St. Augustine tower
We walked back to the car and I was again looking at the printout and trying to recall the 2 must-see places away from the structures that we'd just visited (that my colleague had mentioned). We exited the parking lot and headed to the ruins of St. Augustine tower.
About the ruins of the Church of St.Augustine Sketch on the glass when viewed with the single ruined tower in the background gives a virtual view of the front facade of this structure in it’s entirety This ruined tower on one side of the church stands tall Closer look at the ruined tower Inside the church (ruins) Another view of the ruined tower Augustinian Convent next door to the ruins The Main Altar. This church also had smaller rooms/chapels on the sides Parting shot - The Towering Shadow of DM at the ruins!
We quickly drove around the ruins on a nice, quiet road that was an upmarket residential area with large bungalows.
Church Of Our Lady of the Mount
It was close to 3:30pm now and MW said we can have lunch en route, but I was not yet ready to start from Goa, because I had one last place to visit which was again suggested by my colleague - the Church Of Our Lady of the Mount. He had mentioned that this place hardly gets any visitors and the church is rarely open and many movies have been shot here.
The look on MW and DM’s faces told me that this must absolutely be the last place to visit today, else these guys will kick me!
We set off driving towards the church. Again, turned out to be a lovely place, we could not go inside as it was closed but surprise - there were a lot of people on the campus! Obviously this place has gotten more popular now. There were large signs put up by local police saying anti-social activities are not allowed, but there were some characters who looked shady. I don’t know why they simply did not install cameras there to ward off such elements.
The place has great views of the other structures and should not be missed.
First view of the Church of Our Lady of the Mount - from the road/parking lot. Seems to have been repainted recently
From the garden, the entire valley below is visible and one can see the Churches, the Mandovi River and even the Konkan Rail bridge on the other side!
View of the Church complex in the valley below (Se Cathedral and St.Francis of Assisi churches) Closer view of the front facade of the church View of the church from the garden - tower with a Cross facing the church Another view from an interesting angle below the Arch type opening Parting shot of the church from the parking lot
When we returned to the car, it was exactly 4pm and we all knew that our journey back to Bangalore cannot be delayed anymore. MW had been driving right from Day 2 of the trip and I had been doing the navigation duty. He suddenly sprang a surprise and handed over the keys to me. I took the wheel and we headed back towards Gandhi circle and then hit the NH 748 towards Ponda. MW explained the reason for asking me to drive - since we were starting at 4pm, definitely we would be driving through the night to reach Bangalore, so he wanted to get some rest and sleep and then take over driving duties from Hubli. We were not too hungry so just had some snacks that we were carrying. Traffic was quite heavy till Ponda and overtaking was difficult in some sections. Once we crossed Ponda and reached Mollem, it was a green forest section with superb roads, but it also started raining. The rain got heavier, so speeds came down.
This was a turning out to be a not so easy drive. We finally reached the Hubli-Dharwad bypass around 8:15pm and then stopped for a dinner break at Kamat, Varur on the outskirts of Hubli. Also tanked up Dizzy at the Reliance petrol pump in the same campus and by 10:15pm we started our journey towards Bangalore. MW was fresh as ever and took over driving duties. I was tired but not sleepy so preferred to take the front seat while DM took a nap on the rear bench.
MW being a regular on the Mumbai-Bangalore route, found it to be an easy drive. Around 1:15am we took a break at a roadside tea stall and reached DM’s home by 2:45am. I then dropped off MW at his home nearby and reached my home at 3:15am, exactly the same time I’d stared the journey 5 days ago!
Day 4 Route Map -
Link
*Map Source:Google maps maps.google.co.in