Trip to Dapoli From Hyderabad

For us Beach is an ideal place to spend our time with mother nature. After reading all travel logs and video about Dapoli, we were convinced that Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad was the right place where everything would come together to ensure that we would have all time in  our hand to relax a lazy holiday. Seeing the beauty and activities, we were sure about the fact that Dapoli would offer lots of good visiting places to cover. As Dapoli was one of the less known tourist spot, we considered it for its unpolluted air, cool breeze and non commercialized Konkon thali over Vizag, Mypadu, Baruva(Srikakulam), Suryalanka etc.

As we  travel Kolkata via Road, most of the beaches were just in our route. So either we had already visited those beaches or we had  future plan to cover them. Goa being over hyped and over crowded, we did not opt for this. Rather we thought to venture the same Konkan coastal line through Dapoli.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Dapoli was called Mini Mahabaleswar due to it’s cool weather, rain and cloud. Dapoli is a town in Ratnagiri district of Maharastra. There are a lot of history associated with Dapoli. Dapoli is also known as camp dapoli as british set up their camp here. There were many high rank officer’s graves present here.

Natural beauty of Konkan, truly untouched beaches with rocks, clean sand and lazy sunset under coconut trees with chirping sound of birds lured us to travel such a huge distance from Hyderabad. Dapoli is a offering to all from young to aged, family to single, motorists to bikers.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

It offered something to everyone. Post monsoon, it is an ideal place to visit Dapoli. Since we are beach lovers, we enjoy serenity, natural beauty of beach. That was the reason why we had chosen this place.

Dapoli could be ventured by train, nearest station was Khed(27KM away from Dapoli), by plane, nearest airport was Ratnagiri(100KM away from Dapoli), by road, there were lots of buses from Pune. As wikipedia suggested that BT buses were omnipresent but might not be convenient so we decided to go to Dapoli via our car.

Things to visit in Dapoli:

Temple:

1. Shri Ganesh Temple
2. Keshraj Temple
3. Parashuram bhumi

Plan for Dapoli Trip

During last Dasera (2017) , we thought to venture Dapoli instead of Goa from our daily hustle bustle life. Google showed us three different routes around 750KM via sholapur. Travel India’s recent update about Hyderabad and Solapur gave us lot of information.

As I was travelling with my wife, I rejected all other routes and took Solapur route. I took NH-65. As this was the national high way, it was alive during night. There were lot of hotels, dhaba opened during night. I found that travelling with a female member, was safe.We planned to start 7pm but due to heavy rain and some unavoidable circumstances, we started at 8:30PM. We topped up Diesel from Gachibowli Diesel bunk.

ORR Ring Road and Karnataka roads

We finally hit ORR at 9 PM. Initial journey was very good. We drove till Exit -3 and took Mumbai highway NH-65. We drove till Zaherabad and then took rest for 15 minutes. Road condition in Telengana was really nice.

Within 10:30 PM we crossed the Telengana border.Once we reached Karnataka the real drama started. As Travel India users informed earlier that the road condition was really bad with lots of diversions, we experienced the same. On top of this, the Volvos with lots of lights made our journey miserable. We were hardly able to drive 40 KM/hr. Even though there were lots of diversions, they were marked very clearly. Somewhere the road was great but somewhere it was badly broken.
If you drive carefully, you can drive in this route. At around 1 AM we stopped near a veg dhaba. We took dinner there and started again at around 1:30AM. With great difficulty, we reached Solapur at 3AM. Then rested for sometime there. Initially we planned to travel via Pune, but while taking rest at solapur, we changed our plan and took another road via pradhanpur.

Sholapur to Pandharpur road

Google took us via road which was narrow. After 15 mins of driving , we found that we were the only 3 people in the road. We could not see any village nearby.

Solapur to Pandharpur stretch was ofcourse traffic free in the night but it was full of potholes. I must thank Ford for making such a fantastic suspension of Figo. We cruised over small and mid sized potholes with ease.

Thank again to figo for it’s soft suspension. Pandharpur to Satara road was the loneliest road of India. There was not a single soul along the road. Being late night, it was even emptier. However the road condition was just ok. As it was a single road, we could manage to drive around 60KM per hour.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The road went via paddy field. After driving some time at around 4:30AM, we got into a road which was going through a heavy maintenance. There were lots of diversions, muddy areas. I was very scared to drive through this road.

