Dolphin Spotting in Konkan!!

Dolphin Spotting in Konkan
Hi guys,
Well I am back from another fabulous road trip to the konkan coast (this time to the central part of it). To cut a long story short—I saw dolphins and some fabulous sights, and beaches which have been captured as photographs. So here goes my trip log day wise!!



Day 0: (Preparation day before the trip commences and how it all began)
One of my best buddies from engineering college (now a businessman) Mr. Pritam Sengupta called me belatedly to wish me on my birthday. I don’t have the answer to your question if you are wondering how come one of my best friends forgot my birthday,, hehe! So during our telephonic conversation I asked him if he was game to ride to the konkan coast with me double seat on my beloved Yamaha Rxz bike. Actually I asked a lot of people for this trip, almost everyone agreed but, in the end everyone had some commitment or the other. But to my pleasant surprise Pritam agreed instantly like two minute maggi noodles. For your information, this buddy of mine was flying from Kolkata to and fro for this bike trip, so you can get an idea about kya dosti hai hamari (the poor guy needed a break as well, business is taxing especially if its your own ,,he he). So we freezed our plan from the 3rd to the 6th of April, but eventually we had to cut down a day because Pritam had to return on the 6th back to Kolkata. So now our revised trip plan was only 3 days from the 3rd to 5th April. Pritam arrives in Pune on the 3rd of April (Thursday) at 1.30 in the night, luckily he got down at E-square multiplex which is like five minutes from my place and I go pick him. We manage a few hours sleep and wake up at 5 am and get ready. I put in 2 shirts, socks, Vaseline, my driving license, helmet lock, cap, a bottle of water, shorts, wallet , road map in my bag and put this bag into the bag Pritam had got( it was huge) but since I put my bag also in his bag, it became quite heavy.

Day 1: Journey commences Just before we leave, Pritam asks me for a helmet, I have only one helmet for my single head unlike Ravana from Ramayana is what I tell pritam. But pritam insisted for a helmet, so we call up his relative in Pune who fortunately had a spare helmet which we pick up from CC (chandani chowk in Pune parlance). We finally left at 6.30 am and I decided to take the Tamhini ghat route once again. It was a smooth ride as always, we first stop about 70kms from chandani chowk for a leak, clicked some pics of the Mulshi Lake and further up of the surrounding mountains which guard the road like its baby. I have not uploaded these as I have dozens of them now (having taken this route many times).
I told Pritam to cover this route sometime during the monsoon during which he will see waterfalls all around the majestic Sahayadri mountain range. He spotted the marks of dried up falls originating from the hills. Now without wasting time we quickly reached national highway -17(Mumbai- Goa road), Pritam wanted a halt now for some tea, but since I was riding, the brake was in my control and I was in no mood to stop. My original plan was to go to Sindudurg sea fort which is just short of Goa, via internal konkan roads. On the Mumbai-goa highway slightly ahead of Mangaon I stopped, and called a friend (Praveen Sathaye), he told me to ask for ‘Toll phata’ and just carry on straight and head for Dapoli village. Well I did exactly that and to be dead sure also asked a few auto rickshaw guys at the ‘phata’ itself.
From here on Pritam began riding the bike and I was pillion, we had covered about 100kms and were as per schedule of reaching Guhaghar beach town by crossing the creek at Dabhol after putting my bike in the jetty and spending the night at Guhaghar beach.




