Dive! Dive! Dive!

We arrived by the Makruzz catamaran at Havelock jetty, Village No. 1 at 10:30 am and were met by a rep from Barefoot Holidays who took us to a vehicle for the 30 minute ride to the resort at Beach No. 7. The road wound through the green countryside which was a mixture of some fields under cultivation and untouched jungle. The inhabitants seemed to be immigrants from the mainland, later we read that most were Bengalis.

Makruzz in the background at the Havelock jetty

The Barefoot resort at Beach No. 7 (or Radhanagar Beach) is set in between some plantations on either side, with a wooded stretch just before the beach. There is no hotel or building permitted within 500m of the beach as per CRZ rules. The resort has an eco-friendly theme and you go barefoot in all the buildings. The service and the food were good and I highly recommend it as a place to stay at Havelock.

Reception and lounge bar at Barefoot

After lunch, we relaxed for a bit and then headed to the beach in the evening around 4:30. The sand was so clean, white and fine, it was almost like walking in flour. The water was unbelievably clear and clean. When you’re in the water and gentle waves roll towards you, its like glass moving towards you. We watched the sunset and then returned to the resort.

Radhanagar beach from the water

Next day, we had signed up for a snorkelling trip to Inglis Island. This was a small uninhabited island about an hour North-East of Havelock by speedboat. The trip was organised by Barefoot Scuba and we had to go to another beach (No. 3) to the Scuba resort to join the trip. After an unnecessary wait there, we got under way at 8 am along with 4 other couples – one Indian, one German and 2 what we initially suspected to be Brazilian as we had seen them at dinner time at our hotel wearing clothes with some Brazilian names on them. Later they turned out to be Italian.

The Devil Ray at Inglis Island

The speedboat ride was smooth and we reached Inglis Island about 9 am and began snorkelling around 100m off the beach where there was a large coral reef. The Germans and Italians went off by themselves as they were experienced swimmers and had brought their own snorkelling gear. Our guide took us out first, giving us small life jackets so we would float, and after some fiddling with the masks for a bit, we were all set. The guide pulled us along and since we were almost on the surface, he could point out different fish as we passed them. We spotted so many different fish – Parrot, Unicorn, Peacock grouper, Surgeon, Damsels, Red spotted snapper, Hexagon grouper, Wrasses which clean some other fish, Butterfly fish – and lobsters and sea cucumbers.

@ Inglis Island

After snorkelling for a long time, we were all tired and went onto the next stage of the trip – a trek into the jungle to another side of the island. The boat dropped us off near the shore and we waded in, bringing water and food from the boat. Leaving the bulk of our belongings near the beach, we headed off into the jungle, following our guide. The foliage was quite thick and the path was almost imperceptible, but we managed to stay on track. After walking for about 30 minutes, we reached another beach on the Northern side of the island.  The water here was also quite clear, but there were a few rocks and there was a medium current going across the beach so we didn’t venture too far in. The Italians had even brought along a hammock which they strung on a tree poking over the water!

View of Inglis Island from the channel

We spent an hour or so at this beach and then trekked back to the original spot, in time to have a lunch of spaghetti in tomato sauce. It was too hot to go into the water again, so we lazed on the beach where there were zillions of small hermit crabs. Imagine the scene of hundreds of shells moving on the sand. It was like there was some international conference of all the hermit crabs

Low tide at Beach No. 3

We left Inglis Island around 2:30 and were back at our hotel by 4 pm after an enjoyable day. The food at Barefoot was options of Indian, Thai and Italian, all quite good, though the Italian veg food was oddly high priced.

The next day we had planned to go for a beginner’s dive and we headed to the Barefoot Scuba resort again at 7 am. After an initial briefing on scuba diving, we chose our wetsuits and gear and got into a boat to head to Elephant Beach, Havelock. There were 3 other Indian couples and one foreign lady who was doing some diving course. All were planning to dive except one of the Indian ladies. We got to the beach around 9 am and got into chest deep water.

