[pravarag]

In my last visit to South goa during our 4 day stay in-and-around Gokarna (A drive to remember: Scenic Gokarna and South Goa), I had this bug installed in my brain somehow that I'll return very much shortly to explore more of this place. Though that was my first visit to Goa, my brain was never going to accept it to be the last as well. As the seeds were sown already, we planned to commence a trip somewhere on or before my 29th birthday in March 2021.

Leaves were applied, preparations were made and we fixated on travelling around 17th - 21st of March 2021. This time since the covid-19 wasn't growing that much like last year(the worst we didn't know was yet to come), I decided to carry not too much of Snacks but, below was my checklist this time:

• General car check-up though everything was alright as I had done few short trips in and around Bangalore since last 2-3 months.
• Comfort clothing as we were travelling during summer at it's onset in both Goa and areas in-between. Included more of shorts, quick-dry tshirts etc. Plus the resort we booked has a very nice swimming-pool with sea-view on it's deck. So I wanted to swim badly this time
• Car tyre inflator/deflator, puncture-repair kit, LED torch, Extra coolant, engine-oil
• Recharge Fastag as this has become a must-to have while doing long distances and trust me this reduces un-necessary contact on toll-gates too.

Now it was time to finalise the route which we were about to take. My sister and her family also travelled to Goa few months back and they took Hubli route. And I've heard horror stories about this route, how bad the road was. So we fixated on the below route,
Bangalore -> Devanagere -> Yeallapur via Bankapur, Mundgod -> Karwar ->Panaji (Dona Paula)

So the plan was to drive till our resort in Dona Paula on Day 1. On the above route, I had heard the road from Bankapur via Mundgod to Yellapur wasn't that much good and quite narrow but it was still better than any other route. Thanks to bhpians @paragsachania, @m8002? for their latest updates on route queries, the decision turned out to be good one.

And just like always, our travelling partner was ready to roll for this awesome road trip,



Day 1 :
So we started around 2:50 from our place in Kammanahalli (Bangalore) and just like always I couldn't sleep properly that night though I've munched some sleep in the afternoon which I felt would be enough to get me going. We were about to travel around 652 Kms on our first day, the longest I've ever driven in my life on a single day breaking my own record when we did Gandikota from Bangalore last year on the same day . The weather was clear plus we didn't find much traffic as it was late night on a weekday. But, driving at night comes at it's own perks right? On our way to Tumkuru, while we were crossing one overbridge I misjudged a big stone lying on the middle of the road for a piece of paper. And when my car was just about to go over it from it's left front tyre, I somehow managed to move my steering to a little right but still my car almost jumped on that stone. I knew it this was the end and thought the stone would have pierced right through the tyre. I immediately pulled over to the service road on to the left and got out. Did a little bit of inspection from the torch I had carried and with God's grace, everything was alright. Somehow we escaped and I was feeling guilty for not able to judge the stone/paper correctly. Either way I should have maintained my distance I guess. Well we continued to move further and it was a smooth ride all along.
Few pics from our night travel,



Encountered fog on NH75


We reached Davanagere around 7AM so far on schedule and we encountered some fog right before we were to enter in the city. It was quite surprising to see and I think it was mainly due to the open wet-fields outside the city. We stopped for breakfast at a small hotel and the owner had just opened it for the day. So we were lucky to be his first customer plus the food was served hot and fresh. One other thing which I noticed was the style of Dosa, Sambhar and coconut chutney being served. This was way different than what we have in Bangalore or areas around. But overall experience was very nice. We then crossed the Mundgod toll plaza and took a left turn towards the SH-6 which goes till Yellapur. The road wasn't great I would say but not that bad either. It was a narrow road but the good part is you travel through the forest area for most part of this journey. You'll have to be careful while over-taking a bigger vehicle or even another car plus if you come across those drivers who aren't willing to bend then it's you who'll have to go a little off the road to give them a pass. Once we reached Yellapur it was, I could start sense the breeze coming from the ocean. Though we were yet to cover quite a bit of Ghats, ( I forgot the name of ghats we covered on this route but it was not Sirsi Ghat) I was eager to see the coastline as soon as possible. By 11 we reached Karwar and earlier we had a plan to visit Karwar beach but it was already quite sunny by then plus we thought it'd be better if we can reach Panaji as early as possible. But we did pass by these,

Enroute Yellapur, very beautiful road:



Karwar:


And we entered Goa



And touchdown at DonaPaula around 3:30. Few clicks from our stay,







Our stay was really very good and I'd highly recommend if someone travelling in this area, a must to stay O Pescador Resort. They are connected to this almost private-ish public beach(Dona Paula beach) with an amazing sea-view. We took some rest and decided to enjoy the sunset over some good tea and snacks. But this time, I couldn't believe myself that I just drove the longest in my life ever in a day (though it's nothing after reading what some great bhpians have achieved ). I was happy, a little tired but the fact that we were in Goa already, I wanted to have more of it as much as I can. Once we finished evening tea, the big question - Dinner? what to have? where to have? I started looking on Zomato for recommendations and almost forgot that Goa is almost like a second home to my wife. By the time I realised this, I was already started getting looks from my wife sitting across and she said - we are going to have "Cheese garlic Naan at Gene's". I was like okay, how would I know about that place, Zomato is an obvious place to look right? So immediately we started and as we were passing by DonaPaula area towards more of Old Panajim , we saw those floating casinos. I was like awe-struck for a moment and before would have asked my wife, she mentioned "yeah those are the casinos". It was a nice view as it was twilight almost plus those casino cruises were glittering like diamonds. We passed by a narrow riverside road and a great view of "Mandovi" river and when we reached our destination, I realised why she has brought me here. And the reason was this old building,



An old guy and his grandkid were trying to catch some crabs here but the crab didn't want to leave the boy's slippers ,



The restaurant had just opened up and we ordered some very good Cheese Garlic Naan, Butter Chicken etc. The meal was good, a little more spicy then what I'm used to. But all those spices opened up my senses as I lost the touch of tiredness I was feeling. It was already 9 and we decided to head back to our hotel. When we reached before hitting the bed, we ordered some good cashew fenny with Limca(that's what the person serving suggested). Ended our long day with a good comfortable sleep in our room. Next morning we had planned to visit some famous sites in and around Panjim city, Harvalem waterfall and few beaches. Exciting day was waiting for us and Shadowfax to gallop around.

[pravarag]

Day 2:

The place where we stayed was an old Portugese heritage which was later turned into a hotel and opened for public. Apart from a stunning beach view, it houses a beautiful pool. And, since last 1 year due to pandemic I'd been away from a good swim for obvious reasons. So early morning, I went to the beach, walked onto the sand barefoot and then enjoyed a good refreshing swim. Good start to the day, eh! So, plan for the day was to head out to see the beautiful churches of Panjim city first and then head out towards Harvelam waterfalls. The reason my wife wanted to take me to Harvelam, as it was near to her alma mater "Goa Institute of Management". After a wonderful and scrumptious breakfast at our stay, we started towards old Panjim city and first stop was "Old Goa church". One of the most iconic and oldest of churches in Goa, what a sight to visit of-course. Though the entries were restricted due to some important personnel's visit, but we were lucky enough to enter just-in-time. I couldn't click much pics inside of the church as we weren't allowed to do so, but have just one



Next we moved to a museum which was right in front of the church. This museum was very big and as I guessed could've been a palace earlier and was later opened for public as a museum. Few clicks from it,



Next my wife (who was playing a role of my in-city tour guide) took me to this amazing site of a church which is now left in it's ruins only. I just couldn't escape the thought of how spectacular it must have been in it's glorious days. There was a lot of history attached to it,





We then visited a famous church which was full of horror stories and also you must have seen this in many movies or Tv shows. It's a bit on the height and the best part there was no crowd at all, only 1 or 2 couples apart from us. The view from top was beautiful as you can glance over the river Mandovi streaming through Panjim. We clicked few pictures, stayed there for some time and decided to scoot towards Harvalem falls.





By this time, I've already felt in love with driving in Goa and I was feeling lucky to be there for the first time (technically second but first time in Panjim) and that too in my own car how good is that. So as per plan, we first went to see my wife's college GIM. It's situated on a significant height and you can get that idea when you come across a very steep slope on it's way. I will not explain much about college building and it's location, which is anyway very much available on Public internet . We didn't stop near GIM as the entry was closed due to Pandemic and decided to stop now at Harvalem falls only. I had very high hopes by listening to the word waterfall and the way my wife had described it to me earlier. But, the waterfalls looked in pretty bad shape to me due to two reasons: First one is obvious, the water was very less as the summers have begun and that was normal I guess during that time. Second one, I was most disappointed about. The amount of garbage in the water enclosure and in the surrounding areas of falls. Not sure what could have gone wrong from what my wife described a couple of years ago's scenary to this, but it was very sad to see.