Now as we took this internal road, out jaws dropped, a river called ‘Veer’ runs almost parallel along the road for quite a distance and the scenery is gorgeous. We spotted a few stairs leading to the river while riding and again stopped for some photography. I again spoke to Pravin from here and while talking slipped and maybe in one of the pics you see the bruises on my elbow, luckily the jacket did not tear despite the rocky terrain and my phone even though it plummeted quite a distance was fine (Nokia phones are sturdy). Do not miss the Veer river shots we took, later on as we hopped on the bike again, we automatically had to stop , a gorgeous view of the river surrounded by farms downhill , a small piece of land jutting into the river and trees all around is what we saw from uphill. So again we had a ball of a time taking pics!! Do not miss these shots, they are taken at a village called Dabhol (not to be confused with the Enron-dabhol project, in the konkan there are villages and beaches with identical names. We truly enjoyed our photography session here. Later on as we proceeded we saw some construction going on the river bank. The internal road was calm and peaceful surrounded by hills and there is a presence of quite a dense forest on these hills. Along the way we saw temples of all sizes, village ladies carrying loads of hay or pots of water, or piles of wood on their heads and the same was the scenario for every small village we spotted every 10kms or so. We decided to have lunch at Dapoli and from there go to Dabhol as mentioned earlier. On the way we again stopped for a cold drink and bought some sweets to prevent our throat from getting parched.




Day1: CONTINUED;;;;;The fun begins@ HarnePort: We go in the deep sea and spot 3 dolphins, attend a fish auction worth crores!!and the bike starts giving some trouble!!!
We soon reach the tiny but picturesque town of Dapoli, the milestones on the way are of a big help to determine if one is heading exactly in the right direction. At Dapoli we begin hunting for some good Malvani restaurants and soon decide to halt at one on the way to Harne port. I forget the name of this restaurant, but we had beer and chicken here, we relished every bit of food and drink, after all we had been riding double seat with a heavy bag pack for more than 5 hours and covered almost 200kms. After we paid our bill and were about to leave, the waiter told us that we could see dolphins at Harne port. I said ‘wow’, dolphins, just about 225 kms from Pune, yeah, I wanted to always see those intelligent mammals jump in front of my eyes, ( till now have just seen them on discovery and national geographic channel). The same waiter gave us two telephone numbers (apparently these were of the guy who takes people in the sea for dolphin spotting). I called up the number but it turned out to be a wrong number. We decided to go anyways.



As I said, its 99% of the time a straight single road in the konkan which takes you places, so finding your way is not an issue at all, and besides I am a Maharashtrian, so that makes it all the more easy to communicate with the local village folk who are nice and simple. So off we went and on the way asked people about where we could spot dolphins, many of those guys said, you can spot them at Murud( now this is not to be confused with Murud-Janzira, which lies to the north of Dapoli almost 100kms away), as I have mentioned earlier, another beach with the same name. So now off we go to Murud, as you go straight you hit a T-junction ahead , one road takes you to Harne port and the other to Murud. As we reached Murud , I told my friend that we are along the coast now and we spotted beautiful bungalows with boards in Marathi saying” gharghuti rahanyachi soy”—which in English means you can live in our house for the night). Now I was hoping that I find such boards at Guhaghar beach where I had decided to halt at night. Pritam said coast ka “C” bhi nahi dikh raha and that’s when I stopped the bike. But I was dead sure we were along the coast (I have lived my formative childhood years in Mumbai and Goa and those were 13 long years, hence I can smell the sea and beaches). I then got off the bike and ran a few steps to what was a perfectly hidden beautiful beach which I discovered amidst tall coconut trees with the sound of the sea greeting me in an absolutely orchestrated manner. I was indeed correct, our first beach halt, I yelled with delight to pritam that we are indeed along the coast buddy and he should head to towards me for proof. The beach was fabulous, clean and no people around, just as I like it. We also spotted a Kamat resort on the beach. It was about 3.30 in the afternoon, in the distance one can spot the Suvarnadurg fort at harne port from Murud beach and it is indeed a lovely sight. Look for the pic of murud beach in the snaps link I sent. We just clicked a few shots of each other at Murud beach and decided to proceed towards toward Harne which is about 10-12 kms away. On the way back to my bike I asked the lady at kamat resort if the dolphin spotting thing we heard was true , she said it was , but the boatmen take people only early in the morning at 7 am to spot dolphins. We just said bad luck and left as it was 4pm then, but fortune favors