BHPian PrideRed recently shared this with other enthusiasts: It’s been quite some time since I made a longish road trip. Thanks to commitments and few trips outstation, most of roadtrips were limited to short ones (less than 1K). I usually avoid long weekend travel due to added traffic and crowd. However, made an exception and decided to travel over long weekend this time around. I was looking for a new location and Tarkarli/Malvan which was on bucket list for a long time. Of course, monsoon is not the right season as none of the watersports would be open and beaches would be murky with high tides. Quick check through the weather forecast indicated rain throughout the week and calls to MTDC indicated watersports/scuba diving would open in September or October. On the positive side more rain should ideally mean less crowd. I wanted to avoid all the crowded places and hence finalized on Tarkarli. Day 1 The drive to Tarkarli is about 12-14Hrs, we were not in hurry and wanted a leisurely drive. We started at around 4PM post commitments and decided to drive until 9PM or extend it until Hubli. I was expecting heavy traffic but there wasn’t much! STRR was a huge benefit, atleast saved us an hour. I was skeptical about Annual Pass but that worked flawlessly. We reached Tumkur by 530PM. While google maps indicated Hubli another 5-6 hrs , decided to stay at Davangere as there was decent traffic. Cousin works in Davangere and had a good time catching up with him for dinner. The STRR road being new was very good. From Dobaspet to Tumkur, there was considerable truck traffic which eased up after the Tumkur toll. From Then till Davangere road is good except for few diversions. We didn’t get much rains either. Day 2 We didn’t have much in agenda and started at around 6:30AM. Traffic was sparse, and we made good progress. In no time we were at Hubli-Dharwad highway. While the bypass is bad, I didn’t find it too bothersome, maybe less traffic helped us here. I wanted to visit Gurdutt bhavan in Hubli, a place that I visited many times when my sister used to study there, but that was about 30 min detour and by the time we were discussing if to take detour, we saw Big Mishra outlet. Decided to stop and found it quite a good breakfast place. Clean, big, tasty food and quick service. I bought some snacks here which I found were below average though. Post breakfast we resumed our journey, in less than an hour we were at Belgaum, here we took diversion towards Amboli. It was a different route this time and last time I recall we went via Gadhinglaj. There were lot of potholes in this stretch though was not very bad compared to say Shirdai during peak monsoon. Closer to Amboli found a nice stream with clear waters, we spent some time by the stream/falls. As we started approaching Amboli, roads got better. As expected, there was dense fog at the starting of ghat. We stopped at one of the eateries for food, gobbled few vada pav and tea. We resumed drive only to hit a 10 min traffic congestion near Amboli falls. After the falls, traffic started moving at a decent pace. Once we hit the malvan road, traffic reduced further and could hardly see any outstation vehicles. We reached our Tarkarli hotel by around 3PM. After unloading luggage, we went near Devbagh sangam, which was nearby. From there we headed to Malvan town, and it started raining cats and dogs, typical of the west coast. We roamed around tiny town and once the rain stopped, we shopped for some local stuff. Tanked up Fortuner at Malvan town and it was about 7PM. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for dinner by the bay. Had a sumptuous Thali which was quite good. Day 3 There was no specific plan and decided to drive towards Kunkeshwar/Devgad. Stopped at a tiny restaurant for breakfast and noticed a big poster mentioning about places to see around Malvan region. We shortlisted few which looked good. We had some Misal, poha and Ghavan chutney for breakfast. From here we headed towards Kunkeshwar temple which was by the beach. We did a quick visit from where we headed towards Mitmumbari beach which was closeby. Spent some time by the beach and clicked few pictures too. Next destination was the one’s we shortlisted from the place where we had breakfast- A windmill place (I forgot the name), we reached a plateau and there were a bunch on windmills. Towards edge, there was a small park which had breathtaking view of the beach and hills. It was a nice place, and we just sat there enjoying the scenery. We also went closer to the windmill to click some pictures. From here our next destination was a Ganpati temple (Again sorry, I forgot the name). This was about 30min drive from the windmill place. The temple as such was in an isolated place and next to a stream. The temple was small, and it has access to cave from where water comes through. The water was super clean and there were plenty of tiny fishes. A small part of the temple was on the other side of the stream and kids had lot of fun playing in water and crossing stream. It was lunch time, and we wanted to taste some local delicacies. Being vegetarian, our options are limited especially in the coastal region. We reached Malvan town and found a small restaurant which offered Malvan food. We ordered thali, kothambir vadi and some modaks. The food was good and fresh and quite cheap. We didn’t have much agenda for the rest of the day. Visited the ferry point of Sindhudurg fort but couldn’t visit the actual fort as boating hadn’t started yet. It wasn’t raining much, and we spent time by the beach around Tarkarli. By 6 PM it started raining quite heavily and we headed out for dinner to a nearby restaurant. While having dinner we were not sure where to head next and we didn’t have any booking either. Decided to drive towards South Goa which was just 4 hrs away. Day 3 and Day 4 As decided, we started towards South Goa, and we booked a stay at Varca. Since it was just 4 hrs drive, we started at 630-7. Once we hit highway, road was pretty decent and we reached by about 930-10 to Panaji and we had option of Caf Bhonsle or Kamat for breakfast, both of which we have visited quite a few times. Decided on Caf Bhonsle and found a parking nearby. It wasn’t that crowded, in fact we didn’t see many tourists while in Goa. Post Breakfast we made a quick visit to Mangeshi temple and headed towards Varca. We stayed for 2 days here and since the place we stayed was a beach side, we spent lot of time at beach. Also visited some of nice restaurants around. Day 5 Bangalore was 12hrs and home at Puttur was 6-7 hrs away and we decided for the latter. We reached home by lunch time and spent couple of days with family before returning to Bangalore. The roads from Goa to Mangalore are quite good throughout and traffic was again minimal being a weekday. This is a road that I have driven a lot ever since I started driving and continues to be my favorite.I had bought Annual Pass for fasttag when it opened up for booking and worked flawlessly except for one toll in STRR which showed blacklisted first, which flipped to green highlighting a different car number.Fortuner’s windscreen washer stopped working. I was bit apprehensive about driving without spray during peak monsoon but in reality, it did not matter much. Once back got motor replaced under warranty at Nandi Toyota.Despite travelling during long weekends and seeing reports of huge traffic jams, most of the places we visited didn’t have many tourists. Tarkarli on the day we arrived, half of the shops/restaurants didn’t even open throughout the day.Many places in the Malvan region didn’t have mobile signal. Luckily, we didn’t get lost anywhere.@Big Mishra where we stopped for Breakfast Outskirts of Belgaum Road between Belgaum-Amboli Enroute to Amboli Amboli Ghat Stream/falls where we stopped Fortuner near the stream Road leading to Tarkarli Again on the way to Tarkarli @Malvan Helipad Some random shots around Malvan @Ganpati temple Karli river Sindhurg fort in backgroound Nice view of Arabian Sea Goa! Thar drive to one of the restaurants by beach Beautiful beach Home sweet home Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
