Part 2: In and Around Diveagar - Afternoon Day 1
We reached Diveagar around lunch time. Quick note here on road conditions - the Mulshi Tamhini road is pretty motorable. There are a few bad patches, and it's recommended you take it real slow because some of the potholes are bad enough to break your suspension. However, for more parts, the road is decent, especially once you enter Konkan.
We checked pretty much every possible place to stay - and it was mostly empty. So we had lots of choice. Unfortunately, most of the places we checked had very damp/mouldy bedding, and small beds. Exotica was pretty expensive at 4000/night. We finally found the very decent Patil Guest House, next to Exotica - at 1500/night, with a free extra bed thrown in, with sparkling clean bathrooms and fresh bedding, this was really worth it, even though it did not have AC. The two rooms we took had a common gallery, so that was really convenient too! The very helpful room boy Pravin even gave Samara a very good wash and was refusing to be rewarded for it! Highly recommended.
We were eager to explore, so took a quick "ghargooti" lunch at Swayam Patil Khanawal - again, highly recommended. I cannot speak much of the veggie options, but we enjoyed the Surmai and the chicken thali, got some extra Surmai too, washed it down with some awesome sol kadi, and finally, a masala paan to wrap it up.
Refreshed and excited, we set out to explore the area. First, to Dighi, a small fishing village with a port (which was out of bounds for us).
From Dighi, we turned back towards Diveagar, and then took a small road to the right that took us to Adgaon - a lovely fishing village at the end of a freakingly beautiful stretch of virgin beach and rocky outcrops.
Time for some more snaps with Samara.
Driving around Konkan is generally a pleasure - the roads are not too narrow, the tarmac is generally very well maintained (even though it rains like hell), and the slowly undulating terrain and curves makes for some really fun driving. (And the 3 guys in the middle row really bonded well!)
By late afternoon, we came back to the hotel, freshened up, and set off for the Diveagar shore, a short 5 min walk from Patil's. A long uninterrupted beach, calm waters, but the oily deposits on the sand are a turn off. If the Maharashtra government wants to promote serious tourism in this area, something needs to be done about this.
It was also time to take the horse power in the water - and for once, there was no need to worry about corrosion!
Notice the metal barriers at the entrance to the beach. If this doesn't warn you to keep off, maybe my future posts will.
Until then, enjoy the sun set!
At night, we made the mistake of going for Chinese and Punjabi at Shree Ganesh. Expensive and tasteless, it was a good opportunity wasted. We retired to our rooms, and while the rest played cards, it was time for me to rest and recuperate for what was to come the next day.