Wheels roll at 550 hrs. It’s a little chilly and foggy, traffic is sparse and NH 17 looks as inviting as ever. Stop for tea at Vadakal Naka and then at Open Umbrella, Mangaon. Riverview, Chiplun looms up at 1030 hrs. We decide to have breakfast here and then get off NH 17 and onto Marg Tamhane to Guhagar and detour to Velneshwar and Hedvi on the way to Ganapatipule via the Rai-Bhatgaon bridge.
When in soul kadi land you don’t drink water, you only drink soul kadi! So after soul kadi, thalipeeth, and wada sambar for breakfast followed by some lounging around in the well maintained Riverview garden we’re back on the road. A km. down the NH 17, brings us to the cut for Marg Tamhane.
The road’s good, curvy and doesn’t carry much traffic. A 27 km sprint brings up a signboard pointing left for Velneshwar. This road is patchy and rough at places and so progress is slow. The roadside keeps alternating between shaded tree cover to dry grass to agri fields. Paint has peeled off most of the road signs here, which makes it difficult to tell directions. Did look up Google earth, but these internal roads aren’t visible / mapped. A wrong left or a right can really put you in a spin, luckily for us at times instinct pays off and at other times someone’s around to give directions.
Velneshwar, a quiet village by the Konkan coast is home to an old Shiva Temple. The Temple is quiet and peaceful. The beach with a small fishing village to the south looks pretty untouched.
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The MTDC resort at Velneshwar has a pretty good location at a height overlooking the beach. The caretaker tells us that all the villages around here don’t have electricity after cyclone Phyan brought down trees and electricity poles and cables.
Check for directions for Hedvi and the Rai-Bhatgaon bridge and move on. The tarmac gets pretty rough, and the road turns, twists, climbs and falls.
The Swift Diesel really earns all the respect here. You can’t but admire the way the DDIS engine pulls and the steering is extremely responsive. Point and this car will go with aplomb. With all that terrain and A/C running full time, returning an average of 20 km to a litre, I think is fabulous.
The JSW power plant at Jaigad, on the other side of the creek, looms up on the horizon now and then is pretty reassuring in terms of direction we need to head in. Much after Hedvi we are back on the road that runs between Marg Tamhane and the Rai-Bhatgaon bridge. This road’s decent and improves substantially as we get closer to the bridge.
The other side of the bridge, the road’s superb. We go past Rai, Jakadevi and Chafe to get to Ganapatipule. A glimpse of the Ganapatipule beach below is alluring.
Check in at the MTDC resort at about quarter to five. The infra here is pretty decent, the resort is spread over a large area and is bang on the beach. The food dished out by ‘Tarang’ their in house restaurant is average; the soul kadi and poha is good.
The evening is spent lazing about on the beach admiring the various hues thrown up by the sun set.
Day 2 starts with a long walk on the beach early in the morning. There are people just opposite the Ganapatipule Temple. I noticed that, that part of the beach tends to be crowded as people jump the beach right after offering their obeisance to the revered Elephant God. Too enthralled by the sea, they really don’t check out the beach left or right. And that leaves the north (MTDC side) and south end (Ratnagiri side) of the beach pretty untouched.
After breakfast we decide to check out ‘Prachin Konkan’ short of Malgund. It’s a quite place; we go about the place at our own pace without a guide, which I think, was wise. The curio store on top is worth a look and don’t miss the thalipeeth, modak and whatever else that’s dished out by their food stall. The area is pretty vegetated, so you may need a lot of ‘Odomos’ cream to ward off hungry mosquitoes.
Head back to Ganapatipule and decide to explore the road up to Ratnagiri. Take the right fork just after Landmark Hotel. This road runs along the coast and is a pleasure to drive on. Pass by Are, Bhandarpule and other small villages. A nice clean beach looms up every time you take a turn around a hillock.
Turn back about 12 km short of Ratnagiri. Stop for lunch at Krishnalli Beach Resort, Bhandarpule. The surmai in malvani curry is decent and so is the soul kadi. The resort location is terrific, right by the beach and spread over a decent acreage but Rs. 6,000/- bucks per night for a couple, I think is steep.
Evening we head to Jaigad to check out the fort and the light house. There are two routes to get to the Fort. One via Malgund which is a 15 km drive and the other via Chafe is about a 30 km drive. We take the route via Malgund. The route runs along the coast, turns, twists, rises and falls and bits of it though is rough.
The fort’s in pretty decent shape (compared to Cabo De Rama, Goa and may be even Pratapgad, Mahabaleshwar, but way smaller) but isn’t being maintained. The fort overlooks the sea and the creek over which the Rai-Bhatgaon bridge has been built further in land.
The Jaigad lighthouse is on the other side of the JSW power plant and is open to the public between 1600 and 1700 hrs. The last odd km. is superb tarmac along the coast. Set up in 1932 by the British, the equipment is still in good working condition.
The caretaker there explained the ‘character’ of a light house. The Jaigad light house, for example, flashes 4 times in 20 seconds this way a sea farer can tell any light house from its distinct ‘character’. He also explained how three 150 watt bulbs are able to set up a flash that’s visible up to 37 nautical miles.
The caretaker suggested a visit to the nearby Karhateshwar Temple, but I am more enthused about catching the sunset with the old L&T Poclain parked off the road.
The drive back with headlights piercing the darkness is fun. Unfortunately all the villages along the route have no electricity because of damaged cables.
Bahu Joshi just outside MTDC serves good vegetarian fare. The soul kadi was good, the behedi fry and the dal fry was cooked in a local style perhaps.
Day 3 starts with paying our respect to the Elephant God followed by pradikshana along the ‘Pradikshana Marg’ which really takes you around the hill just behind the temple. Different birds can be spotted in the vegetation along the marg.
After a quick breakfast, we’re off, headed back home. This time though we hit the NH 17 somewhere between Sangameshwar and Ratnagiri at Niveli via Chafe and Jakadevi.
The HP petrol pump right after Sangameshwar is a good place to tank up and pressure up. They also have facilities for a quick bite and clean loos.
The detailed route guide and distance covered along with the road condition, is as under, courtesy Co-Driver :).
Map
