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Kokan trip 2008

Kokan trip 2008:

Hello everyone, I've just completed fabulous kokan trip from 30^th April to 4^th May, I just wanted to share our trip with you all.

Days: 30^th April to 4^th May 2008.

Places: Pune – Kolhapur – Malvan – Tarkarli – Kunkeshwar – Devgad – Marleshwar - Ratnagiri – Guhagar – Pune.

No. of people: 6

Mode of transport: Cars (Maruti 800 & Wagon-R)

Distance: more than 1200Kms (round trip)

Expenses: around 2500 Rs per head

Ok thats about basic information :), I'll just go through group from left to right

Day 1 (30^th April):

Bharatya , makya, dharmu came from Mumbai in wagon-R to join us (me, Amya & andya in Maruti 800) on NH-4 (Mumbai – Banglore national highway) near Sinhgad road merge around 9.30 am. But then immediately his car got punctured & we all laughed at our glorious start :P, tyre got 6 punctures so we decided to change tube itself, it took us another half hour & finally we started off by 10am from Sinhgad road, we followed NH-4 till Kolhapur. NH-4 is 4 lane tolled road & hence maintained very very well, so we zoomed to kolhapur till 2pm i.e. 233kms in just 4 hrs. Oh ofcourse we took breakfast at Shirval's Shriram vada paav :). We reached Kolhapur around 2pm & went to Hotel Opel for lunch. We had very descent lunch till 3pm & then we went to visit Amit's elder brother who stays in Kolhapur. He guided us to our next destination i.e. Road to Radhanagari. We all decided to use route Radhanagari – Fonda – Kankavli to enter Sindhudurga district. We started again on 4pm, Radhanagari & Fonda took hell out of us due to curvy mountain road (around 100kms :D ). However road was in excellent condition & very scenic, we all enjoyed lush green fields & trees on both sides of road.

It took almost 6.30 to reach merge on NH-17 near to kankavli, we then stopped to have some hot tea break. We spent 15 mins there & then again started to reach Malvan. Kankavli is on NH-17 (Mumbai Goa national highway). Malvan is around 30-40 kms away from Kankavali. By the time we reached Kankavli it was already dark, uptill now we were driving on speed of 80km/hrs but later we slowed down to 50-60km/hrs due to heavy traffic on dark NH-17 :). After kankavli malvan road starts at small village named kasal. We took left from NH-17 at Kasal & continued till Malvan. We reached Malvan around 8-8.30 or so, again Bharats acr got punctured, then he just put spare tyre & meanwhile me, Amya & makya went to search hotel in Tarkarli. Tarkarli shares same coast with Malvan & just 6kms from Malvan. We found hotel & made deal with manager for 600Rs, for a room. He provided 2 double beds & 2 extra mattresses to accommodate 6 people. Till time other 3 arrived at hotel, we all dumped our luggage & went to have dinner to MTDC restaurant. Dharmya got sick in transit so he preferred to stay in hotel. We 5 then went to restaurant & had nice dinner & then went to beach which was just behind our hotel around 10-10.30, we stayed on beach for a hour or two & then returned to room & went to bed.

Day 2 (1^st May):

me, makya & amya got awake early morning around 6am & went to beach to experience sunrise, but entire eastern horizon was covered with thick clouds & we couldn't able to watch sunrise :(, but then we went for short walk on beach, saw 1 dead sea turtle & guess what we saw a jumping Dolphin :) & we were very delighted, on walk 1 fisherman approached us & asked us whether we want boat ride to track dolphins. He agreed for a private motor boat for about 800Rs for 6 people. Then we returned to hotel & took nice shower & went to nearby boat port with that fisherman, oh his name was Shekhar. We started our ride around 9.30 in morning, sky was still cloudy & so we didn't had any problem for sea sickness or hot sun. We started in backwaters region, it was very beautiful, both shores were covered by lush green trees. It was very much like kerala backwaters, it can be option for low cost but high quality honeymoon spot :P.

Backwaters was mix up of river & creek & in bright sunlight one can see its bottom clearly. We soon reached to point where river meets to sea. Boat started shaking a bit due to high tides but then it become stable. Our boatman got boat in sea till Dolphin point. We waited there for 15 mins but didn't saw any of dolphin, then suddenly makya spotted 1 dolphin little far on southern direction, so we asked boatman to take us there, but then he said its bit far away & will require more money i.e. 400Rs more. On our approval he took us there, that area is called as Nivati. After going further 2-4 Kms, suddenly we realize that our boat is surrounded by dolphins, every where we look we were noticing their fins on surface of water, very few were jumping out of water, we tried to get capture their jumps in camera but we failed :(,

boatman said there could be around 50 dolphins as dolphins generally travel in groups of 30-50s. Then he took our boat to Bhogave beach, bhogave beach is on other bank of river. There we had some omlette paav & misal in small hut & then we came back around 11.30 to port where we boarded the boat. But boatman tricked us, he told us that he will show us some island which is created due to tsunami, he did showed that island but it was joke, it was just piece of land somewhere around 2000 sq.feets covered with only & only sand & is 4 feet above shallow sea water very very near to main shore :P. You can swim from shore to island. Also we got information from native villager that these fisherman knows they will see dolphins only around Nivati but they don't mention it untill you reach in deep sea near dolphin point & then they ask for more money to take you to Nivati surroundings, even Island is hyped thing previously that land was submerged in water & its just separates river & sea thats all. My advice is try to find road to nivati village which is just few kms ahead of Malvan & walk down to beach around 6.30am in morning & you'll see lots of dolphins for free :P

After coming back from boat ride, dharmesh started feeling little sick so we dropped him at hotel & rest of us headed towards Malvan to visit Sindhudurga fort & to enjoy snorkeling. We had good breakfast at Bhogave beach so we decided to go for Snorkeling. What is snorkeling??? read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorkelling

It was really amazing experience, until now we used to see beauty of underwater life on Discovery channel but we actually took that experience during snorkeling. MTDC have started snorkeling in area near Sindudurga fort, one can buy ticket on Malvan port itself. They charge just 250Rs, which includes personal trainer, snorkeling gear, 20 minutes underwater time & of course pick up & drop facility to snorkeling site. You are not allowed to swim while snorkeling as you will just need rest on tube & remain calm & flat on water, trainer will pull your tube around & will show all the underwater life. Because if you try to swim, all the fishes from that area will run away. Those 20 minutes were amazing, we were able to see plenty of colorfull fishes, plenty of giant & beautiful corals, lobsters , colored rocks, various colored sea plants. After that we returned to shore & had some nice lunch. After lunch we came back to port & booked boat tickets for Sindhudurga fort. Check this link for more info on sindhudurga fort: http://www.konkandarshan.com/tourist/f_sindhudurg.htm

This boat will take some 15 people to fort & they allow you to take walk in fort for 1 hour & then you have to return back with the same boat to shore. Frankly speaking nothing much left inside fort, only things to see in fort are

1.Temple of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

2.Ravan maad (sadly its dead now but still standing)

Ravan maad is 2 headed coconut tree & its said to be very ancient type of tree, such trees are of dinosaur times. It was struck by lightning bolt a year before & so is now dead, but you can still see it standing on the left side immediately after entering the fort. After having some walk on perimeter wall we visited the temple & we saluted Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj & his army for builduing such a great structure in sea 2-3kms away from shore.

Then we returned back to shore & headed towards garrage to fix up punctured tyre & then to hotel. After reaching hotel we went to beach had plenty of fun in water & then we set back & relaxed on beach till 8 & then went to hotel, took shower then headed for dinner & finally went to bed.

Day 3 (2^nd May):

After having hectic day, we slept tight till 8am, after having nice Pohe & Tea we started our journey around 10am. Today we were visiting Kunkeshwar & Devgad. We stopped in between near a mango tree to eat some unripe mangoes. Then we continues our journey to Kunkeshwar.

Kunkeshwar is Lord Shiva's temple & is very near to Devgad, its located on beach. Its very nice site, we went to temple & then went to beach, spent some time there & continued our journey to Devgad.

