Jun 01, 2008 04:29 PM
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My native place is in Konkan i.e. near Kankavli but I had never visited Tarkarli. It was in my mind to visit Tarkarli for a long time. This year I had opportunity to visit Tarkarli.
I had seen the brochures of MTDC Tarkarli, so I was very much interested to stary in MTDC. To do so, it is necessary to plan the stay and do the advance reservation at MTDC. I planned my visit to Tarkarli for 29th April to 1st May 2008. I booked the MTDC Accomodation nearly 22 days in advance and was lucky to get the last room available. In case you do not get accomodation in MTDC, there are many small Hotels available which are mainly run by local peeple.
I started my journey to Tarkarli from my native place near Kankavli. From Mumbai Tarkarli is around 550 Kms. One can travel by train through Konkan Railway route. One has to get down at Kasal or Kudal Station. 'Janshatabdi' Express do not halts at Kasal.
At around 12 p.m. I reached MTDC Tarkarli. I was happy to see the MTDC Campus as it was very quit and cool. It has AC and Non AC Konkani Houses. Also there are little costly accomodation availabe in Boat type House and a 'House Boat' which floats on the backwaters of 'Devbaug'. When you stay in MTDC Hotel, one should not expect good service. But the response to the request at Tarkarli was good. MTDC has one restauarant run by local contractor named 'Mithbaukar'. You will not get variety of food here but can taste the'Malvani' food speacialy fish items. To avoid disappointment it is better to tell the 'Restaurant' people in advance about your preferences so that they can arrange for you. We told them in advance about our dinner and our preferences for fish items. They made the arrangement and we could relish the fish food which includes crab masala, pompret fry and curry and this was alongwith the Mangos which we had bought from Malvan. This was memorable dinner taken at beach side of tarkarli listening to sounds of sea waves.
On the the first day we had decided to relax at MTDC. In the evening we spent time at the beach. The water here is clean. At the evening we met one Mr Kanchan Kharade, who gave us information to us about 'Boating'. Normally the boating starts in the early morning at around 6.30 a.m and takes around 2 hours. The boating starts from 'Devbaug' beach and it takes round of karli backwaters, Devbaug Sangam, Dolphin View bear Bhogave beach and visit at iland near Bhogave beach. The charges for this trip are around Rs. 800/-. I was happy to hear from him and immediatly accepted to take the trip with him. He agreed to take as for Rs. 700/- and later on he could found another family and so he took us at Rs. 400 each.
Next day morning we started the boating from 'Devbaug' beach at around 7 a.m. The boat starts from Devbaug backwaters. One can see a beautiful village 'Devbaug' which is surrounded by water from three sides. The boat goes through the karli backwaters and then it comes to the spot which I liked the most and would remember for long i.e. Devbaug sangam. Here the backwater ( river converted into backwater) converges with Sea. When you are on the boat you can see, the sea waves coming at you. Beautiful Spot. Then we headed towards Bhogave Beach and we were very lucky to spot some of the 'Dolphins'. After that we got down at iland near Bhogave Beach. The water here is so clear that you can see the depth. This is a must do when one visit Tarkarli.
There is water sports facility available at MTDC.
The 'Malvan Jetty' is about 7 kms from Tarkarli. From Malvan Jetty, small boats are available to visit 'Sindhudurg Fort' built by 'Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj'. The Fort is not maintained properly but we can see few sites such as Shivrajeshwar Temple, Bhavani Temple, Hand Impressions of Shivaji etc. Near Sindhudurg Fort 'Snorkeling' can be done at Rs. 250 per person. We were unlucky to miss this as the water was not clear at the time of our visit. There are plans for starting 'Scoona Diving' at this centre. Near from Malvan Aagnewadi Temple (Bharadi Devi) can be visited.
The next day, we headed towards Redi. On the way to Redi, we visited Vengurla, Mochemad Beach, Shiroda Beach and Terecol Fort. We purchased good quality mangoes at Vengurla market. Also one can buy cashews from factory. The mochemad and shiroada beaches are also beautiful and are not visited by many tourists so far. At Redi we took darshan of Lord Ganesha. This is a 'Swayambhu' Ganesha Temple. The Redi is around 50 kms from Tarkarli. 2-3 kms from Redi is 'Terecol' Fort now converted into a Hotel. This fort is actualy in boundries of Goa. The scenic vew from this Fort is excellent. The sawantwadi city is also nearby and one can see the Lake and famous 'Rajwada' where the old style of painting is still preserved. Near sawantwadi 'Amboli Ghat' is also nice place to visit.
