walk. It is very inspiring to see her and us walking like this. We were supposed to reach an ashram before sunset but it was dark already and there was a tributary of Narmada to cross. It was dark and we didn't know how to reach. We shouted Narmade har and farmers across the river shouted back. Many voices in the dark were trying to guide us to the path. Finally someone from the Ashram came to help us and in the process he fell and injured his right foot. Finally we crossed the kamandal river and we reached the Ashram where we were treated with chai and bonfire.