CKRT Day 03 - Anjarle to Guhagar

Continued from - CKRT: Day 02 - Shrivardhan to Anjarle

Route: Anjarle -> Harne -> Suvarnadurga -> Anjarle -> Dapoli -> Burondi -> Ladghar -> Kolthare -> Dabhol -> Dhopave -> Anjanvel -> Guhagar

After getting up early in the morning, we quickly set out towards Harne. Quite a few locations were on the mind - the Light-house, the fish market, the citadel of Harne and most importantly the Suvarnadurga fort.

After we left Anjarle, sun had risen, and standing on the hill which overlooks Anjarle beach, the scene around can be described by only one apt word - नजारा! Starting from the Kadyavaracha Ganapati (कड्यावरचा गणपती) on the right, to the dense coconut backyards, to the clean Anjarle beach, to the sea to the creek that separates Anjarle from Harne, to the small Konkani houses doting the coast, to the Suvarnadurga fort ... and all of this goldenified by the rising sun. It was a beautiful sight. One which makes you forget whys and whats and wheres.

Exact opposite was the route that we took to Harne. It was a short coastal route, but very dirty and it was stinking bad. We still found couple of moments to try and capture Suvarnadurga apart from a large group of egrets feasting on dead fish (again!).


Harne

The citadel of Harne was in ruins. Crossed.

Citadel of Harne

After getting at Harne jetty, we were told that boats for Suvarnadurga fort leave at around 9am. As for charges, if there are enough people, Rs.100/head, else a dedicated boat would cost Rs.400/- for to and from Suvarnadurga. Fair enough.

Suvarnadurga सुवर्णदुर्ग

Light house of Harne in the far left corner

Hoping to see a few more people, we started walking towards the light-house. It was in absolute ruins and had become a roosting place for crows. We went towards its backside, towards the sea, and view was quite eye-pleasing. Heavy waves breaking loudly on the rocks, while a few fishing boats were plying here and there - their boats-men busy with the fishing nets. A large extent of sea was visible, apart from couple of very small uninhabited islands close by.

While I was sitting there taking in the views, suddenly I noticed something big flying towards me. It was much bigger than a kite. While I kept staring at it in awe, it came at perched right in front of me - around 20-30 feet. Such a grandios pose and mannerisms. It was an eagle, goddamnit. It looked like a juvenile of a Greater Spotted Eagle! Lifer!

Life is never fare. And you know that in black-and-white clarity, if you are into photography. I had a magnifiscent eagle sitting merely 20-30 feet in front of me, bathing in sunlight, with sun behind me, on a perch which was dramatically separated from the background ... in short all things favourable ... and my camera had a wide-angle lens on it! And to add to the misery, my monstrous tripod was hanging by my shoulder.

Juvenile of Greater Spotted Eagle (?)
	Indian Pond Heron (breeding)

I started scrambling in my camera bag for switching from wide-angle to telephoto, while still keeping that tripod on the shoulder, and while keeping the movements to the minimum. But these मनमौजी birds don't wait. The eagle took to its wings before I could focus my camera on him! A golden opportunity lost.

I tried to make most of what I could get of that eagle, and them came back down towards the jetty. By that time, a large crowd had assembled on the Harne beach. Turned out, that was the fish-market we were after.


The Fish-Market of Harne
It was still more than an hour to 9am, so we rushed to the beach. A lot of different types and sizes of fish were being auctioned. People were hyperactive auctioning and bidding. At the same time, some fellows, even some old ones, were stealthily lifting some small fish while the seller looked the other way even for a fraction of second. The sellers, if they discovered, would get irritated, would snatch the fish and put it back into the basket. Some ladies who had bought their fish from the market, had setup their 'retailing' shop right around the market itself - mostly for the tourists. They had  quite a bit of variety - cut and cleaned fish, spiced, salted etc. While all this was happening, more and more fishing boats were docking at the beach, their catches were being loaded into bullock-carts and fresh goods were arriving at the market. Hyper activity and a spectacle no less.




