Goa

Goa, Feb 27, 2012.

It has been nice to take a good long break for a while. But now I start feeling that itch to get back on the road again. I have tried to book a train from Margao to Bombay but as of yet have been unable to get a confirmation. I am on waitlist. Now I plan to cycle back to Bombay instead. Probably leaving tomorrow morning.

It is a nice route along the Konkan coast, but I also realise that the hot parts will be even more hot now than 3 weeks ago. By late February winter is definitely over here and it is getting warmer. I expect it to take about ten days to Bombay and probably take a rest day about halfway up.


9 Bar posterYesterday I rode over to Anjuna to meet up with Sussi, a friend from Goa in the 80's. Amazingly she still looks exactly the same as she did when she was 23. We had dinner together at Starco, a restaurant where another Swedish woman is married to the owner. So Starco is somewhat of a Swedish meeting spot in North Goa. We were about 8 Swedish there and 2-3 others, all old Goa hands.


Vagator Beach Resort has been flattened.

Vagator

Arambol - Vagator, Feb 9, 2012.

22 km

I had some thoughts of cycling on the beach, at least down to Morjim, but after a long walk along those beaches yesterday morning I gave up that idea. For one thing i would have had to go very early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the high tide. And then there are also two streams to cross. It is no big deal walking through the streams but I would not feel comfortable taking my bike through.

So I cycled the road. It is very nice cycling in Goa. Roads are quite small and there is often good shade. And it is very beautiful.


Beach all the way between Arambol and Chapora
My fav place to stay in Vagator was full so I had to take a bad room elsewhere for one night. Then I could finally move in to Sunita GH. I got the same room I had here previously. It is not very large but I like it. Everything is clean, there is a good bathroom and a small verandah. When I unpacked all my stuff, actually for the first time on this trip, put my things on shelfs, plugged in the loudspeakers to my computer and played some Billy Holiday music while stringing up my hammock on the verandah, I could literally feel my shoulders drop, and that I was home.


Cycling in to Vagator

Sunset over Middle Vagator

Morning on Vagator Beach
I have already cycled further than I originally planned for this trip. Still I may go yet a bit further, down to Gokarna for a week or so. We'll see.


Goan bedsheet


Happy Hour gives me two Margerithas for the price of one

Arambol

Shiroda - Arambol, Feb 7, 2012.

20 km

The stop at Shiroda was not really necessary. But I am looking for the beach where we had a party in the early nineties. Goa police would no longer give permission for all night parties so some ambitious Italians took it up the coast a bit to Maharashtra. Some 500 motorcycles drove away from the Goan beach places in a real exodus. Party started at midnight as usual, and went on till around 8 AM. It was good.

In the morning we went down to the beach. It was very beautiful, apart from a dead dolphin right in the middle of it. Since then I have meant to go back and check it out better.

I am still not shure if I found it though. But it may have been the one called Paradise Beach near Shiroda. There are quite a few Russians here now.


Arriving at Arambol


Arambol beach


View from a chai shop


Morning Star has been supersized

Shiroda

Vengurla - Shiroda, Feb 6, 2012.

15 km

I made a short move this morning. Only from Vengurla beach to Shiroda beach. I feel I am on a mission to check out all the beaches along this coast. This beach here is by some called Paradise Beach. That is how the locals refer to it. But I happen to know that there are other beaches too by that name.

In Google Maps I could see that at Shiroda Beach was a place called Dolphin Bay Resort and that is where I went. The beach is beautiful but that resort is pretty shitty. The staff was ever so nice I must say, and it feels a bit bad to be negative about their place. But it really is not much. Not expensive per se, but still overpriced for what you get. And the food is not nearly as good as what I have had further up the coast. There were some Indian families staying, but I was the only foreigner.

It is a lovely beach no doubt, but as with all the other beaches I have seen in Maharashtra, the infrastructure is sadly missing. There are no chai shops or restaurants at all. I asked the manager here, at Dolphin Bay Resort, why not. He says the Maharashtra government does not allow alcohol of any kind to be sold within 500 meters of the beach. Again this Indian fixation on alcohol! To me the most important beverages in a chai shop are chai, coffee, juice and bottled water. Then if they can swing something foodwise it is of course even better. Never mind the beer and harder stuff.


Dolphin Bay Resort


Paradise Beach


When I walked on the beach in the afternoon I saw some signs in Russian, advertising beach shacks for rent. I saw quite a few Russian tourists around.

Vengurla

Malvan - Vengurla, Feb 5, 2012.