Beautiful streets of Goa



Caught the whole family taking a quick cat nap





Next, we decided to head for a place where we can enjoy a nice lunch while lurking at sea Before coming to Goa I've listed out few beaches which I really wanted to visit (except the more commercialized ones like Baga or Calangute) and Ashwem beach was the one on our list. I've read and seen on many YouTube videos how perfect this beach is for a workation or a stay-cation(all these recent fancy terms you know. So we reached Ashwem beach around 2 in the afternoon. Though it was sunny but I was glad to see an almost empty beach and a decent crowd enjoying a lovely afternoon. Few clicks from Ashwem beach,




We went inside this lovely restaurant which is also a beach-front hotel, had a yummy lunch over there with beautiful sea-view. So, my wife had earlier suggested that by the sunset we must be at Purple Martini overlooking a beautiful bay at Anjuna beach. I think this is one of the places in our sub-continent where you can enjoy a beautiful sunset everyday. And we decided to roll again, so that we can reach over there on-time. I would like to mention one thing here, since at this point of time we were in Northern part of Goa, the scenary was a little different. Less crowded, a more of foreigner crowd plus more clean beaches. And I was glad the I've been able to touch few of these corners of Goa in my Shadowfax happily.

Anahata Retreat at Ashwem beach,



Enjoyed this nice and freshly prepared Squids,



While going to Vagator beach, I managed to stop by this beautiful place where seashore was right next to the road. Shadowfax basking in the sunset,



Glimpse of sunset from Vagator beach top view,



Just about time, we reached Anjuna beach and at Purple Martini to be specific. A little detour all thanks to Google Maps did cost us a few extra Kms but still we were able to make in time. But when we reached Purple Martini, the place was jam packed, there was loud music, people shaking their heads for nothing, drinks clinking everywhere - oh wait, that was all for enjoying the beautiful sunset. Also, there was a huge waiting list but by paying few extra bucks, the manager told us, he'll be able to give us a back seat . And I was like, no way I'm waisting my precious evening like that and my money too. I was more happy to sit at a nearby tapri and enjoy the sunset in peace. We immediately moved out and went into the restaurant just next to Purple Martini, ordered few juices and fries and gazed over this view,





So we were there for the next one hour, purchased some memorables from the nearby shops and decided to head towards our stay in Dona-Paula where my wife had planned a pre-birthday surprise for me. Driving in Goa has been to a next level zen so far. The small roads, up and down the hills, vegetation on both the sides, I was loving it all.
We reached our stay around 9:00 PM, took a nice shower to get freshen up as a very delicious dinner was waiting for us by the sea. And we ended one more of our travel days by cutting my cake at midnight. I've never had such a wonderful birthday ever in my life so far, all thanks to my wife for organising it.



Next day a new adventure awaited for us

[pravarag]

Day 3:

Next day started with a refreshing swim in the blue waters, walk on the beach and a scrumptious breakfast at our stay. We checked-out from our stay at Dona Paula as today we had our stay in Benaulim.





Before we leave commercialised Panjim city, I wanted to see the area around main market, pick some memorables from here. And we started towards Panjim city market area as first thing in the morning. The streets were clean, with some traffic though but we were able to find a safe spot for car parking. We found one shop to purchase some fridge magnets which had paintings from Goa and few other things.

Cool street art we came across,



Benaulim was still about 50 odd kilometers from and we decided to see Aguada fort before we leave the city area. We reached the fort about 12 PM, busy day as it was a little crowded. The Aguada fort has a history of it's own, an interesting and beautiful structure. It's built very near to the sea and you can have a direct view of it from there,





Next stop had to be our stay in Benaulim and as you drive down south, the scenery changes beautifully. I mean, from beautiful it gets more beautiful. The streets of south-goa, it was love at first sight for me . I remember, when I wen to Thailand (Krabi islands) last year, just before the pandemic took over our sweet little world, the whole year dreaming about me driving on the streets of Thailand were my happy moments. And this year, driving down the beautiful narrow roads of South Goa took over it. And I'm so happy to be alive today while I'm onto finishing this travelogue almost 5 months after I last visited over there.

