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Published: February 17th 2015
Tranquil Weekend Road Trip to Dive Agar from Pune Synopsis of Dive Agar: (Source: Wikipedia)
Diveagar (Dive Agar) is a locale in Shrivardhan Taluka, Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra, approximately 170 kilometres south of Mumbai. The area includes a fishing settlement, a beach, a temple, local businesses engaged in coconut and bettle nut tree farming, and some resort businesses such as restaurants, cottage rentals and motels, and six villages (from north to south): Velās, Musalmāndi, Agar Panchaitan, Diveagar, Borlai Panchaitan, and Kārle.
The golden (suvarna) ganesh murti (idol) of Diveagar Ganpati temple was allegedly stolen by thieves on 25 March 2012. The murthi was later allegedly melted. The golden idol weighed 8.0 kg. The thieves before taking away the golden idol killed the two watchmen who guarded the temple. The idol has since then been replaced by one made with Silver.
Harihareshwar and Srivardhan are also small towns with beach and temples in line to Dive Agar down south.
Fantastic road trip to Dive Agar from Pune by my all-time favorite Ford Fiesta 1.4. Amazing driving experience on Tamhini and subsequent ghats all the way to Harihareshwar, Srivardhan and Dive Agar.
1. Total Distance Travelled – 403 Kms
2. Total Fuel – Petrol / Gasoline – 35 Litres – Rs. 2200
3. Route Taken –
a. Chinchwad (Pune) – Hinjewadi – Pirangut – Paud – Tamhini – Mangaon – Harihareshwar – Srivardhan – Dive Agar
b. Dive Agar – Morba – Mangaon – Tamhini – Paud – Pirangut – Hinjewadi – Chinchwad
4. Total Driving – 13 Hours in 36 Hours of trip
Started at 6.45AM on Saturday from Spine Road, Chinchwad with tons of luggage and fully loaded Ford sedan navigating thru Wakad we reached Hinjewadi, passing thru Infosys Phase I, we took outer road which goes parallel to IT cos road of Phase 3. First stop to tank up the fuel off course out of corporation limits to save some bucks and started again with full energy to explore Hinjewadi – Pirangut road and then grand Tamhini. Halted again to check Tyre pressures to assure we go safe thru ghat section.
I was driving first time thru Tamhini and read lot about it in Travel blogs so was careful, however one of my friend assured me of tamhini
roads being repaired and to my little surprise roads are now really made like national highways. I was driving at an average of 60 Kms per hour thru tamhini enchanting beautiful nature of Sahyadri hills. Ghat came to an end with lot many photo shoots and we stopped for breakfast at Orchad café – restaurant at the base of Tamhini. Food was good but little expensive. Has good ambiance and play area for children which justify higher cost. We left after 1 hour of food, photo shoot and playing swings at 10.30 from Orchard café.
On the way navigating using google maps, we were sketching plans while playing antakshari to how to spend time and cover three places – Harihareshwar, Srivardhan and Dive Agar. Our final destination was Dive Agar, so we headed for Harihareshwar, as it’s down south to Dive agar and Srivardhan being in middle of two.
We took left just after leaving Goa Mumbai highway in Mangaon – HP Petrol pump is the landmark before which you should take left, plenty of direction boards are available which guide you. Road to Harihareshwar is average:5 -6 Kms ghat section patch is very rough – road is
under construction and is single lane off course.
After driving thru couple of hair pins and rough patches we reached harihareswar lord shiva temple at 12.45PM, parking is ample but expensive – charged Rs.40 for open ground parking. From parking itself you can see splendid long beach having couple of water sports guys waiting for customers in scorching noon heat. Harihareshwar gram panchyat has made good efforts to make beach and its surrounding look like Mumbai chowpati and have tried to maintain thru Modi’s swachta abhiyan campaign. You can see many placards in and around requesting for swachata abhiyan participation. Before entering temple we pacified our throats by sipping cool lemon sodas, while my daughter took bites of cheese sandwich (off course thanks to my wife who brought from home, you will not get any kind of city food here).
