Ganpatipule - Day 1

People do have strange ways of enjoying a journey. Some playing cricket, some sleeping, some playing cards and me? I enjoy the green picturesque views outside as the hills and coconut trees roll by. As our diesel train chugs by, a new hope of joy is created, the eyes of the smaller ones are glistening to the crackling of the wheels soothing on the tracks. The coach is full of all the 120 passengers, everybody seems to enjoy it in their own way. Slowly the train enters the beautiful green valleys and hills, the Konkan region, one of the most beautiful train routes in the world, in my opinion. A foggy morning starts the journey as the train rolls into the absolute vast jungles and hills of the Konkan region, landscapes change, making them more serene and ‘The Oxbow’ comes into reality. The journey might be long, but the beauty makes it seem shorter. With the numerous tunnels and rivers alike, our train slowly chugs into the Ratnagiri railway station, where the red soil, the cold breeze and the Alphonso mango trees welcome us.

Ratnagiri, a station built on the hills, a small but important railway station, the whole train’s passengers de boarded here, we get a glimpse of the green hills, the lively valleys, the open sky. We start our journey to the final destination, Ganpatipule, a holiday destination on the coast of the Arabian Sea with its crystal white beaches and the only Ganesh Temple that faces West. The road to our destination is a beautiful road traveling through the tight turns yet providing majestic views of the beaches on the left. We pass the beautiful Aare Ware Beach, then stopping on the View Point to have some coconut water since the roads were bad, and backs were hurting, stopping and taking a sight of the beach, we continue on the road passing by the Nevre Beach, Bhandarpule beach and soon, we enter Ganpatipule to our hotel. Freshened up, we head into the restaurant and have our first fill of Konkani Food, a Vegetarian Thali. The food was out of this world, way more tasty than I ever expected it to be. A short while later, we head on to the tourist attraction named, the Prachin Konkan, a small village built on the slopes of a hill depicting their livelihood 500 years ago in the Konkan region. We have our tour with the guides explaining everyone's roles in their daily lives, with the village head, the barber, the carpenter, potter, shepherds, fishermen etc. We had a beautiful insight to the lives they lived, the artistry. A short while later, we finished up our tour and started for the beach, soon we found an auto rickshaw and headed on to the beach.

Ganpatipule, a small village of 400 is based on the coast of the Arabian Sea and houses the temple of Ganpatipule, which is the only temple which faces west and its white sand beach. The story is that 400 years ago, there lived a man named Mr. Balbhatji Bhide, he used to worship Lord Ganesha. He used to help everyone who is in need of food and water and he sacrificed that and started worshiping until everyone was relieved of their personal calamity. During the same period, one of the cows would give milk on a certain stone and the cow herder was astonished and he narrated, Mr Bhide dug it to find a Ganpati idol underneath when he made the temple.

We visited the temple, gave a small puja and then clicked some pics and headed on to the beach. We spent the entire evening watching as the evening sun set for how far the eyes can see. The beach has white sand, albeit a bit sticky, yet it was fun. While the night started to set in, we hydrated ourselves with sweet coconut water and started our walk to the hotel. We reached the hotel, washed ourselves to get rid of the sand, which really didn’t work and set for dinner that night. We had an amazing dinner with a curry made out of Cashew Nuts and Solkadhi. That taste, I will never forget, it was too amazing. With dinner over, we made it to our hotel room for the long night in.

To Be Continued…

Fin.

---