After having enough of the market, we got back on the road to get our breakfast. It was 8:45am and we didn't have much time to feed ourselves.

By the time we retured back to the jetty, another group of 3 guys from Pune itself, had had arrived and was looking for ferry to Suvarnadurga. In next 5-10mins, we had boarded a motorboat together, and were on our way to the fort.

Suvarnadurga (सुवर्णदुर्ग)

The beach on which the motorboat docked after traveling for about 15-20mins, was a fantastic small white-sand beach. It was a swimming paradise, since the beach was gaining depth very quickly. Unfortunately, however intense the urge was, we neither had time, nor spare clothes to go swimming right then and there. Something has got to give sometimes.

Suvarnadurga was a fort in absolute ruins. Crows and bats had made it their home. Almost every bare tree on the fort had lots of crow-nests. And one peepal tree was hosting infinity-squared number of inverted creepy bats at the same time.

There are some water cisterns, some store rooms, a small secret passage-way and a still standing massive and impressive fortification. That's about it. Nothing much.

In about an hour, after roaming along the fortification, we came back to the beach, boarded our boat, and came back to Harne. The fish-market crowd was thinning by then.


Dabhol

We checked out after returning to Anjarle, and left towards Dabhol via Dapoli->Burondi->Kolthare. Had lunch mid-way in Dapoli. The road from Anjarle to Dapoli is excellent. That from Dapoli onwards towards Dabhol is not that good though. A new road is being laid out and it might get much much better in next few months.

En route Dabhol, we saw some of the finest typical Konkani villages, which one would immediately fall in love with. There was one called Panchnadi was which settled along a descending hill before the jetty, and the style of those houses, their scarcity, the shallow flowing river with crystal-clear water - enough for its bottom to glitter with falling sun-rays, and the dense jungle around made it a serene and surreal place which I would only dread of in my dreams.

When we got to Dabhol jetty, a ferry boat had already docked and my bike got accomodated immediately. We were lucky once again.


Gopalgad of Anjanvel   अंजनवेलचा गोपाळगड 

After alighting at Dhopave, we started towards Anjanvel to visit Gopalgad. We passed the Enron of Dabhol on our way, and it seemed like it was in working condition - contrary to what we believed. To add to our surprise, after we took the turn for Anjanvel, we noticed Enron's gigantic cooling towers were humming, with water streams dripping. So it was indeed producing electricity.

The Enron of Dabhol

Anjanvel is a small village situated in the valley formed by two close and gigantic walls of Sahyadri. On three sides, it's surrounded by those massively steep walls and on one side it has got a cute beach tucked in as an outlet to the sea. It's one heck of a beautiful Konkani town.

For getting into Anjanvel, one has to climb down the steep, very steep wall on one side of the town, and controlling the speed on those steep slopes calls for circus. Had those sloped been any steeper, we would have to reach Anjanvel head-first on gravitational assistance.

You get down into Anjanvel and then you realize that Gopalgad is situated on the steep mountain wall on the other side of the town. If getting down was hard, going up is even harder, with the front wheel barely staying grounded. Any small hint of throttle, and it lifts off. With a pillion and around 30-40kg of luggage on the bike, sensing the front-wheel lifting off of the ground, and much scarier than it sounds.

Gopalgad was a surprise. We were greeted with a board saying - that historical place was actually "a private property and is open for tourists"! That was a first. So far we were under impression that anything, that had anything which seemed even remotely like fortification, is a government property, which the government is entitled to sit over and watch getting slowly destroyed over time. Here a private party was one step ahead, and had already converted the interiors of the fort, into a mango farm! Later I came to know that there was a court-case going on between the Govt of India and the "owner" of Gopalgad, who, as I was told, wouldn't allow hoisting Indian flag on the fort on even national days like 15-Aug and 26-Jan. What a crazy-ass banana-republic we are living in!

White Bellied Sea Eagle circling over a kill

There was nothing on the fort, apart from flowering mango trees of all sorts. Sitting on the fortification, facing the huge Dabhol creek, and watching an occassional streamer  or some rare raptor circling above a kill, is all that's Gopalgad is about.

