The Konkan Coast

The last weekend, being a rather long-ish one, we decided to pack our bags and take a break from the non-stop action that is Mumbai. Our destination? The famed Ratnagiri coastline.

After about 9 hours, a couple of breaks and many motion sickness tablets later, we arrived at our Resort - well, more of a homestay, actually, the Oceano Pearl.

This is situated a bit further along the coast, at Ganeshgule, the lesser known cousin of Ganpatipule.

our lovely weekend pad

I wish I could tell you that we stayed at this marvellous treehouse at the property. Sadly, its not for families with young children

Oceano Pearl has many things going for it - its rustic ambience, the fantastic location, just minutes from the beach, nestled in farmland and greenery throughout; but primarily, its biggest USP, by far would be the absolute lack of cellphone signals this far out into the coast.

The little sit -out in the front for those who want to keep an eye on the comings and goings

This means I spotted far more people willing to make eye contact and wanting to hold a conversation, Child 1 and Baa-lamb included.

Plenty of green and no towers in sight

Both kids were thoroughly chuffed that the stretch of beach adjoining the property was deserted. The evening was thus spent watching the sunset, releasing tiny starfish back into the sea and spotting scuttling sandcrabs.

Deserted. Except for my 3 and an odd cow.

sandcrabs were being chased...

starfish were being admired...

sunset was being enjoyed.

What? We really love sunsets.

Dinner, at the resort (there isn't anything around for miles, so, unless you want to traipse into town for a meal, this is your best bet) was a homely affair. If you are planning to order here, though, I suggest you order at least an hour in advance as the food is freshly prepared and made to order.
The following morning, we set off after breakfast to Ganpatipule.

This flautist, outside the temple playing the tune from 'Hero'. Blast from the Past!

The temple exit, facing the sea

The Ganpatipule temple by the sea, had one of the most picturesque locations as far as temples go. Situated on the shores of the beach, the sea was quite some distance away, but we were told that once a year, the waves wash right upto the sanctum sanctorum.

There's also a rather large Mooshika guarding the entrance. Legend has it that anything whispered into the ear of said Mooshika comes true.

Child 2, whispering secrets into a willing ear

For child 2, what was also truly legendary were the laddoos that were being sold at the temple. They were consumed in copious amounts, thus energising us for our next stop - the Ratnadurg fort and the Bhagwati temple situated within.

The Bhagwati Temple

The husband casually informed me that the fort was supposed to be haunted. But in the bright light of day with the sun mercilessly beating down on us, the place looked quite benign.

Views from the fort

I do wish when restoring or maintaining a fort, people wouldn't casually slap paint on the stones in an effort to spruce it up, but that apart, the fort itself was pretty impressive. placed atop the cliff with spectacular views of the sea as well as the surrounding land.

Painted walls. Really, now. 

The Marathas clearly knew their stuff.

For my Mumbai friends. I know you're repeating this in your heads :)

We'd taken the scenic route to and from the fort, along the coast and could see the Aarey as well as the Vaarey beach (I promise you I am not making these names up). The waters were crystal clear and there wasn't a soul to be spotted on the white sand below.

clear blue seas

Serious urges to run across those white sands

Look! Not a soul in sight!

The only thing stopping us from racing down to the beach was the lack of shade and rising mercury levels. Beaches in India especially in the summer months are best enjoyed before 10 am or after 4pm.

a sea of Fishing nets being folded away for the day

We stopped in Ratnagiri for lunch and decided to drop into Thiba palace.

Thiba Palace

The palace was built by the British for the erstwhile king of Burma in exile, and is currently being restored by the ASI.

restoration under way

The central courtyard

I can't wait to see the palace restored to its former glory complete with a Burma teak staircases and the 100 year old stone structures. It also houses several sculptures from the 10th and 12th Century, which were rather worn, but still beautiful. I really enjoyed the eclectic collection of statues and works from the region.

a terra cotta capital from the region housed at the palace

Our evening was spent once more playing at our 'private beach' and making 'sun-hearts'.

Mum, dad and sunhearts

The sun dawned bright and early the next morning on sundry birds, flowers and holi celebrations.

A Bird on a wire...

A Solitary heron...

an early sandpiper...

...and other colourful, unidentified species.

Yes, this being the Holi weekend, the kids were looking rather furlorn at the prospect of missing out on the celebrations at our apartment, and so, colours and giggles were the order of the day.
The evening saw us visiting another fort nearby - Purnagad.

its almost like a gateway to another world

This one isn't under the purview of the ASI and not particularly well kept, but still, so brilliant to look at, you can see why the Marathas were such a formidable force. A short ride later we were back at the beach at Bhandardara. Not our cup of tea- more commercial, and a bit more crowded. The kids, however, did spot a flying monkey :)
We had to leave early the next day to make it back at a decent time to Mumbai, but Umesh, our intrepid driver and guide during this trip suggested we visit Marleshwar on our drive back.

the Sahyadris

This temple is situated in a cave high up in the hills of the Sahyadris, and although there's a short climb to get to it, the view makes it worthwhile.

tucked away within the mountain range

Yup, the temple is through that tine doorway. And yes, we were warned that we might be visited by the odd snake.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for another couple of pitstops (Zunka Bhakars included)

this cheeky lady and her baby who we all fell in love with...

and a few more anti- vomiting pills later, we made it back home, tired, yet thoroughly refreshed, and a bit more in love with India.

