[SDP]

Now, its Chetan's turn to ride the wave...




..and he does it in style.


Engulfed in white frothing water.


Now only tracks are visible.


--------------------------------------------
Civa - our Rajani sir - is still bone dry.


A few folks cheer him on.


But, Rajanikant does not go to the sea ...the sea comes to Rajnikant!


And Rajani sir takes everything with his head held high.


Come on you wave! Show me what you got!


Yes!




What man! The wave is retreating already.


Enna Rascala! I wanted a proper bath, not a face-wash!


Rajani sir's back is still dry and as you can see from his expression, he is not very happy.

[SDP]

I can go on and on, telling you stories about each one of the eight hatchlings. But, let me not bore you.

Here's the final turtle picture - an animated gif (A smart way to unleash 5 pics on poor unsuspecting readers under the guise of one image ).


7:15am -> All the baby turtles were sea-borne by now. All that was left were a few tracks.


Time for a group picture!


These are the volunteers who make such wonderful trips possible.
[L to R] Amitayu, Civa (with head held high), <lady whose name has slipped from my poor memory>, Vitthal, Ruby, Sandeep, Priyanka, Janak, Nikhil, Gurdeep, Chetan and Abhilash. Missing from the pic: Bhakti and may be a few more volunteers.


Amitayu and Civa - our own Rajani sir.


A few more minutes at the beach and it was time to head back.


After the "Oohs and Aahs" at the beach, the kids were re-charged.


Running back to the bridge.



No bus was waiting for us at the bridge. Everybody need to walk back to their house in the village.

[parsh]

Sea or No Sea, it proves the point, all are afraid of The Rajani or the name See the Sea retreated too as soon as it touched just the hot head. Guess nobody wants to be part of the joke too.

What a way man...nice exploration and thanks for sharing it. Another must on cards now though have been thinking about it since ages.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

SDP, thank you for sharing such a wonderful travelogue. Loved every bit of it, the food on banana leaves and specially the part where turtles venture into the sea for the first time.

Spike

[SDP]

Some photos clicked while walking back to the house in the village:
























8:00am -> We reached the houses where we were staying.

[SDP]

From 8am till 10am, we were supposed to finish taking bath, have breakfast and pack all our belongings for departure from Velas. For me it was more than enough time to finish all of that and then spend some time clicking more photos.

Sharing some photos taken in the backyard.




Photo credit: My son.




Look straight up and this is what you see.






10:00am-> I said goodbye to the Sakpal family and started walking towards the buses.

That's the house where my wife and daughter were staying.


Girls bond faster. A group photo.




A bullock-cart






Kashunuts!

[SDP]

10:15am -> We reached the place where all the buses were parked.


Hardly anybody else had reached the buses by then.


The plan was to go to Harihareshwar from Velas.










After a few photos and a lot of chatting with my "room-mates", FINALLY at 11am, the entire group gathered and we started towards our next destination.

This was the road just next to the sea-shore that I mentioned in post #3.


Beautiful road. Best backdrop for your car's photo. Would love to drive there myself one day.








We were headed for Harihareshwar. After about 15 minutes, at one unmarked point, the buses left the tarred road behind and took a left onto a dirt road.




A couple of kites were chasing away a group of crows. Caught this one in flight.

[(Alok)]

SDP
IMPO It is not a travelogue/ photoluge, it should be called a documentary on TURTLE FESTIVAL.
Not just photos but written matter is also very interesting & informative. Once started to read the thread, it is difficult to leave in mid.

I live far away from Maharashtra but I am sure Team bhpians from Maharashtra have started planning to go to ‘Velas’ for TURTLE FESTIVAL.

Defiantly a 5 star travelogue and velas itself is a very neat and clean village.
What is the occupation of peoples in velas?

One questions my side (not related to travelogue but turtles), how the turtle kids sense the direction of sea? Why not they run towards opposite or perpendicular direction?

thanks

[SDP]

Originally Posted by (Alok)

SDP
IMPO It is not a travelogue/ photoluge, it should be called a documentary on TURTLE FESTIVAL.
Not just photos but written matter is also very interesting & informative. Once started to read the thread, it is difficult to leave in mid.