We sat there on the fence, clicking this and that, and eventually having a chat with the watchman of the mango farm. The guy was surprisingly knowedgible for his post of a watchman. We talked about various things ranging from the mango produce, profit and loss, to Enron to Jaitapur to local issues there. He told us how supporting Enron would have been beneficial for the villagers, about how the politicians and the "angrez" finally got their way while it was the villagers who lost the offered good life, about where the massive gas pipeline comes from and where it goes, and about how Enron was a gas company rather than an energy company. This last one about Enron being a gas company, jolted me to the core. This kind of an observation needs a keen mind and a shrewd analytically thinking mindset. Definitely not something expected of a mango-farm-watchman in some sleepy village. What we had in him was a shrewed, very well learned guy with balanced and fair opinions which even educated people hardly have these days. His opinions didn't suit his humble job.


The Light-house

We moved on towards the light house. This was the first time I was seeing one. It being a govt. property, and we being hardened terrorists, on our mission to recce and blow-up a small-time harmless light house, we were not allowed to carry our cameras inside. The place was impeccably well maintained, despite being 50-60 years old. The prisms and lighting system was mounted on a revolving setup and we were told it starts automatically at predefined times, and I could notice it was connected to some external network, possibly for remote command and control operations.

It was absolutely windy on top of the lighthouse. Had we not have any support, we would have got blown away smoothly into Guhagar. That's how maniacally wind was blowing up there.


Guhagar

After getting down, we left towards Guhagar. Again the climb, after leaving Anjanvel towards Enron, was marauding. Somehow managed it, and in about half an hour, we reached Guhagar.

I had already called and arranged for the stay, while wandering on Gopalgad. The Jog family turned out to be very sweet, homely, talkative and welcoming one. We kept discussing this and that, eventually landing on different connections in Sangli, while gorging on a fantastic set of थालीपीठ, before we set out to the place where we were going to stay.


The Guest House ... or was it a Ghost House!?

It was a huge Konkani house, it turned out, that we had rented at mere Rs.200/- per head. A 200 year old at that! And there were only two of us - me and Pravya - who were going to stay in that huge and lonely  house, that night. And boy did the place have a feel! All the doors and their hinges were squeaking. A portable wooden ladder was leading to a dark attic, which we dared not look at. There was a full-size wooden swing in the porch, which was half-broken on one side yet in movable condition, and it would make a very apt sound while moving - custom-made for announcing arrival of ghosts in a starry new-moon night.
And then to complete the treatment, when we are placing our luggage in thr biiig hall, suddenly out of nowhere, came an army of big black ants (मुंगळे), which reminded me of The Mummy, and made me wonder if a cockroach-eating muscular guy would enter the room next, from that mysteriously dark attic and wring our necks like hapless chickens. But before anything of that could become a reality, we left the place under the pretext of checking out the new Durga-devi temple in the city. That goddess specialized in handling such cockroach-eating-muscular-maniac kinds afterall.

It turned out to be a very beautiful temple; and as part of the महापूजा, प्रसाद-वाटप was under way, by the time we reached there. There was शिरा in the प्रसाद and no-one says no to शिरा. We made them ask more than once, and we didn't say no on either occassion. It was a damn well made one.


That day when we returned and made our beds, we were half-expecting some payals and/or a satanic-laughter jolting us anytime out of our sleep in the middle of the night. It was a freaking 200 years old house after all.

Owing to the exertion of the day, though, I fell asleep even before my mind could render and race behind the legs wearing those payals or the face behind that satanic-laughter.


Next: CKRT Day 04 - Guhagar to Ganapatipule

Kundalika Valley: Mystic Mountains in Magical Monsoon

Mystic Peaks

Monsoon is always magical in the Sahyadris. The irregular shapes and peaks of the mighty mountains, draped in prosperous green, playing hide and seek behind scurrying clouds make for a spectacular sight when accompanied by the random plays of shadows and light, selectively illuminating only certain portion of the mountains at a time. This coupled with the diffused light, thanks to the clouds, and a clean atmosphere, devoid of haze, washed off by rain, makes for a very good photo-op when the mist clears up once in a while. Only problem: when it rains in the sahyadris, it pours, and on a given day, you may not stand a chance of having the mist cleared up.