48 km

Following Google Maps there should be a route South along Tarkali beach road down to the river and then along that in a NE-ly direction to a bridge across the river. But when I got to the river there was no road along it at all. When I stood there, double checking Google Maps on my smartphone, a European man on a motorbike stopped by. He was looking for another cyclist, a German guy who should come around any day to pick up some spare parts. Austrian Roland is retired and spends a few months at Tarkali beach in the winter. He told me I could cross the river in a boat, or else I would have to ride almost all the way up to Malvan itself before I would get on a road leading to the bridge.

The boat sounded like a better idea, and Roland offered to show me where it would normally be landed. But since the day was still early he asked if I would want a cup of strong coffee in his nearby house. Sure, off we went. He has a fine little house down on the narrow peninsula that has Tarkali Beach on one side and the river on the other. Roland asked around about the whereabouts of the boatman and found out he had just punted his way over to the other side, and would be half an hour or so before coming back. Time enough for an espresso, and for good measure Roland also put a large Tuborg to chill down in the freezer. By the time I had finished my coffe and we had shared the beer it was obvious the boatman was not coming back anytime soon. So Roland called for another boat. This time a motorboat that wanted 200 Rs to take me across. OK.


Roland's place




On the motorboat
Once on the other side there was a small trail leading to a small road, and then onto MSH 4. I was quite eager to check on the beaches along the way, and it suited me fine to ride as close to the coast as possible. A couple of hours after leaving Rolands place I met German Steven, the cyclist who was to pick up the spare parts Roland had waiting. I turned off the # 4 trying to get to Dhaboli Beach, but never quite got there. I was on a very small trail, and hilly too. Eventually when people told me it would be impossible to take my bike all the way to the beach, and I also was aware of ending up the wrong side of a river I turned around thinking that Vengurla Beach was more likely to be what I was looking for.

Vengurla itself is a nice looking place. I stocked up on water and biscuits, bought a bar of soap and headed for where restaurants would be. That proved to be right at the Northernmost end of Vengurla Beach, near a lighthouse. There are several hotels and resorts there. By then it was past 5 PM and I decided to skip lunch altogether, and had two ice creams instead. There is another river flowing out to the ocean right up by the lighthouse. I thought it better to cross that river too before settling for the night. If I am by a beach I may as well be right on it, not separated by a river. Somehow even though it was getting late in the day I felt confident I would find some place better than those hotels.

And I did. Cycled on for a while and when I slowed down to have a look in on a small road in the direction of the setting sun, some men sitting aorund there said yes, yes, beach is this way! I asked if there would be a guest house, and they said yes there is. A lady a little further on confirmed it. I had to drag my bike through some heavy sand though before arriving at Shram Safalya Niwas. Here I have a bamboo and palm leaf shack right by the beach, 500 Rs, with attached bath and electricity. The family brought me chai and a delicious Thali. Nothing like skipping lunch to wet your dinner appetite.


My beach schack at Vengurla
And I had a quick dip in the waves soon after arrival. Fab!

Tarkali Beach, Malvan

Devgar - Tarkali Beach, Malvan, Feb 2, 2012.

76 km (incl some 15-20 km looking for a room at Tarkali beach)

I had asked to have breakfast at 0800 this morning at the Galaxy. I had my alarm at 0730 and was ready to eat by 8. At 0815 I went downstairs to ask why breakfast had not yet come up. Both the manager and the cook were in the reception reading newspapers, as if nothing had happened.
-Wait ten minutes they said, go to your room and it will be brought up.
-No thanks I'll wait right here.
-Sit down.
-No thanks I'll stand right here.
Eventually my omelette was ready about 0845, and the tea ten minutes later. Took the tea on my balcony, and hit the road by 0930.

It was great sleeping with the large balcony door open. I loved hearing the sounds of waves when I went to bed. It was still warm then, but I did expect to wake up in the wee hours needing to close that door. Nothing doing though. It was still warm when daylight woke me up.

Todays cycling had many hills, up and down, hot and dry. I still feel my legs being tired from previous long days. I had hoped to make this a short day. It did not really turn out that way. I was in Malvan around 2 PM. Nice town/village. But then there is another 8 km to Tarkali Beach. And it took me a long time and several rides along various roads behind the beach before I finally settled on Babla's Beach House.

From others I had suggestions for Sun'n Surf GH, Manali GH, and Cosy Nook GH. I only saw Manali, and did not find it particularly inviting. In the end my exploring Tarkali Beach came to be an ever more desperate search for somewhere that was not outright ridiculous where I could move in and rest my sore ass.