I live far away from Maharashtra but I am sure Team bhpians from Maharashtra have started planning to go to ‘Velas’ for TURTLE FESTIVAL.

Defiantly a 5 star travelogue and velas itself is a very neat and clean village.
What is the occupation of peoples in velas?

One questions my side (not related to travelogue but turtles), how the turtle kids sense the direction of sea? Why not they run towards opposite or perpendicular direction?

thanks

Thanks for the kind words Alok!

I was going to cover it as part of a trivia post at the end, but since you asked: The baby turtles head towards the bright light at the horizon. The hatchlings are released to the sea at early morning or at sunset precisely for this reason. They follow the sun at the horizon or the reflection on water.

People who come to witness the release are strictly told NOT to use any flash while taking photos as that light tends to disorient the babies.

Their relation to light goes back to the time when eggs are laid. The eggs are laid at night and if there is any artificial light on the beach, the mother moves away in search of a better place.

[SDP]

11:30am-> We reached some jetty and stopped. I did not knew this plan.


Ah, we will take some sort of boat from here to the other side.


Velas to Harihareshwar by road is about 100kms as there is no way to cross the Savitri river unless you retrace your steps all the way back. Fortunately there is a short-cut .. a ferry service from Veshwi to Kolmandale (marked by double blue rectangles in the map below).


View from the jetty.








What is amazing is: the ferry can carry your vehicles as well..including large trucks and buses.


I could spot the grey XUV that I had seen the day before in Velas.




Can you spot the jetty on the other shore?


Information about timings etc.


After watching the ferry go to the other side and come back, finally at 12 noon, we got our chance to get on to the ferryboat. Vehicles downstairs, people upstairs.


Hey, what's this? No steering mounted controls?


Two buses in one trip. With the huge rear-overhang, one bus did had some difficulty getting onto the ferryboat.


Just the loading took 15-20 minutes.


The actual journey is just about 10 minutes.


We did munch on some random stuff that was being sold on the boat. A mango-drink provided the much needed relief to the dry throat.


Just before reaching the other shore, my son's cap dropped in the water. Boy, was he upset! We somehow consoled him.

12:30pm -> We landed on the Harihareshwar side. The famous Shiva temple is just 3 kms from this jetty.

[SDP]

12:45pm -> We reached the Harihareshwar temple. My guess is that the temperature would have touched 40 by then. A quick darshan and then lunch, that's the plan.

That's the temple entrance.




That's the temple. Looks like any other house from this region!


Just like Ganapatipule, a pradakshina means circling a small hill. 30-40 minutes. Its too hot. We decide to just go up the steps a bit to get a better view and then come down again.

The kido donned a red hanky after the lost cap.


The steps are treacherous. But the views are totally worth it.








The beach is tempting. Next time.


"The only lines that matter are the ones that you leave behind."








A small lizard.
















1:35pm -> We head out of the temple complex.

[SDP]

1:40pm -> Lunch at Harihareshwar Beach Resort




An hour later..


..just relaxing at the resort.




The kido was excited to learn a new trick.


3:00pm -> We started the return journey.


6:45pm -> Somewhere enroute. The sunset.






Reached Mumbai around 10:30pm... physically tired but with a recharged mind. The charge should last at least for next few weeks.

[SDP]

Don't want to preach. Just one last thought:

While releasing the turtle hatchlings, the volunteers used to flatten-out/erase any deep foot-prints from the path of hatchlings so that they don't get stuck in them. While chasing development and economic growth, have we left such a deep foot-print on this planet that it is causing basic survival challenges to almost all other co-habitants?

[SDP]

Just came across this on FB->SATIREinstein


I believe, it fits well on this thread.

[jacs]

SDP - Amazing photologue

I am really touched by this idea. Never thought we have these kind of initiatives in India.

Kudos to the complete team for making this wonderful trip and being part of the VeLas turtle festival. Very good shots and short and simple descriptions makes this a very easy virtual tour.