Going through the safety tasks

Each of us was assigned an instructor and after getting the gear on, the basic lesson began. After learning the hand signals, we had to learn some basic safety tasks like putting the mouthpiece back if it fell, finding the mouthpiece if it drifted behind and clearing water from our face masks. My wife was initially terrified of water, though after the snorkelling trip she was more confident.

Yella okay !

She took a bit of time with the mouthpiece finding task and drank around 50% of the water of Elephant Beach. This was not a good idea since Elephant Beach was a rather commercial spot with zillions of tourists congregating for all sorts of water sports. Anyway, we then began the dive, with an instructor taking each person, and started at the coral reef about 50m off the beach and went out in an arc towards the end of the reef, about 700m away.

Breathing was not tough and we soon got used to it. The experience was amazing and everything looked so clear and close to us. We saw a similar number of fish and other sea creatures as we saw at Inglis Island, except that we could not talk so our instructors couldn’t tell us the names of the fish unlike during the snorkelling trip. I saw some bright blue star fish, which looked spectacular. Most of the coral was bleached, which meant most was dead, but there were a few live clumps that had regenerated. My instructor later told me that he had learned diving in Thailand, where the coral was not even as good as this.

Our dive took about 25 minutes, and my instructor told me later that I had been a “good student” and he was able to take us farthest out over the reef. After the dive, we waded into the beach and relaxed for some time, playing in the water at one secluded section while some other groups who had signed up at the beach itself, had their similar dives. It began to rain at one point, though the shower was short and it was soon sunny again. There were dark clouds in one part of the sky, and as we headed back to Beach No. 3 the sea was slightly choppy. When we got back at 1:30 pm, it was low tide and we had to walk a good distance from the boat to the shore.

Finding Nemo

We heard that the Full Moon Cafe on this beach was a good lunch destination, and as this was a rare opportunity to have a meal outside Barefoot, we decided to try it out. The place had a nice ambience and selection of food and we had a good meal of a veg thali and a prawn curry & rice. We took our ride back to our resort and after a short rest, headed to Neil’s Cove next to Radhanagar beach to enjoy the rest of the evening.

Sunset at Neil’s Cove

The next day was our last full day at Havelock and we had decided to just laze on the beach. We went to the beach at 8:30 am hoping to catch the high tide before breakfast. But it was already really hot and after 20 minutes, we had to head back. Before leaving, we chose a nice spot and deposited our straw mats and beach towels provided by the hotel. After breakfast, we lazed on the beach, reading books till it was time for lunch. Deciding it was too hot to return immediately after lunch, we went back to our air conditioned room for some relief and after a rest there, went back to the beach by early evening, enjoying one last dip in the water and then a nice walk while the sun was setting.

Twilight at Radhanagar beach

The Makruzz return run to Port Blair was at 4 pm, so we had a lot of time to kill on the last day. We checked out around noon and took our ride to the jetty at Village No. 1. Barefoot Holidays very efficiently arranged for our check in to the ferry and we had a lot of free time on our hands. We decided to have lunch at B3 – Barefoot Bar and Brasserie, which was right next to the jetty. They had a nice partially open section on the first floor and we got a table there.

Street at Village No. 1

The food was good and we sat there till it was time to board the Makruzz for our ride back to Port Blair. The sea was rougher than on our incoming trip and we also were on the lower deck. After a while, it looked like half the crowd was feeling sea sick. But it did not get worse and soon people got used to it, with the vessel reaching the harbour in Port Blair around sunset.

In and around Port Blair

Our itinerary in the Andamans was 2 nights in Port Blair, then take a catamaran to Havelock, spend 4 nights there and then return to Port Blair for 3 more nights.

The flight to Port Blair was via Chennai and therefore we got to experience the rubber stamp mentality twice. To save paper, we reused the first set of cabin baggage tags and made the security apparatchiks stamp them again. Luckily they went along with this plan.

