[rohan_2911]

Hi fellow BHPians, This is my first post on Team BHP - so please be kind.

I purchased a Skoda Kushaq (1.5 TSI Manual) in June last year - the car has recently completed 1 year / 9600 kms.

I have two road trips in the past 1 year :
1) Mumbai to Pondicherry via Bangalore and back
2) Coast to Coast Ride : Mumbai - Goa - Yana Caves - Murudeshwar - Udupi - Mangalore - Coorg - Mysore - Bangalore - Pondicherry and back to Mumbai via Bangalore


This is my first car and I bought it so that I get to drive a good manual car - before the EV revolution and stricter emission norms forces the world to go Electric.

Coming back to the topic - my elder brother’s family (Brother + Sister in Law and my two Nieces; let’s call them A (7 years old) and M (2 years old) visited us in Mumbai from Bangalore for Summer Vacations and we decided to go on a short impromptu trip before they flew back to Bangalore.

With the end of May being the peak summer season, there were not a lot of options and we decided to go to a place with a beach as demanded by my niece A.
Alibaug was the obvious option - it is quite near to Mumbai ( ~ 100 kms / 3 hrs) and we could also travel one way on the Roll on Roll Off (Ro - Ro) M2M ferry which ferries (pun intended) people and vehicles between Bhaucha Dhakka in Mumbai to Mandwa Jetty near Alibaug.
My wife and Myself had taken the ferry once earlier - but that was on my Yamaha FZ-25






My FZ parked on the ferry - photo clicked on an earlier visit




We decided to skip the weekend rush and take a Friday Off - so that the beach would be relatively less crowded

Next on line was deciding the exact itinerary.
Although I wanted to catch the early morning ferry from Mumbai (starts at 7am) - so that we could enjoy the open deck on the ferry when the Sun was not too harsh - however the tickets were sold out. So that left me with no option but to drive to Kihim and take the mid day ferry back to Alibaug

With that sorted the next task was deciding on the exact place to stay.

Since we were travelling with Kids and the objective was to chill on the beach rather than to visit many places and points - I chose Kihim Beach as the go to place - this beach is located between Mandwa Jetty and Alibaug and is relatively less crowded and was undiscovered till a few years ago. Started looking for good accommodation - I wanted a room as close to the beach as possible so that I do not have to keep driving back and forth between the beach / room / places to eat.

Did not like the options thrown up by the usual sites like Make my Trip , Agoda etc…
Finally found a resort just next to the beach - the back entrance of the resort opened onto the beach and it was the perfect place - called them up to book
Since the resort was unlisted on any travel website - I was a bit apprehensive of paying an advance amount - one simply cannot be sure, too many scams going around nowadays - but the lady I spoke to seemed ‘genuine’ and I was given the front page of the passbook as proof of the resort being real - with the resort’s name , address and bank details and that finally convinced me to pay them the advance.





The Location of the resort relative to the beach




Next day we started from Mumbai around 8:15 am. Since it was a Friday morning traffic was relatively low as we were exiting the city. Took a right from the Kalamboli Bridge/ Circle on the JNPT road (NH 548) and then turned left Again on NH348. Finally took a right onto NH66 at Phalaspe Phata and from there it was a straight road towards Pen.




The route we took till Pen



We had decided to stop at Go Green Nursery just after Karnala on NH66 - because of the excellent Ambience and food. I am always intrigued by the place - looks like the owner lives in a bungalow at the location and runs a nursery/landscaping and gardening business.

As mentioned earlier the ambience and food is excellent - highly recommended for a relaxing meal. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. We spent close to one hour at the location.





The Pantree restaurant at Go Green





Some pictures showing the superb ambience





Path just outside the Pantree restaurant at Go Green



Resumed the trip post breakfast and we reached Ocean View resort in Kihim by 12:15 pm.
Initially I parked my car under some coconut trees - but there’s always the danger of coconuts/ tree branches falling on the car - it has happened before with a friend of mine earlier this year ! So I quickly moved the car to a safer parking spot



Parking Spot : Before and After. Better safe than sorry

After settling into the room - we took a quick stroll around the resort and went to the beach as well - my niece A did not want to waste even a second !
But the sun was very harsh and we promptly dragged her back to the resort - had a quick lunch and a refreshing nap.





'A' on the hammock , View from just outside the room overlooking the beach


Woke up around 4 pm and we hit the beach - I had taken a Kite along with me from Mumbai did some timepass by flying the kite around on the beach while my niece and my Wife had some fun in the water doing the usual things like building sandcastles and collecting shells.
As we expected (and hoped) the beach was relatively empty





Me flying a Kite on Kihim Beach - can you spot the kite in the distance ?





My niece and my wife enjoying the nice and warm water



We spotted a lot of live sea creatures in shells - maybe it was the combination of Tide and weather - but wherever we stepped there seemed to be shells with creatures alive inside of them - I have visited many beaches but have not seen such a high density of sea creatures.

