[Dr.AD]

2200km Drive to Maharashtra: Weekend in Konkan Coast

I had to visit Pune for a few days, and I decided to drive my 320d this time. As has been my pattern in recent times, I used the weekends on either side of the Pune trip to drive around to different parts of Maharashtra, instead of the direct Bangalore-Pune drive.

On similar drives in recent past, I had driven my Thar. This time though, I was bored of the Thar and was keen on driving my 320d. Some of the places I visited this time required a bit of off-roading, and moreover, my plan included plenty of bad roads. Still, I decided to drive my 320d. As long as the conditions are dry, 320d can manage some mild off-roading and can also manage bad roads, and this trip proved that once again.

It was a solo drive in the first part, where I spent a weekend on the coast of Konkan (my most beloved part of the land - the land where I grew up as a kid), wondering around solo. Then I drove to Pune, where my wife joined me (she flew to Pune). And then we did a family trip with my wife and my parents. And then I and my wife drove back to Bangalore. That "family drive" part will be covered in the next post below.

Thus, this was a solo drive one-way and a family drive in the return.

So I drove off solo from Bangalore, one early morning, and descended down to the Konkan coast via Amboli ghat. The roads from Belgaum to Amboli and further from Amboli towards Vengurla had plenty of bad sections. The 320d not only managed the bad sections well, it was also way more comfortable than Thar on the bad roads. I had driven the same bad roads in my Thar in November, and I could immediately appreciate the ride quality of the 320d over the bumpy and bouncy Thar.

Fresh hot vada pav in Amboli, the primary reason why I love driving through Amboli ghat:


So once again, my Maharashtra drive started with a fresh hot vada pav as soon as I entered the state, and I absolutely loved that.

Now as I drove down towards Vengurla, my destination was a rather obscure place that I had found from random Google search, a place called "Verandah By the Sea", in a small village, on a sea-side cliff, in Vengurla District. (Google Maps location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/a8N42keVriqSACsc6). I had booked it last minute by random search, and was curious to find out how this was.

When I reached nearby this place following Google Maps, I quickly realized the uniqueness of this place. I first drove on small, tiny, rural roads on a vast plateau, and then had to turn into a random dirt road into a vast open field, with nothing other than some old huts around.

It felt like I wast lost for sure. I was in the middle of nowhere, and there was no way there was any bungalow around. Or so it felt. However, thanks my Google search earlier where I had seen photos of this house, I could recognize this house from the distance, and realized it exists there.

Driving on a dirt track, trying to reach that house you see in the background of this photo:


Reaching this house was tricky. There is a small dirt track which takes you there in a roundabout fashion. And while you are driving there, you realize you are in a very remote place with nothing around it than a vast open field, and the sea down the cliff. That is all.

I reached this mysterious old place, parked there, and found nobody around:


It was definitely a unique experience, if not an eerie one. After a day long drive, reached an old dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere, parked my car with nobody around, and now I had to enter through this old rusty gate and find out if anybody is there.

It actually felt like the place was deserted and I was in a wrong place. Maybe there is another gate? Being unsure, I called the caretaker's number that I had. Thankfully, the phone worked there. Just a minute ago, I had tried to call him from the dirt track, and I had absolutely no signal on my phone there. But thankfully, right at this gate, I had signal and the I could speak on the phone.

The caretaker came out running to receive me, and I felt happy to see another human there.

Another look at the old Bungalow, as I walked inside, finding my way amidst randomly grown wild grass:


The bungalow does look old and unkempt, and to be honest, my first impressions were that I was stuck in a wrong place. However, thankfully, that changed quickly as I spent some time there.

First of all, the staff (there were 3 staff members there, led by the friendly caretaker named Datta), was extremely friendly and polite. They made me feel welcome and at home immediately. And once I entered the house, I loved the antique and basic interior theme, the windy open spaces, and the breathtaking views from all corners of the house!

By the way, it was obvious from the above description, but let me spell it out here - turned out I was the only guest there that weekend! The bungalow has 4 bedrooms (which one can rent individually), and I had rented a bedroom on the first floor with sea views! But apart from me, there was no other guest at all. Being all alone there was a great experience. At first, it felt a bit eerie and scary, but as I got used to the place, I loved it.

So that was how it was. I was all alone in an old seaside house, sitting alone in my balcony staring at the vast sea below, and listening to nothing other than the sounds of the sea and the birds chirping all around. Everything around my was antique and dated! And I loved it to the bits! If there was a definition of my dream solo drive, this was it.

Again, credit to the great staff there for making my experience so nice! The three of them were very attentive to the single guest that I was, they cooked great food for me as per my liking, made some nice fresh snacks and tea from time to time, and were very polite and friendly. They were bemused that a single guy showed up there randomly, and they had no idea what I was doing there. But we chatted a bit and became friends soon.