First glimpse of the Andamans

As we approached South Andaman Island, we were able to see a number of islands from the air. They looked spectacular and we quickly clicked some snaps. Everything looked green as we landed, and as we stepped out of the plane, the heat was upon us. It was 32 C and apparently this was the standard day time temperature and at night was around 26 C. This doesn’t vary much throughout the year, though it might rain more in some months than others. Jan and Feb are the best months to visit for diving and snorkelling as the sea is very calm since there is no rain and no breeze.

Corbyn’s Cove

Tourists visit the Andamans only as its not easy to get to the Nicobar islands, there’s apparently a boat which goes to Car Nicobar but it takes 16 hours. Foreignors are allowed to visit only a few islands in the Andaman chain and need to register themselves on entry. Most of the population is from the mainland and is dominated by Bengali and Tamil ethnic groups. Hindi is widely spoken and understood in the Andamans.

We wanted to stay at the Barefoot resort at Havelock which was rated the best and had worked out an overall travel package with Barefoot Holidays. So they picked us up in a smart Xylo and took us to our hotel in Port Blair, which was 5 km out of the city at Corbyn’s Cove – Peerless Sarovar Portico. Not a very nice place it turned out later, but that’s another story. Corbyn’s Cove is a small beach, was hit badly by the tsunami and  currently a bit dirty. It has a nice promenade though, which was in front of our hotel and a good place to sit and read a book.

Sunset at Chidiya Tapu

After an ordinary lunch, we checked in and then were picked up by Barefoot Holidays (BH) for a trip to Chidiya  Tapu, a sunset point which was about 22 km away to the south. It was a nice drive, and though the place was slightly crowded, the other people were not creating a disturbance and it was an enjoyable experience to see the varied hues of sunlight in the evening sky. The sun sets around 5:30 pm at this time of year, since the Andamans are far east of central India where sunset is currently around 6:30.

Chidiya Tapu

Next the plan was to see the sound and light show at the Cellular Jail in the city. The place looked imposing and we arrived just as it was beginning, so were at the back and didn’t get a seat. The show was in Hindi and was quite ordinary (the English one might be just as bad for all I know). There was hardly enough use of light and it was not interesting at all. We walked out after 10 minutes.

The next day, we were slated to visit Mount Harriet in the morning and then do a Harbour Cruise in the evening. We had read reviews that the Harbour Cruise was a sham as it went to Viper Island (a garbage dump) so we changed our itinerary to bring forward a trip to Ross Island instead. But first we headed out to Mount Harriet at around 9 am. You go by road to Chatham jetty and take a ferry to cross to Bamboo Flat before continuing up the hills to the peak. Depending on the crowd, there might be a significant wait at the ferry. It took us an hour to get across, most of the time spent waiting at the jetty. They somehow cram in 9 cars into the ferry, a feat of Indian adjust-maadi brilliance.

View of North Bay Island

The drive to Mount Harriet was very nice, passing a church built like a ship and thick tropical jungle. I haven’t seen such tall trees, creepers and thick foliage even in the Amazon. At one point on the way, your driver/guide might show you the spot from where you get a view of North Bay Island lighthouse. This view features on the back of our Rupee Twenty banknote. Once you get to the top however, the view is just about okay. Nothing earth shattering. Plus there is a big crowd of aunties, uncles and their kiddies all trying to take Patel shots. We took a quick dekko and said hasta la vista to Mount Harriet, hoping to catch the ferry and get back to Port Blair in time for lunch and then our trip to Ross Island.

Entrance to Mount Harriet National Park

We just made the ferry and then drove into Port Blair by around 12:15. The ferry to Ross Island leaves from the Water Sports Complex (named after the former PM who had the smoking gun) at 1:30 (there’s also a morning one). Our driver suggested the New Lighthouse restaurant alongside for seafood. The prices were fairly reasonable, though they messed up the preparation of my tiger prawn order.

Ross Island jetty

The boat to Ross Island was almost empty and we reached in 15 minutes. There was a lot to see and we had around 2.5 hours. The island is not huge, and one portion is closed to the public by the Indian Navy. They supposedly maintain the island, and though they are plenty of waste bins and warning signs against littering, we did find litter in some places. The British officers running Port Blair used to live on Ross Island and they had every facility there – from tennis courts and a bakery to a church. The old buildings are in ruins and huge trees (looked like banyan trees) have taken root in the ruins and covered up portions, making for a spectacular sight.

