Year 2015 has come to an end and like many long weekends
throughout the year, December month also hosted one of them, Christmas holiday
falls on Friday. Being in Pune, winter season opened numerous options to visit
in nearby places. Ratnagiri was in our target since long and it seems a right
time to nail it.
Beaches and road trips are best enjoyed when in groups,
hence asked few of our friends and one of them (a couple, my husband’s friend
and his wife) agreed to come along. So we were 4 people. We live in entirely
opposite direction in Pune and our places are around 40 KMs apart. They agreed
to come to our place in morning. In normal case I would have targeted for 6 AM
in morning, but as they had to cover 40 km in early morning in December, I was
expecting to leave by 7:30 max to max. They reach our place at 7 AM, we quickly
had Chai and Poha (though I was dying to have maggi that morning, but was not
sure if our friends too would feel the same craving, so being on safe side
prepared something which is liked by all).Though
my maid agreed to come early, but she was even late than her usual timings.
Anyways as soon as we finished she rang the bell, and while we were giving the
final touch to the packing and preparation, she did the dishes.
So we finally started at sharp 8:00 AM. There are 2 routes
from Pune to Ratnagiri. One is through Satara highway (316 KM) and other one is
through Mulshi -> Mangaon -> Mahad -> Asurde -> Chiplun -> Ratnagiri
(basically NH66 and it is 295 KM). We decided to follow the latter route while
going and the other route while coming back. We started with only 1/4th
filled tank. So as soon as we hit the road we were looking for a patrol pump J. My husband suggested
to travel to a patrol pump which is 3-4 KM in opposite direction (means all in
all around 15-20 mins of time wasting, which I was in no mood to do), on which I
counter suggested we were not going in some different planet and would get one en
route. :)
You
leave Pune and you will get to see such beautiful places that you will be tempted
to stop and get clicked at every one of them. We too stopped at one of them and
clicked few pictures.
After that we only took 1-2 tiny breaks to buy cold drinks
and some chips and were non-stop driving till around 2:00 PM when we stopped
for lunch. It was a nice garden hotel which serves only Thali. Quickly had lunch while clicking some pictures and started
again. Navigator was predicting our entry in GanapatiPule at 4:15 PM and he is
never wrong. Our plan was to reach Ganapatipule, book a room and in evening
visit the beach for sunset and GanapatiPule temple. So as soon as we enter, my
husband parked the car and went for room hunting in nearby hotels along with
his friend. We have always planned like this and in very few occasions have
booked hotel beforehand. It always worked, but that day has something else in
store. So after spending around 30 mins here and there, they came back and
sensing that we could miss the sunset, we decided to visit the beach first and
after sunset to look for room. We were having no idea what was waiting for us J. So we asked for the
way to beach, and went ahead.
Beach from there was hardly 1.5 Km, but there seems to be
some traffic on the way. We spent around
15 min in the queue, then come one turn and now we could see the horrified
traffic ahead. That lane was completely jammed. After spending another 20 mins
there, I could no longer wait and got off the car to see what caused this jam. Walked
few mins only to found next road too in same condition. Now it was clear that
if we kept on waiting here, our sunset will be here in this jam-packed road. We
decided to turn back. Airtel network was not working properly, but I checked
and it worked and I started the navigator. What I found was there is a narrow
lane right next to where we first parked our car, that goes directly to beach.
We decided to take that road and made most of the remaining time. It was hardly
10 mins journey from there through a small village. In that village also there
were some small hotels. We thought as there was little time left, we would go
directly to beach and then book room in one of those hotels.
So finally we were on Ganpatipule beach. Sun was setting and
it was a sight to hold. Though beach was bustling with people, we went a bit
farther and found a quiet place. Did some photography, sat on the nearby rocks
and saw the sunset.
Ganpatipule temple is on the beach itself, but as it was
almost dark then, we decided to visit the temple next day in morning. We
started back to parking which is in some distance from beach and in between we
were also looking for room in nearby area. To our utter shock, we found every
room in every single hotel, lodge is full !!!.
Some people were literally wandering bewildered asking “Aap bi room khoj rhe hai”, “ye lto full
hai”, “,main peeche dekh k aaya, udhar sab full hai”. We were still unable
to digest it, how come there is no free room anywhere? Lodges , which doesn’t have proper roof were
giving room in 4000 Rs. on sharing basis. It was around 6:45 PM when we left
beach and it was around 8:30 PM and we were still struggling. On the way were
some restaurant and everyone was hungry, but no one dared talking about having
dinner. I was thinking “Yaar khana kha
lete hai, room to mil nhi rhe hai, aisa na ho thodi der me khana bi khtm ho
jaye”.
We reached the parking and there we ladies decided to wait
in car, and our husbands went in final searching. After that there were no
option but to sleep in car L.
We were mentally preparing ourselves. Sleeping in car was not that much an
issue, as it was the morning chores. After around 1.5 hrs, our husbands finally
returned, giving us the good news of getting one room in one house on sharing
basis, only one single bed for one person. Remaining 3 persons had to sleep on
floor. Cost was 1700 Rs.. There was no parking so we left the car in the same
parking, took our luggage and finally came to room at 10:00 PM.
We freshened up quickly and went for dinner. Food was okay.
Everything looked good now given the fact that some 30 mins before we were
thinking of sleeping in car. While returning from dinner, there were still many
families with small kids, with old age parents, who were still searching for
rooms. At one corner of a shop I found 2 girls sitting with huge pile of
luggage. They must be in a college friends group and were not getting rooms.
Next day when we went for temple, on the way there cars
parked everywhere and by looking inside on the faces of people, you can see
they have spent the night in car only. People were sleeping in bus stops, some
even on footpaths also. Seeing the condition, we thought of ourselves very
lucky as we at least got one room, no matter in what condition it was.
So here comes the end of our Day 1 of the trip to Ratnagiri.
Lesson learnt: Avoid
visiting tourist places in peak time. This was the highest time to visit
Ratnagiri. December month, long weekend, year end. Better visit 1-2 months
before or after. At least you don’t have to get through all this and also you
will get value for your money.
Happy Ghumakkadi :)
