Navsari to Matwad

I meet Erico for breakfast in the dining room but for the first time on this pilgrimage I am tired at the start of the day. We had walked over 20 km yesterday and I ate just one meal of soup and sandwich with a pot of masala tea that only kept me from sleeping. Erico seems quieter also. As we head out the door of the Royal Hotel to begin our walk we ask staff for the directions to the Dandi Path. This initiates a very lively discussion between two of them and Tahir. Erico and I watch, baffled by the evident complexity of it all. They conclude we need a motorcycle escort. The two young men disappear and return fully decked out in helmet and scarf gear - only to go straight!! We part with Tahir and begin our stroll through the awakening Navsari.  A striding Gandhi statue stands at a roundabout- an animated Gandhi. It perks me up to climb the metal staircase and look into his smiling eyes. Yes, Gandhiji, we are getting close! We continue walking past the school children, past the barbers, past the bike repair persons setting up and dusting off their equipment to begin the day’s business. Colourful vegetables arriving fresh from the farms are laid out for sale. It’s a pretty city with a mix of the traditional and newish (1969) with the older holding up better. People are courteous but we don’t have as many personal exchanges as in the villages. We come to a second roundabout where another striding Gandhi is now looking thinner and older. Yes, Gandhiji, we are tired also today. it is a long march to the sea. We circle past him and continue walking, the road more open now as it departs the town centre. The blister on my heel is sore today and makes walking uneven. We pass large houses, newer and showier places with residents out walking large pet dogs on leash. We keep going, another vine snake slithers across the road. Eventually we wonder why we haven’t seen the familiar Dandi Path milestones and stop to check the google map. We discover we had taken another wrong turn after the second Gandhi statue, about 5km back! Yes, we must be weary to keep losing our way. Always resourceful, Erico quickly hails down a vehicle– a children’s school van. The driver stops and drives us back where we can correct our path with still another 8 or 10km left to reach Matwad. It doesn’t feel possible but we move ahead. Erico pauses to photograph a stooped old woman carrying a towering load of sticks on her head, her steps steady with life practice. Shortly after a man on a motorcycle stops and informs us the woman is 95 yrs old. I mine my own strength and continue walking this day’s road that is so beautiful. Old burly neem trees, trunks painted red and white, reach high into the sky, their twisting limbs arching across the road, casting us in shade. I try to ignore the litter in the ditches. We walk and walk, our energy reserve low. Erico wants to arrive in Matwad in time to return to Navsari by car with Tahir by 1pm. He has asked Tahir to arrange for him to attend and photograph the Friday prayer service in the mosque. I won’t be joining them because women are not permitted. We still have another 2km to reach Matwad when Tahir appears. We decide to go with him and start from this point tomorrow morning as we had walked those extra kms in the wrong direction. Erico and Tahir race to the mosque. I eat and read Basho in my room at the Royal Hotel and visit another ATM, all the while wondering about tomorrow’s arrival to Dandi Beach.