Overgrown British building at Ross Island

We walked down to Ferar Beach, and got our first glimpse of clean white fine sand. The beach was rocky so you cant go in the water, but nice to walk on.

There’s a huge herd of deer on the island and some peacocks as well. They are fairly tame and while they don’t come right next to you, they don’t mind you coming close enough to take pictures. After some refreshing coconut water, we headed back to Port Blair.

Quiet Ferar beach

The next day we had to wake up early for our catamaran ride on the Makruzz to Havelock island. There was a large group of people from Axis Bank there – some reward trip for home loan staffers. As they were going on a day trip, they didn’t have baggage and this made it easier for the rest of us. We got to sit in the premium class seats on the upper deck since the bankers took the entire lower section. Their trip was organised by Cox & Kings – and the guide was making such odd announcements, it was funny. He got confused with Elephant Beach at Havelock and Elephanta Caves in Mumbai ! The ride was smooth and we reached Havelock by 10:30 after leaving at 8:45 am.

Five days later, we returned to Port Blair in the evening on the Makruzz, arriving at 5:30 pm. By the time we exited the marina and reached our  hotel it was 6:30 pm. The next day we were supposed to go to Mahatma Gandhi National Park to visit Jolly Buoy island. The trip started after breakfast and we drove through the countryside of the south-western part of South Andaman island reaching Wandoor jetty in about 45 minutes. We had to pay a deposit for plastic drinking water bottles being taken into the park. This took a bit of time as some old aunties decided they did not want to stand in a queue to pay and merrily broke it.

Jolly Buoy on the right

We then got into what felt like a crowded boat with a capacity around 40 people and cruised into the park. The scenery was nice, but nothing extraordinary, though by this time, about 10000 pictures would have been clicked by our fellow boat mates.

After around an hour, we reached Jolly Buoy Island. It looks nice, with clear water around it. We got out, about 14 at a time, into a glass-bottomed boat and viewed coral and fish as we slowly headed to the beach. Pretty decent stuff. The “guides” from your boat will later take people, 2-3 at a time, into the sea for about 50 meters, about 15 minutes, for snorkelling. The coral was okay, nothing extraordinary and most of the coral is bleached or dead here (as is most in the region due to the bleaching of coral due to warm temperatures, which peaked in May 2010). I found that the coral and fish at Inglis Island much much better.

You can’t go far from the madding crowd

Here, we encountered a lot of uncles and aunties, with many of the uncles going swimming in their underwear. And then they roamed around the island after they were wet. Especially the old men. Rather disgusting.

Luckily the weather turned bad and it began to rain. Our boat happened to be the first to leave and therefore we were the first to exit the park as well. We went back to Port Blair for lunch at the New Lighthouse. This time they targeted my lobster. By this time I learned that hotels and restaurants in the Andamans are very different from what we see in metros like Bangalore. The staff just dont have the exposure. So I enjoyed what I could of the meal and we went back to the hotel.

Lobster lunch

The next day we were supposed to do a tour of the city visiting some 6-7 different spots from the Cellular Jail to Chatham Saw Mill. We decided to scratch all but 2 of the sight seeing and do it the next day before we took our flight out. So what to do now?  BH gave us an option of visiting Rutland island, which was not on the regular tourist itinerary and therefore should be quiet and nice. However, they were charging a steep fare for it and we decided to skip it and just relax at Corbyn’s Cove promenade with a book. The Port Blair Municipal Council have provided deck chairs and changing rooms at the beach. They charge only Rs 10 for use of a chair, which is very nice of them.

Corbyn’s Cove promenade

Finally, our last day in the Andamans arrived and we headed to the Cellular Jail for a visit. We got a nice guide and he explained everything very well. Being deported to the Andamans was called Kaala Pani because there was no prospect of return even after your sentence was complete – they simply released you in Port Blair.