the brave and the sea god was kind to us at Harne port. Soon we were at Harne port, there are portions here where on one side are small hills, adjacent to them is the narrow road on which you are driving and adjacent to your vehicle the beach and the ocean for company, how do you like that!! We straightaway headed to Harne bunder (as the boards say or harne port for those who do not know what a ‘bunder’ means, it also means port, the other meaning off course being ‘monkey’. I parked the bike and soon got talking to two local koli guys (now koli means fishermen), well they spoke Marathi and I asked them about dolphins!! They said you see a lot of them during the mornings (7am-9am), and at that time it was 4.30-4.45 pm or so. I was a little dejected when I heard the timings, and maybe the koli guys sensed it in my voice and body language and he said , if you are really lucky you may spot some in the evening also. He said that during the morning the water is cool, hence chances of dolphin spotting rate is high and sometimes there is a whole group of 40-50 of them jumping in and out as seen on national geographic and discovery channel. He continued his short speech as he sensed he was the expert in the matter and said that in the evenings ‘dolphin macchi la hurkayala lagata aani mag distat’ which means you have to keep going deep, deep into the sea to spot them during evenings. I enquired if we can spot them by throwing ‘chum’, now chum is dead tuna fish in blood ( I keep an interest in sharks and this is a way of spotting the great white shark used by boatmen in South Africa and off the coast of California. But in my enthusiasm to spot dolphins I forgot that these gentle mammals are not as savage as sharks. Then suddenly the two fishermen who were in discussion with us pointed to a boat in the sea and said that looks like some dolphins have been spotted and that’s why the boat is at that one spot in the sea. Our eyes lit up, the koli guys said that before us just 10 min ago, another group of people had gone dolphin spotting and it appeared they had spotted them, so we negotiated with them the money to take us also. They demanded 600bucks, (mostly I guess due to the fact that they thought I was a foreigner, but they liked my Marathi), he said he would show us around the Suvarnadurg island fort also, but we negotiated for Rs 300 and decided to skip the Suvarnadurg island fort as I had already seen the majestic Janzira fort twice before and we were short on time. So off Pritam and me went deep, deep into the Arabian Sea along with one fisherman to spot dolphins. We were just 10 mins into the sea when my mom called and spoke to me for about half an hour (there is connectivity I guess because Suvanadurg has a lighthouse and they have a tower there) and no dolphins appeared and we were starting to curse our luck, but just then, it was a moment of pure magic, a about 5 foot or so dolphin rose up to say hi to us and jumped back in. We were so glad, we began to look in all directions for more and it happened two times more, this time the dolphin took a full leap as shown in the channels and we got a super side view of the dolphins. Yees,,yeh,, wow,,fantastic,,,were the words in mind(as we spotted 3 dolphin jumps), I told my mom who was still on phone that I will hang up as our boat was really rocking in the sea, the fisherman said that this was due to lack of weight balance in the boat as we were only 3 guys. Pritam was shit scared and just held on to the mast in the boat with an iron grip and saw the dolphins and took pics, I being the more adventurous guy and a Indian naval officer’s son went to the front corner of the boat where it was really being rocked by the waves and sea water splashing on my face every second. Well I know how to swim and plus there were dolphins around to save me right!! Well that’s just how I am, I tried to click the dolphins also, but they were camera shy I guess, to tell you how difficult that is, is like anticipating when a batsman in cricket would hit a six and clicking a pic of his shot, so now you know how difficult it is to click a pic of a dolphin, anyway next time I will go dolphin spotting in the morning!! Our boatman was also relieved that we spotted dolphins, as after the initial half hour in the deep sea when we did not spot any, I could see the guilt on his face. Now all three of us were happy, he said they weigh around 500 kilos each and are about 5-6 feet or more in length. He asked us to click a few snaps of himself which I did and then we headed back to the port when we spotted several boats with colorful flags heading back to Harne’s shore and our koli boatman told us that a fish auction is going to start, where fish worth 1.5 crores and more are sold everyday. My god, I should take up fishing, it’s a risky life, but a different life, I said to myself. So more pics of the colorful boats followed, he told us that the boat in which we went costs 80 thousand and the bigger fishing trawlers cost 30 lacks, wow!!! So we were dropped back to shore and I thanked the sea-god profusely that we saw dolphins!! And headed to the harne beach to watch my first fish auction, it was a colorful sight, just like a village fair, the local villagers even had got bullock carts and I saw bulls knee