The balcony of my room with fantastic sea views:



And these were the sea views from my balcony, as well as from most parts of the bungalow:



Simple and old-fashioned interiors:



The open to all sides common area outside my room (this area had amazing sea breeze flowing all around due to open windows to the sea, and I loved sitting here and spending time reading books):


Overall the place was fantastic! Yes, it does look a bit dilapidated, and the yards are not well manicured. But other than that, the place is great! The rooms are airy and spacious, there are plenty of airy common areas, and the views are awesome from every corner of the house! To top it all, the staff and their hospitality is absolute top class, and they cooked very yummy authentic local cuisine! Evey single meal or snack I had there was delicious and authentic! The only major negative I could think of is that there is no AC in the rooms (at least my room had no AC). The place is super hot, as it is right on a seaside cliff open to sun all day. In the month of February, this was just about bearable without AC. But in peak summers, lack of AC can be an issue.

I loved the place a lot and will surely visit it again with family and friends group. Ideal place to spend time with a group, isolated from the rest of the world.

After spending some time there, I drove around to explore nearby locations and views.

At a nearby beach:



Nice beach with plenty of parked fishing boats:


And then it was time for sunset photoshoot at a nearby location.

Driving around on the dirt trails, at sunset time, searching for good photoshoot spots:



Following the tips given by the caretaker, found this location:



Sunset photoshoot:


Back to the bungalow for dinner. They had a nice open air dining area, with a couple of tables set up there. However, given that I was all alone, they rearranged the tables and created this unique "table for 1" setting.

Table for 1, in the open-air dining area:



And then the absolutely delicious, fresh, authentic local cuisine for dinner:


I spent the next day randomly driving around, exploring the beaches and the rural roads, and stopping by at anything that looked interesting. This was sort of me reliving my childhood days, when I would randomly roam around in similar terrains and locations, on my bicycle. I had the exact same feeling and the same joy this time too!

Exploring random trails around nearby beaches:



Stopped by at numerous beautiful temples in this region:



Another beautiful temple. The temples of Konkan are always so nice, serene, clean and peaceful. It is always a magical experience visiting such temples all alone:



One of the rural roads with zero traffic:



Further ahead, reached a view point that oversees this "Devbag" beach and the watersports center there:



Visited some serene beaches:



At one of the seaside locations near Malvan:



Back in the bungalow, and spent some time enjoying views like this from my room:



Sunset behind the trees next to bungalow looked mystical again, and inspired me to head out for another sunset drive:



Back to the beach at sunset time:



The beach was full of parked boats, and I tried some silhouettes like this one:



Finally, a parting shots of one of the boats there, this one bearing the name of the local deity in that village:


I had an absolutely amazing time there. I relived my childhood memories of riding my bicycle and roaming around visiting such locations.

After that weekend, I drove to Pune. Spent a week in my office, and then my wife flew to Pune and joined me. Then with my wife and parents, I did a family trip to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani area in the weekend, before driving back to Bangalore. That is covered in the next post below.

[Dr.AD]

2200km Drive to Maharashtra: Panchgani and Return to Bangalore

After that solo Konkan drive, I drove to Pune via the usual Anuskura Ghat route.

At one of the scenic corners in Anuskura Ghat:



Views of the twisty roads in Anuskura:


The next weekend we did a family trip to Panchgani, with my wife and my parents in the car with me.

The previous weekend's place (mentioned in the post above) was called "Verandah By the Sea", and coincidentally, this next weekend's place in Panchgani was another beautiful bungalow called "Verandah By the Valley". It was a nice experience to enjoy both sea and valley side views on back to back weekends.

We had booked this "Verandah by the Valley", which is under "SaffronStays" brand. Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GvzGqRyVQHtYjDHe9

This was a lovely villa overlooking a valley, with valley views and open-air sitting areas overlooking the valley. And just like that previous weekend place, this place too had a great staff (the caretaker and his family, who were our hosts there) with top-class hospitality and some absolutely delicious food again!

The only catch was that this place requires some mild off-roading to reach, and also plenty of narrow village roads. In fact, they sent me a few disclaimers after booking, one of which said the road is quite remote and bad and only SUVs were recommended. That made me worried a bit. Especially since I was driving the 320d with 4 people plus their luggage!

Thankfully, in the end, the 320d managed it just fine. The off-road was not too bad. However, there were some tricky steep slopes. The entrance to villa itself is a narrow entry with steep down slope. And I had to reverse out of that (since there was no space to turn the car around inside). Further, I had to drive through some narrow village roads with plenty of steep slopes on the way to the villa. Some of those maneuvers were trickier than just the bad road part.