So, we finally reached our stay in Benaulim, which was at La Grace Resort. The property was good, not beachfront but the area where it's located has it's own charm. I bet, if you are around that area and if you've seen the bollywood movie called "Finding Fanny", you'll find many similarities. The mornings will be beautiful, evenings will be beautiful and so is the rest of your day over there. We quickly checked-into our room, which was again very good, quite spacious with a balcony. It was almost lunch time and my wife had already planned to visit Fisherman's cove for lunch as it was my birthday as well, if you've forgotten by this time already. We started for the restaurant and reached within 30 mins. But we had to wait for about 15 mins to get a table by the deck, which is it's main attraction. The food was okay, I think the one in Panajim has better food but the view here was amazing. You sit on a deck, right next to this very wide river-like water body. Lovely afternoon, I must say.



Next stop was Cola beach, of-course. Been to the hype by all those instagram stories of billions and trillions of influencers in past one year, this beach was a must visit. Cola beach was quite far from where we were staying in Benaulim as it took us almost over an hour to reach over there. Plus, we had to park our car way before then the actual beach area, as the path forward was mostly went for 4x4s. Plus, we also see few cars getting stuck on their way up, so we better decided to share a ride in a mahindra pick-up, with other visitors. The pick-up driver was very nice and was looking to for every reason to help people getting stuck on their way back, especially girls. So we reached Cola beach after a bumpy and shaky ride and trust me, all that hype is worth it. I must say, do visit this beach in your next trip before it gets fully commercialised and the eco-system is destroyed. The main attraction is this lagoon right next to the beach area,







It was getting dark and after clicking couple of pictures, we decided to head back. Long day, we were already tired and luckily we found the same Mahindra pick-up guy who dropped us back to where we parked our car.

We ended the day with a nice and light dinner at our hotel and what a birthday it was to me. I think this was the first time in my life, I have had so much fun, so much of driving, eating delicious food. I was really feeling lucky to be alive as I could spend so much valuable moments that day. A true pleasure.

Next day was going to be a little relaxed as we had planned to stroll around Benaulim area, enjoy the greenery and drive down the beautiful narrow roads of South Goa.

[pravarag]

Day 4

Next morning, we woke up to a different type of calmness, without the sound of sea. I wanted to swim as they had mentioned about the pool last night but somehow dropped that plan. I prepared one of those readymade coffee from Nescafe as for the morning booster while reflecting on the last 3 days spent here. As today was the last day before this amazing trip was about to end, we had planned for visiting Agonda beach, cabo-de-rama fort (as I missed going inside last time) and sometime in evening, Benaulim beach. Dinner we had planned with my wife's friends who were staying near Candolim.

We started for Agonda beach and had planned to do the breakfast over there itself. We reached over there in about an hour and went inside this place called "Simrose Resort". We enquired about it before coming to Goa as we were looking for some places to stay in Agonda as well. We visited it's restaurant area and had some good breakfast with a very nice sea-view from there, followed by a walk on the beach but by that time it was very sunny and we couldn't stand over there for long





The beach was beautiful, neat and clean and there was one more major attraction near to it known as "Butterfly beach". There were few folks asking us if we want to enjoy a boat ride to the Butterfly beach but I gently declined stating will visit next time for sure.

Next up was Cabo-de-Rama fort and I was familiar with this route, memories from last year keep flashing in front of my eyes like the scenes from Karz movie (Rishi Kapoor's not Himesh Reshamiya's ). There were very few tourists at the fort, we quickly browsed through it and clicked some photos enjoying the view from top,



It was already afternoon, though we were full from the heavy breakfast and didn't have much to do after that. So, we decided to head back to the resort, take some few hours sleep and visit the Benaulim beach later in the evening.

In the evening, we reached Benaulim beach and to my surprise it was a little crowded. There were mostly locals and very few tourists though and one more amazing thing I got to know that most of the signboards were written in Russian language. I learned from the cafe owner where we had tea, that this area is mostly visited by Russians and other folks from that region that's why they speak a little to fluent Russian as well. We enjoyed a lovely sunset over there, gazing at people doing parasailing(not sure if that's the correct word),





We had earlier planned to have our dinner at any of the restaurants on the Benaulim beach itself but later our friends suggested us to try this new place in the area called Leda Balcao . And trust me, visiting this restaurant on a very fine Saturday evening with a slight drizzle in the air, there wouldn't have been such satisfying end to an amazing trip of my lifetime. The restaurant was very nice, a unique set-up, good food, some really good live music. In short, we enjoyed a lot having a good dinner, talking to our friends





We were there for about 2 hours, bid goodbye to our friends and headed back to our hotel as tomorrow a long drive back home awaited us.

