How lousy and lazy am I?...a lot, I would confess!
I had been to Konkan for backwater tour and had decided that I would write about the tour immediately on my arrival in Mumbai.But now it's almost three weeks and I am yet to write one.
I always longed to visit Kerala Backwaters but somehow could not yet manage to do so. So, when I learnt that there is a weekend tour to Konkan Backwaters I decided to seize the opportunity.
The tour was organised by one private company whose name resembles that of a non-profit, charitable or developmental agency.
We started off from Dadar, at around 10 p.m. on 23rd December2005, in a 15 seater bus.
DAY # 1
24th December2005
We reached early morning at Dabhol and were put up at Pratik Resort, a beautiful serene place.We rested there till 8 a.m. before we started our first day of konkan Backwater tour.
First we traveled southward for 2 km and reached Chandika Temple. It's a cave temple formed by forces of water carried by monson rivers of Konkan. You have to bend a bit to move inside in darkness to reach the deity. The deity itself is a ''Swaimbhoo'' meaning naturally occurred or formed deity. No light is allowed inside except that of candle.The temple is surrounded by beautiful small waterfalls in nearby valley. Kids liked to play around the area.
From there we moved towards north and landed at a place called Kolthare. We were told that we can see a traditional ''Heritage'' Konkani House (which hardly exists these days)and we were infact shown one such a house of Vaidya (Doctor) Mahajan.Dr. Mahajan,I believe is an Ayurvedic doctor, manufaturer of AGOM brand of Ayurvedic/Herbal products and his products are regularly being advertised on TV channels (that's what I was told...I don't see much of TV as I have many interests to spare my time on!).
Thereafter we went to Kolthare sea beach. The beach at Kolthare is almost untouched by homeo sapiens and perhaps, therefore, a beautiful beach. We spent quite a time there enjoying in knee-level water.
We had a sumptuous lunch at a Brahmin's house.Thereafter we were literally forced to take rest as there were no scheduled programs during the day. Why were we taken to Kolthare is a still a mystery to us. There was nothing spectacular (atleast fro Mumbaites) to be seen at the Kolthare.The unkept promise of a visit to Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth and also of a visit to one more beach in the afternoon is a typical problem with organised tour.
The night ''Mehfil'' was too good an opportunity to showcase talents of individual members and we had one Mr. Ashish Raje from Chembur who was a star performer of our own Great Laughter Challenge. Few co-travellers also chipped in with Hindi numbers. In all a beautiful experience and a feeling of having a good company ahead!
DAY#2
25th December2005
Only Backwaters
This was a day we were looking forward as most of the participants had come to have experience of backwaters only. I have visited Kerala on official work on many occasions but not enjoyed Kerala Backwaters which I would love to do.
On the second day we were a bit late to start. We had to travel 90 km to Tarkarli, near Chiplun for our Backwater experience. Here, we were welcomed by members of Chiplun Nagarpalika (Municipal Corporation). We were told that it was the first time that a 35 km backwater tour was arranged.All Chiplunkars are looking forward to see Konkan as a developed tourist destination and a developed Backwater tourism on lines of Kerala.
I do not know what the Kerala Backwaters experience is, but here for most of the part it was a ''crocodile spotting'' game!There were lot of crocodiles resting on the river bank.Initially we were apprehensive about crocodiles but we were being convinced that there has been no precedent of crocodile attack on man and also that at many places people regularly swim!
Our boat took a halt at Tumbad. Mr. S.N.Pendse's famous Marathi novel '' TUMBADCHE KHOT'' (Khot of Tumbad) has been conceptualised around this house in Tumbad, which is on the banks of Jagbudi River. It's a beautiful house having a jetty and actual Tumbad village is, we were told, 30 minutes up on a hillock!On the other side of the house,on the other bank of Jagbudi River is Harne railway station on Konkan Railway.
We had a great time at Tumbad. We were welcomed by Tumbadites with flowers. We had a hearty breakfast at lunch time (Brunch)... bhakris(rotis),jawla(babelets of prawns),thalipits...Thereafter, we had informal discussion with Khotshet on whom S.N.Pense based his famous novel.He told us about how Mr. S.N.Pense came to know about Tumbad and then fall in love of Tumbad.
We then proceeded to Maldoli by boat for lunch and had a heavy lunch at tea time i.e. around 4 p.m. A cultural program was also arranged but as we were very late only one folk dance zakdi was presented.
From Maldoli we set for Dabhol, on a bigger trawler, at around 5:30 p.m. All were sadden that we would be missing further backwater experience from Maldoli to Dabhol as sun had started it's descent. We reached Dabhol port at 8 p.m. and our day ended with dinner at around 10 p.m.
DAY#3
26th December2005
As usual we started late, at around 09:30 a.m.We proceeded to Dabhol harbour from where we took a ferry to cross over to Guhagar. We then called on to Velneshwar Temple. One can grasp beautiful scene of Konkan backwaters on the way to Velneshwar. Velneshwar has a beautiful beach; however, again the organiser did not stop at the beach citing a delay.So sad, everyone felt.
From Velneshwar we proceeded to Hedvi Ganesh Temple few kilometers away. The Ganesh idol here is a ten armed idol.
We had lunch at Suruchi Baug near Hedvi. and had a grand vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch. The non-veg lunch had 2-3 varieties of fish, which was liked by fish-eating folks amongst us.
After lunch we started our journey beck to Mumbai.
On the way we halted at Lord Parshuram Temple at Lote Parshuram.You have to climb down steps to reach the temple.It's 300 years old temple and has 3 idols.
From Lote Parshuram, on way to Mumbai, we halted at Hotel Pagoda and had a high tea.We stopped at Kshanbhar Vishranti where we had our dinner before finally reaching Mumbai.
Personally I don't prefer conducted tours. However, I was wondering if there were any backwater travel facilities available to general public and hence preferred organised tour. Konkan backwaters was a good experience but I believe Kerala backwater would be still better. The boats available are very small one and there are no house-boats in Konkan.
It was a memorable experience largely due to nice company of our co-travellers.
See photos posted at
https://prashantkoli.blogspot.com/2006/01/konkan-backwaters-iii.html .
Thanks for investing your time.