Parked at the "Verandah By the Valley", Panchgani:



True to the name, the villa has a lovely verandah overlooking the valley, where we enjoyed spending family time together:



Views from outside the balcony:



A nice common sitting area, where we sipped morning tea while watching magical sunrise views:



And these were those magical sunrise views:



The valley bathing in the morning light:


As I mentioned, the staff here was great too, and they cooked some absolutely delicious local food for us. We love simple vegetarian food (we are a vegetarian family), and the staff made a variety of local vegetarian dishes for us.

A simple vegetarian local meal, that was perfect for us:


Of course, this area is famous for strawberry farms. There are plenty of strawberry farms all around, including some small places and some large commercial places. Our caretaker gave us information about strawberries and their farming, and explained different varieties of strawberries. And above all, arranged to have fresh, top-variety strawberries delivered to us straight from a local farm. Those strawberries were amazing - large and sweet. We loved eating those and had plenty of fresh strawberries during our stay there.

Fresh strawberries straight from a farm:


After spending a leisurely weekend there, we drove back to Bangalore via the usual Kolhapur-Belgaum-Bangalore route, with a stay in Kolhapur.

Another local delicacy on the way, "Thalipeeth with mirchi thecha" :



At Syaji Hotel, Kolhapur, my usual and favorite place to stay:


The return drive from Kolhapur to Bangalore was simple and uneventful. However, we continued eating local food, and the food changed we entered into Karnataka. We love local foods in both Maharashtra and Karnataka, and enjoyed both this time!

North Karnataka Meals, after entering Karnataka:



Finally, before reaching home, we had these bhajjis in our final pit-stop:


So the drive that started with fresh hot vada pav in Maharashtra and ended with the South Indies equivalent, the chilli bhajjis. I love both, and loved every single food item I had in this drive.

The car did great throughout, including several bad roads and some challenging off-road sections with 4 people and their luggage! This car is a perfect highway cruiser. After driving Thar on previous such road trips, now I appreciate the 320d even more. The ride is very comfortable, high-speed stability is great, and even on bad roads, the car was an order of magnitude more comfortable than Thar. Of course, Thar is the only choice when it comes to hard-core off-roading or serious challenges. But keeping aside those extreme cases, the 320d can do most of it with an order of magnitude more comfort (as long as the roads are dry; I am most scared of water logging when I drive the 320d; Thar is the only choice for water logged roads)!

And above all, I get a range of 900km on such highway drives which is great!

The car is old now for sure. It has clocked more than 100,000km. The PPF has gone bad and it looks ugly and faded now. I need to take care of that and get that PPF removed soon. But keeping aside the dated external looks, the car is still great. Every drive like this makes me appreciate this car again. This time too, I absolutely enjoyed the drive especially on wide open highways and some nice hill sections. And most importantly, the car made the journey very comfortable for my wife and my parents, and they enjoyed it as much as I did. What more can I ask from an old car with more than 100,000km on the odometer?

That is all from this drive. Thank you very much for reading!

[bblost]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[bblost]

The kind of places where all you need is a good book and nothing else.

Beautiful thread. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[vedantpatkar17]

Amazing thread! Next time, try covering the Ratnagiri part of the Konkan region, especially during the monsoon.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by bblost

The kind of places where all you need is a good book and nothing else.

Exactly! Thankfully, this place as well as the other place in Panchgani I mentioned both had a small collection of books there. So even if you did not bring a book along, you can just pick up books from the shelf there and sit there reading.

This Veranda By the Sea had a nice collection of books (with good photographs) about the local area, the local life and such information. Nice books with some nice photos too.

Beautiful thread. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by vedantpatkar17

Amazing thread! Next time, try covering the Ratnagiri part of the Konkan region, especially during the monsoon.

Thanks!

Yes, I have visited Ratnagiri area - in fact the entire Konkan coastline - multiple times in monsoon as well as in other seasons. Ratnagiri, Ganpatipule, Aare-Waare road, Malgund, Jaigad fort are some of my favorite areas. I have written about those travels in many travelogues here. I have done several solo drives as well as many group drives to those areas.

Not only in the monsoons, but I often find that area nice in the winter too. I usually drive through Konkan area twice every year - once in the monsoon and then once in the winter.

So yes, 100% agree with you that Rantagiri in the monsoon is a great experience!

[Utopian]

Travelling and staying in Konkan is such a delight. This brought back pleasant memories of my last Ratnagiri visit in 2022. The bungalow looks to be a perfect place to set up crime/horror sets.

[Kkumar]

As usual a great travelogue with great photographs. The stays that you pick are always unique in every aspect. Thank you for sharing and keep on munching miles.