Tamhini region is one such place which comes alive during monsoon. It has been my go-to in monsoon, for last 4 years or so since when I came to Pune. This monsoon was not to be an exception.


Kundalika Valley

Kundalika valley, I was told, is a strange place with two huge mountain walls separated by a narrow gorge. I had never been there, and last Sunday, when I finally made it, that was the very time and very day of monsoon onset. It was all hidden behind clouds. The cloud cover was thick enough to hide everything beyond 5-10 feet. We had come back a little disappointed, even after having a Devrai (sacred-grove) trail as a consolation.

But I had heard too many things about this place to give up in one attempt. So after it appeared that we might have a no-rain window over the Saturday morning (23-June), we quickly planned another drive to the same place with all the photography gear we could get.

We started at around 4:30am in the morning. Early morning light was what we were after, if not sunrise. Roads in Tamhini have improved quite a bit over last few years, and the drive was pleasant.

The moment you take the turn towards the valley, the atmosphere changes. Small well laid road, mobbed by dense forests on both sides, canopies of trees making it darker, affecting visibility in addition to the mist and clouds that surround you. Various whistles, cacklings, melodious songs, chirps fill the otherwise silent environment. These forests are teeming with unusual birds, and they create a fish-market of sounds. Vishal could identify quite a few of those and would even mimic it in a humanised marathi 'transliteration'! This, as I came to know from him, is nesting season of Malabar Whistling Thrush, and we could indeed hear melodious whistles all through, literally without a break.

Fortunately it was not raining, and we were inclined to take our chances with carrying our gear out in the open with some basic rain protection like umbrellas and ponchos, just in case. I parked the car on the roadside, and we started towards the edge of the valley. It's hardly few hundred meters from the road.

Chestnut/Cinnamon Bittern

We met a lake en route, and were wondering about how best to shoot it, when suddenly I noticed a pair of rusty-brown coloured birds with heron like beaks and overall gait, circling the lake. Vishal was quick to identify them as cinnamon/chestnut bitterns. Lifer for me. I tried to get an in-flight shot, but despite having Vishal's L-series 100-400 mounted on my camera, all I could manage was a blurred record shot.

After the lake, we moved on towards the edge. It was still cloudy and we didn't have much hopes for a clear-up. Yet, we took a stroll around the edge in search of some small waterfall to shoot. The place has got a lot of biodiversity. Various types of birds, butterflies, frogs, flies, crabs of all shapes and sizes (though not as big as what I had seen and 'handled' on Visapur, couple years back), and all sounding their best, except for the irritating cicadas which were sounding like somebody was getting zapped in slow motion with a low quality chinese taser.


Dramatic Clouds at Jannat Point

All we saw were marks of waterfalls. No water to fall. We decided to turn back and head towards a vantage point, when suddenly I noticed a peak emerging in front of me, out of clouds. I had never seen what was on the other side of that gorge before, and seeing that peak emerge out of nowhere, in front of my eyes, was nothing short of magic for me. I reacted with a loud 'wow'. It covered up with clouds shortly. But there were such short 'wow' moments while we continued on our way to find that vantage point to best experience this drama from. Finally we found one open space where we could safely sit very near the edge, with no obstruction to our view, and settled there hoping for another clear-up.

It was all cloudy. It is a very narrow gorge between two huge mountain walls, and the gorge eventually opens in the vast plain of Kundalika valley. Due to such rare geography, the clouds coming from the Arabian sea via Kundalika valley, funnel through this gorge and rise up. Since wind was blowing hard that time, the clouds were funneling and moving at maniac speed. So it would clear up momentarily, at some place and then would quickly cover up again the next moment. I managed to have few glimpses of what kind of a wall lies in front of me, but not the complete picture.