Entrance to Cellular Jail

What a shame that the poor freedom fighters struggled for us to be free and suffered torture in this prison, only for our current political masters to fritter away the country’s inheritance in scams and crimes. I think the 693 cells might not have been enough to house all the scamsters.

Cell block at the Cellular Jail

Next stop was the Anthropological Museum. We had no expectations from a museum in India, and planned to breeze through in 15 minutes. It was as we foresaw, with a very poor story telling capacity and just random exhibits lined up. One can still consider this since it is the only place you can see how the indigenous tribes lived. Sad that we can’t even create a proper museum after destroying their lives. There were also the typical Indian tourists who wanted to take photos of themselves INSIDE the replica dwellings of the natives, therefore clambering into the exhibits to do so.

Tourist escaping from a replica dwelling

We dropped in at a suggested place for lunch – Annapurna, a veggie joint – before heading to the airport for our flight out. The food was pedestrian and overpriced and we ended up getting a better and tastier meal on our Jet Airways flight!  We had forgotten that Jet was a full service airline and would serve us lunch.  We reached Bangalore via Chennai at 7 pm and were home by 8:30.

F&B Chronicles Day 9 : Karwar-Bangalore

Starting point : Kurumgad Island

Destination : Bangalore

Distance : 560 km

After our travails of the previous day, we just wanted to exit Kurumgad ASAP and informed the staff to get us on the first boat out in the morning. This was slated for 10 am. We had an ordinary breakfast at 9 am and were ready to depart at 9:30. However, after we got into the boat, we noticed that both the large groups also got in with us. There was apparently a dolphin ride at 10 am and our return was going to be clubbed with this touristy experience of unfathomable brilliance. To make it even more fun for us, after the ‘dolphin ride’, during which no creatures of any sort were spotted, we returned to the island jetty to jettison one group of pests. No clue why they didn’t first complete the dolphin ride and then take on the guests who had to return. Anyway, we were at the Kali River jetty by around 11 am and at 1110 hrs, The Rolling Stone got underway with its cargo of 5.

Bridge over the Kali River

We decided to take NH-67 just before Ankola and we made good time on this scenic and good road that went through the forests towards Hubli. We stopped at around 1:30 for lunch at a place called Hotel Highway. There was no one when we entered and we were a bit apprehensive about how it might turn out. We ordered chicken Kolhapuri, dal tadka, rice and rotis. All the food was really good and we walked out happy and full. We soon got under way again and headed towards NH-4, passing Mundgod before hitting the main highway around 2:30 pm. There are some bad patches on this route, but its hardly a hindrance and can definitely considered as a route to take to return from Goa.

Onion rings at Hotel Highway

Once we hit NH-4, going was very smooth and we hardly noticed our speed as we cruised along. At one point I saw that we were doing 160 kmph, which is the fastest that I have ever been on the road in the real world.

Last chai stop

We stopped at around 5 for a rest and chai, I don’t recall where exactly, and after another uneventful drive, we reached the Yeshwantpur junction at 7 pm. After that, the drive times don’t really count, since we reached that Mecca of traffic messes – Bangalore. I was home by 8:30 pm, thus bringing an end to the F&B Trip.

F&B Chronicles Day 8 : Kurumgad Island

Starting point : Cola Beach, Goa

Destination : Kurumgad Island, Karwar

Distance : 40 km

We woke up early and left Cola by 8 am, intending to have breakfast at a small eatery at Palolem on the way. It had 2 small tables and we had samosa, bhaji pav and tea. Getting underway quickly, the plan was to take a coastal road till whatever point we could before rejoining NH-17 to head into Karwar. This was also an important milestone in our trip – we named the Bloody Car !  After considering several names that were bandied about like Prime Ministerial candidates after a general election, we settled on – The Rolling Stone.

The Rolling Stone that goes over all the moss

The road wound round some hills and was quite scenic. We went on this narrow iron bridge to cross a river and backed up to take some snaps of the crossing. This was near Galgibag. After that however, we were not sure of the road being motorable and we decided to try and rejoin NH-17, which we did fairly quickly. Later it turned out that we could have followed that scenic road for some more time.