I was driving 20Km/hr. This stretch of the journey ended at around 9:30AM when we touched NH-48. We stopped here for a beautiful breakfast. It offered Dosa, tea and coffee in Maharastra style.
Hotel Name-Hotel Namaste
Place name-Masur Phata, Pune – Bangalore Highway, Umbraj, Maharashtra 415109
Link-https://goo.gl/maps/ZUHBefgVQBE2

Breakfast at Hotel Namaste

After an eventful 18 hrs of drive, the food gave us new life. The Dosa was normal without spice (not like Hyderabad).We stopped here for one and half hour. We used Dhaba’s toilet to freshen up.At 10:30AM we started again.

We crossed 30 KM via NH-48 and took SH-143 for Patan. Once we diverted from NH-48, the ghat road started. Speedometer was not crossing 25KM/hr. At 2PM we reached Chaplun via Alore.

Because it was post monsoon session , we enjoyed different shades of greens everywhere throughout the road.The ghat section was really awesome. It was very difficult for us to drive without capturing those scenic beauty and moments.

Khed to Dapoli

Road via khed was average with a mixture of bad or good stretch. We reached Dapoli at around 4PM and we were hungry. We stopped at a hotel situated near the Dapoli market had a full lunch with rice, chicken curry, fish and prawn.

At around 5:30Pm we started our last span of our journey. Dapoli to Kadre beach connecting road was not in great shape . In some areas it was just muddy. We reached kadre beach at 6PM.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Kandepoha, Ghavane, Upma, Thalipeeth, Panagi, Ghatale, Dadpe pohe, Kheer, halwa, shira etc were very nice options as breakfast along with freshly prepared tea. During evening, we got few of these items along with fried aloo,different bondas (onions ,aloo, michi) etc.

No holiday completes, until we taste the local food. Dapoli was not an exception. We tried to consume as many as local Konkoni dishes during our stay.

By the way, even though, we booked an A/C room but later we realized non A/C would be better as the place was cool.

Kadre Beach

I booked Omshanti Beach resort via WhatsApp. The owner was kind enough to confirm over Whatsapp. But after reaching there we got the bad news that next two days there was no cancellation that meant no rooms for us.

The owner was very good and made an effort to search nearby hotels. Unfortunately he could not find one. We rested for sometimes and ordered tea. After the tea my brother in law went to sea. My wife and I made an effort to search a hotel. We went deep inside kadre beach.

Fortunately, we got one nice hotel. Our room was at 1st Floor facing the beach. The hotel had a kitchen also. We verbally booked the room. As this place suffered less internet connectivity and network issue, many of the hotels did not exist online. The few were on internet were charging high compared to others. Other good hotels did exist without internet.

Hyderabad

We went to sea to enjoy the sunset. We had very little time to enjoy the sunset.We were able to catch glimpse of the sunset sitting on the soft sand of Kadre. Definitely the soft sand,gentle breeze and gentle wave made our mood.This was the first time,we were seeing the black sand.

Initially, the black sand did not look very interesting but the panoramic vista of the sea,horizon,hill were simply superb. The calmness during evening refilled us with great energy.There were not much eating options during our visit.

But I trusted that during pick season, there would be many. We roamed around 30 minutes and came back to hotel. Om shanti beach resort had a kitchen too. We ordered konkoni thali along with Fish fry.At around 9PM they served the dinner and at 10PM went to bed for a nice sleep.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The beauty of sea beach and visitors disappeared at 10PM. There were no lights in any of the sea beach. The night life was not as beautiful as vizag,Puri or Digha or Goa. We felt very scary post sunset to stay at beach.We called it for a day.

There was no mobile signal available in the hotel room or around the area. Only vodafone or tata docomo had some network in the sea beach. Airtel,Idea,jio had no presence here.Due to this poor network coverage,credit or debit cards did not work here. Internet provider did not invade this area due to less profit. Few of the hotels had internet facility that too in common area. Due to this we had to deal with hard cash in all hotels or guest houses.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Next day we woke up early.We enjoyed the sea in early morning.After some walk on the sea beach, we came back for a delicious breakfast.  During morning hours, Kadre turned out to be a beautiful,serene and quite beach.There were lot of visitors on the sea beach. As per our visiting, Kadre was the second best beach. It was less crowded,offered a nice sea view. It was also having lots of hotels with different budgets. As we opted for little off season or beginning of the season,we did not get lots of food stalls around sea beach.Since we booked the sea facing room, the sound of wave kept us knocking all day long.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The water was clean so as the beach.One more advantage was no matter which group you would be in, everybody could enjoy here. Nobody was interested in other’s area.

