Jannis‘ lovely voice chases me out of bed early. So I go down to the river. The water has fallen again to normal levels after our big move yesterday. Then we have a civilized breakfast. Or rather a brunch because it’s almost noon. There is freshly-baked pita bread with marmalade and scrambled eggs. (By the way, as I write this it’s now dinnertime and we had beef steaks with rosemary potatoes.) The food here is of a high gourmet standard. In addition we have a wonderful view of lichen-covered trees and the foggy river. Then the day begins. One group will hike to the next sand bank, in order to check out the path and bring some equipment from the last expedition (that is hopefully still there) back into our camp.

I stay with the bigger group in order to clean up a bit after yesterday’s move. And that’s what we do for most of the day: the kitchen is brought back to the river, the tarp put up again, the tents dried, etc. In the evening we gather wood and make a campfire for the above-mentioned dinner. It was excellent. Just before the potatoes were finished cooking, Kai, Pia, Jette, David and Tobi returned – wet but successful – from the sand bank. It had rained more or less all day, but now slowly the sky is clearing.

I sit on a tree trunk that is basically the back wall of our kitchen, and look across the river covered in fog onto the other shoreline. Even though the last few days were somewhat stressful and I just don’t care for rain anymore, I am so unbelievably happy to be here, and wouldn’t trade with anyone. I am excited about the forest, of which we have not yet seen very much. I think though, we will get more of that in the next couple of days.

Julius