Tuesday 5 January 2016

Pune to Ratnagiri trip Day 2: Jaigad fort and an unknown beach

After wasting 3-4 hrs of day 1 (to know how did we manage to waste our time click here), we were determined to be extra cautious for day 2 and planning started as soon as we got room on day 1. So everything was set, when we would leave, what next then what and so on. 

So next day we started at 7:00 AM on a religious note and visited the Ganapatipule temple. Temple is situated on Ganapatipune beach itself and was on a walk-able distance from our room. It is Lord Ganesh’s temple and it is believed some 400 years before, the Ganesh idol emerged from earth. This temple is covered with hills from all around and people do parikrama as part of their pooja. But we avoided as it is a walk of around 1 KM. Inside temple premises, one counter is for laddu prasad, and being a laddu lover, we bought 5-6 packets which were sort of sufficient for 1 week of our sweet appetite. 



After temple visit, we were coming back to room when in between there was some kind of exhibition going on and which was offering breakfast also. We decided to have a walk inside and have some breakfast also. That exhibition came out to be, I guess, an initiative by government which offers a place to the nearby villagers to sell their product directly to people. Stalls were having different options ranging from handicraft work, cashew nuts of really high quality and as I said some stalls for morning breakfast also. We bought cashew nuts , had breakfast of sambar-vada, and vada pav and chai and reached our room. 

After checking out, we started for Jaigad fort which was 14 KM far. You can take your vehicle right up to the gate of fort. Jaigad fort was not in very good condition and apart from a boundary wall with wide attached walking path, which, being on height, offers some scenic viewpoints, there was nothing much to see. 5-6 staircases are there in entire boundary wall and you can get on and off the walking path. From one side, Jaigad fort overlooks the Arabian Sea and because Jaigad port is very nearby, from walking path you can see the arrangements done by port for their day to day stuff. We make a quick round of it and decided to turn back. Some pics of Jaigad fort and the view of port from fort.




Jaigad fort might not be as expected but the road to Jaigad fort takes you through a village and that is very soothing to eyes with coconut trees, mango trees in road side. Here in Ratnagiri area one can get mango trees and wide spread mango groves all around. In northern part of India, we used to see majorly Neem, Eucalyptus, Banyan, Peepal trees on road side, but Ratnagiri has mango trees all around even on road side government has planted mango trees. While coming to Ratnagiri from Pune and also while returning from Jaigad fort, we noticed many beautiful mango groves.

Ganapatipule beach we have covered on day one, but we found at least 2 beaches en route to Jaigad. As these beaches were not very famous, so less commercialized and less crowded also. We stopped at one of those and spent some 1 hour there. This time I had decided to rest more on beach than bathing. So I said completely NO to water, and after having some fruits and snacks I stretched my legs and clicked some beautiful, while my husband and friends went to water. Some pics of beach.




Happy Ghumakkadi :)

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