Day 2 of the Narmada Parikrama: coffee from the stream and cooking on the dhuni

What a beautiful experience it is: waking up in the middle of the jungle, in a hut made partly of concrete and partly of metal sheets. The wood from last night is still smouldering and smoking a little, with that lovely campfire smell.

Then you walk outside, feel the freshness of the morning and look straight into the wilderness. Trees, green everywhere, and the Narmada flowing past, with little streams running down from the hills into the river. And then that sound of running water.

That gave me an idea: let's make coffee with water from the stream. So I walked to the water with a metal pan, dipped it in and walked back to the hut, where the fire was still smouldering. Some more wood, a bit of gentle blowing, and the fire was burning bright again. Pan on top, and within ten minutes the water was boiling. A little later I was sitting outside again, together with Yasha, who was awake by then too, enjoying a cup of coffee. Life is so good to us, these first days.

And it only got better, because Avdesh and Vijay came walking up with food, which they cooked on our fire: a delicious rice meal with different vegetables and nuts. We were really being spoiled. Little did we know that that same evening we would be completely on our own.

Because then, sadly, came the goodbye: we had to move on to the next ashram, fifteen kilometres further on. With some help from Avdesh we got out of the jungle after seven kilometres, and there we said goodbye to him too. From now on we had to do it ourselves.

We were walking in the inhabited world again. A beautiful landscape full of little rice fields and villages from another era. Really like going far back in time. Lovely old kachcha houses, made of mud and dried cow dung, with blue-painted walls and sloping roofs with orange tiles.

After a lot of navigating, asking the local people for directions and a few rest stops, we arrived at the next ashram just before sunset: Belghat. Another beautiful, remote spot among the rice fields and other crops, with a view over the Narmada. Here too, no bedroom, kitchen or toilet. Just a room with a floor, and that's where you slept. Outside, a shelter that was meant to be the kitchen, with a dhuni: a round fireplace made of mud that you cook on. And the toilet? You just went somewhere behind a little hill, hahaha.

Here it really was just the two of us. The caretaker didn't say much and left again quickly after lighting the fire. He did give Yasha some rice and vegetables. We probably came at a bit of an awkward time, because the festival in honour of the goddess Durga was still in full swing. Yes, we actually started our Narmada Parikrama at a bit of the wrong moment. But hey: go with the flow.

This morning others were still cooking for us; tonight we were on our own. We cooked on the dhuni for the first time, and it still turned into a delicious dish. I really think cooking on wood adds something to the taste. But we were tired, so little accidents were lurking. A pan of water that was sitting wrong on the dhuni nearly went wrong: water got on the fire, and for a moment I thought it was going out. Luckily it just didn't. Count to ten, don't get irritated with each other, and carry on cooking, hahaha. Everything on this journey is a new discovery. You really are a kid on his first day of school again.

After dinner we quickly crawled into our sleeping bags, on our mats on the floor of our temporary kachcha. Outside the fire was still smouldering, just like this morning in the jungle. Only this time we had kept it burning ourselves.

Two days done, with new lessons. And many more to go.