Put your right arm in, put your right arm out…oops you lost it!

Filling up diesel before exiting Goa, we crossed the Kali River bridge into Karwar at around 10:15 am and were at the jetty for our ride to Kurumgad Island shortly after. We parked the Scorpio in the Great Outdoors‘ parking lot and after some confusion with the boat operator (Great Outdoors hadn’t organised this well), we got into the boat and it headed towards Kurumgad Island.

Kurumgad Island in the distance

And thats when we began the worst experience of the F&B Trip. The place was not run well, there were some large groups of unruly men there at the same time, and in general it was a tiresome day. For further details check out the review here.

It was really hot so after some carrom before lunch, we rested and then headed to the beach only in the evening – it was not much of a beach, with slimy sea floor and we soon clambered over some rocks to sit and view the sunset.

Aiming to please

Heading back to the tented area, we were greeted by loud film music on one side, accompanied by a choir singing some devotional songs on the other. We cleaned up and then made our way to one of our tents on the other side of the island, where there was only the constant chugging of the generator filling the air.

Remains of Kurumgad Fort with other islands in the distance

Some chit chat and drinks later, we were brought some barbecued chicken by the staff, this turned out to be quite good. We had a quick dinner as we didn’t want to spend too much time around the pesky guests, and went off to sleep.

F&B Chronicles Day 7 : Cola and Palolem

Cola-Palolem-Cola

As the gastronomic delights at Cola were rather limited, we had planned to visit some old haunts at Palolem to bring some balance to the force. Destination – Cafe Inn for some sandwiches.

Mezze platter

After waking up leisurely at around 8:30, we left Cola at 9:30 for the 25 minute drive to Palolem. The place was more crowded than I ever remember, its becoming more like the Baga Road with all the shops around. We parked in the main lot and walked the short distance to Cafe Inn, which is on the corner of the main road and the road leading to the parking lot. We ordered a lot of food – from burgers to chicken sandwiches, mezze and shakes.

Palolem beach

Someone wanted to buy leather bags and tshirts so we walked around the shops till we found decent ones. I headed to see what the beach was looking like – not too bad, but getting more crowded by the day. On the way back, one of my leather sandals broke so I ended up shopping for some rubber chappals. It was pretty hot by the time we finished up the shopping, so before we left, we headed into a nearby bar for a quick drink.

Breezer at Palolem better than cola at Cola?

Getting back to Cola by around 1pm, we lazed about for a while, then decided to check out the lagoon in front of us. My cousin and I started off in one of the kayaks available and we paddled up the small stream till we reached a very shallow portion and we had to turn back. Next we went into the sea and brought the kayak along. The others took turns kayaking out to sea for a bit. Meanwhile, the rest of the black snapper was waiting to meet its fate in the freezer of the restaurant. We opted for what the chef should have down as a tried and tested recipe (since it was on the menu) – Tandoori Fish. This got ready around sunset and we cleaned up and had our fill.

Lazing at Cola

We met an old British couple who were in a tent near us. They apparently visited Cola every year for 3 months and knew the person who ran the place for a long time. They had a tent “reserved” for them and an all inclusive deal with food and beverages. They were offering some books for swap, or just giving them to whoever wanted to read. Looked like rather heavy reading to me.

The rest of the evening was spent chilling out at Cola. We called it a relatively early night as we had to wake up early to leave for Kurumgad the next day.

F&B Chronicles Day 6 : Tarkarli-Cola

Starting point : Tarkarli
Destination : Cola beach, Goa
Distance : 172 km

We had resolved to start early so that we could reach Cola beach in good time to enjoy the sea and sunset. There was no cook at the hotel till 9 am so we left after drinking tea and coffee and without eating breakfast at about 8 am. Our plan was to visit Cabo de Rama fort in the south of Goa, a little after the Sal River passes Cavelossim and then head to Cola, which was another 10-15 km south. From Tarkarli, we headed north towards Malvan on SH-4 and then took SH-118 towards Kudal via Nerur gaon.

