5th February 2010, 18:06
| #16 | |
| BHPian  | Quote:
 - but, you must not miss amboli ghat drive on your trip to Goa. Since you will be doing it in Feb, there will be no fog/rain problems i guess. | |
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5th February 2010, 18:15
| #17 |
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5th February 2010, 18:19
| #18 |
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5th February 2010, 18:40
| #19 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   | |
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5th February 2010, 19:09
| #20 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
 . I always knew my getz gave me better than average mileage - but i didn't expect 18kmpl. Has it got to do with my speeds of 80kmph and use of fifth gear at 40+ speeds? | |
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5th February 2010, 19:37
| #21 |
| BHPian | Woke up early morning next day and got ready by 7 am. Ginger provided a complimentary breakfast. It was nice with utappa, parantha, veg cutlets, boiled eggs, oats etc. After filling our stomachs with nice breakfast, we started going towards our first destination – Dona Paula beach. It is approximately 15km from Ginger. Dona Paula resembles the ‘Gateway of India’ in Mumbai. There is no sand, no water sports. There is a nice tower decorated with plants from which you can get a great view of the Goa skyline. If you time constraints then you can safely skip this beach.  View at Dona Paula. After clicking some photographs we started our journey to a ‘real beach’. It’s the queen of the beaches – Calangute beach. It is around 15km from Panjim. Drive to Calangute was great. Lots of people traveling on these roads on rented Activas. My Hyderabad driving skills were very useful in cutting through the Activa crowd. We reached Calangute in no time and went straight in to the beach. It was around 9:30 AM and crowd was building. This beach was bustling with activity unlike the earlier beaches. Lots of people enjoying water sports like para sailing, water scooter, banana ride etc. And we saw lots of goras tanning their skin. I had tried water scooter during my vacation in Maldives but it was my long standing wish to try para sailing. We have para sailing available in Hussain sagar (in Hyderabad), but no person in their right mind would do para sailing there. Actually there is a notice at Hussain sagar that says – don’t stand here for more than 10 minutes else you will die Wifey was reluctant, so I have decided to do it alone. They took me on machine boat into the sea and transferred me to the parasailing boat. Then they opened up the parachute, and tied me onto it with the use of some special equipment. Then they slowly started releasing the parachute rope as I went up. It was a great experience but too short for 300 bucks. I was in the air for hardly 3-4 minutes.  On top of the world  Touch down  Picture taken from the para sailing boat  You can sit on one of these seats for free if you place an order at the shack who own them. Otherwise they cost 100Rs/Hour i think.  Taking some rest inside a beach shack after the swim  Yummy Lunch!  Bill for the Lunch. After the para sailing, I wanted to swim. Water was bluish and the sea was not rough at all and within no time I got in to my beach wear and started enjoying the swim in the sea.After enjoying the swim for half-n-hour I came back to the beach hut where my wifey was enjoying some mock tails. It was 12:00 PM and we ordered for lunch. Fish Fry Goan style, mush room omelets and a drink. I am generally wary of eating fish because of its smell, but I liked what I ordered even though it was hardly fried. After spending over an hour in the beach hut, we decided to go to our next stop – Fort Aguada. Sun was directly above us and it was damn hot and humid. And the sand was burning our feet. If its like this in winter, then I can imagine how it will be in summers. |
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6th February 2010, 03:47
| #22 |
| BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Atlanta, US
Posts: 117
Thanked: 16 Times
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6th February 2010, 10:11
| #23 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
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6th February 2010, 10:37
| #24 |
| BHPian | Fort Aguada was around 8km from Calangute beach. It was a nice construction, with a light house on top. You can see a nice view of the sea from here. I think 'Dil Chahta Hai' was shot around here. We clicked some pics and returned after half-n-hour.  View of the sea from Fort Aguada  Light house on Fort Aguada Our next destination was Baga beach. We passed calangute on our way and Baga beach was around 2 km from Calangute. When we reached Baga, we realized how stupid we were. Baga is an extension of Calangute. We can see Calangute from Baga, and we could have just walked on the beach to reach Baga. Anyway, here we saw something new, a rivulet flowing in to the Sea.  Rivulet flowing into the Sea Then from there we went to Anjuna beach. This beach was totally different from other beaches we had seen. There is a nice red cliff overlooking the sea. We had to walk for over 1 km through small lanes to reach the beach. This beach was less crowded and more peaceful.  Anjuna Beach After spending half-n-hour there we had decided to return to the queen of beaches to catch the sunset. And it was beautiful. After clicking a few pics of the sunset we had ordered for dinner. Little did we know that it would be a candle light dinner. Our dinner menu was chicken pakoda, tomato soup, chilly chicken, cheese fried rice and a couple of drinks. It was nice. After the dinner we just sat there enjoying the sea view in ‘full moon’ light.  Sunset at Calangute Beach.  Sunset at Calangute Beach  Candle light dinner under moon light  Some guys from the beach hut made this 'sand castle' Finally we returned to Ginger by 10:30 and retired to bed. |
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6th February 2010, 12:20
| #25 |