And then suddenly, out of the blue, it all started to clear up at the same time. The clouds started getting thinner and thinner. Some dense ones still hesitated near peaks, while the clouds in the skies made a gap to allow sun rays to shine on select portion of the mountain in front. This selective clouding and selective illumination of various features of the mountain, was, insanely surreal and dreamy. It gave the scenery such a mystic feeling that we watched this otherworldly drama in pure awe. I don't remember experiencing something as spectacular as this during any previous monsoons, and sat there spellbound.

We sat there for a long time. The drama repeated a few times. I shot a video no less, as it happened next time. This was one of those moments, when I dearly miss having a DSLR with video recording capability. 450D unfortunately doesn't have it, so I had to make do with what my Moto Milestone offered.

Owing to all the spectacular spellbinding drama that we witnessed there, I marked the GPS coordinates of the spot in my navigator as Jannat Point. Here are the GPS coords, go crank-up your GPS and explore -

Jannat Point: N18°30.810' E073°24.899'

We got back to car, had our breakfast partly on the road, and remaining at house in a nearby village (Pimpri). Came to know from the man of the house that the forests behind his place are home to शेकरू, the giant squirrel, the state animal of Maharashtra - something I havent seen till date. "In abundance" he told us, when, surprised, we asked details. Someday I want to go there again, just for spotting and clicking that giant squirrel.

We came back to the Jannat point after breakfast, and again spent more time clicking. This time though the clouds had totally cleared up and it was as clean as it could get, though, the plays of shadow and light was still on, presenting some unique photography opportunities. This time I had the wide-angle mounted on my camera, and went on clicking whatever that appealed to me. After about half an hour, we started back towards the car.

View of the Kundalika Valley from the Jannat Point

Hide and Seek

Ghangad and Telbaila

Last week when we had come to Kundalika Valley, we had turned back on the same route. This time, we decided to keep going on till the end and see where it goes. A quick search on Google Maps a day before, had hinted that we would end up in Lonavala, and we had marked way-points for Ghangad and Telbaila in our navigator.

The road was not very good, but the weather was. It would pour and then clear up, exposing clean cut green mountains on the left, and Mulshi dam backwaters peeking once in a while on the right. At one point in time, the downpour was so heavy that the visibility was almost nil even after keeping the wipers wiping at highest frequency possible. It was very much as if we were driving under some heavy waterfall.

En route we turned a bend, and there on the horizon stood the pair of Telbaila walls. The striking feature of the walls, apart from their humongous size and strange gait, is that they are totally separated from all other mountains and ranges, and they take a solitary spot on the horizon all for themselves. No sharing. As if somebody decided to give them their due.

Silhoutte of a Giant - The Telbaila Walls

Mesmerized, we kept following the road, and our eyes kept following and admiring those massive walls, as if hypnotized. Along the way, another structure took our attention. It was covered partially in green, and was glowing in the sun after the clouds gave way for a few moments. Later on we came to know it's called नवरा-नवरी (Navara-navari - literal translation: husband-wife), and if I remember correctly, these peaks have been summited and are known in the climbing community around here.

नवरा-नवरी Peaks

Telbaila Walls

We spotted Ghangad with some help, and then went on till the base of Telbaila. It's a fork on the Tamhini-Lonavala road that we were following till that point, and the road till Telbaila was in very bad state. It must have been hard on my नाजुका - Palio, but it sailed without complaint nevertheless.


Lonavala and Back to Home

Saffron God

After shooting the Telbaila walls, we turned back and drove towards Lonavala. The road further went through quite dense jungles - dense enough to qualify as  देवराई (Devraai - sacred groves). Here too, there were lots of bird calls audible, one of which Vishal recognized as that of a Shama.

Eventually the road met with Amby Valley road, and the road to Amby Valley, is a driver's paradise, as I knew from previous experience. And suddenly the car picked up speed. Driving on these kinds of metaled, well-laid, well-banked heavily winding roads is a driver's dream and I was no exception. Someday I am going to get the suspensions stiffened up and drive on this heavenly road without any body sway.