A view of the village celebrations through our windscreen

On location at the port of Dubrovnik

Our arrival in Dubrovnik was fairly swift - the last hour or so, especially smooth in the lovely motorways of Croatia.

The view on the motorways as you enter Dubrovnik

At our guest house, we were greeted by the nicest old lady I have ever met. Jele had fresh juices and water ready for our arrival, and told us about the best places to visit during our stay. If you ever get the chance to visit Dubrovnik, be sure to pay her a visit at Guest house Nikolina
An invaluable tip she gave us was about the Dubrovnik Card. It's a but like the London Pass, with options to choose from 1 day to a week. They grant you entry into quite a few places and museums along with free travel on the public transport, So, our walking tour was ditched in favour of the Dubrovnik card, which pretty much dictated the sites we'd visit.
That night, we drove up to mount Srd at the recommendation of our lovely lady at the guest house to watch the sunset. Oh my! what a spectacular view of the walled city and the surroundings. You can take the cable car up here and walk down too. Or if you fancy, there's a restaurant on top of Mount Srd where you could dine as you look at the beautiful city and the sea beyond.  The baa-lamb and me- we did none of those things. We did, however did go slightly overboard with the clicking of the walled city in the sunset, the sunset, the kids with the backdrop of the old city in the sunset, us with the backdrop of the old city in the sunset, a random couple clicking pictures of the sunset...you get the drift (you see, the Baa lamb had just discovered this wonderful thing called the selfie-stick).

Tell me you don't find that beautiful!

My mum in law though we were complete nutters. Refused to have anything to do with us, The smart woman. Of course, we chose to drive down in the dark (it had some pretty tricky moments with no lights and car coming both ways when really, its a one-vehicle road in some places).

A fabulous sunset at Sdr

The view as we drove down Sdr

Didn't have a tripod, so not the clearest of shots. 

The next morning we set off by bus to discover Stari-Grad and walk along the walls of the old city. We were instantly surrounded on all sides by avid Game-of-Throners who insisted on clicking themselves at every single spot ever shot at for 'Kings Landing' occasionally letting out an excited squeal or an 'OhmiGAwd!'. The slight more articulate ones kept throwing phrases like 'Winter is coming!' at unsuspecting tourists (who were looking rather bewildered on the hot, sunny day).
Me? I kept clicking all those spots too- But more for the jaw-dropping views it afforded, yes, yes, I know I have probably exhausted all synonyms for spectacular by now, but really... here. Look!

This is one of my favourites- a musician playing outside the church, 

Roaming around Starigrad was fun (for me) but the kids by now had had enough of 'old stuff' and 'dead people' and so off we went, to Banje beach, which was a stone's throw from the old town.

Blue seas as far as the eye could see and tiny. yelling humans occupying every square inch. The kids didn't seem to care a jot, but I was frantically trying to sit under the shadow of resting surfboards and kayaks being hauled in from the sea.

Banje- somewhere in the sea of humans is young Pickwick. 10 points if you can spot him!

This couple obviously didn't want to share the sea with screaming rugrats, so they decided to take a dip just off the fortress. 

Got myself some pretty dubious looks the way I was skulking about, so after about an hour of suffering in silence, I finally gave up the ghost of an afternoon by the sea and moved on to the restful, cool climes of the apartment, only stopping long enough to book a sun-set sea-kayaking expedidition. That got the kids (and frankly, us too) so excited, we could hardly wait. and just like most things that get us really excited, it ended up in a damp squib - no literally. We were hit by thunderstorms just around sunset. Considering there were about 1.5 swimmers amongst the 5 of us, we decided sea-kayaking would just have to wait another place, another time.
Having found ourselves at loose ends on account of the weather, and not behind able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, we decided a few of the museums mentioned in the City Passes would be worth visiting (that being the only way to drag the baa lamb into the museum - inclement weather).

The Natural History museum in Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful buildings, housing one of the most disappointing exhibits! It was full of stuffed animals, you couldn't touch any of the exhibits and there wasn't a single dinosaur bone in sight! There were some interesting fossils in in bubbles, but again, we couldn't touch the bubbles! (have you tried telling kids you can't touch bubbles, especially ones with interesting stuff in them?)

the only interactive thing at the natural history museum!

 

To soften the blow, we had Pizza that night, and turned in early.

The kids wanted to know if the plane would find the pot of gold of it flew into the rainbow :)

We also caught sight of a rainbow to make up for the rain. That cheered the kids up no end! Our next leg covers 3 countries and ends back in Croatia! Stay tuned...