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A rain-drenched sojourn through Konkan and Southern Maharashtra

14th August 2024, 16:02 by Brij Gawde

The final line-up of the convoy ended up as 5 SUVs with 7 folks joining.

BHPian KarthikK recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The shaping up of the plan

In the southern part of the country, at least the western wing of the south (KA / KL), the rainy season brings with it an early relief from the summer heat, recharges the greenery in the mountains and plains alike, and brings with it a whole different aura of gloomy grey skies, swollen rivers, and streams, rain-drenched roads and ushers in a mesmerising green cover through once parched lands. For some of us enthusiasts, this is the season to enjoy an entirely different realm of nature and savour the varying sights of the magnificent mountains, streams, and jungles that make up the western Ghats, (being drenched in) heavy rains and slushy terrain being gladly welcomed as part of the package.

BHPian and good friend Dr.AD usually plans some interesting road trips during every year's monsoon season for a friends' group (all BHPians). It is another matter that he does umpteen drives of his own almost every weekend, monsoon and otherwise to all parts of south and west India. With this particular friends' group alone, there were 3-4 different convoy trips Dr.AD had organized, around different roads exploring the western ghats of Konkan during the past few years.

Monsoon season 2024 saw surplus rains in most parts of southern and western India, so the chef of the plan got to work, carving out an itinerary recipe involving all SUVs this time. I unfortunately missed a few of the past drives, but this time I was lucky to be able to join the monsoon drive. Thanks in advance to Dr.AD for taking the time out to carve out this entire driving route and itinerary and taking care to arrange all the logistics for all participating members involved. I did not take any of my vehicles this time and had fun taking turns riding shotgun with all the cars in the group and sharing the driving, thus getting an opportunity to enjoy experiencing different SUVs in their element.

The final line-up of the convoy ended up as 5 SUVs with 7 folks joining:

Dr.AD - Thar petrol 4x4
Robimahanta - Thar petrol 4x4
Tilt - Thar diesel 4x4
Graaja - Fortuner 4wd
Abirnale - XUV7OO awd
Reserve drivers - praveenbalan and myself (KarthikK)

The itinerary was simple yet complex. Dr.AD had deliberately chosen some less common ghat sections to zig-zag between the western (Konkan) coastline and the plains and plateaus of southern Maharashtra. The heavy rains introduced some unpredictability regarding certain ghat sections which could possibly risk closure and need us to take longer detours, so we were almost always on tenterhooks expecting a diversion of the planned routes to our destinations. This was a nice way of exploring the lovely monsoon landscapes by taking things the way they came. In brief, the itinerary looked something like this:

Day 1 involved getting down to the coast from Bangalore to Goa via Anmod Ghat
Day 2 involved ascending from Goa to Kolhapur via Anuskura Ghat
Day 3 involved descending from Kolhapur to Sawantwadi via Radhanagiri dam and wildlife reserve and ascending to Belgaum via Tilari ghat.
Day 4 was a leisurely return journey from Belgaum to home sweet home (Bangalore)

Day 1: The rains welcome the SUVs

We had all decided to leave early from Bangalore in order to beat the traffic and get a head start on the ~600 km distance to Goa, knowing fully well that we would be forced to reduce our pace once the battering rains met us in the ghats. robimahanta would join us directly at Goa due to a delayed departure. graaja joined us all the way from Coimbatore and he was on his very first long road trip with his spanking new Toyota Fortuner, so he had left a bit earlier than the rest of us to drive at a relaxed pace. The first meeting point for the group was the familiar Apoorva Resorts, Davanagere, roughly 270km from Bangalore.

On the first day, until Hubli I was riding shotgun with veteran road tripper abirnale and his XUV7OO, which effortlessly munches miles on the highway, early morning rain not with standing. Soon we caught up with the others one by one.

Catching up with graaja's Fortuner somewhere near Tumkur

Those of us who caught up then stopped at the recently operational A2B near Sira for a quick cup of coffee.

Abirnale's XUV7OO, Dr.AD's Thar, and graaja's Fortuner take a quick breather while the members refuel with some coffee in the rains

It was a fantastic experience riding shotgun with the road tripping ace and veteran driver abirnale in his fantastic XUV7OO and learning so many things from him on travel, photography, and everything else. His knowledge of the interior regions of KA, MH (and I'm sure many other places) is astounding and remarkable. Here is a picture from aboard abirnale's XUV7OO

We reached Davanagere a bit earlier than the others, so we had a bit of time to line up the XUV for this time pass shot in front of the resort's name board and fountain.

