Ho hum. Another vacation, another travelogue. Come to think of it, save for the TBHP Hyderabad Drive Meets, my wife and I had not been on a road trip since our return from
Ooty. Ooty was in the very first weekend of April. Four months is simply too long a time to be holed up in the city. It is an eternity.
It all started last month. I knew Srishti (my wife) was getting antsy. The planned return to Ladakh had to be cancelled for various reasons. The substitute trip had to be a big one, at least a
big enough one for nothing can really compensate for Ladakh. Budget, however, was a major constraint. Did not wish to spend anything more than 22-24k for the two of us for a one week odyssey. Did some research, and realised that Goa fit the bill to a nicety. Immediately called up the wife. She agreed the moment I uttered 'Goa'.
As it so happened, August was a fairly slow month in office. Had done two major sales closures and there was no closure anticipated in the near future. Plus, Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi gloriously combined to make the period between 27 August and 4 September any holiday lovers wet dream.
Immediately the search began for cheap accommodation. We are cheap travellers. Love to do stuff in as little money as it takes. Imagine my delight when I found this place offering us a one-bedroom, living room, kitchen apartment for Rs. 350/- (yes, not Rs. 3500/-) per night! Including taxes, the total for 8 nights came to Rs. 2940/-. The place is
Sand Pebble. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for the bare essentials. There is no air-conditioning and they do not serve food. But they offer you a well furnished place that is clean. It is situated in Candolim, right in the main market.
On 27 August 2011, exactly at 4:45 am we left home. There are multiple routes to Goa from Hyderabad. Goa regulars have their favourites. No two Goa regulars would ever recommend the same route. Some prefer via Sholapur-Kolhapur. Some via Raichur. Some others via Gulbarga. The list of route recommendations floating around can confuse the hell out of anyone. After much deliberations, this is the route we took:
Hyderabad - Zaheerabad - Humnabad - Gulbarga - Bijapur - Athani - Nippalni - Gadhinglaj - Amboli - Goa
Total distance: 740 km
Total time taken: 15 hours
The road upto Bijapur is very good. Special mention must be made of the road between Humnabad and Gulbarga. This stretch of 65 km is reason enough to take this road, despite the 90 km between Athani and Nippani giving your suspension a thorough workout. Except for that 90 km which took me 3 hours in the Bolero, the route is good.
Gulbarga to Bijapur: This is what driving bliss is. Shortcut to bypass Sawantwadi: This is tricky. The moment the ghats of Amboli come to an end, look for a road to the left. There will be a distance marker which says Sawantwadi is 17 km away, and a left arrow directing you to Panaji. This 8km stretch of village road will deposit you just at the edge of the Goa border, bypassing Sawantwadi.
Advantages: You save time and distance. And you save even more time because you do not have to go through the Maharashtra police checkpost. This is more relevant on your way back from Goa. Yet, anything that lets me avoid Maharashtra police gets a plus in my book.
Warning: The shortcut has a low bridge that gets flooded during monsoons. Do not attempt to drive over it if it is under water. The river is in spate and will wash your car away. Better to reverse and go via Sawantwadi. If you get lucky and have a local vehicle in front of you then he will guide you through a series of turns to bypass the bridge. Do not attempt to find an alternate route. There is no population in this stretch if you get off the main village road.
Back to the travelogue.
This time, I drove rather sedately. We stopped around 4:30 pm for lunch somewhere between Gadhinglaj and Amboli. We had packed lunch from home - chicken and parathas. Lovely, it was.