Photoblog of Trip to Dapoli : October 2010 -

We had a get together of our close family members at Dapoli on October 30-31, 2010. The idea was to have a relaxed holidays for two days at Aryawarta Holiday Village  located 3 kms from Dapoli town. But all of us being travel buff, took time off from the relaxation for some sightseeings around Dapoli. Now let the pictures below do the talking.



Tourist map of Dapoli taluka. Dapoli town is about 250 kms from Mumbai and it takes about 6 hours to reach Dapoli via Mumbai-Goa road (NH.17). We took a tea break at Kshan Bhar restaurant near Karnala while going to Dapoli and took lunch break at Kamath Residency at Nagothane while returning from Dapoli.

Road to Dapoli bifurcates to the right at Lonere Phata on NH.17. The Dapoli road was, by and large, in good condition.    

This wildflower  and the one below were common on the Dapoli road side. 

The view from the balcony of our home stay bungalow in Aryawarta Holiday Village. 

View of few more bungalows from the balcony of our home stay bungalow.  There are around 50 bungalows ranging from 2 bedrooms -hall to 4 bedrooms-hall in Aryawarta Holiday Village (http://www.aryawarta.co.in/index.html) owned by individuals but leased to Aryawarta for managing home stays. The owners have right to stay in their bungalows whenever they feel like with prior notice to Aryawarta management.

Entrance to our home stay bungalow with Diwali lantern. The rooms were clean and spacious with TV, refrigerator, western style toilets with solar-power water heaters.  

The yummy modaks served during one of the lunches in Aryawarta. The breakfasts, lunches and dinners are mostly with vegetarian Maharashtrian menus but non-vegetarian dishes are served with prior orders with extra charges. 

Rabits in Children's play area in Aryawarta.

A part of Harnai beach seen from the ghat road to Anjarle village. The recent oil spill off Mumbai coast seems to have affected the beach. 

The bridge over Anjarle Creek on way to Anjarle Ganesh temple.

 

Mangroves in the midst of Anjarle Creek on way to Anjarle Ganesh temple. 



Ganesh temple seen from ghat road to Anjarle village. The temple is actually  located on a cliff in the midst of forest but the zoom shot does not give that impression.

Ganesh temple also known as Kadyavarcha  Ganpati ( Ganesh on cliff top) near Anjarle village which is about 24 kms from Dapoli. Normally, the Ganesh idols in the temples are with trunks curved to left side but the  Ganesh idol in Anjarle temple is with its trunk curved towards right side. The view of seashore, Harnai beach and the Anjarle village nestled in the midst of coconut and areca nut trees.  Photogrphy inside the temple is prohibited.

A typican Konkani house in a plantation near the starting point of the 2 km walk to Keshavraj temple. On the roof are betel nuts kept for drying.

Starting point of 2 km walk to Keshavraj temple. The walk is through betel nut, coconut and jackfruit trees plantations on both sides of the narrow lane.

A bunch of flowers in one of the plantations on way to Keshavraj temple.

The first one km of walk was descent.....

The betel nut plantations (above and bottom pictures) dominated the surroundings on way to Keshavraj temple.

After crossing  Asud river (picture below) over a narrow bridge, the climb started for Keshavraj temple. 

Asud river. This river is in spate during rainy season.

Keshavraj temple. Keshavraj (Vishnu) is the deity of Deodhar and Dixit families. The temple is located in Asud village, 10 kms from Dapoli.  Photography inside the temple is prohibited. 

Group photo outside Keshavraj temple.

 

The perennial natural spring  flows from the nearby hill tops and pass through Gaumukh in Keshavraj temple complex.

 

Amrute's Nisarga Sahavas  http://www.nisargasahavas.com/home) is an agro-rural tourism project. Among other things, it also has fruits, medicinal, spices, flowers, aromatic and commercial plants nursery. Pictures of flowers and plants below were taken from Amrute's nursery.

Common lily flower.

Unusual banana flower.

These are the fruits which oozes out reddish-orange colour when from their seeds when sqeezed. This natural colour can be used in  food preparations such as biryani, jilebi, shrikhand etc. instead of using synthetic colours. 

A giant flower with unusual colour.

We saw these yellow flowers on creeper plants in the nursery.

Murud beach is 12 kms from Dapoli. The sand was partly blackened probably due to recent oil sleeks off Mumbai coast. Despite a board at the entrance to the beach indicating not to take cars and bikes on the beach, many car and bikes owners were seen driving their vehicles on the beach as can be seen from the tyre marks on the beach. 

This Sumo owner was crazy driving at the edge of the sea shore on the beach get a thrill of flashing sea water.

Para sailing at Murud beach.

Murud beach.

Fishing trawlers sailing off Murud beach towards Harnai port.

A fishing trawler off Murud beach in the evening.   

Sun set at Murud beach.