Prabhu n Ferrari

I wanted to visit this place Ganpatipule in Konkan Maharashtra for quite sometime. Its somewhere in between Mumbai and Goa. I decided to fly to goa, take a Konkan rail from there to Ratnagiri (I had visited Goa only last june) and then take a bus/auto to Ganpatipule. And traveling on a weekday was cheaper when compared to the weekends.

Note: I have divided the travelogue into notes and pictures. I have noted down my experiences in the blog, and on flickr, I have explained the pictures. So please do check out both of them.

Day 1:

I left Bangalore by afternoon, and reached goa by around 2 PM. Immediately took a taxi and reached Madgaon station by around 3 PM. Taxi charges in goa are extremely costly. A normal city taxi charges 500 rs for a distance of 30 kms Anyways coming back, my train was at 4 PM. Last year when I traveled by the Konkan railway it was peak monsoon. It was green and lovely. I felt that this time, the route will be dry and not scenic. I was happy to be proven wrong. It was green, and water everywhere. It was only 2 hours in day light, but still I enjoyed every single minute of it. Surprisingly there was not much crowd in the train.
The train reached Ratnagiri by around 9 PM. I came out of the station, and was looking for a bus/cab to drop me at Ganpatipule. I was disappointed when I heard that no one travels by the night to Ganpatipule, and no vehicles were available I was kind of stuck. I could have stayed at ratnagiri and started for ganpatipule in the morning. But then, I wanted to visit the temple early in the morning. I would be wasting lots of time staying at Ratnagiri. Then I bargained with an autorickshaw guy and asked him to drop me. It is like this. Ratnagiri is on a hill, and Ganpatipule is by the shore. So you have to climb down the hill to reach the shore, and the distance is about 45 kms.
Initially we were traveling on the NH17, and there was heavy traffic. So didn’t realize much. But later, when the driver took a turn towards Ganpatipule I was really worried. It was no-moon day and the headlight in the auto wasn’t that powerful. Pitch dark and no traffic, and you are climbing down a hill. Luckily the roads were pretty good. I was wondering if it will take all night to reach the place, since we were traveling very slowly. In fact I could have jogged along with the auto. But the auto guy was smart. Whenever a vehicle used to overtake us, he increased the speed and followed the tail lights of the vehicle for some distance. Luckily there were many vehicles that night, and somehow we managed to reach Ganpatipule by 10.15 in the night. What a relief!
Only after reaching there I got to know that the MTDC check in time was only at 9 in the morning. I didn’t want to shell out 1000 rs for 11 hrs. So I checked into a simple room right next to the bus stand. 200 Rs/night for a single room with a bed and attached bath. That was more than enough. It was a very long day for me, with so many different modes of transport and breaks in between. After a light dinner, I hit the bed. It took some time for me to realise that I was on a vacation. Everything happened very fast.

Day 2:

After a good nights sleep, I got up at 5.45 in the morning. Got ready and rushed to the temple. Picture this. A temple on the footsteps of a lush green mountain, facing the sea. Its really lovely. Not much crowd, and the beach is very very clean. You will really love this place. Talking about love, most of the tourists were honeymoon couples. And some thanimoon guys like me were seen wandering too
The temple is around 400 years old and pretty famous in Maharashtra. You can just sit outside the temple and spend hours watching the sea. Add to it, its very pleasant. Though it’s a sea shore you don’t find that much humidity. Its good.
After spending an hour at the temple, I got back to my hotel checked out and checked into MTDC resort. I got a sea facing room for 1000 rs. This MTDC resort is really good. Please have a look at the pictures of the room/resort. I don’t think I can do any justice to the resorts beauty by my words.
I lazed around for sometime, by reading a book sitting in the balcony, listening to some soft music. From the balcony you get a good view of the sea. It was really refreshing, since there was a gentle breeze always. If at all you go to Ganpatipule, do stay at MTDC. And remember, AC room is really not worth it.
The food was good in the resort. Still I didn’t want to take any risks and had a light lunch. I met a
waiter there Mithesh. This guy was very friendly. Actually I hadnt decided on what to do after seeing Ganpatipule. I thought I will decide later. When I spoke to Mithesh, he asked me to visit Chiplun and stay there. He said its a place worth visiting. And also got me the bus timings etc. He then asked me to check out the konkan museum and water sports in the evening.
Based on his advice, I went to a Konkan museum nearby. There is a small hill, and they have built a museum on that. The entry fee is around 15 rs, and there is a guide too. They have built small huts which depicts how people lived 500 years ago in this region. In case you are visiting Ganpatipule, this is a must visit place. Lots of effort has gone into building this museum.
By now, the time was around 5.30 PM. I went to the water sports complex in the resort. Actually there are only two things there. A pedal boat and a water scooter. Nevertheless, I climbed on the water scooter and had fun surfing through the backwaters of the sea
I got back to my room, and was watching the sun set. The sun set was really beautiful. I was reminded of my Dahanu trip. I enjoyed it from the shore. This time I captured the sunset from my room balcony, and later on at the beach. The pictures will tell you, how it was After the sunset, I spent some more time in the balcony chilling out and then went to the garden restaurant for a light dinner. That brought to an end, a pleasant,quiet and scenic day 1 of my trip. So far so good.

..to be continued