There are loads of resorts here. But by far the most of them are several hundred meters in from the beach, often on the far side of the road to boot. That is not my idea of staying by the beach, particularly as I meant to stay two nights. At long last I found this Babla's, and I am very pleased to be here. It is right behind the beach, there are hammocks strung up between palm trees, and I can hear the waves. Plus I got lovely food, the landlady is sweet, and there is a German Shephard dog. He barked at me first but we have now become good friends. I love having a dog at my guest house.

700 Rs, hot water, and clean. Nice!


View from my room at Babla's

Nice dog

Tarkali beach
Next day I take a long walk on the beach and spot some very nice bungalows in a palm grove. It is the Mtdc Resort. I have lunch in the attached restaurant. Very good Thali in the Malvan style. The spices used are almost exactly the same as I get at Babla's.
I enquire at the reception on prices for bungalows. They are 2500 Rs.


Tarkali Mtdc

Devgar

Rajapur-Devgar, Feb 2, 2012.

58 km

Everything is so late here. What bothers me most is that breakfast is so late. I was fine staying at the Foodland but when I wanted breakfast at 8 this morning they were not even open yet. So once again I did not get on the road until ten, when it had already started getting hot. It is nice being so far South that taking a cold shower on arrival is actually pleasant. But it is also getting really hot for several hours around mid day.

Rajapur is in a valley a bit inland from the coast. It is a very green and beautiful valley. It was pleasant cycling there. But going to Devgar I needed to head back west to the coast. Which meant back up on the arid plateu that runs some kilometers in from the coast itself. Up there it was very very hot, and hilly. And there was roadworks, dusty and bumpy. I could feel that my legs were tired from yesterdays longish day. When I finally got to Devgar and The Galaxy Hotel I was ready to be plucked. The manager showed me a suite with a terrific wrap-around balcony and fabulous view. It is 1200 Rs, that I was quite happy to pay. I have had two rather tough days cycling, and I have have not paid that much for my rooms lately, even though they have been fine.


View from the balcony

Rajapur

Ratnagiri - Rajapur, Jan 31, 2012.

88 km

Nate is a useless place!

I wonder who came up with the idea to go to Nate from Ganpatipule? From Ratnagiri you have to climb some major hills on MH4 and then go all that down again to reach Nate. And when you get there you find out the little three room lodge is full, so you have to climb all those hills back up again, or sleep on the beach. I really recommend future cyclists on this route to skip Nate altogether. I have been following the route taken in the journal "Song of the Little Road", in reverse order. He could not get a room in Nate and slept on the beach. Another Swedish cyclist I met a few days ago got no room there either and ended up as a private guest at some mango farm after cycling 90 km on a heavy Indian bicycle with no gears. Luckily I had the shits when leaving Ganpatipule and only started from Ratnagiri this morning. So I made it to Rajapur, but only just.

The place where I stayed at Ratnagiri was terrific value. For once I had a real single room. Even though traveling alone I ususally get a room with two beds, which I really don't mind much. I sleep in one bed and spread my stuff on the other. But alas at Vihara DeLuxe Hotel in Ratnagiri they gave me a one bed room. It was not large, but sufficient. And it was clean all over, not that common in India, the bed was very good. And a great Indian breakfast was included in the 600 Rs price. Terrific deal!

I rode down the hill this morning, crossed the bridge out of Ratnagiri and headed South. At Adiara I stopped for chai, and forgot my water bottle when leaving so I had to turn back a couple of km to get it.

Some 10 km South of Adiara I stopped by a little Daba for lunch. The guy managing it spoke practically no English at all, and called his boss on a cell phone. The owner of the Daba, and the sizable mango farm behind it, is a retired gentleman from Bombay. His English is very good, and he seems to enjoy talking to foreigners passing by. He not only arranged for the Dal Fry and chapatis I wanted, but also came over to give me some of his own lunch and to offer me a free room if I cared to stay the night. I happily ate his delicious food but turned down the room offer. It was only 1230 and I wanted to continue on.


Small road
At a crossing I left the Mh4 and headed downhill to Nate, which is not much of a place. After finding no room there I was told the nearest place, somewhat in the direction I was going, would be Rajapur. It is mostly uphill, but on good roads.

By the time I rolled in to town it was almost 6 o'clock, and I was worried it would be difficult getting a room here as well. But no sweat, I got a decent room at The Foodland, 400 Rs and the manager asked me to take the bike to my room. Great! Now the only problem is where to go from here.