Did a longish road trip after a long time. Drove down all the way to Vittal, around forty kilometers south of Mangalore and back to Mumbai. My wife was the perfect navigator, like in life, so on the road!
We revisited NH17 now NH66 after maybe a couple of decades ever since it was decided to widen the highway to make it an expressway. Sad to say lot needs to be done still with every town and city pockmarked with under construction flyovers and the service road in tatters with paver blocks jumping up and down. Yet I enjoyed the drive as the route is very scenic that one can admire between the towns and cities enroute. I would term it as a happening highway since one can never get bored as it keeps you involved every bit of the way! You may interpret it any which way you want to but I loved it and to make it more interesting I used the Google maps like I used to refer to paper maps in the good old days along with inputs from signage on the roads and the ever willing direction givers enroute!
We started our drive from Bandra, Mumbai at 0630 hrs when the weather was pleasant and the morning light had started easing out the darkness. We took the old route via Chembur to reach the Thane creek bridge instead of the Bandra Kurla connector elevated road. With sparse traffic at that hour it was a great beginning to the road trip.
We did not opt for the route via the Mumbai Pune expressway and instead took the good old route via Palaspe and Karnala. We literally flew over most of these places like Karnala, Pen and Vadhkal naka where previously we used to stop by for hot vada paos and chai.
Nevertheless, we stopped by at Joshi Vadewale somewhere on the way for yummy vada pao
and chai. Now they have a chain of cafes along the highway in Maharashtra providing typical Maharashtrian delicacies and clean washrooms. Strong competition to Vithal Kamats who used to rule the cafeteria business on the highways.
We had carried our lunch of curd rice and spicy baby potatoes. It was an ordeal to look for a shady spot along the new widened highway as all the trees were cut down to make way for the road. However we were blessed with a cloudy afternoon so we stopped at a layby and had our lunch under the shade provided by clouds, and moved on to our homestay that we had booked in Ratnagiri to stay overnight before moving on to Karwar the next day.
We reached the homestay which was a few kilometres off the highway around 1530 hrs. Was a pleasant stay, airconditioned room, clean toilet and close to a lot of restaurants and cafes.
Since the homestay did not have a restaurant we went for a short walk to the Ratnagiri railway
station and passed a lot of restaurants but most of them were closed and would open only at 1930 hrs. So, we had misal pao at one of the cafes but no chai as they had run out of milk!
The homestay provided only breakfast of delicious kande pohey.
We had that and then set out towards Karwar at 0900 hrs. Enroute we spotted a boutique restaurant and stopped for a bite and chai.
It was around 1100 hrs and they had just opened so the only thing that was available was delicious chilled solkadhi which we relished. The interiors were beautiful and the washrooms were clean too. A must visit if you are ever passing by. If the solkadhi was delicious the food too must be!
Soon we entered Goa and started looking for a restaurant to have a typical Goan lunch and
we found one at 1400 hrs called 'Mai Maria' (Mother Mary). We had a delicious as good as home cooked Fish thali and the service too was excellent. The waiting staff was male but the restaurant was managed by a lady and the kitchen staff were all ladies in their traditional attire. Here too, the washrooms were clean.
The drive post lunch was a breeze on good roads and we checked-in in our pre booked Hotel Amrut Aura in Karwar at 1630 hrs. They had a good safe parking facility and the room was good too. We rested for a while and then went for a walk in the market area around the hotel and had dinner at Aura restaurant. Here we had ghee roast fish masala (suggested by the captain), daali toye (a konkani speciality) with rice.
Quite satiating though I think I should have had rawa fried fish instead of the ghee roast masala which killed the fish flavour. Service was good.
What I liked in Karwar was ease of communication in my mother tongue – Konkani. Everyone conversed in Konkani also known as Karwari.
Next morning we checked out at 0700hrs for our drive to Vittal – our destination for this trip. We were going to Vittal, my ‘native place’ in Karnataka, for a religious festival (Brahmakalasha) that would last for a week.
We had a quintessential south Indian breakfast of yummy medu wadas and set dosas. Very filling and kept us happy on the road till Kalladka for our snack/lunch of Golli Bajjey and the
local favourite ‘Biscoot rotti’ followed by the world famous KT chai!
We rolled into our home in Vittal at 1600 hrs. We had barely managed to enter our house and made ourselves comfortable when thunderstorms struck and kept us captive with a Son et Lumiere show for a couple of hours. Thankfully it brought down the temperature by a couple of degrees.
temple meals can be.
After a week of religious revelry it was time to get back home to Mumbai.
Having heard incessantly of how much fun it is to drive on Anuskura ghats, we decided to drive via these world famous ghats too. Sheer FOMO.
We set out from Vittal at 0630 hrs and headed towards Goa to spend the night in Canacona.
We cruised along and started looking for a place to stop for a sumptuous breakfast. We found a Udipi restaurant (famous in Mumbai for South Indian snacks), where
Our next goal was the Swetha lunch home in Karwar for, yes, lunch! This restaurant specialises in Saraswat cuisine and they did not disappoint.
The only hitch is finding a parking place and no, they don’t have valet parking. But the eating experience is one memory that will last for a long, long time for sure.
Onward we gently drove along the beautiful highways to Goa where we reached our motel ‘Taste of Nature’ at 1430 hrs. It is a small resort more like a homestay with about eight
We too rested all afternoon and then late evening we went out for a stroll to pick up something light to eat. All the restaurants in the area were deserted but with soft music playing. We were in no mood to have a ‘dinner’ so we walked into German bakery for a couple
Next morning we set out from Canacona at 0630 hrs to reach Karad for our night halt.
Had our standard breakfast of idli vada and Mysore masala dosa enroute and set out eagerly looking forward to driving on the Anuskura ghats.
We had read reviews of a homely café on the ghats called Shri Swami Samarth foods which did
not disappoint. We had delicious Amboli chutney which was filling and an apt food for the drive. It was very hot and humid and the owner of the café had a sprinkler on the roof which fine sprayed cool water on and off and it was a welcome initiative indeed. Helped cool down the ambiance.
The drive on the Anuskura ghats did not disappoint either! Full of twisties from the word go till we drove down to Karad where we checked-in to VITS Satyajit Hotel at 1630 hrs.
It’s a relatively new property still being developed. The room was huge, and they had two
Next morning we set out at 0730 hrs for the home run via the Pune Mumbai expressway where
Suffice to say we enjoyed both routes and the return route was about 50 kilometres more but worth it.
Loved both routes as each had their unique liabilities and feel good factors.
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