Introduction

8 kobra friends (Priyank Thatte, Vishwajeet Ranade, Ketan Sahasrabudhe, Bhaskar Tilak, Rahul Bhat, Gauri Vaidya, Sheetal Barve, Prachi Kelkar) all set for a trip to our homeland Konkan! After days of planning our itinerary, we finally set off from Mumbai on Friday.

Read the story: [650 words, 46 photos]

Friday, 14 July 2006

As per schedule we were to halt overnight at Bhaskar’s place in Pen. However, everyone, especially Vishwa (who was the driver) was enthusiastic about reaching straight to Harnai. We skipped Pen and continued on Mumbai Goa NH17 until Mangaon, where we stopped for dinner.
The food was good and our jokes and party songs were keeping everyone lively. After dinner, we continued traveling along the highway until Khed from where we took a right turn and reached Vishwa’s home at Harnai.

His house was wooden and quite old. The British used it as a storehouse for their weapons. It was later adapted to a residential style, with a large piece of land and a well in the backyard. Since the place was not in use, we had to clean it first and then settle down to sleep.

Saturday, 15 July 2006

Since everyone was tired, we woke up at leisure on Saturday and until we got ready, it was almost lunchtime. After some hot missal paav, our first stop was the Vyaghreshwar temple. Shree Vyghreshwar is the guardian God of many Chitpavan families, and the temple in Aasud village is over 1000 yrs old. Further ahead was the Keshavraj temple (see photo insert). The route to this temple is through dense forest, a nice 15-20 min walk across Aasood Dabke wadi and then a river. The ambience at the temple was lovely too, compelling us to relax there for over an hour.

In the evening, we sped to the lighthouse at Harnai. This is a piece of narrow land protruding into the sea, and when you go to the tip, you are surrounded on all three sides by sea. Strong winds blowing from Arabian sea and the view of the Harnai village along the seashore was very charming. There are 3 forts in this village, one being in the sea. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see the sun, but just imagining the sun sinking adjacent to the sea fort excited us a lot. We stayed there until it was dark and time to go back home. Sheetal prepared some nice tea for everyone (she is really ‘gruhakrutyadaksha’). Night dinner was at a local kobra’s home and very fulfilling. Vishwa also made everyone walk on village roads that were totally dark and scary (it’s a different story that nobody got scared!!).

Beach and Harnai village	Lighthouse	Sea Fort	Harnai village and fishing boats
Where does the wind blow?	Harnai by the night	Another view at night

Sunday

Next day morning I awoke very early (others were blissfully sleeping) and tried to walk till the dam, which I heard, was nearby. However, it turned out to be too far away and I came back after walking for about 90 minutes. This place uphill was diametrically opposite to the lighthouse we were at yesterday evening. Saw some nice birds in the vicinity, one of which is unknown.

Path towards the dam

Primitive stove

Harnai from the hill

Village, sea fort and lighthouse

Soon everyone was ready to leave from Vishwa’s place. We went further that road to Anjarle village, where the famous ‘kadyavarcha Ganpati’ temple is located.

Ladies leaving the clothes to dry	Kids on a Sunday	Stray horse	Hamlet on the way
Anjarle bridge	View from Anjarle bridge	Mosque under construction	Fishing boats at rest

Few among us are religious, and we were more interested in traveling in konkan than visiting the shrines. However, these temple locations provided splendid view plentiful natural beauty, therefore were our natural choices.

Next we drove to Murud-Harnai beach. I was seeing the beach after a very long time and the water was tempting! In no time all boys were in water playing and splashing and enjoying like kids. Incredible! We refreshed our tired bodies with lunch and proceeded to Palgad, where Ketan’s and Sheetal’s relatives stay.

“This is my territory!”	Freedom fighter Annasaheb Karve	Temple artwork
Walkin’ on the shore	Little crab homes	Farms of little crabs

And finally reached home late at night.

What a fantastic trip!!

More photos

Cobweb against Keshavraj temple

‘Metallic’ lizard

What an appetite!

Water captured at fast shutter speed

Hibiscus	another Hibiscus	yet another Hibiscus	and the last one
behind the stones	Christmas tree	Unknown	Rose