Devgad is famous for its big Alphonso mango, but we didn't found a single mango seller there :(, then we took lunch in Devgad & continued our journey towards Rajapur. After reaching Rajapur we decided to visit Marleshwar. Marleshwar is also temple of Lord Shiva & is located on border of Ratnagiri & Kolhapur District. Road to Marleshwar was very scenic & curvy so it took us much longer to reach there. We reached there around 6, sun was about to set. One has to climb some 100-200 steps to reach Lord Shiva's temple. Temple is actually inside a small cave, you have to crawl to enter in cave, cave is not so big but can house some 10-15 people easily. Cave ceiling is somewhat 10-12 fits, natives says one can find snakes easily in same cave so beware. Theres one big waterfall besides temple, but it becomes dry in summer season.

Marleshwar is located in jungle so was lush green even in summer season, best time to visit here is in month of August & September. We then took some refreshments & started our journey towards Ratnagiri. From Marleshwar we followed completely unknown route towards Ratnagiri in complete dark jungle road :), we reached in Ratnagiri around 9, then we asked few natives about good places to stay. We selected Shraddha lodge in market place to stay. After dumping our luggage, we went for dinner, after dinner we throwed ourselves in bed :)

Day 4 (3^rd May):

We were in Kokan & still havn't bought mangoes yet :P, so we decided to visit Ratnagiri Mango Market to try our luck. After having nice tea & breakfast we went to Mango Market around 10am, by our luck Ratnagiri houses Mango market every saturday :), we asked natives road for market & make ourself comfortable with market crowd. Finally we reached in Market, it was full with Mangoes, we got split in group of 2 & went to different merchants & took quotations, we agreed to 1 merchant & we purchased almost 40 Dozens of Mangoes for 6 of us :D. We loaded mangoes in car & set ourself to road for Guhagar around 11.30. We reached Guhagar around 1.30 & then had nice homemade lunch & decided to stay in Guhagar as me & bharat got really tired by driving. We then searched few known places & decide to stay at Mr.Raut's Kinara residence.

They allotted nice big hall & 4 beds + 2 extra mattresses. Then took some rest & then me, dharmesh, amya & bharat had some cricket in open area near our lodge. Around 5 we decided to hit beach, we had loads of fun on beach. This day was special for Dharmesh because it was his birthday :) we already purchased cake for him in Ratnagiri. We also carried cake on beach but he was unaware of this. We kept cake on beach went in sea, but after sometime I noticed 1 doggie sniffing our cake packet :D immediately I shouted at Makya to catch that dog. Makya ran after dog & thank god dog dropped cake box & we got relaxed :D.

Then at sunset time Dharmya cut the cake, we enjoyed cake on beach, even he was very happy to have such a terrific birthday on beach :), then we had some more fun on beach & then went back to hotel, took shower & went to Guhagar main beach for some beach side food like bhel, ice-cream, then had nice dinner & went back to hotel.

Day 5 (4^th May):

Last day of our trip, everyone had nice sleep last night & everyone was fresh, we purchased some more mangoes & jackfruit, had some nice misal as breakfast & started our return journey. Majya, bharat & dharmu got seperated at Chiplun. They decided to follow NH-17 to Mumbai & we decide to follow NH-4 to Pune. Nothing much to write for return journey. We took lunch near to Umbraj & contnued journey on NH-4, I was driving little extra fast & so we reached pune around 6. Unloaded our luggage & went to home.

Contacts:

Tarkarli : Soham Resorts – 600Rs. Per room for 4 person, 50Rs. Extra bed.
Contact number: 022-25634160, 9423302608

Ratnagiri: Shraddha lodge, near market area, ratnagiri city. 300Rs/double room, 50Rs. Extra bed, have car parking as well.

Guhagar: Kinara lodge, 600Rs. Big hall for 6 person.

contact person: Mrs. Raut
contact number: 02359-240285, 9423048195.

Few important things:

1> Drive carefully as roads are curvy & turns are almost blind.

2> Take plenty of water with you.

3> Avoid boat ride for Dolphins, its too costly + they make fool of you, instead try finding road to Nivati beach & watch dolphins in early morning from beach for free :)

4> Snorkeling is too good, please do it, its certainly worth it, however do it after 12, so that you'll get brighter sunlight.

5> All rooms were neet & clean, so feel free to contact them.

Heres slideshow of all photos:

Labels: Guhagar, kokan, kokan destinations, kokan trip, Kunkeshwar, Malvan, Ratnagiri, roads to kokan, stay in, Tarkarli, way to kokan

posted by Vinit @ 8:27 PM