deep in the sea, lugging back fish. Harne beach is not a tourist’s idea of a beach, but you get to see dolphins and fish auctions, what more can you ask for!! There were all kinds of fish, but then there were all kinds of smells also (remember I said it’s a huge fish auction), so after a few pics we left Harne bunder. Now some good news, in the pics if you see the second or third pic where I stand like Hercules (he he), well that’s the right side of Harne port and the beach there is quite clean. There is also a small fort wall, and it resembles the Dil chahta hai movie scene where the three friends sit and talk on a similar structure facing the sea (infact it is almost identical). The sight is heavenly, you don’t think that you are in India, believe me and after seeing the pics I am sure that you all will agree. We climbed up the wall and another photo session followed, it is a mind-blowing sight, of rocks jutting out into the deep blue sea from the beach and surrounded by lush green hills in the distance. Soon we were on our way back and crossed Dapoli; there is a lovely college of agriculture which you can see on the road as you go ahead. We asked a traffic cop to ascertain our direction for Dabhol port; he said it was about 26kms from Dapoli. It was about 6.15 pm and I wanted to cover maximum distance by 7 pm as after that it gets dark.
It soon began getting dark and had done around 275 kms, double seat on a Yamaha Rxz with a 20kg bag pack and our butts were beginning to hurt, but Dabhol was no where in sight, it soon began getting dark, but the road was full of twists, desolate and never-ending. We just kept going and were now riding in the dark, with more twists and turns on a downhill. Its here that some sound started emanating from the chain of my bike and this was a premonition for a bike breakdown, but at that point of time we were too tired to think about it. All we wanted to do was reach Dabhol, put my bike in the ferry and cross the creek and find a place to stay at Guhaghar for the night. We reached Dabhol port and luck continued to favor us, a huge ferry boat was already lined up at the harbor and I zoomed my bike in the ferry and we crossed the creek in about 10mins, it is said that Dabhol also has a pretty beach, but we had to skip this one. Soon we got off on the other side of Dabhol port and continued our journey to Guhaghar after asking for directions. Well let me mention here that the road is bad and it is an acclivity and pitch dark, to give you the gravity of the work ‘pitch dark’ which I use here, let me tell you It was so dark that you could not even see your own arm, I hope you get the clue now. The sky was brilliant with billions of stars; you do not see this scene in the city. Thank god that there was no traffic at night, and my headlight was functioning properly else it was impossible to go even a step ahead. The unpleasant noise from my bike was increasing, but we ignored it as we were on a lonely, desolate pitch dark road in the middle of a forest. We hit the highway finally and after going some distance saw the infamous Enron project, it has now been renamed as Ratnagiri gas and power project and is huge with pillars and lights which can be seen from outside. We were in Ratnagiri district of Konkan now. We kept going straight and finally were closing in on Guhaghar (I figured this as we saw some civilization now, people walking and small huts, small buildings etc) and were getting tired with every increasing kilometer. I kept asking local people for Guhaghar beach and they said it was just a little distance away, so we kept going. Finally I saw a board which said “gharghuti rahanyachi sooy” as I had seen at Murud beach earlier and I jumped from the bike and asked the house owner if we could stay for the night at his place. The house owners name was Mr. Khare and he called us in we spoke for about half and hour (all usual questions like from where have you come, from where are you etc etc followed and Pritam was getting really bored as we were conversing in Marathi and he could not make much sense out of our discussion), he gave us his first floor room and we were off to the beach, the beach was on the rear side of his bungalow (sounds good right). Mr. Khare told us about a restaurant called ‘Blue lagoon” where we could get booze and good sea food. We were at ‘Blue Lagoon ‘in minutes, Guhaghar is also a lovely small coastal town like Dapoli. We first decided to eat and then have beer on the beach, Pritam ordered his favorite prawns curry and rice and I ordered my favourite-malvani chicken and rotis. The food and quantity was good, and halfway into praising our meal I remembered that this is Konkan, so we should order Sol-kadhi (a speciality appetizer drink of the entire Konkan coast region), the guy got us a huge glass (almost a beer mug) of sol kadhi and our appetite to have beer went for a six as we had already over eaten. Soon it was time to say goodnight after a long eventful day, I took extra time to sleep as Pritam snores like a truck .Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I wanted to see the sunset at Guhaghar beach, but we arrived there after 9 pm, but we still had our day two in hand, but man proposes and god disposes and something similar happens, read on!!