| BHPian | Next day again we wokeup early and finished the complementary breakfast by 8:00AM. Then we discussed about our route options for coming back. Originally we had thought of driving on the NH-17 till River Kali and then drive towards Hubli and stay there. But it was becoming like a round trip to reach Hubli and also we would have lot of distance to cover the next day. So, after some discussion we have decided to take Goa-Amboli-Belgaum-Bijapur-Gulbarga-Hyderabad. The reason I choose this route was also because I really enjoyed driving on the amboli ghat and I wanted to enjoy it again while climbing up. Also we wanted to make a night halt at Bijapur, so that would leave us to cover only 450 Km the next day. We have decided to go back to calangute again, do some shopping and then leave by 12:00PM. Went to calangute, saw a bad accident (Innova hitting an Activa from behind), bought a couple of watches, sunglasses etc and left the beach at 12:00PM as planned.  NH-17 - (Goa-Sawantwadi)  NH-17  My Work Horse  Just loved the vada-pavs here.  Random pic (Amboli-Belgaum) After crossing sawantwadi there is no proper signage to show the right turn to amboli. So, we crossed the turn and went ahead for 10km before we saw a Y junction. There the locals told us to go back 10km and take a left. We did that and again we were on the beautiful ghat. Not much traffic so I was able to maintain good speed on the ghat too. Stopped at the vada pav stall and took a small break. |
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6th February 2010, 13:02
| #26 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: hyderabad
Posts: 239
Thanked: 48 Times
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Good progress on the log with nice pics ....Thanks a lot for the assurance on route guidance and maps :-) .... Hmm, acrophobia, dont know what to do, but that wont stop the trip..BTW, how many KMs the ghat section will be ? looking at your pics, it seems the ghat roads are in good condition and wide enough for 2 vehicles ... Thanks, Srini | |
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6th February 2010, 13:04
| #27 |
| BHPian | After finishing the snack, we resumed the journey and reached Belgaum around 4PM, had a light lunch at the same hotel again. Asked the hotel manager for an alternative route to Bijapur. He said most people take the route Belgaum->Yargatti->Jhamkandi->Bijapur. Now the real drama starts. For some reason I wanted to try the GoogleMaps/GPS on my G1 phone. It gave me a route from Belgaum to Bijapur and I have decided to try that.The road was ok in the beginning, but started deteriorating as we moved ahead.  Bad road. But we thought not too bad. that was the mistake We saw a lot of patches where there was no road. We knew something was wrong but somehow drove in the same direction and covered a good 25km until we reached a railway crossing. The gates were closed giving way for the ‘Deccan Odessy’ train.  I saw a taxi stopped in front of my car and decided to talk to them about the route. Taxi driver said – you should not have taken this road. there is an excellent road through yargatti->jhamkand. I felt like an idiot for not listening to the hotel manager  . Google maps can give route from anywhere to anywhere, but it does not know the present conditions of the roads. That’s the limitation of GPS technology specially in a place like India.Taxi driver told me the next 5km stretch is even bad ( roads were washed away by rains), but he said – since we had already covered 25km, we should some how cross the 5 km stretch and there is a road that connects to the yargatti->jhamkand road. We did that and the locals directed us to proceed towards a town called “Nesargi” where the yargatti->jhamkand road passes thorugh. Now this is the drive I remember forever in my life. The moment we entered the road to nasargi, we saw a notice board on the side saying “state road project”. We thought our badtime is finally over. But that's actually a practical joke played by the government. What we had seen can not be described by words. Pathetic roadless-road lay infront of us and we had no choice but to drive. We were so frightened - eyes glued to the road - that the thought of taking a picture of that road did not cross our mind. But here is a pic [1] that comes close to what we have seen.  I had only one thing in my mind – to reach the highway before the sun sets. But it was looking like an impossible task as I was driving in 2nd gear at lowest speed possible. Then we reached one small village and I heard some sound, my wife looked in the mirror and said we have run over a “Hen”. I did not want any twist in the tale, and I drove as fast I can and exited the village before any one could catch us. God knows how, but we finally reached the highway just as the sun was going down. What a relief. The highway was flat, brand new and inviting. We cursed ourselves for our badluck and also loosing precious time because of the detour.  Road marked in Red is the road to hell. Road A-B is the correct route. I thanked my Getz for surviving the torture, and from there on I don’t remember applying brakes till we reached bijapur . This is definitely a better route then athani, chikkodi to reach Belgaum from Bijapur.Reached bijapur 2 hrs late – at 10:30PM and took a room at Hotel Madhuvan International. Quite expensive 900 for an A/c room for early checkout. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant and retired for the night. [1]A rough road ahead photo - T.R. Nickel photos at pbase.com |
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6th February 2010, 13:10
| #28 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
. This ghat is wide enough and safe. Actually when you are going from Hyd to Goa, you will be driving along the walls of the hills, so you can't see the valley. | |
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6th February 2010, 14:47
| #29 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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6th February 2010, 16:58
| #30 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
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