We left the ashram
At 7:00 am after having one cup of tea. We are walking in the main road away from Narmada Maiya. Stopped in Bhaka Neelkanth Ashram and had hot Poha and tea for breakfast. After 30
Minutes stop we started walking. We walked about 6–7 km and came to Kanbeda village. The store we stopped at was the Annakshtra place. The store owner asked us if we were going to stay for lunch. The time was only 10:30. We asked for something cold to drink. He had one bottle of berry flavored drink. We shared it. We told him we would have lunch in the next place. We had lunch in Win Restaurant in Kavant town. We took a long lunch break to update blogs. Internet is good in places and not so good in others. We finished updating (when I say we Baiju is uploading the blogs onto the website, I am writing them). We drove to next town Kadipani and stopped at Neelkant Mahadev Mandir. Tambiharidas Thyagiji has been here since 1979. He told us the story of why there is a tortoise in all Shiva temples. “The story goes, Shiva was in meditation and Lord Vishnu wanted to present all the living beings to Him. Vishnu asked Narada to bring all the living beings from earth and have them show their talents. One by one every animal was showing its talent. Lion, Elephant, etc. when it came Tortiose’s turn, Elephant laughed and kicked him saying what can this little animal do? The Tortoise closed itself and was safe. The Lion hit it with its strong paw but nothing happened to the Tortoise. Shiva laughed at the scene and was very happy with Tortiose for have self control. shiva granted a spot for Tortoise to be with him all the time.”
We thought this was an interesting story. We drove off from this place to our final destination for the day Hafeshwar. We got there just in time to get two rooms. Nice place near the River. The original Hafeshwar has been submerged in water since 2018 when the Sardar Sarovar dam was built. Many small villages were also displaced. Today is Lunar Eclipse. Dinner is delayed. We walked 15 kms.