Day 2: Meditation @ Guhaghar beach and bike breaks down 30kms from Ganpatipule!!




We wake up at 6am on day 2 (let me make it clear, I wake up at 6am and wake up Pritam else am sure he would have slept till noon). We got to the toilet built amidst the coconut and betel nut orchards owned by Mr. Khare. Also there I also spotted a jackfruit tree; normally I cannot identify a jackfruit tree, so how did I spot this one? Well it had about 8-10 monster jackfruits at about shoulder height hanging from its trunk. I saw this sight after almost a decade.




We then head to the beach which was like 20 steps away. It was a wonderful morning with only the sand, coconut trees, Pritam, me, the cool morning sea breeze and the deep blue sea present for each of us. We then did some ‘pranayam’ with the sea watching in amusement I guess or maybe we exhaled so hard that the waves rose each time our lungs pumped air out in that pure setting( what imagination on my part). In between our pranayam breaths, we caught crabs of small to medium sizes scurrying in the sand. Now it was time for a blue water blast. We just had a ball in the sea, and clicked snaps of each other having a blast. Some pics were dummy shots of pranayam, some running along the beach, in the water etc etc and every shot has come out, hmmm, I just got one word,, super!!The shots truly depict what a whale of a time we had in the sea that day. After a while we went a little into the sea as it was time to accept the call of the waves. I wish I had a surfboard that day, the waves were of decent height, speed, force for surfing was my firm belief, we used to go towards the forming giant wave and then get pushed to the shore with all its force, it was fantastic, both of us immersed all our sorrows for those two hours in the sea and enjoyed every bit of our blue water blast. Oh yes, I also jogged a bit and did some bare-chested push-ups along the sea to work on that ‘tan’ as most of the girls keep asking me the secret of my pink complexion 
Then was time to head back and I decided to head to Ganpatipule and also visit Velneshwar and Hedvi (all these places have temples and lovely beaches, actually the temples are right along the beaches). So we have a nice hot water bath and ask Mr. Khare for directions and distances, Mr. Khare was a really nice guy, he told us that Ganpatipule is 90 kms from Guhaghar and Hedvi and Velneshwar are about 26kms from the same. He drew a map for us along with distances and we decide to see Ganpatipule and be back at Guhaghar to have a blast on the beach again and view the sunset. I still have that map drawn on a rough piece of paper. We decided to skip Sindudurg which I had in mind originally when I started as Mr. Khare told me that it was a further 300kms from guhaghar and that would leave us with no time to enjoy what konkan has to offer bikers and hitch hikers like us. It was time for some heavy breakfast before we shared butt space on the bike again. We had some lovely poha, vada, upma, tea and ladoos. The poha and upma was sprinkled with coconut as expected, this is almost a custom in the Konkan region (sprinkling of a majority of foodstuff with grated coconut). Just before we proceeded we showed the bike to a mechanic at Guhaghar(remember the noise I was talking about ), that idiot told us that the chain was loose and I would need to get a new one put, if only he had diagnosed the problem correctly our day 2 trip log would have been a different one.
