Day 2: Vijaydurg and Tarkarli

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After enjoying the hospitality of my distant relatives in Lanja, I hit the tarmac early morning. The plan was to leave the NH-17 exactly at the point where I entered it on my last trip. That would complete the entire Mumbai-Goa coastal route. That point was Hathivale Titha. After that I took numerous turns on nondescript roads to reach Vijaydurg, my first stop for the day. My maps did not help me and again for the nth time I relied on locals.
Vijaydurg is a 800 year old fort, so tells my enthusiastic guide Raghunandan Lele. He takes me around the fort for an hour in under a scorching noon sun. But the history is fascinating. The fort was called the Gibraltar by British as it was pretty inconquerable. It was built in a Hemadpanti architectural style (honestly I dont know what that is although I know a lot of old structures in this region are hemaadpanti). The entrance to this fort is hidden from the view. As you enter, you see a row of cannon balls. One of them is actually filled up with explosives from that time ! The guy used in charge of firing cannon balls used to lit the cannon and jump in the pool nearby ! There are many more fascinating facts on this fort. But the greatest one is that Vijaydurg was supposedly the first place where scientists observed the first evidence of Helium's existence ! More interested can read this .

One hour in the afternoon sun sapped me out of fluids. I helped myself with two serving of refreshing Karvand (local berries) Juice (definitely recommended). A lone biker is always a subject of curiosity. And the juice cart owner Bandivedkar was curious too. After the usual introductions, he recommended me to go to Devbag, just south of Tarkarli. He said a cousin of his friend owns a resort there ! He did not stop at that. He took out his cell phone (I read somewhere 70% of Indians have cell phones !) and called his friend who was only known by his nickname popat. Popat was sleeping which is what everyone does at this hour in this region. His wife refused to wake him up. So Bandivdekar and Lele had a discussion between them and confirmed that his cousin's name was Astu. He is a nice guy and I should go to his place.

Now a resort even for a discount was out of question. But I thought I would give it a shot. I did not have the resort's name neither its address. Armed with just two names Astu and Devbag I headed south on the sagari mahamarg. The road was neither sagari(coastal) nor mahamarg(highway). It curved narrowly in some places, widened into smooth patches at some and stretched beautifully in the form of arched bridge over a s wide creek at other. My lunch stop was Hotel Searock near achra where I feasted on Surmai Fish Thali. The honesty of these guys blew me away. The printed price was Rs.100. But when I paid him he gave a discount of Rs.20 saying today the size of fishes was quite small ! I would have never known. Such a nice feeling when you find honesty is still alive! I bypassed Malvan and took the Tarkarli road. Have no idea how I did it. There are no boards. Locals are your only saviours. Hope you find someone good as I did. Now Tarkarli-Devbag are like twin towns. I had just hear of a MTDC hotel in Tarkali. I was surprised to find the beach road lined with hotels. Now that was a problem. How will I find my guy ?

And lady luck shone on me. The first shop I stopped to enquire knew the guy ! Turns out Astu was his nickname too. His name was Astin Fernandes. The 'resort' was not exactly a resort. But I did not care. It was bang on the beach! Have never stayed in anything so close to beach. I told him I knew popat and he gave me a 50% discount! Kind of felt guilty after that. But got over it quickly as I headed to the beach. Spent the evening watching the fisherman doing their stuff. A beautiful sunset and nice dinner brought an end to this amazing day. Am writing this stuff sitting by the window with unobstructed view of the sea.

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