Temple is one of its kind having three linga’s of Shiv, Vishnu and Parwati with adjacent Kalbhairav temple. Temple over looks sea rock on one side and beach on other side. Temple has parikrama (one complete round to temple) path in which you need to climb up 51 steps and 150 steps down to reach Vishnu pad which
is Vishnu’s paduka (foot) formed by water hammering on flat surface. Might be many stories, but I took a scientific way to look at it. We took other way to reach this paduka – which is pretty safe in non-monsoon season; we went thru rock flat surface on which huge sea waves hammers on rock. Had lot many photos here and scene is really awesome with gigantic Arabian sea in front and bed rock greened with lichens all around. We almost forgot that we need to move ahead to Dive Agar and have to search a place to stay! We were drenched with sweat, so had coconut water and kokam to beat the heat.
My red Fiesta also got a good rest and was ready to drive thru sea shore roads to march towards Srivardhan and then Dive Agar. Its 35 kms ride to Dive Agar from Shiva temple of Harihareshwar. Beware, there are two roads to Dive Agar, one is thru jungle and normal road, while other is coastal road. Coastal is best I opted for, not sure about condition of other road. First phase of road is again bad and rough, you go pretty slow thru dense
jungle and ghat section, but from Srivardhan about 10Kms of patch is coastal road and is awesome. There is a small ghat section from where you have sea on left and mountain on right, there is a spot where there is a deep sea and beach on one side and ground level sea (right on your spot) with some fish catching jetties on other side. Splendid view from where we took many snap shots.
Finally we reached our final destination at 4PM, tripmeter showing 223 Kms! Big task was ahead of us – To search for decent and fairly priced hotel / guest house for family! We did look for couple of guest house in lane parallel to Ganesh temple and finally took a decision to stay at Pahunchar guest house at Rs. 1000. Chavan is the name of owner who is quite helpful in guiding you. Rooms were clean and hygienic, but beds were in bad shape with old bedsheets – felt little overpriced for what being offered. Overall okay if you are staying only for one night and want good parking for your vehicle.
Ladies and children took one hour to get ready for beach; we
went to beach without any gadgets with us as we all wanted to have fun in sea passing thru beautiful Roop Narayan Temple. Beach from Pahunchar is 10 mins walk, though all these motel owners will tell you it’s 3 min distance, but be prepare for 10-12mins walk.
Dive Agar beach is one of the best beaches I have been to. We have decided to visit this beach once every year to spend serene time here. It’s very cool, serene secluded beach – best for family. It was chilling cold water with cold air around so I stood outside water with my daughter who was shivering with cold; taking a look at time less beauty. Fortunately sky was clear and I first time saw soothing – peaceful sun being set in middle of Arabian Sea with no disturbance at all. It gave inner tranquil feeling, in which mind was completely shut off and serene thoughts were running thru heart.
Came back to hotel after having gadget less evening with moments stored in mind and heart. We did try for authentic veg thali at Bapat, but one needs to book thali 24 hours in advance. This was known to
me by Travel bloggers, but thanks to my procrastination habit. Family was not interested in thali types anyways and were very hungry as we skipped lunch, so went to Golden Dish restaurant in Borli village which is 2 Kms away from Dive Agar. This is where you get all types of food – Fish, chicken, veg and non veg thalis and what not. My friend had Poplet which he did not like much, but veg punjabi food was at par with what we get in Pune. Again little expensive, but it’s normal now a days at tourist places. I liked the restaurant especially if you have kids – you get everything from soup to juices. They do have AC and non AC halls, off course AC is too expensive but with good comfort and its noiseless.
By the time we reached hotel it was already 9.30 PM, we got refresh again to play cards but we were really tired after eventful day and wanted to make our self ready for another marvellous day so slept early. Next day plan was to wake up at 6AM dress up for beach photo shoot, come back for break fast and go gadget
less again to play on beach! This was a plan with brisk walk to beach to keep my Fiesta clean, neat and away from beach sand! 😉 And to surprise we did exactly as per plan we got up at 6AM; were on spot at 7AM! It was awesome feeling again with sun rising from dense green trees with golden colored sky; sun making its presence over each and every human face on beach. This cool sun light gave us additional motivation for photo shoots!
Cars are allowed on this beach along with horse and camel riders. Some SUVs and cars were riding along water and I was watching them while having sip of coffee. You will get breakfast options on beach itself, so you can go with accessories to seat and have serene morning on beach with food and beverages. We decided to march back to our area as per plan, had breakfast at Gandhe outlet (khanawal) – Poha and omlet was good. We place an order for Ukdiche modak which we planned to eat during lunch time. Modak needs to be ordered in advance and in correct number. It’s not readily available.
Went again to room,
changed clothes to swimming / sea costumes – went to beach. We were told to vacate rooms max by 11AM, but we came back from beach drenched and tired at 11.45am! We were without gadgets, so unaware of timing, to our surprise we played for more than 2 hours in sea water. Ladies were worrying about tanning and salt water reactions, while we guys were worrying about check out timing and answers we need to give to motel owner – Mr. Chavan! But Chavan was cool and did not speak anything about check out time, might be because no new customer was waiting for us to vacate room. We checked out finally at 12.45pm with 20 minutes time spent in watching last part of India Innings. We were really missing India Pakistan crucial match. We then headed for Ukdiche Modak which we ordered in morning, carried in hand and went to Rane Khanawal for Egg and Fish thalis. Average taste at least for egg thali, decent priced, but we had faster lunch compared to Punjabi dish last night. Again had a look at Pakistan batting score and headed for Suvarna (golden) Ganesh Temple from where we started our return journey
at 2.30 pm. My Fiesta was ready with half tank full and wind shields clean from dust!
Return route goes from Morba to Mangaon and then Tamhini – I was little heavy eyed and somnolent due to exhausting beach fun, modaks and full lunch, but funny antakshari and college time stories kept me up and driving to Mangaon. We took a halt here in Mangaon with refreshing tea and interesting chat with tea vendor giving fresh energy to start again. To give you a glimpse of chat with vendor about Mangaon – It’s a small emerging town of Raigad district about 190 Kms from Mumbai and 112 Kms from Pune located on Mumbai – Goa Highway and crucial station for Konkan railway. All this makes it attractive destination for trading and it’s going to be a mega city of Raigad – In very near future all govt offices are going to move to Mangaon from Alibaugh and other areas; making this town an investment epicentre.
Haah, enough of chat and we headed with fun stories and sing songs towards Tamhini again. I was bit sceptical about driving up on hair pins, because when I drove steeping down from
hair pins, I was worried about driving back again! But I kept on waiting for those difficult hair pins and in half an hour tamhini was over! Again Tamhini is tamhini nothing can beat this beautiful nature here! Planned already to visit this beautiful sahyadri nature again in monsoon.
We stopped at Pirangut to pick up beers and reached back home in Chinchwad at 7.15pm, driving thru evening Wakad – Chinchwad traffic. Celebrated our perfect weekend and India victory with 3 beers; had dinner watching trip photos – cherishing moments and memories.
36 Hours of trip, 13 hours of memorable driving, 7 hours of sleep - Unlimited Fun! J
This road trip gave confidence in driving my Fiesta in rough and hilly roads – next is the plan for Coastal Karnataka road trip. Thanks a ton to Travel bloggers for guiding me to plan this awesome weekend!
Cheers
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Abhi
non-member comment
Superb
Tempting ! All the descriptions and nuances are making me go visit Dive Agar ASAP ! The serene beach really deserves a visit. Good to read all the details about Chaiwala I almost virtually joined you Guyz. Feeling nostalgic. Keep blogging !