The unpleasant noise kept on increasing, and Pritam said that we should abort the ride to Ganpatipule and get the bike fixed first, but I was not impressed by the first mechanic we showed the bike to at guhaghar and this impression sub-consciously got applied to other mechanics also in the villages we passed. Along the way at Shrungartali we saw a couple of better garages but Pritam was driving and did not stop and I too did not insist and am sure he did not here me telling him my sighting of these auto-shops as he was wearing his helmet and my voice was not forceful. Mr. Khare had given us an internal road map for Ganpatipule lined with villages and forests on the way, similar to route we took to come to Dapoli and then to Guhaghar. We took a right turn after about 10kms as indicated and then we just had to carry on straight, the noise kept on increasing and it was loud enough to be heard in helmets at speeds of 50-60kmph, the internal road was pretty good, on the way we went past several villages, all similar to the ones we saw in the previous day. The sun was slowly but surely showing its ability to get ferocious and we soon we passed Ambaloli village about 25kms from Guhaghar (the reason I remember this name so vividly will soon be out) and we passed a signboard which says ‘Chandika mandir to the left”, we decided to give it a skip. Pritam was riding and I was glad we had left our heavy bag at Mr. Khare’s house and just had two cameras to carry, this made pillion riding so much simpler. I was not enjoying the noise from the chain area of the bike, and felt like my bike was trying hard to communicate its problem to both of us and suddenly a really loud noise emerges and silences both of us. The chain had come out loose from the sprocket. I liked Pritam’s attitude here, he was ice cool and I got a little tense out the guilt I was feeling for having ruined his day. We were 30kms from Ganpatipule and 60kms from Guhaghar (our base). Pritam coolly asks me for a “paana”(spanner to loosen the screws covering the chain cover) and I replied back equally coolly that I did not have any of those and began pulling back the bike to the road which led back to Guhaghar in the hot sun. Pritam says ‘kya hai yeh-aise hi 700-750kms ki trip ko nikal gaya without paana? (which meant how come I left to undertake a 700-750km trip without a repair kit?) . I did not answer him and was prepared to pull the bike back to Guhaghar or Shrungartali where I saw the decent garages as mentioned earlier, it was about 11.30am then and I estimated that we should be there by 7-8pm. Pritam meanwhile clicked a snap of yours truly lugging the bike and then when I turned around said” arre bhai yeh bhi photo hona chaiye”(meaning one must have this shot also) I smiled and felt good that my buddy was pretty cheerful and not cursing me in public at least 



We saw 2-3 jeeps passing by and they stared at us in that brief duration in which they crossed us looking at us like aliens. We then saw a simple guy in his forties riding a hero Honda and Pritam waved his hand and requested him to stop, which he did. We explained the situation to him and fortunately he had spanners (pana) and we opened the chain cover and fortunately discovered that the chain had not got dismembered, but only had come of loose from the sprocket. We then put it back on and got our hands full of grease, meanwhile another guy on a bajaj stopped and joined the discussion with us in the middle of a forest under the scorching sun. His expert advice was that the chain has got loose and we need to cut a link or move a point and so on, he tried with his spanner to move it by a point, but the spanner was not large enough. Finally we decided to ride back to Ambaloli village where these guy said a mechanic could fix up the bike, I enquired if he was decent enough and not the mechanic at guhaghar. We did not put the chain cover of the bike as I did not have any spanner to open the cover in case the chain came off again. We hopped on, but the noise from the bike did not reduce and we hardly went a few kilometers when the chain came off again. We now realized that this was going to happen again and again and we need to find a bike doctor at the earliest, but we were still about 20kms away from the nearest one and that too in the middle of a forest on a desolate road. Pritam again came to the rescue with his cool head, he stopped a small Piaggio tempo and the guy stopped, I must say that these village folk are really simple and helpful. Now it was my turn to do the talking with the driver since I knew the language he spoke i.e. Marathi, thankfully for us, his tempo was empty and I convinced him of carting my bike till Ambaloli village with the two of us holding the bike. So we lifted my 150 kg Yamaha and put it in carefully, it was a perfect fit in a diagonal fashion, not an inch more or less and we were on the opposite site of the diagonal which my bike formed. It was a terrific joyride for 20kms with the tempo and my bike bouncing up and down along the minor ghat road and the twisties. Finally after about 40 minutes we were at Ambaloli village and in front of Suraj garage as suggested to us by the kind man who stopped and lent us