Eventually, we reached the Lonavala hype, spent a few minutes at the "Shivling point", had a plate of Kanda-bhaji and shot off towards Lonavala. Lonavala to Pune was again on the highway, though a little trafficky. By 7:30pm we were in Pune stuffing ourselves with some tasty food.


I am still in awe of that drama which unfolded at the Jannat point. It's the magic of monsoon that makes the massive Sahyadri mountains mystic and surreal. And there is no better way to experience it than getting on your feet and wandering aimlessly. Photography, again as I had mentioned in some earlier post, is an enabler that makes you see things in different light, pun intended, and experience some otherworldly moments in the process while exploring this hidden treasure.

CKRT: Day 02 - Shrivardhan to Anjarle

Continued from CKRT: Day 01 - Murud Janjira to Shrivardhan

Day 02: Sunday, 29-April-2012

Route: Shrivardhan -> Harihareshwar -> Bagmandala (jetty) -> Veshwi (jetty) -> Bankot -> Velas -> Bankot -> Kelashi -> Anjarle

Shrivardhan in the Morning

Setting off towards Aaravi Beach

We got up quite early in the morning and went back towards Diveagar looking for Aaravi beach. We had loved the views a day back on our way from Diveagar to Shrivardhan, and had decided to check it out again in the morning.

The beach and the route was fabulous as expected. It's a complete sea-side drive of almost 5km or so, and some of it takes you through a ghat, with sea on one side and the mountain on the other. Rare. Besides, to a large extent the Aaravi beach is spread along the route. It's definitely one of the longest beaches I have seen till date. It's lovely, to say the least. 

Sea-side Drive along the Aaravi Beach (as recorded by Pravya)

Harihareshwar

We got back to our room, and in an hour after having breakfast, we checked out and left for Harihareshwar. The road was excellent. Drive was fantastic. It was breezy all along and as a result, not even a trace of discomfort.

The Harihareshwar temple and surrounding area is being renovated. It was in an ugly state when we got there - with all the construction material lying around and poking from here and there.

We had shared some majestic moments during our school day picnic, around 15 years back, in Harihareshwar. All those golden moments came rushing back at the sight of the beach and the pass (खिंड), from where you get down onto the porous rocks for अर्ध-प्रदक्षिणा. The sea was getting rough due to high-tide timing, and we had a hell of a time getting drenched with the powerful tides breaking on the rocks. Sometimes, we were busy filling in our camera frames with the rocks, and suddenly a powerful wave would break on the rocks behind us with a loud BOOM!, scaring us out of our wits.

	It was high tide, and that was quite apparent.
	Waves breaking on the rocks with a loud BOOM!

Apart from unusual rocky surface and rough sea, another attraction of the place was a sea-eagle that was hovering above us. I had even caught him diving head-first towards the sea with his wings curved in, but unfortunately, due to the excitement of not losing the moment, I couldn't get the lens to focus on the bird, and lost the valuable shot. On a different note, I have observed many a times that, though this Tamron 70-300 VC USD is tack sharp when it focuses well, 'focussing well' itself is its Achilles heel! Many a times I have lost some moments because the lens couldn't get a correct focus. Guess I will probably need to find a different technique to still make this lens work, though.

Seeing the eagle dive head-first, giving it up at the last moment, and then soar back again in the skies was a spectacular sight. Few other beautiful and well-dressed birds were also there, but were accompanied by their parents. So stealing glances and checking them out time and again, was all we could manage.

The Fall at Veshvi

We had our lunch at one of the houses near the temple, and left for Bagamandala jetty. To our pleasant surprise, the launch was docking just as we arrived at the jetty. This launch was capable of carrying not only small cars, but even large heavy vehicles like buses. One thing I observed was, for those vehicles having lesser ground clearance, loading them on the launch was a constant struggle against brushing the under-chassis or rear bumper to the ground, due to a stiff variation in gradient where the launch had docked.

There was a long queue of 4-wheelers, but bikes could fit in anywhere. Result? We hopped on right away, while those cars which had arrived way earlier than us, kept waiting for their turn.