Sea was calm with black sand.The slope was gradual with no rock or sudden depth. The beach was safe enough and clean for swimmers. We did not go much deeper though. It was absolute clean and fun for bathing, playing and enjoying time with my family.We enjoyed the bath in Sea for 2 hours.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Kadre beach offered water sports (speed boat pulling parachutes, parasailing, sea sofa, banana rides pencil ride, jet ski, sand biking, beach football or dolphin seeing activities during pick season). In off season it was not available.

Kadre was isolated, not much crowded on weekdays,but during weekends and long leaves, it was little  crowded. After taking bath , we walked to the rocky side of the beach which surprisingly offered a handful of fauna, black crabs, fishes trapped in small species inside the rocks waiting for high tide.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Dapoli being a rural place of Maharastra, it was convenient to have our own vehicle. We opted our own car for near by travel. Being hungry, we were looking for local konkoni dishes. We found one nice hotel at Asud. The hotel was in dhaba style.We enjoyed the ambiance, food.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

I strongly recommend this hotel for a lunch or dinner.As a foodlover, Dapoli offered us different varieties of fish platters. One thing we noticed that they hardly took any food order (lunch/dinner/snacks) over phone. Our orders were only got confirm when we sat in the hotel and ordered. Kokan Sarbat was something, we never had taken. We liked it so much that we could not resist ourselves to order two glasses extra.

All hotels,guest houses had their own canteen to arrange food facilities. Fish dishes were mostly famous.If you happen to taste real konkoni food, you need to go to the near by hotels or restaurants.We went towards Ladghar beach.  Even though the Kadre to Ladghar had a connecting road just about 3 KM, but it happened to be a broken, narrow one. We had taken the main road via Dapoli Camp.

My wife was not up for the seeing those graves of high rank officers so we left that place. During the visit to the ladghar beach, we took Dapoli Market road which took us to the biggest agricultural university of India. While coming back from here, we visited the birth place of bharat ratna Maharshi Annasaheb Kavre. However it was not maintained properly. But a must visit place to all.

Shri Ganesh Temple:

Next place to visit was Shri Ganesh Temple in Anjarle. It was around 35 KM away from Kadre beach. This was one of the oldest ganapati temple. It was told that the ganapati temple was built in 17th century and was renovated in 1996.

Throughout the road there was signboard directing us towards temple. It was always better to use GPS and to talk to locals just to confirm the roads. One thing, we noticed that locals were very much welcoming , friendly and helpful.

I loved to drive in ghat and we were packed with photography gears, this area offered a great drive and photography. It was a great road parallel to the sea. During our journey we got lots of spots from where we did some photography.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Post monsoon season, it was green everywhere. It was a pure treat to the eyes to watch the green meeting deep blue Arabian sea. While we enjoyed the view , the road was not in great shape. Some places were gentle, some places were very rough.

We had to drive very carefully through lots of turns, twists, steep ups and down.We took around one hour to reach there. Once we reached there, we found that the temple was having huge parking space. The Temple was a great sign of ancient sculpture.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

This was also treated as Jagrut devsthan. The darshan time was hardly 15 minutes. The area was well maintained, clean and calm. One could stay over night.(You need to tell the caretaker before hand). There were few stalls selling puja materials(puja-thali, Haliv ladoos) and food items (flowers, candies, coconuts, kokam, Mango pulp,dried jackfruit,jhunka bhaki).

They used to speak Marathi but understand the Hindi very well. This temple was a must visit for us. Visiting the nearby locations, I was spellbound by the beauty of nature. The picturesque location stopped us many times for photography.

Once we crossed the temple and went to the backside of the temple,we could see the Anjarle village along with Anjarle beach. The village was hidden inside greenery and coconut trees.Also in the back side we saw the Shree Ganapati Che paul.(The foot print of Lord Ganesh).

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

There was a small pond , local referred as turtle pond. We did not see any turtle though!!.Once we came out of the temple , there was a big circular cemented area near a big tree. We sat for sometime. Local shops were offering great tea, kokam, awal, karvand juice.

They were also selling Poha and rice papad. We tried rice papad along with tea.The shop keeper showed us the paajpandhari and Suvarnadurga in a single frame.He also informed us that the temple was originally built near the sea shore.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Every time when water level of sea used to increase, the temple used to go inside of water made a natural immersed processed. Later along with the locals ,government move it to the top of the hill and made it more significant with the foot steps.

His wife suggested us to visit during summer for best mangoes in India. We  started our journey to Keshavraj Temple. Sunset from here could have been a treat to eyes. A must try for all nature lovers.