his spanner to open the chain cover of my bike. It was 13:00 Pm by then and the mechanic guy also owned a small shop selling biscuits and those sweets which you now a days only get in villages for 25 paisa each. The mechanic had two sub-mechanics working for him and they had gone for lunch, so we waited for their arrival and tried to rid are hands of the grease coating which covered them while putting on the chain. Prtiam was quite hungry and began to go chomp-chomp on the biscuits available at the small shop, our plans of having a feast of sea-food and chicken at Ganpatipule had gone for a toss. But both Pritam and I shared a common thought, i.e. now are trip was complete with this adventure and we were quite cheerful. It was past an hour now, but still there was no sign of the mechanics at Suraj garage after their lunch, the garage owner’s son was managing the shop and we asked him to call up the mechanics (now a days everybody has cell phones), but his local coin box booth was down and we did not have any connectivity at Ambaloli village (for the record I have an Idea connection and Pritam a Vodaphone from Kolkata). So we had no choice but wait, and chat up with a local school teacher who was also in line for a check up of his bike. He was from a village near Hedvi which we were to visit next morning provided the bike got fixed today. The mechanic said that the bearing attached to the rear wheel of the bike has conked off and a new one was needed. He was removing the old bearing from the tyre and it was going to take some time so we decided to explore the village, it was a market day at Ambaloli on the 4th of April that day and we were lucky to see the sight. There were tents put up on a piece of barren land with vendors selling clothes, utensils, vegetables, spices, hardware like nuts, bolts, screws, plastic items like buckets etc and everything around seemed colorful with nice pretty birds also flying around. We had a ice-cream shake from a vendor present there and also spotted a man selling 2-3 day old cute cute chicks (young one’s of a hen), his rate was for Rs 10 you get 3 and for Rs 20 you get 8. A young girl of about 5 yrs bought one chick in front of us and the chick seller was persuading us also to buy some. The village ladies told us that some people raise the chicks as pets and some feed them and then cook them when their size seems fit for doing so. We then returned to our bike –doctor’s shop and were relieved when he said that he has a stock of bearings and would put in a new one, but unfortunately our joy was short lived as he did not keep bearings which fit into a Yamaha. We would now have to go to Shringartali village town 15 kms away in hope of finding a bearing and if we did not get it there too , then head for Chiplun(the biggest city in that vicinity), but Chiplun was 60 kms from our garage at Ambaloli. We were praying that we get the bearing at Shringartali. Now our ride till Shringartali is another adventure. We asked the garage guy and villagers as to how could we reach Shrungartali, and the reply we got was via the government bus or local tempos. We had to get there fast as it was already 4pm, we saw a Trax jeep guy and asked him if he would go to Shrungartali and he replied in affirmative, but said he would go only once his Trax jeep is full. After 5 minutes we hopped in his jeep as village folk began to creep in and am not kidding, he stuffed 20 humans in his jeep, I did not have space to even move my fingers and the guy kept stopping as villagers wanted to get down and others wanted to get in. To add to our delay drama, some plywood boards which were tied atop the jeep roof flew off due to the wind force and we had to wait till he collected them and tied them again. Finally we reached Shrungartali and there were automobile shops on the main road itself where we got down and thankfully we got the bearing which fitted into the chain sprocket of my bike, (I forgot to mention, the mechanic at Ambaloli village had thoughtfully given us the entire chain sprocket as he said that, ‘get the bearing fixed at Shrungartali itself so that there is no mismatch of size once we get it back to Ambaloli. We headed back to the village by bus as no tempos were willing to go back, my wish of seeing the sun set at Guhaghar beach went again for a toss and Pritam was teasing me that I could see the sun set in the hills from the bus on our way back to Ambaloli village. We reached Ambaloli by 7pm and finally our bike got fixed by 7.45, meanwhile we were talking to the head mechanic and he asked us our purpose of visiting the place and all, he concluded that we were on ‘konkan darshan’ , he said that I speak really good Marathi and was surprised when I told him that I am a Maharashtrian myself , again the same statement which I have got used to now “ you=me=Parikshit look like a foreigner and not an Indian and not a Maharashtrian for sure”, well just my genes . Finally after the bike was done we filled petrol at the village itself and headed back for Guhaghar, again it was pitch dark with billions of stars in the sky. We did not fix the chain cover as it was making noise and the mechanic told me to chain my chain kit once I got back to Pune.