Writing the travelogue till our lunch gets ready
	Biting dust at Veshvi

It was a swift 10-20 mins journey to Veshvi from Bagmandala. After unloading our bike, we set out for Bankot.

Veshvi is a small and a very beautiful jungle-town. Coming up from the jetty and going towards Veshvi, the setting is so surreal, that it almost feels like you are entering some kind of a fancy world of yore. There is no tar road up though, and it's a killer killer gradient. To make the matter worse, there are moon-size craters on the road. So the inevitable happened. I was a little careless , still taking in the surroundings, while we were crawling up at a snail's pace. The gradient suddenly increased, and due to all our weight and luggage, I sensed the bike would knock and I tried to change the gear from 2nd to 1st. I should have done that quite earlier. Rather than going from 2nd to 1st, it changed to neutral, and on a steep gradient, with almost no momentum to spare, you dont get more than a split second to change to a correct gear. That's a strict timeline, and if you fail, you start a backward journey in no time. So did we. Gravity did its job, and we started skidding backwards, in reverse, not being able to see - where! A person who was getting down towards the jetty, panicked more than we did. But fortunately, we docked on the roadside, after about 10-15 seconds of backward skidding anxiety. A soft fall was all we had, after loosing balance.

Bankot and Velas

As with all falls, the bike took around 5-10mins before it started again. Once it did, we started towards Bankot. The gradients were there to stay. The route towards Bankot was again up a very steep hill. Killer gradient. Many a time, while trying to speed the bike up, I had noticed that on feeding in power, the front wheel would lift up in the air! It was scary. So I stopped rushing things. This time if we were to start backwards, we would go hurtling down. So it was not worth the risk. I kept the pace just enough to make sure all the wheels are glued to the ground - all the time, though that meant we were not going faster than may be 5-10kmph!

	The creek as seen from Bankot

Made it to the top, roamed around the Bankot fort, which is as big as a car showroom. That's it. It's more of a watch tower than a fort. It was probably used just to keep watch on the creek, rather than for some elaborate purpose - like having strategic advantage in fighting. The views were amazing though, and we got busy with our cameras again.

From Bankot, we left for Velas beach, in search of the endangered sea-turtles breeding ground. The drive was again very scenic, sea-side route with a couple of sae-eagles hovering quite low on the water.

Alas! We were 15 days too late. No sea-turtles.

On the way back from Velas towards Bankot

Eventually we made it to the Velas beach after asking directions couple of times. To our dismay, the sea-turltles festival was already over, and we were 15 days too late.

Anjarle

We started back towards Bankot. Only later did we come to know that there is a new route opened from Velas to Kelshi.

Top of the ridge -overlooking the wide creek

When going towards Mandangad, there were two routes that could be taken. One would go via Veshvi - the low route. While the other would go via Bankot - the top route. The top route goes staying on the top of the huge ridge, overlooking the large creek all the time. We were told the top route had better surface, and hence was preferable. So off we went via this top route, which turned out to be very scenic as well, due to its height.

After blitzing through the relatively good road, we finally made it to Kelshi, and then on to Anjarle. Staying in Anjarle turned out to be a costly affaire with room rents hovering around a thousand bucks mark. What we had admired as a sleepy Konkani town, around 3-4 years back, had turned into a tourist hotspot.

There was this striking bullock-cart on the way to temple

We bit the bullet, and booked a decent room for 800 bucks. Checked in, threw in our luggage and went to कड्यावरचा गणपती. That was my 2nd time there, and not much had changed. The कोकण-मेवा sellers were still there, and so were the sea and the Suvarnadurga Fort (सुवर्णदुर्ग किल्ला). We idled around there with couple of packets of आंबा पोळी (mango-pie) and फणस पोळी (jackfruit-pie) and left the place after sundown.

We roamed around the town, till there was some light left, and by the time we got back to the room, I was having a mild migrain. So I skipped dinner and went to sleep right away after taking a shower.


Next: CKRT: Day 03 - Anjarle to Guhagar