What the monsoon does to a beach camp

The camp is on sand the river deposited, and every July the river takes it back. From the last week of June the water climbs the beach a metre a day; the tents come down, the kitchen goes up the hill, and by mid-July the place we spend nine months on is under four metres of brown water. It comes back in October, a different shape, and we set out the rows again.

Written from the verandah, with a cup of chai going cold.