We had some good sleep that night, woke up around 5 in the morning as we had planned to leave by 6:30 and we managed to leave the place by 6:15. Goodbyes are very hard for me, ever since I was a kid and while driving through those beautiful streets I was like, bye bye trees, bye bye cow, bye bye narrow roads, bye bye beautiful church, goodbye until we meet again next time. Hopefully pretty soon. We travelled back through the same route as it was little familiar to me now and the roads were quite good. And we reached our home in Bangalore by 6 PM thus ending an awesome trip.

Just few more lines before I close this travelogue. A month after we finished this trip, our world was turned upside down as my family fell victim to the outrageous second wave of covid-19. First it was my mother in my hometown who got infected and later as we went over there to take care of her, me and my wife also got infected. I was quite roughed-up by Covid-19 as I was on steroids for few weeks but in home isolation with over 101 fever for almost two weeks. And all this time, the moments spent in Goa with my wife and me driving down my Shadowfax a month back kept my spirits high. Though it was really unfortunate and Covid-19's delta version has installed fear into me, I'm still hopeful that things will be better soon and we will be able to drive our way back to glory. As I await to pen down my next adventure, Ciao!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[katsumoto]

Nice log. Last December too we were in Goa. Brings back the same memories. Actually we are waiting for our vaccine second dose to complete so that we can do a relaxed Goa trip.

Between, In our last visit, I got stung by a Jelly fish in Harmal beach (Near Arambol beach).

Originally Posted by pravarag

One other thing which I noticed was the style of Dosa, Sambhar and coconut chutney being served. This was way different than what we have in Bangalore or areas around.

Devanagare Benna Dosa is something I wanted to try in Devanagare itself, I will make it next time.

Here in BLR, you can get it in Malleshwaram (Dosa Camp near 14/15th cross) (Mostly in other places too) The chutney is coconut + ground nut with lots of spice. But yeah that is very different.

[Maverick5490]

Lovely travelogue there Pravarag!

Goa is always special, we also did a Mumbai - Gokarna - South Goa - Mumbai trip in January this year and are completely in love with the Peace, quiet and pristine beaches there.

We also did a boat ride for the buttery fly beach and other beaches, but it was not worth it and we never got down at the beach. Did some Dolphin sighting which was kind of different and some back water river cruise at Agonda. Our stay at Agonda was in a cottage right on the beach, plus with a good restaurant we never went anywhere else! A few pics from our trip and now itching to go there again soon!

Gokarna Homestay - Vedic Village: Highly recommended for the service and food (Vegetarian)

Cabo Serai - Cabo De Rama: Expensive and One time visit

The Bay Agonda Cottages: Highly recommended, especially the beach cottages + Service and food.

[pravarag]

Originally Posted by Maverick5490

Lovely travelogue there Pravarag!

Goa is always special, we also did a Mumbai - Gokarna - South Goa - Mumbai trip in January this year and are completely in love with the Peace, quiet and pristine beaches there.

We also did a boat ride for the buttery fly beach and other beaches, but it was not worth it and we never got down at the beach. Did some Dolphin sighting which was kind of different and some back water river cruise at Agonda. Our stay at Agonda was in a cottage right on the beach, plus with a good restaurant we never went anywhere else! A few pics from our trip and now itching to go there again soon!

Wow, looks like you had utmost fun. I think that's definitely the effect of the air around Goa and adjacent areas. You just fell in love at first sight with anything known or unknown is encountered

[TurboGuy]

Originally Posted by pravarag

Bangalore -> Devanagere -> Yeallapur via Bankapur, Mundgod -> Karwar ->Panaji (Dona Paula)

Fantastic trip report and thanks for sharing the route. Btw, did the border crossing demand any RT-PCR test reports? Or is it business as usual in Goa and what about re-entering KA?

[pravarag]

Originally Posted by TurboGuy

Fantastic trip report and thanks for sharing the route. Btw, did the border crossing demand any RT-PCR test reports? Or is it business as usual in Goa and what about re-entering KA?

So we did this trip in mid-March earlier this year and at that time there were no RTPCR test reports or vaccine certificate required while entering into Goa or Karnataka. The only thing they checked was whether we are carrying any liquor bottles or not while returning.