It was Diwali vacation time and we thought we should go for a short trip to some place nearby that will let us breathe in some fresh air into our lives. So after looking up several places, we decided to head to Srivardhan beach in Raigad district of Maharashtra.
The place was not far from Pune. We looked up the internet to see if we could get some kind of accommodation for a night. One travel agent came back saying we should do a minimum booking of two nights, if we wanted accommodation. Called up another hotel at Dive Agar, but they said it was full. The MTDC resort at Harihareshwar also was fully booked if we believed their internet status. Anyway we had read a lot of unpalatable stories about their restaurant.
So we pushed our plan from a “weekend getaway” to a “Monday & Tuesday” getaway. We decided to go to Srivardhan first and then hunt for a place to stay. The guy from the hotel at Dive Agar had told us, that our chances of finding some place to stay were very bright since there were a lot of home stays there. We needed at least three rooms since we were two families. If we were really unlucky to find a place, we thought we will head back to Pune on the same day.
So on the morning of 5th November we started towards Srivardhan. We were 8 adults and 3 children in two cars, a Swift and a Palio. We met at the Shell petrol pump on the Mulshi-Tamhini road, filled up our cars and set off. The route we had taken was Chandini Chowk->Pirangut->Sutarwadi->Mulshi->Tamhini->Nizampur->Mangaon->Mhasla->Srivardhan. We stopped for breakfast at a small hotel on the way. We met the drivers of two MSRTC buses, one coming from Harihareshwar and the other from Srivardhan. Both of them promised us the roads ahead were wonderful. And it had been, up to that point, at least for the most part of it. But the condition of the roads started going down the drain soon after. I suppose the MSRTC drivers had been through much worse times, and so the present road condition to them at least was “wonderful” and big tyres help to reinforce that feeling.
All along this route, some roads were to die for and some roads were to kill for – at least kill a few PWD officers and politicians. The initial stretch of the road once you turn towards Mhasla from NH17 was gorgeous to say the least. The remaining stretch was as if the road had goose bumps all over.
Once we reached Srivardhan, our path was blocked by a MSRTC bus for quite some time. The road through the small village was just wide enough to accommodate two cars. Finally we found a place to park and enquired at a general store the way to the beach. One of the guys asked us if we were looking for accommodation. He made a call and in five minutes we had a guy come over to guide us to his resort on the beach. We drove along, took a few turns and ended up driving on the beach towards Subhan Beach House. It had a few one bed room houses (concrete huts), a dining area, a kitchen and a hut built 15 feet above the ground hitched to a few coconut trees. The front ground was full of coconut trees and they had a few hammocks for us to dump ourselves in. At the back of the resort were different vegetables and trees.
The resort also had turkeys and geese to keep us company. They put up a few cots in the front courtyard for us. We also could buy plenty of tender coconuts at Rs. 10 per coconut, all from their own resort. The coconut water was very sweet compared to the ones we get in Pune. They had no restaurant. But they cooked a delicious lunch along with fish curry and fish fry. They were really good. They served us dinner along with chicken curry and chicken fry. But the breakfast of Poha was very disappointing, the next morning. We should have asked for bread and omelette which also was on offer. Meals cost us Rs. 90 each per person whether veg or non-veg. We were charged Rs. 1000 per room. We were told that from 20th of Jan every year, till the next Diwali, they generally charge Rs. 200 per head.
We spent the evening on the beach, playing Frisbee and football and chasing each other. I would say the beach was not very clean, in the sense that there were quite a few dead fish lying on the beach. It may be because of the fishing villages nearby. Also the sand is not exactly golden. But still a beach is a beach and when you stay in the interiors, something is better than nothing. At the end of it, all of us thoroughly enjoyed the beach and the sea.
We started back the next day morning and came back via Srivardhan->Mhasla->Mangaon->Wakad Phata->Pali->Khalapur->Express Way->Pune. The roads were much better. We covered the expressway of around 50 km in 29 minutes, traveling at an average speed of 100 kmph.
Distances & Statistics
From my home in Pune to the Subhan Beach Resort –
165.6 km.
From Suban Beach Resort to my home via express way –
207 km.
Average: 14.96 kmpl with 100% A/C with four adults and one child and bad roads one way. (On my trip to Shirdi, the next Sunday, I had got an average of
17.35 kmpl with 100% A/C and with 3 adults and 1 child)
Max speed:
165 kmph on the expressway for a few seconds. Swift pulled really well in the third gear on the expressway in Khandala and Lonavala.
Now Some Pictures
Mulshi Backwaters
Tamhini Road
Road from Mangaon
Geese
The Cars
The Beach
Sunset at the beach
-Biju
p.s. All photos taken with my Nikon F80, which is a film SLR. The uploaded images are low resolution scans.