[Dr.AD]

Solo Weekend in Hot & Humid Karwar

It was blazing hot, humid, deserted, and beautiful!

After three back-to-back hectic weekends when the work spilled over into weekends, I finally got a free weekend and decided to do what I love the most - a long drive! My wife had to go on a business travel that weekend (yes, business travel on the weekends; a part of her professional role requires her to attend some national committee meetings which happen on the weekends), and thus, my weekend drive became a solo drive. She had to catch a Saturday morning flight for her work trip, and returned to Bangalore by a Sunday evening flight. I like this flight time pattern of hers because this matches quite nicely with my driving pattern of Saturday morning to Sunday evening drives! Thus, looked like after a series of hectic weekends, I had my peaceful solo drive plan all set for this weekend.

To make sure I go guilt-free on a solo drive while my wife was busy working (and possibly earn some brownie points too in the process ), I decided to drop her at the airport on Saturday morning, go for my weekend drive directly from there, return to Bangalore on Sunday night, and directly go to the airport to pick her up on her return on Sunday night. Thus, my weekend drive became airport-to-airport weekend drive.

This time, my destination for this drive was Karwar, the lovely coastal city close to the the border of Karnataka and Goa. While exploring Google Maps of that region, I noticed a relatively unknown (to me, that is), resort by Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR), called Sadashivgad Sea View Resort. Upon further reading, I realized that an ancient fort named Sadashivgad has been converted into a Jungle Lodges Resort by JLR. Having experienced JLR properties at many other places, and knowing that every JLR property usually offers a unique and unforgettable experience, I decided to try out this relatively lesser known JLR property. As it turned out, my guess would be right. This JLR Sadashivgad Sea View Resort offered an incredible experience that would be truly memorable, and as good as any other JLR experiences I had in the past.

This fort is located right next to Karwar, just across Kali river, and oversees the beautiful vistas of Kali river meeting the Arabian Sea. The fort, with three side views of lovely water bodies (river and the sea), was once known as "Pani Killa" (Water Fort) which was quite an apt name!

Given the time of the year, and given that this drive was to a coastal area, it was a blazing hot (and equally humid) drive. It was so humid that I was dripping with sweat most of the times I was there.

My Route Map with about 570km of driving distance each way from the airport:


The drive from Bangalore (from Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore, to be more precise) to Karwar was fast and smooth. Most of the initial section was on Bangalore - Hubli six-lane highway (which is a joy to drive on now that the six-laning is almost complete), and then the later section was on the scenic and charming Hubli - Ankola road. (Note: I did not drive all the way to Hubli. I took a short-cut via Tadas and joined Hulbi - Ankola highway at Kalaghatagi, as seen from the route map above). This Hubli - Ankola road is one of my favorite roads to drive on. It is a hilly road and there are some ghats to cross, but it is wide (well marked two-lanes), smooth, and the corners are wide enough that you can take those at quite good speed. In short, this is a twisty yet fast road that every true blue sedan owner dreams of. My companion for this drive, my red BMW 320d would be the right vehicle to drive on this road.

At one of the enjoyable corners on Hubli-Ankola road:


I thoroughly enjoyed this drive! And made it in good times too. It took me just over 7 hours of driving time to cover the distance of about 570km from Bangalore Airport and arrive in Karwar.

The first view of the sea as soon as one drives into Karwar on NH66:



A hot afternoon shot while exploring nearby beaches even before I checked into the JLR resort:


The rest of the travelogue is divided into two parts covered in the next two posts. The first part is about staying on the fort and exploring the fort, and the second part is about exploring the beaches near Karwar (including a visit to Devbagh Beach Resort).

[Dr.AD]

Stay on Sadashivgad Fort

By the time I reached (or tried to reach) the Fort, I realized that it was a new place not just to me, but also to Google Maps. It kept on giving laughably wrong location. The fort is located on a hilltop, on the edge of a big cliff, right next to National Highway (NH66). Funnily, Google Maps kept on navigating me to this location next to the highway (see the map below), and repeatedly told me "Your Destination is on the Left". But the destination on the left is on a hill. What is the point of stopping on the highway right below the hill? Google Maps sure has a weird sense of humor sometimes.

Google Maps' sense of humor when it navigated me to a location on NH66 and expected me to climb the cliff to reach my destination:


Funnily, even if you stop there and zoom on the map, you will see absolutely no other road. Google Maps database just does not have any driveable road going up to the fort (although the actual location of the fort is quite accurate). In reality, there is proper driveable road from the other side of the hill, which is completely missing from the maps database.

Luckily for me, while taking a U-turn a bit ahead on NH66 to arrive at this Google Maps wrong destination in the first place, I had noticed a big board by JLR showing some directions. Therefore, once I realized the Google Maps mistake, I laughed at the maps and drove back to that JLR signboard, and in an old fashioned way, just followed the trail of JLR signboards (thanks to JLR for putting these big signboards at the appropriate places). And after following a roundabout road, but a nice small road on that hill, I arrived here, at the entrance of that 17th Century Fort.

Entering the 17th Century:


Here was another interesting fact that I learned upon my arrival there: I was the only guest there in that entire property that night. This JLR property has 12 rooms, but somehow, that weekend, I was the only person who had a booking there. This meant I was going to stay all alone in that ancient fort converted into a JLR property now. This was surely going to be an interesting experience. Of course, the property manager (and his family) and a few members of staff were there too. But they stay at a house near the entrance. The guest rooms are in a separate building about 200m away, across a small hill that one has to climb and descend again to reach the rooms.

All I can say now is that it was a surreal experience. Spending the evening there standing at those view points, all alone, on that 17th century fort, watching the river and the sea, and the sunset in the sea, and then walking around in that ancient place, and spending the night there in total silence, thinking about the history of the place and overlooking the lights of the Karwar city below from my window, it was all a magical experience!

My car parked there, all alone, with the entire fort to myself that weekend:



With only an ancient wall for company:



This board gave a short summary of the long history of the fort; this fort existed in some form since as long as 1510 AD:



These are the steps one has to take (there are a few up and down steps) to climb across a small hill to reach the view points, and then the rooms at the end of the hill:



And then at the end of that hill, right on the edge of a cliff, this is the building that houses 12 rooms, all overlooking the river and the sea:



This was my room. Typical JLR style basic room, but clean and comfortable (no luxuries though; JLR rooms are always basic):



View from my room (bridge over Kali river); I also had a nice balcony with even better views:



Right outside my room, was this lovely campfire area overlooking the bridge and the river (even though I was the lone guest there, the JLR staff were nice enough to offer me to have a full campfire experience there, but I refused because it was too hot for a campfire that night):



Walking further down to the campfire area, I got a nice close views of the iconic bridge over Kali river:



Such river views all around from the campfire area:



Walking back up on the fort, some lovely views from around the fort walls:



A cannon in one corner of the fort, aimed at the open sea below:



Another view of the wall around the fort:



A very interesting statue stands prominently there on the top of the fort:



The main highlight of that evening at that view point - a gorgeous sunset into the sea:



A view of Kali river meeting the Arabian Sea, with the sun setting in the background:



A closer look at some of the beaches on the coastline there, bathing under the evening sunlight:



While I was standing there, watching the views and mesmerized by the beauty of the landscape in front of me, there were literally hundreds of kites flying all around. It was an interesting experience to watch them from where I stood, at a already high vantage point. Thus, some kites were flying below me, and some were flying from above me. It was nice to watch them fly from below to up, and take circular paths. I spent some time just quietly watching the birds fly around. And even managed to click a couple of pictures:




After spending a good amount of time watching the sunset, the views and the birds flying around, I returned to my room. Now, with nothing else to do there while I sat in my room enjoying the solitude and the peace, I decided to try some long exposure photography from my balcony.

A long exposure view of the bridge in the night, from my balcony:


I sat there in my balcony enjoying the views and the solitude. It was a surreal experience to be there all alone in the night, in the ancient fort, staring at the darkness around and then looking down at these lights on the highway and the city around. It was a great experience!

Net morning, I saw such views of the rising sun from the other side of the fort:



As I spent the morning hour walking around the fort again, I enjoyed such nice views:



The same coastline and the beaches, now seen in the morning light:



While I was spending the night alone there, my friends (on WhatsApp) were jokingly teasing me about ghosts and supernatural things on the ancient fort that I might encounter in the night. While none of that happened in the night (in fact I had a great sleep), the next morning, there was a different and unexpected scary experience.

While I was taking a stroll on the fort, a pack of stray dogs unexpectedly jumped in from somewhere and charged at me, scaring the hell out of me. I somehow managed to run to the safety of my room. And then while I was back in my room, these dogs were all around my balcony area.

The pack of stray dogs that unexpectedly jumped in and scared me:



While I was enjoying my experiences on the fort, my car standing still there, soaking in the historic ambiance and the solitude:



And finally, as I drove out of that lovely fort the next morning, a parting shot of that entrance arch which stood etched in my mind:



I must mention the hospitality and the amazing levels of service offered by the JLR staff there. Although I was the only guest, they did not cut any corners. They offered me the full services, including campfire, evening snacks, and full dinner buffet. It was I who told them not to worry about full dinner buffet, but instead asked for just a couple of items for dinner. One of the staff members even showed me around and walked with me to all corners of the fort before leaving me alone to enjoy the experience. They cooked excellent food, they were polite, friendly, and always available whenever I called them. Overall, a lovely service experience from JLR staff at this lovely little lodge tucked away in an ancient fort.

[Dr.AD]

Exploring Nearby Beaches and Devbagh Beach Resort

The JLR package for Sadashivgad includes a boat ride to nearby Devbagh Beach (where there is another JLR - the famous one - JLR Devbagh Beach Resort). The package even includes a lunch at the fabulous "Golghar" at Devbagh Beach Resort. Even though I was a lone customer at Sadashivgad, JLR offered me this full package and even offered a full boat to ferry around just the lone me. I accepted the boat ride offer but refused the lunch since the lunch timings on either days did not fit in my driving schedules. But it was quite nice of them to make sure I get the full package. They could have easily refused some services quoting lack of minimum passengers or something like that, but they did not. They never offered any excuse. In fact, the JLR staff was feeling bad that I did not have time for lunch, and I thanked them for their hospitality but politely refused lunch.

For catching the boat ride to Devbagh, one has to park the car at the JLR office near Karwar Jetty. This is the main parking lot and entrance point for Devbagh Beach Resort.

My car parked at the JLR office which also has a jetty right next to it:



My boat ride to Devbagh. Notice the empty boat:



A close view of the bridge while passing under it:



The boat speeding away from Kali river bridge and toward Devbagh:



Devbagh island as seen from the boat just before arriving there:



Arrived at Devbagh Beach Resort, where I spent some time walking around and exploring the island on foot:



Some random shots while walking around that lovely island:


While I was walking around there aimlessly, enjoying the views and the breeze, one gentleman from JLR staff walked to me and said that he has received a radio message from Sadashivgad about the a guest of theirs being on this island, and that I was offered a dolphin watching boat ride if I was interested. I was blown away by this hospitality of JLR staff. I took the offer of the dolphin watching ride, and soon I was in another boat out in the open sea, looking for dolphins. And finally, no, I was not alone in this dolphin watching boat ride. There were a couple of other families staying at Devbagh Beach Resort, and those families were also on this boat. It was a large boat, and even with those couple of families and I, there was a lot of empty space on the boat and it never felt crowded at all.

While out on another boat ride, got a good view of Devbagh Beach and a few cottages on the beach:



Heading into the open sea:



Although we saw glimpses of many dolphins, it was just that - glimpses. Unfortunately, we did not get a proper sighting of the jumping dolphins. All we saw were glimpses like this:


Regardless of dolphin sightings or not, the boat ride was an amazing fun, and we saw several interesting islands while passing through those waters. The boat also had a guide, and the guide told us interesting stories about each island.

For example, he mentioned that this island is known for its shape, which looks like an elephant sitting in the water:



After the dolphin watching ride was over, I was back on my way to Sadashivgad, which was again a solo ride in this large boat:



The boat that ferried me around, all for myself:


And while all this action going on, whenever I got some time, I managed to explore a few local beaches for my customary car photoshoot.

It was hot there on the beaches - blazing hot. It was sunny. It was humid. I was dripping with sweat. But the sea still looked beautiful, and those locations had a serene quality that I enjoyed. By driving around on the small local roads running parallel to the sea, I managed to find a couple of good locations for the car photoshoot, and while dripping with sweat, I still managed to get a couple of photos that I liked.

The previous evening, I had found this spot with many boats parked, and liked this spot:



So I returned there next morning, and let my car pose next to those lovely boats again:



With one of those little islands in the backdrop:



And finally, a parting shot at one of the locations from this memorable weekend drive:



And after that hot and humid photoshoot, sun blazing over the head, with me totally wet in sweat by now, I jumped back into my car, pushed the "Max AC" button to turn on the full blast of cold air, and started my drive back to Bangalore. I had to reach Bangalore airport that night to pick up my wife, and could not afford to be late. Thankfully, after another quick and uneventful drive covering about 570km again, I reached Bangalore airport in time to receive my wife.

Overall it was a fun solo drive, with many more unforgettable experiences than what I hoped for when I started the drive.

And that brings us to the end of this travelogue. Thank you very much for reading!

[Aditya]

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

[androdev]

@Dr.AD, soon it will be hard to find a place in South India that has not "been there, done that" by you :-)

Jokes apart that Fort place looks awesome! The only problem is that I never found JLR to be a good place for laid back family vacation. Somehow they give me youth camp vibe where you are expected to participate in "activities" instead of chilling out.

[vinya_jag]

Thanks for sharing. 1510 to now, what a change of scenery. Possibly a buzzing place, it was, back then.
Reminded me of our Visit to Gokarna Ankola and Karwara in December 2020.
This pic is from the other side of the Kali river. We parked at the Police station and started walking towards the river mouth. It was a couple of Kilometres before I hit the edge. What a sight it was


And from a few hundred meters away, by when my wife and kid gave up, and didn't want to get to the mouth of the river

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by androdev

@Dr.AD, soon it will be hard to find a place in South India that has not "been there, done that" by you :-)

Hahaha. Thank you androdev. Actually I would love to explore places beyond South India too, but unfortunately my work schedule is such that I can not afford to take any time off from Monday morning to Friday night. All I can get are the weekends, and all I can do is visit places in South India on these weekends and make the best of whatever time I can take off.

Jokes apart that Fort place looks awesome! The only problem is that I never found JLR to be a good place for laid back family vacation. Somehow they give me youth camp vibe where you are expected to participate in "activities" instead of chilling out.

Agree with you 100% on your assessment of JLR. This is the reason my wife does not like JLR as much as I do, and when I travel with my wife, we stay at other resorts and not in JLR. The "youth camp" analogy you gave for JLR is quite an apt one. Somehow, I am OK with that when I drive solo, but certainly not for a relaxed family vacation. There are better places for that for sure.

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Thanks for sharing. 1510 to now, what a change of scenery. Possibly a buzzing place, it was, back then.
Reminded me of our Visit to Gokarna Ankola and Karwara in December 2020.
This pic is from the other side of the Kali river. We parked at the Police station and started walking towards the river mouth. It was a couple of Kilometres before I hit the edge. What a sight it was

Nice photos! Thanks for sharing. In fact, I had gone to Karwar in 2010 too, and now it looks totally different. That entire area of coastal Karnataka has changed a lot in lat 10 years. Maravanthe beach down south is another area which looked very different in 2010 and has now looks drastically different. Lot of change in last 10 years in the entire coastal area.

[maddy42]

Thanks Doctor for that crisp Travellogue. That fort looks gorgeous and will be a treat to watch the river in the rains!

Put both these resorts on my bucket list. Keep travelling.

[OffRoadFun]

Nice travelogue Dr AD. The pictures are amazing. Driving that long solo is courageous and shows your love for driving!

We visited Devbagh beach resort a few years ago (drove there) and found it to be one of the best places for family vacation.
The dolphin watch and the ride towards Sinclair(?) island were so much fun!

One little secret. Although the staff asks you to park the car near jetty and reach Devbagh by boat, there is dirt road via forests using which one can actually reach the beach and cottages by car. I first parked my car there and later on figured out the way to the cottages and used some offroading capabilities to bring my car till the cottage. A couple of pics from the beach/cottage :-)

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Thanks Doctor for that crisp Travellogue. That fort looks gorgeous and will be a treat to watch the river in the rains!

Thank you! Yes, this place in the rain will be amazing. I am very likely to go back there sometimes in the monsoon to experience the monsoon magic there :-)

Originally Posted by OffRoadFun

Nice travelogue Dr AD. The pictures are amazing. Driving that long solo is courageous and shows your love for driving!

Thank you very much.

We visited Devbagh beach resort a few years ago (drove there) and found it to be one of the best places for family vacation.
The dolphin watch and the ride towards Sinclair(?) island were so much fun!

OK, great! Yes Devbagh Beach Resort is an ideal place for a family vacation. I think the island you are referring to is Cintacor Island. There is a very nice upscale resort there on that island called "Cintacor Island Resort'. That would be an amazing place for a family vacation too.

One little secret. Although the staff asks you to park the car near jetty and reach Devbagh by boat, there is dirt road via forests using which one can actually reach the beach and cottages by car. I first parked my car there and later on figured out the way to the cottages and used some offroading capabilities to bring my car till the cottage. A couple of pics from the beach/cottage :-)

Thanks for sharing this. And thanks for sharing the pictures too. The pictures look great and your Audi Q5 looks absolutely fantastic in that setting!

I tried this road a little bit, and some of the beach photos I shared are on this road. But I did not try to drive all the way to Devbagh Beach Resort. I am sure that road is not meant for a sedan. But thanks for sharing this information!

[JoshMachine]

Wow, that was some travelogue! Thanks for sharing.

A weekend solo drive is the best panacea from all the work-related routines. And you have really mastered the art of doing such drives.

Covering 570km in about 7 hrs. (~81 km/h) is a fantastic indicator of how good the roads must be. Don't usually see that kind of high speeds over reasonably long distances such as this.
Ofcourse, your driving skills would also be impeccable to achieve this.

I can imagine the hot temperatures out there on the beach, made even so by the presence of your hot car

[TROOPER]

Colour me green with envy. We Mumbai folks aren’t so lucky.

Did a Mangalore Mysore Hubli Mumbai trip in November last year and Mumbai Bangalore Tirumala Mangalore trip in December. I realised that Bangalore folks are privileged to have great roads and destinations in most if not all directions. Good roads means you can do such quick weekend trips. Nothing much to write about on the Mumbai side.

Enough with the rant!

Nice travelogue. Great photos as always. I did my first solo drive last year in June, after the sad 2nd wave ended, from Mangalore to Mumbai. Post that I’ve had a newfound love for solo drives. Onlookers and family and friends may call us selfish, but words can’t describe the wonderful time you spend with the machine on such drives.

The Hubli Karwar highway has been my most favourite road to drive on for the past six years. Your photos bring back memories and an itch to drive down to Mangalore. But the climate isn’t really conducive. Can’t wait for the monsoons. Another highway I’m a big fan of is Karnataka SH1 from Bankapura to Tirthahalli. Wish to drive on this road during monsoons.

Haven’t been to Karwar. Looks like a nice laid back destination to visit on my next drive from Mangalore to Mumbai. Looking forward to your next vlog to keep myself happy till monsoons hit the shores!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

Wow, that was some travelogue! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you!

A weekend solo drive is the best panacea from all the work-related routines. And you have really mastered the art of doing such drives.

Agree. Weekend travels are my stress busters, and a solo drive makes it even more fun. A solo drive is almost a therapeutic thing for me.

