A Serendipitous Encounter

This is an ordinary village near an ancient forest. Its inhabitants led honest, simple lives, though perhaps a little isolated.
"Mornin', my boy! Are you off for a walk today too?"
"Yeah, man! I'm going on an adventure today!"
Joseph flexed his biceps and took his first step on today's journey, just as the first golden rays of the morning sun shone on the entrance to the village.
As he had done several times before, he would follow the river right the way to the other side of the forest, and double back when it was time to go home. Apart from a quick break for lunch, the rest of the day was spent hiking—this allowed him to get back just in time for dinner. He'd only been here for a week, and had already made this exact journey five times...
This time, however, he hadn't gone far before he ran into two girls from the village.
The girls felt pretty pleased with themselves when they saw Joseph, because they'd finally managed to beat this outsider to the river for water, and would no longer be teased as lazy by their parents. After exchanging pleasantries, Joseph made way to let the girls go first. As soon as he'd turned around, his ears picked up cheerful, hushed whispering behind him, and he knew they were talking about him.
It's not that Joseph was over-sensitive, just that he was keenly aware how he appeared to the girls... And the whole village. A young man who comes all the way to such a remote place, clamors every day for adventure, then follows the river up and down... Of course they'd think him a bit of an eccentric oddity.
"Foolish—!" To be fair, he also felt pretty stupid. That hadn't changed since the very first day.
Joseph had been looking forward to this trip, as he remembered that his grandfather had always regretted not being able to complete his final expedition. But after the very first day's adventure, he felt a little disappointed. Except for the surprisingly large number of mosquitoes, this was a perfectly unremarkable forest. There certainly wasn't anything to get all excited by.
"Grandpa, what on earth were you thinking?" Joseph had found the whole place so tedious that he had wanted to go home there and then, but had ended up staying. Not for any particular reason, but simply because he'd used most of his savings for the flights and was determined to get his money's worth.
He'd spent a whole sleepless night pondering, wondering just how to give the trip some kind of meaning.
...By daybreak, he had decided: he would look for a serendipitous encounter!
He still didn't have a clue how to actually achieve this goal, just the memory of his grandfather once saying that "the joy of adventuring lies in those serendipitous encounters."
Today, he sets foot in the first light of dawn on the path of adventure, searching for just such a chance meeting...