[Orange GTX]

Splendid pics and narration.

You have a superb knack of narrating and unfolding a story.

My envy and SDP's pride.

Thanks a lot for sharing. Expecting lots more.

Wish you millions of happy and safe kilometers.

[crackparag]

Awesome travelogue with beautiful pictures. Konkan in rains is something else. How is the condition of road from Panvel to Mahad?

Originally Posted by SDP

At the famous U bend - Parshuram Ghat.
Attachment 1118610

That's Kashedi ghat.

Originally Posted by SDP

9:00AM: We stopped again. This time in Khed ghat.
Attachment 1118876

And this is Parshuram ghat

Cheers!

[rbp]

Mind blowing pics. I loved your story telling through photos.

[SDP]

11:00AM: After packing and loading everything, we finally started towards Mumbai.

First stop was just 2 minutes away. The deity at the start of the village.


We offered a coconut there and quickly moved ahead.


There was no sign of rain anywhere. In fact it was pretty hot. The state-highway to Ratnagiri.


Everything is on the left. At the Gaonkhadi junction.


After taking the left, as we descended, the familiar yet highly anticipated first sight of the sea.


The sea was beautiful. White. Not brown and rough.








From the Purnagad bridge. Left side is Gaonkhadi. Right is Purnagad.


During summer, you can see the walls of the Purnagad fort.




Slow, shallow stream at Pawas. Next time, we are going to stop there and take a relaxing dip! Pending since long time.


The eyesore of the region. Finolex industries. Behind and to the right of the coconut tree.


A propah English medium school. This region is changing fast.


We had a few things to do in the Ratnagiri city. That took about an hour and half.

1:30PM: Lunch halt at Hathkhaba. Hotel Alankar. Decent place.


3 Mahindras.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by shreyan_k10

Wonderful pics and a great travelogue. Just loved you XUV all dirty.

Originally Posted by abirnale

You made me envy this trip @SDP.
..

Originally Posted by thecdkfactor

@SDP,
Beautiful pictures Sir. Mother nature at her best. Really Enjoyed the greenery, it made my day.
...

Originally Posted by nidhin0816

Excellent travelogue with stellar pictures.

India is indeed really beautiful when it rains

Originally Posted by Saint_Kabir

WOW! What a lovely narration of your travel.
....

Originally Posted by Orange GTX

Splendid pics and narration.
You have a superb knack of narrating and unfolding a story.

Originally Posted by rbp

Mind blowing pics. I loved your story telling through photos.

Thanks a lot folks for the kind words! NH17 is beautiful in any season and becomes extra beautiful in monsoon. Most of the pics during the journey are taken by my sister. I would take credit only for the rotating/cropping and minor mid-tone/contrast adjustments.

Originally Posted by laluks

SDP, that interesting bird is a wood pecker

I am bad with bird-identification as well. Rather than mentioning a wrong bird-species name, "an interesting bird" is safer. ;-)

Originally Posted by Desmosedici

...And please dont clean the wheels, looks better this way
...

I anyways don't clean the wheels too often ;-). They are a pain to clean and need a used toothbrush and all that. Once a month is all I manage. So for almost 28 days of a month, the wheels are dirty!

Originally Posted by crackparag

Awesome travelogue with beautiful pictures. Konkan in rains is something else. How is the condition of road from Panvel to Mahad?
...
That's Kashedi ghat.
...
And this is Parshuram ghat
...

Thanks Parag! Realized the mistake. Got it corrected by requesting the mods. Thanks for the correction!

[Fauji]

Isn't it beautiful to drive in Monsoon? There can not be pleasant experience than this. It is so soothing and pleasurable.

Your TL has captured the spirit of driving in rains. thanks for sharing.

[madhav14]

Great Narration and awesome pics man. Your parents place is simply superb. Once in a while, such weekend getaways help us so much in gaining the work-life balance and peace of mind. By the way, seems like your's is the only car in that village?

[SDP]

Rather than coming back by the usual NH17 route and then getting stuck in massive traffic jams which start way before Wadkhal naka, I decided to try a different route suggested by heman_369 on another thread.
Ratnagiri ->Hathkhamba -> Pali -> Sakharpa -> Kokrud -> Karad -> NH4 to Pune -> Expressway to Mumbai.

We were already at Hathkhamba. From there till Karad was a completely new stretch for me. Here are some pics from that journey.


A few new ghat sections.


Twists and turns.




Bright sunny day.




If you miss the turn at night, you can take 'Drive-Thru' darshan.


Black clouds did appear from time to time with occassional light drizzle.




We stopped in the Amba ghat.


That's Sahyadri for you!


The road snaking through the hills in Amba ghat.


Duma... significantly cleaner as compared to the previous day.






My sister amused by seeing 2 baby monkeys playing on the road.

[laluks]

The greens in Maharashtra and Kerala are very different. While Kerala has the thick green shade mostly of a rain forest, Maharashtra has at least three shades of Greens!

Come on pamper us more with the greens

[laluks]

Your log inspired me to take a look at one of my trips to Maharashtra, which I never wrote about. The greens added to my curiosity, and here is a picture from the trip. Hope you don't mind a picture here.


Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not!

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[SDP]

Originally Posted by laluks

Your log inspired me to take a look at one of my trips to Maharashtra, which I never wrote about. The greens added to my curiosity, and here is a picture from the trip. Hope you don't mind a picture here.
Attachment 1120581

As long as the car is red, I don't mind!

Just kidding of course. Lovely picture! Where was this?
Besides other things (like vacation planning), would love to learn post-processing from you. I admire each one of your shots in those innumerable travelogues.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not!

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beautiful quote!

[laluks]

Originally Posted by SDP

As long as the car is red, I don't mind!

Just kidding of course. Lovely picture! Where was this?
Besides other things (like vacation planning), would love to learn post-processing from you. I admire each one of your shots in those innumerable travelogues.

Beautiful quote!

Thanks SDP.
Thank God it was not my Civvy in the picture
The picture was shot from Pali Tataegaon road near to Tapola.

That quote means a lot to me.

[SDP]

The route indeed turned out to be interesting. Yes, it was broken in patches and there were potholes which slowed down the vehicle at many places, but the overall landscape was more than worth it. Here are some glimpses:




Golfing greens!


































Clouds!

[SDP]

Around 4:30pm we joined the NH4 at Karad. From there on all the way to Mumbai thru the Expressway seemed dull as compared to the greenary we had seen on the state-highways. So I am not going to bore you with pics from that stretch. Just sharing some selected glimpses from the final leg of the journey.








Love that stretch immediately after the Khambatki tunnel.










<End of part 1>

[SDP]

A quick dash to Ratnagiri over a weekend (22-23 June 2013)

Route details:
Mumbai -> NH17-> Hathkhamba -> State highway to Ratnagiri.
While coming back took a different route: Ratnagiri ->Hathkhamba -> Pali -> Sakharpa -> Kokrud -> Karad -> NH4 to Pune -> Expressway to Mumbai.

~900kms round trip.

The map: