Weekend trip to Diveagar and Harihareshwar – 17-18 Oct 09

It is been a see-all-the-beaches-you-can-while-you-can for the last few weekends and this weekend was no different. A 2-day trip to Diveagar was planned for the Diwali weekend of 17th and 18th October 2009. Planned by a colleague, Daniel, I tagged along with another colleague Neville and Daniel’s cousin Rohit and common friend Nilu. We met at 7 in the morning at Sion Station and headed out towards Vashi. From there we went to Panvel and took the Mumbai-Goa Highway (NH17). For most part of our journey we were on NH17 which is a pleasant ride! Finally after reaching Mangaon we took a right turn to go to Diveagar, the place where a 1000 year old full-gold statue of Lord Ganesha was found!.  Below is the road map of the route (Source: Google Images) we took to reach Diveagar.

We took 5 hours to reach Diveagar which was good time covered considering we took a couple of wrong turns, stopped for breakfast and stopped a few times to ask for directions! We booked a room at a cottage run by a family which, incidentally, is also a Hindustan Petroleum (HP) gas dealer. The name is Vrindavan but asking for ‘HP Gas Dealer’ works better :D.

Interesting here to note is that if a ferry ride can be availed from Murud to Dighi then Diveagar is only a short distance from Mumbai and not the 200 Kms that we covered! A quick search led me to some forums which state that ferries can be transported from Murud to Dighi. So its quite possible to do a one-day trip to this serene beach.

After reaching the cottage, we freshened up and went for lunch at Prathamesh Holiday Resort which only serves fish in Non-Veg Thali and Watana in Veg. The food though, is nothing to complain about. The Surmai Fry and Surmai Masala were really delicious albeit a little too spicy for my liking. Per Thali costs came to INR 140 which is cheap considering the amount and quality of fish served! A point to add here is that, it is better to speak in Marathi or they might not understand the order correctly even though it is a simple menu!

The delicious lunch was followed by a trip to Diveagar beach, which at 3 PM, and rightly so since it was quite hot, was deserted with only the Migratory Seagulls sharing this long beach with us! The beach is clean and one of the most picturesque places I have seen so far! One has to go through a dense cover of coconut and Betal Trees to reach the beach. The feeling you get after passing the forests and finally getting on to the path from where the sea is visible is irreplaceable. You have to be there to believe that such a place exists and is not so far from Mumbai or Pune!

We had earlier decided to only ‘have a look at Diveagar beach’ and head to Harihareshwar but instead we ended up spending close to 2 hours there! At 4:30 PM we finally did move on to the temple town of Harihareshwar which is considered to be one of the holiest towns in Maharashtra. The original plan was to watch the sunset at Harihareshwar and we almost ended up missing the sunset as we had a late start from our cottage. But thankfully, due to some skillful driving by my friend Neville and the fact that the days are longer for it being the summer season, we reached just in time to catch the beautiful sunset.

The sunset picture clicking session was followed by a light snack at the adjoining MTDC Resort. We had Kanda Bhajiya and Batata Bhajiya both of which were good and filled our tummies! Though it was a fun drive to Harihareshwar for the sunset, we soon realised that the more exciting part of the day, or should I say night, had only just began. It was pitch black and we had to drive all the way back, 35 Kms, to Diveagar! Scary but adventurous came to my mind. It was a slow drive back home and a bit eventful as well with the suicidal toads (the name we gave the toads that only crossed the roads when a vehicle would pass by) crossing the roads every now and then and the beautiful Diwali fireworks in the distance on our left. We did halt for lunch at a roadside Chinese eatery which is nothing to write about. It is unfortunate that we ate there since after arriving at Diveagar we realised that most eateries here remain open until 10 PM.  Sigh! We did have ice cream at an Amul Ice Cream Parlour close to our cottage. That ended our first day on this short trip.

Day 2

Day 2 started early, very early. Went to Diveagar beach before sunrise to catch the beautiful morning sun against the backdrop of the Betal trees. Took a round of the beach as well. Checked out the small creek which is teeming with fishes which in turn feed the migratory Seagulls! Ah! The cycle of life. There was a high tide in the morning which did catch me by surprise cause I had crossed over on this small patch of land divided by the creek and crossing back was a bit scary!! Anyways, after the scary incident, got back to my group, clicked a few pictures, took a bath and went back to the cottage. For breakfast, we were served Poha with grated coconut. It is the best Poha I have ever had and the grated coconut made it all the more better!

Sadly, it was time to leave as the check out time is 11:00 AM. We said goodbye to the family and headed back home. On the way back, we stopped at Vadkhal Naka for lunch at Upkar Restaurant which serves some good Prawns masala. That was the last stop until Neville’s car stalled as the LPG fuel had gotten over! Not a big issue though as he switched onto petrol (after a good 20 minutes did the car finally start!) and refueled at a nearby petrol pump.  After that we headed back home, nice and safe and very very tired!

A brief Trip Log – Total Distance covered approximately (450 Kms, excluding the distance covered by taking some wrong turns here and there!)

Route taken (as seen from the map) – Mumbai-Panvel-Pen-Mangaon-Mhasala-Diveagar. We took the same route while coming back home.

On a closing note, I feel that a full 2 day/2 night trip would be suitable to visit all the places in and around Diveagar/Harihareshwar and Shrivardhan. They not only offer beautiful beaches and scenary but also quite a few temples.

Here is the contact detail of the cottage where we stayed:

Name of the place: Vrindavan

Contact Person – Sameer or Vasant B. Gandre

Ph: Diveagar – 952147-224270/71 | 9594142591

Mumbai – 9702037865/9960627965

Pune – 9890927965

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