Monday 4 May 2015

The Vengurla Backpack Trip: Day 1, Part 4

Day1: Saturday, 25th April, 2015

Continued from Part 3

1720 hrs:
Accidentally reach Kelavi Bundar instead of Mobar beach. Seems an OK place. Turn back quickly. That wrong turn cost us at least 6 km worth of fuel. Chances of us making it back to Vengurla to refuel are getting dimmer. We take another chance - we decide to head to Nivati and camp there. We can sort out the fuel problem in the morning if needed.
We drop Mobar since there were no accommodation options there and we are already short of time for the day.

Kelavi Bundar - pre sunset

1740 hrs:
We reach the turn-off for Nivati. Inquire with people there regarding the fuel. To our surprise, they said that it is availabe at Mhapan - just 0.5 km down the road. It is not a fuel pump though. That's not a deal breaker for us - similar fuel outlets are found in many larger villages in Konkan. We head to Mhapan first.

1742 hrs:
Fuel was available at Mhapan at a rate of Rs 80 per litre; about Rs 15 higher than the fuel pump. No big deal at the moment. We inquire at Bhogate's mess for dinner; I'd eaten here earlier so was confident of the quality and I say such to the owner. He's surprised and asks to come between 2030 hrs to 2200 hrs. We head to Nivati to hopefully catch the sunset.

1800 hrs:
Arrive at Nivati. We book a room at My Dolphin Cottages for Rs 600. Asking price was Rs 1000. We miss the sunset while bargaining.

1830 hrs:
At Nivati beach. Water here has a high drag too. So we don't enter the water here too and decide to walk along the shore. Should have carried the cell phone.

1835 hrs:
A meter high wave suddenly crashes near us followed shortly by another. I remember a night spent watching the waves crash into the lower walls at Kunkeshwar almost two years ago - the roar of the waves was never this loud before. Its not scary but surreal. Flushes away all thoughts that dare to make their way to your mind. Its just you and the waves. No one else can come closer to your mind then. No one. Not even your heart.

1910 hrs:
Its dark and we head back to the cottage. Have an omelette and tea before retiring to the room.

2010 hrs:
We leave the room after freshening up. Time to head to Mhapan again. Its a drive in the dark with flatering headlights. Tejal is a bit scared of the drive. I try to narrate Jim Corbett's tiger tales to help her out; no, not the scary ones, only happy stories. Doesn't help her.
The bike's horn croaks too. This bike needs a name: "La Poderosa" immediately pops into mind, but nope, will have to think of something else, probably frog themed.

La Poderosa - The Mighty One - Norton 1949

2040 hrs:
At Mhapan finally. Not the time to eat yet so we check out the market. Tejal excited to see her products on sale. Enquires about their market performace, demand, supply, etc. I fool around with nothing better to do.

Apparently, soap sells here best in packets of 4

2115 hrs:
We head to Bhogate's Mess for dinner. It takes 5 minutes for the space to clear for us. I somehow manage to doze off and snore. Must be the tireness speaking. It has been a long day so far.
Its going to be chicken and bangda (mackarel) fry for both of us. Chicken sukka is a surprise bonus. Its not usually on the menu.

2145 hrs:
Mangoes!!! Its a surprise dessert. Our dinner costs us Rs 280.

Pratham darshan

2200 hrs:
We head back to the cottage. Tejal uses my head-torch as a backup headlamp. Its getting cool here.

2230 hrs:
We are back at Nivati but head to the beach instead. Its a nice starry night with wisps of clouds. Cool weather.

2300 hrs:
We are back at the cottage and immediately off to sleep. End of a long exhausting day.

© Kapil Pilankar

1 comment:

  1. My visit to Nivati Beach – Maharashtra
    http://girishpalkartravel.blogspot.in/2015/04/kille-nivati.html

    ReplyDelete

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