Heading towards Kudal

The road was excellent and we made fantastic time. We passed through Kudal MIDC and hit NH-17 around 8:40 am. We sped along on NH-17 and passed Sawantwadi, Pernem and Mapusa before deciding to stop for breakfast at around 10 am near Porvorim at Angel’s Resort. There didn’t seem to be any other eating place open along the highway, just bars – as we entered Goa we spotted one called “Reached Goa Bar”!

We wanted to avoid all the usual haunts of north Goa and decided to to stick to NH-17 till we passed the Verna plateau. We then took the road towards Majorda and then went parallel to the coast on the Dabolim-Cavelossim road. While this was narrow, the scenery was nice and we avoid the heavy traffic and dust of NH-17 as it passed near Margao.

Crossing the Sal river

We turned off the road towards the left for the ferry to cross the Sal river. We had to wait for the ferry to return from the other side and grabbed a quick beer at a small bar next to the jetty. There were a couple of elderly firangs there having a drink. As one got up and left, we noticed a puddle of water beneath the remaining gent. He said to us “Don’t look at me like that, its only sea water that dripped off me, I am not that old !!!”

The ferry arrived and we crossed over and then took a road that headed towards Cabo de Rama fort, passing a village called Canaguinim. Just before we reached the fort, we spotted a couple of bars and we stopped to buy some cold water and chilled beer. The time was around 1 pm. The fort was built by Hindu warriors and the Portuguese captured it around 1763 after defeating the Raja of Soonda. We were going to visit another fort ruled by the rulers of Soonda at Kurumgad later.

From the path leading down to the rocks

We parked the Scorpio near the entrance to the fort and went in. The entrance was like that of some old building and it did not look like a fort at all, except for the walls which spanned out on either side. On entering we saw an old church which was being painted and renovated on the left and then a lot of trees and shrubs dotting the landscape. My cousin had been here before and led us on a path for about 500m till we reached the walls overlooking the sea. It was VERY hot by now.

Rocky beach below Cabo de Rama fort

We came to a path leading down the hillside towards the sea. On the way we passed the spot where my cousin saw a cobra some months before. We reached the cliff and saw that the path down was a bit steep. As it was so hot, most of us decided not to go down, but my cousin went all the way and walked along the rocky shore there. We went back to the fort walls and sat in the shade sipping water and beer.

Church in the Cabo de Rama fort

A short walk back took us near the church where there was a tap from which we got cool water to wash up. Refreshed, we headed to a lookout point on the northern side of the fort which afforded a good view of the coastline.

View from the northern walls

We left soon after and headed on to Cola beach. There was a turn off the road towards the right and we went along a dirt track for more than 1km. We reached a sort of parking and saw that beyond that was the cliff and the sea. Taking our belongings from the Scorpio, we headed down the cliff along a narrow path. It was not that steep or tough and we soon reached the Blue Lagoon tented resort.

Cola beach

There were around a dozen tents along the hillside facing a fresh water lagoon which was fed by a hill stream. Beyond the lagoon was the beach and then the sea. Towards the right of the lagoon was the regular stretch of beach and there were a lot of rocky sections.

The tents were Rajasthani style, large, airy and each opened onto a tented bathroom at the rear. There was a small porch for each tent, with a table and couple of chairs to sit.

Blue Lagoon tented resort

We inquired as to the availability of seafood and were shown a sizeable red snapper and a really huge black snapper. We decided on the black snapper and asked for a simple lemon and garlic grilled preparation for half the fish, asking them to ice the remaining for the next day. We had some other snacks in the meantime and then hit the beach.

The water was much cooler than in Kunkeshwar and there were only a few places you could safely swim, unlike beaches like Palolem or Utorda. But it was still very good and we enjoyed ourselves till the waiter called us as our fish was ready. They had added some ginger garlic and other spices and almost ruined the preparation, but it was still decently tasty.

Sunset at Cola

The evening was spent chatting and relaxing outside our tents. There was no mobile phone reception there at all. After dinner, we took a walk along the beach and it was quite amazing to see all the stars since other than Blue Lagoon, there were no other lights at all on that stretch.