Keshavraj Temple:

Keshavraj temple was around 10 KM away from Asud market. It was an ancient temple of keshavraj and Shree vyagreshwar. Keshvraj name derived from kadyawarcha Ganapati (Ganapati on cliff).

This was ujwya Sondecha ganapati or right trunked ganapati considered to be jagrut diwat or live drity. This was a hidden treasure inside hill and jungle. As usual the road was narrow but the villagers were very welcoming and fun loving.

The road was through quite lash green surrounding. We had to park the car outside of the village .

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The moment , we parked our vehicle, we entered into the village. At the entry of the village ,  it was indeed a different world. The entire area was very clean,clam and quite. There were few snacks stalls . We had taken tea upon arrival.

Then we had to walk down side via a lane. The slope was gradual. The huge emptiness of sound reduced our huge stress and fatigues.  We had to go down or climb down to get the get the stream.The more we walked down on the winding lane through a dense jungle of cocnut,beetel and jack fruit trees.

The area was very cool. The jungle was so dense in some places,even the sunlight could not penetrate. The surroundings were filling up with new fresh energy. There were lots of birds near by. The chirping of birds was breaking the silence.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

It was a true mesmerizing experience.We had to cross the bridge.We stopped for sometime in the bank of the stream just to listen the natural music.The bank of the stream and entire area was full of various trees.It was indeed a great place to relax.

The road became very spectacular after crossing a bridge at the river.The view from the top of the bridge was great. We had to climb around 50ft to reach the temple. A bit of climbing was required.The temple was clean but lonely.

We hardly found any one there. There were accommodation available by provided by locals.Non veg was strictly not available as almost everybody were Brahmin. Coming back to temple, the temple was small and beautiful.

A oil lamp was there to illuminate Lord Vishnu. The experience to see Lord Vishnu was great. The gomukh was fascinating with fresh and cold water.The pure water coming out of the bulls was really cold. We were not sure if that was safe to drink. As the backside of the temple was completely locked and nobody was around, we could not know the source of this holy water.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Later the villages confirmed that holy water was consumable.It was little lonely , we could hardly got anybody in the route. Also there were no shops in the route.We carried snacks and water bottles along with us. As it was post monsoon season, nature offered the best view of everything.

The round trip was completed by 3 hours as we took multiple breaks during our journey. There was not a single dustbin throughout the journey as a result people threw pet bottles,glass bottles in few places which were the only eye sore.As we had to do lot of climbing or sort of trekking, I would not recommend any heart patient,pregnant women or differently able person to venture this.

This place offered lots of photography spots. if you were religious,spiritual or atheist, this was a great and must visit place in Dapoli. The whole journey was much better than the destination. The trail was amazing with all sorts of trees and bunch of horn bills.By the way , this area was famous for Alphonso mango,locally known as Hapus Aam.

Unhavare Natural Hot Spring:

It was charm to drive 2 hours drive from Kadre with the road which was not in great shape.We had to drive very carefully.We had lost roads and direction many times.In the entire road we did not get anybody who could suggest us the correct road.

We were fully dependent on GPS which misguided us many times.  It was around 40 KM. We did not figure out if we traveled  in wrong season. It was dirty. It was no comparison with the hot spring of Brakeswar of west bengal or mud volcano of Andaman.

They were far far better than this. A thin water was coming out of mother nature. Not sure if it was hot or not. It was so dirty we did not encouraged to touch it. However,while coming back , the darkness gave us a beautiful night drive in off road condition.

Savane Beach:

It was a clean beach with full of coconut trees.When we reached there, there was no tourists venturing the area. It was a scenic beach with unlimited quietness. There were no tea stalls available.

The air was very fresh and refreshing. Off course the beach and nature offered private moments but loneliness was killing us. There was no water spots. The Sunset was far better than other beach. We clicked some photos and left the place.

We were only three but wished next time we would come back with lots of friends. Also wished that we would be doing a Bonn fire.

Agricultural university:

The Maharastra Govt established this agriculture university on 1972.It was named Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth.Later it was named as Dr Bala Saheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth.The area was as usual very green.

As we visited during holidays,it was closed. I was sure that the university provided lots of crops to the farmers of the country.

Harnai Port/Harnai Beach/Suvarnadurga/Kanakdurga/Fish Market:

It was situated around 20 KM away from Kadre beach.It was the oldest port in this area.Uncounted numbers of boats were leaving or coming. There were all fishing boat in the area. Being a market place it was crowded. We did not spend time here.

