Trip to Shrivardhan beach – Raigad

We went to an overnight trip to a clean beach of Maharashtra named Shrivardhan located at a distance of 159 km from Pune in Raigad district. It is located at Konkan coastal region.

 

Route from Pune to Shrivardhan Beach

We took the route as Pune -> Mulshi -> Tamhini Ghat (pass Orchard café at end of Tamhini Ghat -> Vile- MIDC for 3 km -> Mangaon -> left on NH17(Mangaon market) -> right towards Diveagar(careful, you might miss the turn as its inside market) -> T-junction -> turn right to Shrivardhan.

Friendship is all we crave for

This trip is not exactly a full exploration. One of our friend’s bday, we call it “Nikotsav” as he is Mr popular of our group and we celebrate his birthday as a festival (“utsav” in hindi ). Ha-ha! Just kidding… It’s just that we got one more reason to travel.

After doing cake celebration at Nikhil’s place, we kept our bags with one pair of clothes, flip flops, power banks for mobile phones and Bluetooth speakers, towels, some utensils, wood logs, lighter, Maggie and all stuff to make tea. It was around 12:50 am when we hit the road after placing everything inside the car.

We enjoyed the journey with music, fun, dark night on scary Tamhini ghat with silver moonlight and chilling wind. We were all rolling over each other again and again, as the Ghat had many curves. Initially, it was all fun and we all were enjoying. Aargh! But after an hour, I was unable to endure chilling air coming from the gap in car’s gate and ghat section increased my suffering. I was just waiting to reach the destination. Finally, Nikhil’s car stopped, I was half asleep, for a second I thought we reached but actually, we stopped at a petrol pump to take fuel for burning. As I noticed two local peoples were basking their hands in the fire, I immediately went there. The feeling of sitting by the open fire in extremely cold weather was so relaxing, I did not want to get up. But after a while, we left, as we did not reach our destination yet. We needed to cover 17 km more.

Here we are at our destination – Shrivardhan Beach

We took off from the place and reached Shrivardhan beach in around 20 minutes.

Ah! Finally, I could come out of the car. The view was completely breathtaking. The moon over the sea and reflection in the water, shining stars in the night sky, beautiful clouds and peaceful background made the place heaven.

I was lost in the peaceful beauty of the beach the with light sound of waves.

It was very cold, we quickly brought all the things the from the car and started preparing for a bonfire. Finally, everything was set.

We all set on wood pieces as sand was very cold and wet, formed a circle and Rahul started playing guitar with slow and soft music.

After a while, I sat beside him and started singing along in my not so good voice. Paresh, Rupal and some other friends collected stones to create a hearth (Chulha) for cooking and brought fire in it. Some were busy in clicking pictures. Whenever anyone was getting free, he/she was going to enjoy the sea waves and its calmness.

Everything seemed just so perfect with my traveling companion, like a beautiful dream.

Surprize for our bday boy:

After convincing Nikhil’s girlfriend a lot (as she is extremely shy when it comes to doing something romantic), we sent both to spend some time together. In the meantime, we arranged a surprise for our birthday boy Nikhil by decorating some area near the bonfire with candles and beautiful white seashells, along with the beautiful gift his girlfriend made for him and obviously a birthday cake. It all looked wonderful and romantic.

Beauty at its best – Sunrise opposite to the seashore

All of a sudden, I could see the moon getting pale as if it was tired being up all night and waving goodbyes to us just before the dawning of the day. And on the opposite side, I could see a bright light covering the sky to welcome the sun.

 We all got up quickly and cleaned all the waste and collected our stuff, as local people were coming for a morning walk.  Sadly, as per the plan, we will also have to leave in 2 hours or so.

I did not want to leave the place, it was so calm serene away from all the issues of life and job. But as we say,  

“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.”

So we utilized our every moment by enjoying fully.

Getting ready for Sea bath:

We all went to our car and wore beach clothes. Hee-Hee! Boys changed on the road itself. Obviously, Nikhil being the most caring among all of us, created space for us(girls) to change clothes on back seats of the car(trunk) by settling all the luggage. And we all girls, covered all glass panes with towels and stoles and changed clothes inside the car.

Yu-hoo! Here we are enjoying the morning.

Ahh… the first ray of sunlight coming out from the shades of trees to our faces was so refreshing. We were all filled with joy, excitement with no signs of the sleepless night we had. Paresh and Rahul were playing with the waves going a bit far from the shore. I did not go as I was really feeling cold and did not want to make my hairs wet in saline water.

Oh! The trip is ending and we have to go back leaving this beautiful place here but yes we are taking lots of wonderful memories with us.We left the beach at 9:00 am.

Return Journey:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    We returned back enjoying the road trip with a clear view of green valleys which we could not do at night in the darkness. After the valleys crossed, we were half sleeping, me and Paresh fighting over to sit on the window side.

I just love watching through the window of the car while traveling, my mind starts pondering about life, memories, relationships etc. Maybe the motion reminds me of leaving things behind if you want to experience new things or achieve something, you need to keep moving on like the car keeps moving leaving the world behind.

Ha-Ha! Somehow we managed to be alive till we reached back to Pune at 2:00 pm with a stop in between for around an hour to have breakfast.

Hope you enjoyed our fun trip and a delightful camping experience at the seaside.

If you need any information about this beach on any place around Pune, you can always reach out to us on our social Media Handles. Just type “Crave to Explore” and you’ll find us right there 🙂

I always believe:

           “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before”

Do you still have any questions? Need any help to plan? Loved the article?

Please comment below or you can contact me here.

Till then…

Keep Exploring 🙂