We reach Guhaghar by 9 pm and head for dinner at ‘Annapurna’ restaurant at Guhaghar, but I liked the food at Blue lagoon better. We decide to take a beer for myself and vodka for Pritam and relax at the beach after dinner; Pritam said he does not like the idea, as at night he found the noise from the sea scary. But I love it, I feel that the ocean is growling with delight after a sunny day, we discuss where our life is heading, the day’s events, get nostalgic and then crash off after our eventful day.


Day 3: The picture perfect Velneshwar beach and arrive back to pune!!



We wake up at 6 am, get ready, pay Mr. Khare Rs 300 for our 2 day stay at his place (75 bucks per head) and he again drew the map for us to go Velneshwar and Hedvi which were 25 kms from Guhaghar, we got the chain cover put back at Shrungartali again and I emptied a 2T oil Castrol can into my bike and then we turned back and headed for Velneshwar beach first. The road was similar like the other places till now, good and narrow surrounded by patches of forests and farms. After about half an hour of driving we saw the most amazing sight in the world, the first pic in my photographs pics link, let me try describing it to you since you have
to be there to experience what we felt!! The road was uphill and finally at a point where it was beginning to descend we saw the sea shaking hands with the beach sand and the sand greeting tall coconut trees lined up in almost a symmetric pattern. Also for company was a small hut in between the trees, a small green hillock and rocks jutting out into the sea. It was just the kind of lovely picture we see in magazines and wonder as to where that place is? and Velneshwar is one such place. We stopped, we had to stop for pictures, I rate these pictures as the best of my trip and they could easily win some photography award also. It just does not feel like India, you feel as though you are in the Bahamas or Florida or Hawaii. We then go downhill and finally arrive at Velneshwar beach. Here we park the bike almost on the beach and enjoy the sight, the beach is a narrow one, and we saw a person taking his German Shepard dog for a walk, some guys having a ball in the sea, and plenty of colorful fishing boats close to the shore and rocks jutting out into the sea. There was a small shack on the beach and we had a very tasty ‘missal paav’ and asked the lad who owned the shop to click some snaps. Velneshwar was so beautiful that we decided to give Hedvi a skip and head to Pune after a few hours at Velneshwar.




We headed to the extreme left end of the beach where I saw rocks jutting out into the sea and on our way there, two local fisherman who had small huts and their boats on the beach forced us to click a snap of themselves, they were not satisfied with two snaps and wanted us to click more snaps with a different angle. We told them we will come back later, just before heading for the rocks jutting into the sea, we saw some local kids and they were thrilled to be photographed, check out the young girls posing in the pic wit me. Pritam did not enter the water and onto the rocks as he was wearing shoes, however I did as I was in slippers. Finally I jogged back to the place we had kept the bike; we had a cold drink, then visited the lovely Shiv mandir just behind the beach and decided to leave.
We took the Chiplun- Karad road,-Pune-Bangalore highway on our way back and finally after stoppages for sugar cane juice, some rest, a late lunch at a dhaba, reached Pune at 8pm.

It was a great road trip, actually quite amazing with sun-sand-sea-road-pure air-simple people with no tension-temples-forests for memories. I thank Miss Supriya for giving me her Sony digital camera which I have not yet returned and Mr. Sathe for suggesting the initial route, and my buddy pritam for taking some good pics featuring me( he should also thank me for I also took good pics of him). I have over 100 pics in the camera, uploaded only 40. Thanks for reading; this was a long trip log!! Will sign off with my usual line ‘’ Bikers and Trekkers never die, they just fade in the distance on the road or in the hills.”’
Regards
Parikshit Vaidya
9822474756
Pune
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pariandhiswanderlust/
www.pariviadya.blogspot.com