F&B Chronicles Day 5 : Around Tarkarli

Tarkarli-Sindhudurg-Kunkeshwar-Tarkarli

I woke up leisurely around 8:30 am to find that my companions had already taken a walk along Tarkarli beach and pronounced it unfit for our exploration due to a surfeit of tourists and accompanying garbage. We decided to go to Sindhudurg fort in the morning, then a good beach a bit north and also fixed up with the boatman we had met the previous day to take us for a cruise in the river around 8 pm.

Sindhudurg jetty

We had a breakfast of upma, poha, omelette and toast at our hotel and then headed towards Sindhudurg fort. It was a 20 minute drive towards Malvan and we reached the parking area after wading through about a hundred queries of whether we wanted to do diving around the fort. We declined and went to join the queue at the jetty. These boats seemed slightly less loaded than the dhows in Janjira and were motorised. After a 15 minute wait, we got into one and headed towards the fort. The views of the fishing fleet and the fort were quite good, as you can see from the photos.

Sindhudurg Fort

We reached the fort and having learned from our “mis-guided” experience at Janjira, declined a guide this time. I had already prepped the group with pointers from wikipedia in the morning so we had some info with us. Sindhudurg fort doesn’t have much of the interior buildings remaining, with only the outer walls mostly intact.

Clear waters around the fort

At one point facing the sea, there was a huge breach in the outer walls. However, we were able to walk along the entire perimeter and the views of the sea were rather spectacular. A few Patel shots were taken and soon we started wilting under the heat. We headed back towards the entrance where there was a refreshments stall. A couple of quick nimbu sodas and life was restored again. I contemplated offering my services as a guide to the other unsuspecting tourists who were filing in. Deciding that we needed to reach a nice beach soon, we got into the boat and without further delay left Sindhudurg in the Scorpio and headed north.

Walking along the walls

Asking for directions to any good beach, we were told of a few options and decided on Kunkeshwar which was 50 km to the north. The drive was pleasant except that it was getting steadily hotter by the minute. We explored some turnings from the main road towards the beach and finally centered on one that led to what looked like a coconut plantation. There was another group already there and they were playing cards under the shade of the trees. We parked under what shade we could find and headed to the beach.

Kunkeshwar beach

The beach was really clean, with white sand and a temple at the far end. There was no one in the water as far as we could see. The water was warm and inviting and we plunged in. I later took a walk towards the temple hoping to buy some water and snacks, and it turned out to be a really long walk there and back.

Clear waters of Kunkeshwar

After we had some refreshments we checked the time – 5pm and it was time to head back towards Tarkarli. On the way back, we got stuck in a traffic jam in Malvan. The roads were so narrow and both buses and SUVs had jammed some of them.

The Bloody Car enjoying some shady spot

We heard that food at the MTDC resort in Tarkarli was good so we planned to have dinner there. One had to order in advance it seems, so we headed there. But they told us that they closed by 9 pm and we would not be back from our cruise by then so we decided to eat in our own hotel. A quick clean up and snack of omelette rotis and and we headed to the jetty which was just outside our hotel.

Sunset on way back to Tarkarli

Simon, the owner of the boat and another guy took us out into the river. There was almost a full moon but not much other lights around.

The boat that took us to Tsunami Island

Simon suggested going to Tsunami Island, which was one of the aforementioned “touristy points” around Tarkarli. He promised it would be good at this time since there would be no one else there. This turned out to be the best place we visited in the whole trip.

Open bar at Tsunami Island

Tsunami Island was a sand bar in the delta of the river that was facing the sea. Gentle waves lapped against the sand bar. There were some makeshift shelters and tethered rafts there so we could sit down. Simon and his companion had carried plastic chairs for us to sit in the boat and these were moved onto Tsunami Island. We sat there sipping a drink and admiring the surroundings. The water level slowly rose till the sand bar was covered over a period of around an hour. It was time for us to head back and we bid goodbye to lovely Tsunami Island.