If sea beaches were main attraction to go to Dapoli,It offered us few mores!!!.  It was consisted three forts.We could cover only two. They were as below:

1. Suvarnadurga- Sea fort
2. Kanakdurga- Land fort

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

It was shore fortress encompassed with great Arabian sea on all sides and was spread over regions of eight sections and had separated the outer world with high wall(divider). The valley was one of the naval base of Maratha for was boat building capacity. It could be easily identified by it’s dark stoned dividers.

We were told that it was built in Adil shah rule and later captured by Maharaja Chatrapati Sivaji. The locals told that there was route(tunnel) between the forts.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The road was not available when we visited.The literal meaning of Suvarnadurga was ‘golden fort’ as it was symbolized as a pride or the “feather in the golden cap of Marathas”.There was almost nothing left in the fort. There was a big lighthouse(almost ruined when we visited).

It was a gazing place for local cows.There was no ferry service available to go to the sea fort. We needed to book a local fisherman to carry us. As there was no tourists available to go to sea fort. Also they did not offer us life jackets.

We cancelled that plan. However there was a fish market available. Harnai was very famous for fish auction.Seeing the volume of fish auction,we were sure it was the major exporter of fish in Maharastra and neighboring states.

Being fish lovers,we were thrilled to see the varieties of fish at cheaper price. If we had booked a home stay, we would have ventured the market.However,Harnai  beach was very popular. It was flat bed beach again with gradual slope with gentle wave.

PanhaleKaji Cave:

It was really hidden wonder in Dapoli. It was around 30 KM away from Dapoli. The cave were built during Buddhist period 3rd century AD and discovered only in 1970.There were 29 caves available.The caves were made by cutting the rock.

The area was small and was not very popular.Coming back to cave, the caves were having two rooms. They were not maintained. They were damp,quite. Bats , birds, pigpens made  it their home.It was stinking badly. We could identify the models of Ganesh,Sawaswati and scene from Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The caretaker was kind enough to take us to different caves like the buddhists cave, the hindu’s cave,the jain’s cave. Unfortunately, he was not having much knowledge about the cave. Coming back to road condition, the parts of the road was muddy,narrow.

It was around 1.5 hours drive from Ladghar beach. The scenario around cave were beautiful having tall grass,lash green surrounding. There were two small snack shops near by. We did not opt for tea here. I could not only say that it was a neglected golden heritage of India. The road was lonely. We got hardly get anybody through the last 2 hours or 20 KM drive.

Murud Beach:

It was a delicate sand , extended beach with lots of palm and coconut trees.It was sheltered and clean beach.Murud was also famous for Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Kadre.Murud beach offered us lots of restaurant that were serving veg and non veg food items.

The freshly prepared fish items were delicious.Murud beach was same like Kadre beach with flat bed sea,gradual slope. It was very safe to swim for hours. Few water sports were also available.Distance between Kadre and Murud  was almost 5KMs. They shared the same coastal line. We could take a morning walk to cover both beaches.

Parshuram Bhumi:

This place was in our plan. It was a mythological place , having monument of Lord Parashuram. It was told that Lord Parashuram created konkan. Konkan was formed when Lord Parashuram fought with the sea which being defeated , moved 50KM away to reveal the land.

The road was in great shape with lots of flora and the big trees.However it was a private property. It was a mountain view with dense forest around.We statue was almost 40 ft.It was 21 feet copper finished statue.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The architecture was very nice.It was a different and unique experience.The structure was made of fiber glass. A collection of Sanskrit shlokas on Shri Parashuram,on the walls around could be worth seen.

The earth like dome was actually a meditation hall. We could hear the echo of own voice.The panoramic view of majestic arabic sea,harnai port in the background and the high tides lashing the coast in forefront made our visit worth.

When we visited the place, there was nobody.So far I remember,there was a single snack shop outside.The quality of the food , specially tea, was tasty.There were three bungalows adjacent to this place. Bird watching could have been a good option.Due to time crunch,we had to proceed further.

Keshav Kavra Photo Gallery:

It was not too big but worth watching some rarest and historic photographs of Dr Dhando Keshav Kavre. Government was trying level best to maintain this area. But we felt the effort was not much.

Kolthare Temple:

The shop keeper of Parshuram Bhumi advised us to travel this. But as the GPS could not determine the route, we lost our route in between. Since we could not determine the path ,we dropped the plan.

Durga devi Temple:

It was a nice temple with rural and ancient interiors. It was having a big hall for pilgrims. The area was clean and few shop keepers were selling  puja items.

Chikhali:

The ancestral house of Lokmanya tilak was near Pankali Kaji Caves. It was told his marriage ceremony took place here. When we visited, there was a memorial and school. Being holiday the school was closed.