They also seemed to dig themselves into the sand - along the whole beach.





The sea creatures we encountered


We were at the beach till about 8 pm - and had a quick dinner in the nearby restaurant.
Post dinner we sat for some time at the beach. All the food stalls which had opened in the evening had closed and there were no chairs around - since the resort was just 50 mtrs away - we got some chairs from the resort itself

We could see the lights of buildings in South Mumbai all the way from Kihim - a distance of 20+ kms !!!
Was pretty interesting - tried to capture a few snaps through the binoculars.





Beach at night during high tide - notice the waterline ; Lights from South Bombay - captured through Binoculars




Woke up a bit early the next day and went the beach - it was low tide and the waterline had receded to about 200 mtrs in - took a walk till the waterline and there were huge rocks with lots of shell deposits on them.







A private beach !





Rocks on the beach -with decades of shell deposits, these deposits are razor sharp and will cut your feet up if you are not careful






Look at the waterline at low tide and compare it with the photo taken at night !

After roaming around on the beach - came back to the resort - lazed around on the hammock and had breakfast at the same restaurant where we had dinner the previous day.




Me enjoying an early morning siesta !





Maharashtrian Breakfast : Omelet Pav and Poha



It was already past 10 am at this point and we had to start by 11 am to reach the Mandwa Ferry terminal at 11:30 am for the scheduled ferry departure at 12 pm.

So we checked out from the resort at around 10:45 took some customary photos and started driving towards Mandwa Jetty.
While checking the car for any cats and dogs that are resting underneath - found out that my left rear mudguard was somehow broken - I don't have a clue when/where it happened !!!




The Kushaq's a looker




Customary Selfie and some happy memories





The broken Mudguard - don't have a clue on how this happened




All the luggage - easily accommodated by the large boot space - you can also spot the Kites



We reached the Ferry Terminal at around 11:30 am as planned - and got in line to board as instructed by the staff. It was quite hot outside and we were happy to be inside the car with the AC blowing cool air - every commented how convenient it is to just drive the car onto the ferry





Waiting in line to board the Ferry - they gave a separate boarding pass for the car !



The ferry staff guided us to make 3 lines





The cars neatly parked on the ferry



Parked the car and started exploring the various decks in the ferry. Mumbai was only about 12kms away at this point - and we could spot the Taj Hotel with the Naked eye



My Sister in Law and my niece M enjoying the pleasant breeze on the deck

The ferry ride to Mumbai lasted 50 minutes and we spotted some landmarks along the way.



ONGC Installations at Uran (above) ; The under construction Mumbai Trans harbour Link (MTHL) in the distance (below)



Spotted a lot of cars parked on a pier near Mumbai - not sure of what / why - maybe they are imported cars ?

A few minutes before we docked at Mumbai -the Ferry staff requested people with cars to get into them and be ready to drive off quickly as soon as the ramp is lowered.


From the ferry terminal at Bhaucha Dhakka - it was just a short 40 minute drive along the eastern freeway to my home in Chembur.



Setting the destination on Google maps to go home

—END–-

[fhdowntheline]

Flying a kite on a travel holiday! Thats something I have never done. Must try it in my next trips.

[cdrajeevkumar]

Hi Rohan nice post! The setting seems very nice and a good place to chill!

Can you help me with the name of the resort with the contact details? I’m Planning a family trip and the usual Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar seems very mundane!

Would greatly appreciate your revert!

[yesyeswe]

Originally Posted by rohan_2911

Spotted a lot of cars parked on a pier near Mumbai - not sure of what / why - maybe they are imported cars ?


–-

Those are Volkswagen Virtus export models, from here they are loaded into cargo ships, you can even notice the different alloy design in 2-3 cars.

[rohan_2911]

Originally Posted by cdrajeevkumar

Hi Rohan nice post! The setting seems very nice and a good place to chill!

Can you help me with the name of the resort with the contact details? I’m Planning a family trip and the usual Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar seems very mundane!

Would greatly appreciate your revert!

Hi Rajeev - The place is called "Ocean View Resort"
You can contact them at : +917900184747 on WhatsApp

[raptor_diwan]

The hotel ambiance was really impressive, and the shipping aspect was also fascinating. Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures.

[arvindrox]

Great travelogue !

Would love to read about this trip -

2) Coast to Coast Ride : Mumbai - Goa - Yana Caves - Murudeshwar - Udupi - Mangalore - Coorg - Mysore - Bangalore - Pondicherry and back to Mumbai via Bangalore

[rohan_2911]

Originally Posted by arvindrox

Great travelogue !

Would love to read about this trip -

2) Coast to Coast Ride : Mumbai - Goa - Yana Caves - Murudeshwar - Udupi - Mangalore - Coorg - Mysore - Bangalore - Pondicherry and back to Mumbai via Bangalore

I have been procrastinating on writing about that trip - I even have nice GoPro videos which I am going to compile - hopefully soon