Sunday, December 28, 2008

Hari Hareshwar - (9/10) Beaches Mountains and much more

Trip Details in Brief -
Itinerary : Mumbai (Kurla) -> Mangaon -> Sri-Vardhan Bay(Night stay)-> HariHareshwar (temple and beach stint) ->Divaghar ->Mangaon ->Kurla (back home)
Duration of the Trip : 1.5 days (ideal plan for 2 days)
Trip cost : INR 1,000-1,500/- (including travel, stay and food)
Ideal Time : All over the year (except during rainy season)
Do Not miss :

1) Ride across Tum-Tums (Share Autos)
2) Hill-Locked shallow beaches (We ran along 1 km into the hip-deep sea)
3) Night binge upon the beach (under a single Street lamp)
4) Kurla-Mangaon Train Journey (prepared to be jostled)
5) Non-Veg coastal food (*Inputs from my non-veggie frnds)
6) Long walks across the village & the serene beaches.
7) The most beautiful naturally carved Mountain edge (see it to believe)

Things you can miss:
1) Harrowing State-Bus journeys (you would be treated worse than cattle)
2) Night Travel via Train back to Kurla.
3) Trip to DivaGhar (the temple is hardly a reason for the travel)

Additional Links
:
Detailed travelogue by friends
Web Site
The Trip :
We all began the trip around 2 PM from the Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus via the un-reserved compartments enroute the scenic Konkan railroute for an approx 4 hours.
First Stop Mangaonone of the few great legends about any train journey as continued with the konkan route is the assortment of eateries you can load yourself with including chiku fruits, chats and ek cup chai.
From Mangaon we took a Cab (better than the bus journey) all the way to srivardhan for a pleasant 2 hour trip landing in our beach resort (There are also lot of MTDC resorts you can book before beginning your trip)

The Hang-out at Srivardhan beach resortAfter a quick wash all of us were off to our first street-lamp lit dinner at the beach (luckily we didn't get caught by the police ;) )
The next morning a few sober of us went on to enjoy the sea-side pleasures



Around 11 Am we all left for the next leg of the journey all the way to Hari Hareshwar via the splendid journey across the mountain terrains upon a Tum-Tum(share auto).

After a brief darshan of Lord Kalbhairav we were off upon the mountains which house the temple and then completing an entire loop across the base of the twin mountains.
The artistry across the mountain-base which has been formed due to constant bombardment of the sea is truly breath-taking and of course I am going to let the pictures themselves speak all the words.

Our final part of the trip was something which we could have avoided but as with the enthusiasm of any proverbial traveller we set pace to divaghar to check out the Swarna-ganapathi (Golden-Elephant) temple. Due to this, not only did we end up spending quite some time travelling in a total rickety state-bus but also ended up spending up till mid-night 1 AM stranded on a desolate station platform.

Ending the post with a couple more pics of the natural stone-worksmanship (click on them for a bigger