Kolthare Beach:

Kolthare beach was one of the virgin beaches available in Dapoli. It was 20 KM away from Dapoli market.Expect locals,hardly anybody knew about this beach.There were two routes towards kolthare beach. We had taken the adventures route…the ghat one.

It was narrow but very nice It was truly untouched scenic beauty. There was no network,no live GPS. We had downloaded the offline map.We had to follow that and ask lots of locals for this beach. The drawings,footprints we made during the last day when tried to visit Kolthare temple,were still available next day.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The beach was having many rock/stones. We had to be very careful as they might hurt easily. Since it was not commercialized ,We did not see any tourists here.There was no stalls near by. There was no water sports facility.Overall, the beach was lonely, the sand was silver gray,most picturesque beach covered by three sides.

But it was clean and clear beach.However we have seen two three options to stay. Hotel Garawa- The location was great but the quality of the food was just ok. We have also seen one nice home stay called Siddi Resort.

We have not taken food here.Afternoon season my bother in law went crazy about fishing by hands. He  almost caught few with bare hands. There were many nurseries around Dapoli . We could buy fruit plants,aromatic plants,money plants,flowers etc at a nominal cost.

Ladghar Beach:

Ladghar Beach was the best beach in Dapoli in terms of activities,number of hotels,beach activities(jet ski,Para sailing  via SUV,Quad biking and camel ride). It was three KM away from Kadre Beach.If you would like to go with family,Ladghar would be the best choice.

Clean beach with lots of  small black and red stones made us seat for hours. Lots of activities were there through out the day. Morning , they went to see the dolphin.we missed it though. During noon,lots of hotels offered us great food. Afternoon offered visitors a beautiful sunset.

The beach was having lots of stalls. It was not blueish water rather it was having reddish brown water.All-through, it was not completely sandy beach, rather a mixture of reddish mud,stones and black sand.There were lots of hotels , home stays available here.During all seasons, all water sports along with dolphin watching.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The place became even more beautiful during sunset(golden hue, sun reflecting on the reddish water enhances the color of the sand and of course the water). We tested the local coconut water and soft coconut.However, one thing we noticed that that the locals and tourists threw away bottles,tetra packs,glass bottles and wastage to the sea beach.Local municipal corporation or villagers committee should take proper steps to make it clean.

All hotels provided simply good food.It was a worth visit specially for sea food lovers.Nearly all properties were on the beach with just the road was separating them. We did not notice life guard. One thing , we expected that was fancy restaurants or food joints which we did not get.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Ladghar beach was almost like private beach.A simple morning walk along with the sea beach was very joyful with gentle wave,lash green and water birds and crabs, fish.Even though the sand was soft,few enthusiastic drivers took their car to sea.

It looked very risky to me.  There was an alcohol shop here,all brands were available. The hotels offered us more or less same menus for lunch and dinner.

They offered us Modak,aloo bhaji,solkadi(common in all most all meals),Kuleeth pitale,bhakri,Kaju masala,paneer masala,black pees curry,usal,papad,pickel along with varieties of non veg options-Pomphret, surmai, bangda, bombil, prawn, oysters,crabs,chicken,egg,mutton.For non veg ,we had both the options fry and gravy.

The beach offered a gentle wave, slow slope , no boulders.By the way the beach was clean so as the water. Few enthusiastic people explored the sea during sunset.

Once we reached Ladghar,we did not stop at the beach. We went ahead along with the road. After 2/3 KMs of drive, mother nature offered us a small narrow stream. The stream was coming from uphill.Sunset from that clean and pristine stream made our day successful.

Kelshi Beach:

We drove till the sea line. We finally reached Keshi, a small village best known for Mahalakshmi temple, Yakub baba’s dargah and sand hillocks.Yakub baba’s dargah was built in the peswar era. It was told to us that Maharaja Sivaji visited Yakub baba and sought his blessings.

Also the hindu king awarded 653 avers of land to construct the Dargah. Since then it was a famous place for both the community.The history of keshi village from 1300 B.C. was maintained.The connecting road was via the Kelshi village as a result we got few congestion through the journey.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Kelshi village showed us the real village life. Apart from few locals, we did not see any other tourists. The beach was very nice with yellow sand.We found few snack stalls around the beach.  There was no good hotels around but we had seen few home stays owned by locals.The local shopkeeper gave us little nice information about the Kelsi naming.

