Sometime last month, my good pal and former colleague from JP Morgan, Soumen asked me whether I wanted to accompany him and another pal of his on a trip to Dapoli. The description of the place seemed interesting and there were forts nearby (have a fascination for old forts), so I decided to tag along.

Dapoli, a small town in Ratnagiri, along the Konkan coastline is about a 5 hour drive from Mumbai. The place boasts of being a mini-hill station, as the elevation rises quickly to 800ft above sea level within just 7km from the sea shore. It has a number of beautiful beaches close by, some old forts, an excellent agricultural university, old temples, caves, hot water springs, parasailing, ATV rides on the beach, dolphin spotting, plenty of spots for birding and some fantastic local cuisine. In short, there is something for everyone at Dapoli.

We left Mumbai early on Saturday morning by a semi-luxury ST Bus from Borivali. It was probably not the most ideal mode of transport, given that it took almost 2 hours to exit the city, but I guess we had few other options. The ST bus ride usually takes six hours from Mumbai to Dapoli, on account of the numerous stops along the way. In our case we took probably 8 hours, courtesy of a flat tire along the way. We finally reached Dapoli at about three in the afternoon, just in time for lunch. After a quick lunch we headed to our next stop.

Accommodation was courtesy of the uncle of a friend of Soumen’s, who generously gave us his empty flat to stay in. He even arranged for a car for us travel around as well as gave us a guided tour of the place. In the evening we headed off to the nearby Murud beach. Murud beach is pretty close to Dapoli, and is probably a popular hangout for people visiting Dapoli. The beach wasn’t as deserted as I expected, given my previous experience at Tarkarli. You actually had camels on the beach, along with ATV’s and parasailing. We spent some time on the beach, before deciding what we would do the next day. Dinner was some excellent fried pomfret at a local restaurant.

The next day we set out first on a short visit to uncle’s farmhouse. They were harvesting mangos at his farm and we got see some excellent specimens. After this we paid a visit to some caves which also hosted an ancient temple. The region was once ruled by Muslim rulers who destroyed any temples in the region. This caused the temple to move underground to a safe location. After this we went onwards towards Dabhol, the location of the controversial Enron built power plant. We spent some time at the ferry docks there, chatting with some boat owners who regaled us to tales of the seas, storms and pitched gun battles on the high seas. In the evening we went towards Harne, a fishing town some distance from Dapoli. The ride to the place was breathtaking, with sparkling white beaches seen from the hilltop road. We visited the famous Kadyavarcha Ganpati temple, passed by Kanakdurg fort, the old church of Harnai and tons of fish being dried on the hillside. A tank near the temple presented a unique birding opportunity. In the ten odd minutes that we were there, we saw a golden oriole, a pair of spotted doves, coppersmith barbets, magpie robins and an Asian paradise flycatcher.

Prawns on sale at the Harne fish market

We spent the remainder of the evening at the landing area near the fort, where fresh catch was being landed on shore. It was fascinating to see the entire process of  the catch being landed, auctioned and packaged in a matter of a few minutes. We then moved on to Murud beach, where we had arranged for stay on the beach.  Dinner this time was fried pomfrets, kingfish and prawns  on the beach with some wine and good friends for company. We finished the day with a walk on the beach at almost midnight, looking up at the stars in the sky and planning out our next trip to Ladakh.

We woke up early in the morning on the next day so that we could head out to sea to try and spot some dolphins. Luckily we managed to spot a good number of them in a short while. After that we went back to the beach for some breakfast and then proceeded to return to Dapoli. We spent the rest of the day getting a guided tour of the facilities at Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Kokan Krishi Vidyapeeth, one of the prominent agricultural universities in Maharashtra. It was an interesting journey through the manicured gardens of the university. We also saw the university’s various plantations like Sapodilla, Brinjal, Rubber etc. We also saw the university’s greenhouses and saw how mushrooms were being cultivated. Some of the other interesting things that we saw included a visit to the winery at the university where they were experimenting with creating wine from cashew instead of grapes. The sample that we tasted there was quite good. We also saw how biological pesticides are used to control pests as well as got a peek into a state of the art transgenic research lab where research was on into making more varieties of Bt crops. We ended the day with a visit to the 1000-2000 acre Bio-Diversity Park that the department of horticulture created at the University.

The next day we got back to Mumbai by an afternoon bus which thankfully took just 6 hours. Dapoli was an interesting trip overall, and though I didn’t get to finish everything on my list there, I had a nice time there. The hospitality and the kindness of strangers there really made my day. I’m hoping to visit the place again after the monsoons so that I can explore the region further.