The official journey is over — but we’re still moving, still documenting, still listening as we bring the ship back home. The crew has changed: Gigi and Stephan have left; Markus and Christine remain on board, heading upstream with a changing cast of artist-friends. The logbook continues.
We started early today, hoping to cover some distance – we’re moving more slowly against the current than expected. But after just 10 kilometers, we had to stop. A push boat was stuck in shallow water, and other vessels began detaching their barges, scouting the passage back and forth to find a navigable route.
So we spent nearly two hours watching this unexpected choreography of push boats zigzagging across the river, sounding out the shallows.
It was a cool morning, and the scene was surprisingly captivating.
As we waited, two jackals appeared along the riverbank – calm, watchful, entirely unimpressed by the human drama around them.
There’s been no real rhythm or steady routine for days. But knowing that both will eventually return makes it easier to surrender to the shifting pace, to the unexpected.
The landscape, too, is in motion – the shoreline constantly changing. And although we’ve already traveled downstream, we only remember it in fragments: a curve in the river, a smell, a sound, a feeling.