It was originally called as Kadaligram then it was changed to Kadali to Kaelshi to Kelshi.Books of Mahalakshmi temple still had the original name as Kadaligram as a reference to this place.It was the chief seaport during the year of 1600.

As the Geyar community settled were for business, it was referred as Geyarwade. Second area to visit was Sand dune called walucha dongar.(A result of a Tsunami during 15th century).When we visited here, we did not see much exists.

Dabhol Beach,Dhabol Creek,Dhabol port:

It was suggested by the second hotel owner in Kadre. It was truly an untouched gem. Dhahol beach offered us three different things,Dhabol beach, Dhabol Creek,Dhabol port. The ferry ride around Dhabol creek added more excitement.

Dhabol port was not for us rather it was for fishermen.We visited underground temple of Goddess Chandika. It was told that the idol was formed naturally. As the temple was in cave, we did not go inside. Dhabol was again not much crowded.

Tamastirtha Beach:

Once we visited Ladghar beach, we were talking to locals and we came to know about this beach.It was just 2/3 KM away from Ladghar Beach. Overall, it was a red pebble beach with little unclean but non touristy beach.

It was mostly for fishermen.The red pebble beach was good for stone collector(Sea memories). Red pebbles were very good for photography.There were few sea creature crawling here.There were few migratory birds around.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The clean water, red pebbles, minerals were flowing into sea at the junction created an unique copper hue. May be that was the reason why it was called Tamastirtha . As it was for fishermen naturally, it was not little muddy,dirty.

The outfits of locals were not pleasure to eyes. Since it was muddy and dirty, we did not take bath here. Dipping was little dangerous for skin.There were few tea stalls available here.However, we did not find very interesting here, we decided to leave.

I believed that seeing Tamastirtha Beach from hills and taking photo from there would be great.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

On Dapoli on SH-4 and coastal Highway crossing, there  was a hotel called Nisarg offers beautiful food.The seating was seaview. We tested lunch here.

The taste was great with less spicy. After such a beautiful food, we drove along SH-4 to Anjarle beach and Savane beach. They were mainly for locals. We had seen lots of fishing boats,preparing to leave at night.

These beaches were rocky not best for swimmers. These beaches were having occasional tourists venturing the sea beach. As we were not in a gang, we did not enjoy much. We clicked photos and left there.

Try to take main road while commuting from one beach to other as beach connecting roads were broken,narrow and full of traffic and visitors.

There were many atms available in Dapoli market. But if you happened to be near karde,Murud or Ladghar beaches, in Asud there were in operational BOI ATM.

Anjarle Beach:

The whitish sand when reflected sunlight during sunset, we felt lots of diamonds were shining. off course the green cover with various trees created an unique karishma along with deep blue sea.

Shriwardhan Beach:

While driving through the coastal line with our car,we found this beach. Actually it was never in our visiting list. One local friendly person helped and guided us to this beach. It was lonely beach with brown sand ,clean and pristine water.It was truly a virgin beach as nobody,except us ventured the beach.There were no snack stalls nearby.We did some photo clicking and proceed to Padale Beach.

Padale Beach:

It was again not so touristy. Few people were venturing the sea when we arrived here. No water sports were available.No much snack stalls were available. The sea offered us a huge sea beach to explore.The sunset was really nice.

Chirping birds,endless gentle wave, very few tourists made the sunset as beautiful as we watched in chiriyatapu in Andaman.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

There were two routes to Pune. One from Tamhini ghat, another via Varandha ghat. We choosed the second one that was via Varandha ghat. The reason was even through the ghat road was more but the traffic was relatively less.

We did not take the same route as most of the routes were under construction. Dapoli to Mahabaleswar distance was 100KM via SH-12. We thought to reach there by noon (1PM) but the road was not in great condition and being a ghat section, we finally reached Mahabaleswar at 2:30PM.

The road condition from Dapoli to Palgad was just okay, It was two way road with occasional tar  came off.

Mapro Garden Mahabaleswar:

while returning to Hyderabad via Mahabaleswar,this beautiful garden was just beside the road.It was on the route on Mahabaleswas to Panchgani road.We did not miss this.The area decoration was also nice.

It was a must stop for all nature lovers.The restaurant facility was awesome with pizza, sandwich,french fries,hot chocolate and coffee.It was having its own Chocolate factory.As per the manager there,Mr Kishore Vora Mapro started this business in 1959.Later the business and garden became popular with his name as Mapro.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

There were many outlets and processing units(Capacity of 30000 tones per year).  It was also a best place to purchase strawberry products and other fruit crushes,flavor milk shakes,jelly.There were many fruit crashes available like-strawberry, litchi,coconut,peach,grendline,hazelnut,blue curaco,mango.I could not remember all options.

