Day 5 – 27th January 2011

Date : 27th January 2011
Start : Katpor - Mithitalai
End  : Nareshwar

Distance :  202 km

Day started at 4.00am at the Gopal krishna Dharmashala. Everyone was getting ready to catch the boat.

Taking bath in open in the cold was a fun.
Till rest members got ready , I accompanied Narendra swami to Koteshwar temple as he wanted to visit his Guru before leaving.

By 5.30am all were at the sea shore. The water in creek was slowly rising at it was quite some time till the tide reaches the boats.
Everyone was shivering with cold. Narendra swami , myself and one more young member decided to walk back to the aashram to prepare some hot tea for all.

By now I was experienced in lighting the chul (चूल) :)

On getting some hot tea all gave us good blessings. Some people gathered dry bushes and made a campfire to fight the cold.

It was almost 8am when the tide was at a good level. Now was the daunting task to push these large 2 boats in the waters. The mud was quite slippery and the boats were heavy.

All men joined and with a chorus of Narmade Har (नर्मदे हर च्या जालोशात) we pushed the boats in water.

I was standing almost in feet deep mud and helping mom and dad and rest all to get into the boats.

Standing there I clicked lots of snaps of these Parikramawasis traveling by boat.

I knew I was gonna miss the fun and thrill of the boat , but I had to get my car across to other end before the boat reached.

The boats sailed through the sea almost a distance of 70km in around 4.5 hours.

After dispatching the boats I cleaned myself of the mud and the drove to Mithitalai which is on the North bank of the creek where Narmada river meets the sea.

Route : Katpor - Ankaleshwar - (then over the long Narmada bridge) to Baruch - Jageshwar - Mithitalab or Mithitalai.

Mithitalai is a small temple and has a well near it. Once these parikramawasi embark on this bank they have to again cross the knee deep mud to come to the shore. They all got cleaned themselves up at this well.

I pulled water by bucket from the well to help all clean themselves.

Mom and dad really enjoyed the boat journey. Mom also offered prayer (ओटी भरली) during the boat journey.

After having lunch there we drove to Nareshwar which is around 150km.

Route : Mithitalai - Baruch ( Badoda highway ) till Pillaz and take a right under the bridge to go to Nareshwar.

Nareshwar is a scenic place on banks of Narmada.
The river here is wide calm and clean.

We stayed in the beautiful Aashrama of Rangavdhoot Swami (रंगावधूत स्वामींचा मठ).

It was a very calm peaceful place. Beautiful garden.Very quite and calm.
Many parrots ,owls , squirrles around.

There were many flower shops selling thick garlands of fresh roses.
On enquiring came to know that there were large fields of roses around.
The place was filled with fragnance of roses.
I brought a nice garland of rose for the car :)