Soon the others also arrived and we proceeded to have a sumptuous breakfast of Davanagere Benne (butter) Dosas, Vadas, filter coffee, and kesaribath (Shira in MH) after the long drive for breakfast

After breakfast, we all got back to our respective cars and proceeded to the next meetup point on the Hubli - Dharwad bypass - Big Mishra Pedha's highway outlet. En route abirnale and I stopped for a quick refuel on the outskirts of Hubli City. This wacky car accessories shop caught my eye while entering the Hubli - Dharwad bypass. Multi-color, glow-in-the-dark hub caps anyone?

Soon after making our way through the train of slow trucks on the annoying single-lane Hubli - Dharwad bypass, we reached the Big Mishra Pedha highway outlet. By then the rain had fully set in and it was pouring cats and dogs, albeit in bursts typical of monsoon rains.

This place had a live Pedha counter to savour this famous local sweet delicacy (Dharwad Pedha - made of condensed milk) along with some other local sweets of this north Karnataka region, such as Kunda (a kind of thick Basundi), Karadant (a gummy sweet made of crushed dry fruits) and Gulab Jamuns. We ordered some samples for everyone and had some sweet indulgence at this place along with some piping hot chai.

Up until the Hubli bypass, we were on the standard NH towards Mumbai. However, shortly after this mid-day break at the Mishra Pedha centre, we broke off from the NH to take the Ramnagar - Anmod - Mollem route towards Goa. Once we entered the ghat section, the mountains beckoned us with plenty of fierce rains. The greenery around was beautiful to admire though, so we weren't complaining. I had a nice time trying graaja's Fortuner and putting it through its paces on the narrow and rain-drenched roads.

The convoy taking a break somewhere near Ramnagar, with Dr.AD leading the way,

I then swapped into offroad veteran tilt's Thar diesel and had fun riding the massive torque wave of the Thar's mHawk diesel mill, what a vast improvement this Thar felt over our very own Thar CRDe (we had the older gen Thar at home from 2018-23)! In addition to exchanging travel stories, tilt has amazing taste in music, and I had nice fun enjoying some lovely retro 80s pop and rock numbers while cornering around Anmod Ghat's twisties with his Thar.

Uttara Karnataka's rainforests beckon the rains

Stopping at another point for some nice monsoon shots of the glistening wet roads and the SUVs

Dr.AD's petrol Thar

Abirnale's red XUV7OO

Tilt's diesel Thar

Graaja's Fortuner

The rain-drenched concrete road

Parallel to the road, the excess monsoons this time have created another 'road' of rainwater, lol!

The road was in horrible condition, and most of us were glad we were in capable SUVs that could handle the unpredictable waterlogging and moon surface craters that sprung up out of nowhere around every corner. Some roads were shut and deviated into narrow diversions. Heavy rain and mist made the visibility poor in many places.

Passing a swollen rivulet on a bridge, closely following the well-driven Fortuner of graaja.

Our chosen place for lunch was Kantara restaurant, inside Anmod ghat, a simple eatery along the highway. At the time we reached the restaurant, the entire place was under an extremely thick cloud cover and visibility was down to barely a few metres ahead of the car.

The cars parked outside Kantara restaurant, deep inside Anmod Ghat

The seating area was large and airy, and kept simple for the casual traveller passing by for a quick stop.

The non-veggies in the group tried a few delicacies, while the vegetarians settled for some simple dal-rice.

There was some seriously heavy storm-like rain with strong winds blowing, which delayed our departure from the place by 20-30 minutes. We then proceeded further on our journey to descend Anmod ghat and entered Goa via Mollem. The rains also gave a break during this time.

We didn't stop anymore once we entered south Goa. The chosen place of stay for the first day was the Holiday Inn resort. We proceeded to check in at around 4 PM.

Timepass pics at the reception lobby

The rooms were comfortable and nice at the Holiday Inn resort. They came with a nice compact balcony to watch the rain too.

We freshened up and caught a bit of the remaining daylight at the resort's private beach. As expected the sea was a bit choppy and there were frequent bursts of heavy rains, so we couldn't stay too long there.

Strolling through the expansive gardens of Holiday Inn resort

For dinner, we decided to hit a famous restaurant which was just a stone's throw away from our hotel - Fisherman's Wharf. The ambience was fantastic and overlooked a boatyard, but alas it was night, so not much of that was visible.

Throwing some assorted snaps of delicacies enjoyed at the dinner table, most of them Goan dishes of some kind. I particularly liked the dessert called Bebinca.