Along with the fruit products the strawberry ice cream was very famous.There was a huge queue there,we did not opt for it due to our time crunch.Later my friend Madhurima confirmed that it was nice.We missed that.We wished that we would come back again for this.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

I heard from Madhurima that during strawberry festival ,hundreds of farmers used to distribute their fresh strawberries for free. There was a area dedicated to children, was also attractive with Banjo Jump,play area,lots of fun rides.

We purchased two jelly bottles and couple of flavored milk. this place also offered clean toilet facility.During long journey ,we would need more facility along with food options.

During our short journey,we experienced a traditional dance performance by Mapro authorized locals. There were doing so to reduce the stress and re energize the tourist. Indeed , it was a great initiative by them.

Venna Lake:

When we were crossing this lake,it was afternoon.We had really no mood to go for a boat ride.I wished that we would come for one Mahabalewar trip ,I would cover these in details. We saw the lake from outside.Hundreds of tourists were boating in the lake.

The atmosphere was cool so it was really pleasant to use a paddle boat.There were lots of food options were available there(inside and outside). As we had to drive another 14 hours,we dropped the visiting option.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

But one thing I must say, the beauty of the ghat road was awesome full of scenic beauty. Google diverted us to a narrow road to connect the great Mahabaleswar ghat road.

The ghat road was in great condition with a very occasional bad road. Again the Mahabaleshwar ghat road was green and breathtaking. During our journey to Mahabaleshwar, we did a lot of photo shooting. Lots of up and down, we reached at Mahabaleshwar at 2:30 PM.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

We saw a few small waterfalls in the route. After crossing Mahabaleswar we stopped for lunch.  The Manager of the dhaba not only offered great food but also provided a route map to reach Solapur. We started again towards wai at 4PM. The road became excellent when we reached NH-48.

The road was tempting us to go beyond 80KM/hr but we did only 60 KM/hr. We were preserving our energy for great NH 65 till Solapur.   Somewhere before Pune, Google showed us that NH-48 was meeting NH-65. It was also showing a road via SH-143 towards Solapur. But we ignored that road.

However once we reached the junction of NH-48 and NH-65, we could not get the entry point to NH-65. Unfortunately, we had to travel some kms inside Pune. It was a huge traffic jam inside Pune. After great difficulty, we finally touched NH-65 at 7:30PM. Once we crossed the busy Pune city, it was a breeze to drive.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

After crossing 80KM we stopped for a break. After we start our journey, our speed got reduced to a great extent due to pitch dark night accompanied by a heavy downpour.

Heavy rain reduced our visibility. Even though the road was in great condition, we could not drive more than 40 KM/hr. At 12:30AM we stopped for dinner to a roadside hotel. Rain was also stopped. I was driving almost 13 hours, I needed a break.

We ordered roti and paneer curry. As I said earlier that Maharastra food was very nice very low on spice. We enjoyed the dinner. After dinner, I took a power nap for one hour in my car. My wife and brother in law were browsing internet and were busy posting the nice pictures. At around 2:30AM we started again to words Solapur.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

The power nap gave me a new life. We quickly crossed 100 KM and reached Solapur at 3:30AM. I took a small tea break for 15 minutes. Again the horror movie started with lots of diversions, Volvos. The Volvos were having eight to ten light pointed towards oncoming traffic.

They hardly gave any response to the small cars like me. Our speed got reduced to almost 10KM/hour in some of the stretches. Once we reached Telengana border , we got the nice road again. thanks to NH authority of Telengana division to make this stretch beautiful. At 9:30 We touched the ORR and at 10:30 We reached home.

Special Incident:

During our return journey one funny thing happened. I was following a car and ignored the diversion signal. After some KMs the car took a small road towards a nearby village. I had to stop quickly. It was a cut in the road. The depth was somewhere 15 ft. There was a construction work going on.

I was about to take U turn. I found two cars,followed by three volvos actually did the same mistake . Every driver were smiling  to each others by seeing our mistake. We came to the diversion and took the correct route again.

I learnt a lesson that we should not follow anybody blindly and should not ignore the diversion.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

We came with a big smile in our face.The time we spent in Dapoli,worth of every single money we spent on this trip.

The entire travel made us that we returned with lots of good memorizes with us.The overall experience was nothing sort of fabulous touring experience.

Trip to Dapoli from Hyderabad

Highlights:

Hyderabad to Solapur- Lots of toll gates but none were operational hence no toll