Covering 570km in about 7 hrs. (~81 km/h) is a fantastic indicator of how good the roads must be. Don't usually see that kind of high speeds over reasonably long distances such as this.

Fortunately, the roads in this part of the country are (relatively) fantastic! We have long smooth four-lane or six-lane highways to most major cities from Bangalore, and there one can comfortably and safely cruise at good speeds all day. Therefore, all these drives which involve segments such as Bangalore-Belgavi or Bangalore-Hyderabad or Bangalore-Kanyakumari always yield very good average speeds.

Another example of a great road is my latest favorite NH50 or "Hampi Expressway". This road all the way from Chitradurga to Bijapur is a lovely road, and a couple of weekends back, I managed some very healthy average speeds here while still driving safe! Lovely roads these are. Dream roads to drive a fast sedan on!

Originally Posted by TROOPER

Colour me green with envy. We Mumbai folks aren’t so lucky.

Did a Mangalore Mysore Hubli Mumbai trip in November last year and Mumbai Bangalore Tirumala Mangalore trip in December. I realised that Bangalore folks are privileged to have great roads and destinations in most if not all directions. Good roads means you can do such quick weekend trips. Nothing much to write about on the Mumbai side.

Yes, I agree with you. As I mentioned above, the roads in this part are fantastic. We have fast multi-lane highways, as well as smooth two-lane scenic country roads those are also quite fast. There are many state highways here which offer a perfect combination of scenic quotients, lovely corners and twists to enjoy the handling of the car, and are yet smooth and fast enough that you can do long weekend drives.

A 1000km weekend drive is easily possible on such roads without breaking sweat.

Nice travelogue. Great photos as always. I did my first solo drive last year in June, after the sad 2nd wave ended, from Mangalore to Mumbai.

Thank you! That Mangalore to Mumbai solo drive would have been fun!

The Hubli Karwar highway has been my most favourite road to drive on for the past six years.

Agree. That road is one of my favorite roads to drive on too. I have been driving on that road since 2012 (that was the first time I drove there), and enjoyed it every single time since then!

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

and as good as any other JLR experiences I had in the past.

I find their properties over rated. I stayed at their River Tern property. It was the first and last time I would stay at any JLR. Maybe my expectations are different, however, for what you pay, I feel like you don't really give much other than the location, primarily cause its all Government run and owned land they occupy.

My experience was over a decade ago. My wife and I wanted a weekend getaway and River Tern was perfect from Bangalore. At the time, I recall coughing up about Rs. 8000/night. It was steep. At the time of booking, I had made it clear that I was after a specific room on the property. On reaching there, I was dealing with grumpy faces. They messed up. I did get the room I was after but I don't want to be dealing with someone fumbling a booking. That is not acceptable. Then we had to carry our baggage. Granted it was not much being a one nighter but the access to the room required some steep passages. A little help offered would have been nice.

On reaching the room and opening the door, the first thing you see is the amazing view of the Bhadra river. This definitely wows you on first instance. The bathroom has an entire glass panel facing the river. We were cool with it but something to prepare for if you're not, if you're visiting this property. I can't say if all rooms are like this. After soaking in that view, we settle into the room. Everything from the mattress, the furniture and curtains looked like they had not been cleaned, vacuum or washed in god knows how long.

Next up was the food. No a-la-carte. This probably is how it rolls at all JLR's but I was quite annoyed to have to stand in a line to take my food and eat only what was served. This was standard for all 3 meals. At the sort of money I paid, I was expecting food to come to me.

I think the Safari was there for the sake of a safari. Forget spotting a wild cat. We did not see any deer either. I know Safari's can be a hit or miss so no fault of JLR here.

The above experience got me thinking what the fuss is all about with JLR. Maybe other properties are better run than River Tern.

The heat you talk about is concerning. Without aircon, coastal areas are un-live-able these days. The trouble with using an aircon is that it pushes out more heat into the atmosphere that is already super heated. I recall eating lunch in a village set up where the tile roof was covered with dried coconut tree branches or leaves. Dropped the temperature by a few degrees. We are in for some difficult, potentially uninhabitable times.