Travel With a Couple

This story will be done by a photo. Nothing to blabber. Nothing to explain.

We saw this coconut tree inside Sindhdurg Fort, Malvan in Maharashtra. This is the first time we saw something like this. Surprised. Amused.

We reached Malvan on the third day of a Konkan trip. Being a popular tourist destination, we didn’t bother to book accommodation. Armed with a list of ‘home-stays’ and their telephone numbers, given to us by our home-stay owner at Kunkeshwar, we started calling up these places soon after we reached Malvan at noon. We were all damn hungry, but decided that it would be safer to find a place to stay before anything else. This later proved right.

AD, the only person conversant in Marathi in our team, called up the first number. The person attended the call asked us to call up later as the manager was not there. So AD tried the second one on the list. Alas! The same person who attended the first call picked up this one also. We still wonder if they listed the same place under two names. The third one, Dattkrupa, sounded promising with cottages by the seaside. And excitement unbound. We imagined how we would spend the rest of the evening. Step out of the cottage and play at the beach. Or just outside your room, lie down on the white sands listening to the waves and counting stars. So we took to the by-lanes of Malvan to find Dattkrupa. We turned left and right through the narrow lanes, reading the boards announcing directions to home-stays and hotels, Dattakrupa being one of them. The arrows finally took us to this promising place dotted with a few dilapidated wooden huts in a deserted place. Not a single soul. A local boy opened some of the rooms and showed us. It was an exact replica of makeshift rooms made of tin metal and wood in large construction sites. Except that there are cots and damp beds. Seaside cottages indeed they were. Beach was only a few metres away. We certainly were not confident in staying there overnight.

Hungry and tired, we set out searching for a better place and found a home-stay with basic facilities. No beach nearby, but it was tucked away in a quiet village neighbourhood. After checking in, we sped away to dig into sumptuous malwan delicacies and make up for the compromise we had to make about that night’s stay. We came back only late in the night to hit the sack.

Ps: The photo is from Internet sources and not from our personal album

Guhagar, being 320 odd km away from Mumbai means fewer crowds. Or so we thought. We forgot that Pune was probably only 200 km away. We reached Guhagar a little late in the evening, around 7.30. We were a bit overconfident that in these little not so known places, hotels, lodges or home stays would be easily available. But as always Murphy has the last laugh. All (two or three) known hotels were full. People indeed are traveling. We drove a few times up and down through the main street knocking the doors of a few hotels and a few houses where they have put up a couple of extra rooms for guests. No luck. Most people could talk only Marathi. Our friend who could speak Marathi reasonably well was getting highly irritated since the responsibility of talking and finding a place fell on him. His concern was that his Marathi was not so good that he had to think, pause for the right word every time, and talk. But it was better than we staring at people without any words. Finally, an elderly lady checked at the local temple hall, which again to our bad luck was full. She then made a couple of calls to some families and at the end found a place for us.

We spend the night with this traditional marathi family, who gave us some space and mattresses in their living room. They could not make food; so they called up a nearby restaurant and ensured that our dinner was taken care of. The family runs a small shop and a distribution setup for some soft drink brands.

And they are setting up two rooms for guests. Next time, we are sure to stay there.

A local version of the swiss knife. Not too many tools, but two things of great utility value – a spoon and fork !!

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Thanks to Asif/Dnyanesh for discovering this from Crawford market.

Where is the world’s smallest wildlife sanctuary? It is right here in India, in Maharashtra. At 5.15 sq km, Mayureshwar sanctuary is the smallest WLS (that we know of). Once while returning from a road trip to Ajanta-Ellora, somewhere between the Pune – Ahmednagar road, we took to the country roads. With a vague idea of its location, we kept searching for Mayureshwar, unsuccessfully checking the map and asking almost anyone and everyone on the road. Finally, at a place that one would never imagine as a wild life sanctuary, we asked a few more villagers. Not a chance! Since the map told us it should be somewhere there, we decided to walk around and read the 3-4 boards at that ‘naka’ (junction). And there it was… ‘Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. 5.15 sqkm..’ and the names of few species animals and birds. The forest office closed, but one villager told us that we could drive though the mud-tracks inside the park.

Apparently, the area was declared as a sanctuary recently. The vegetation comprised mostly dry shrubs and small trees, and the land was more or less barren. Now we hope it would’ve changed. Whatever be the case, we spotted quite a few interesting birds, some hares, and deers – an impressive list for such a small and new sanctuary, compared with what we’d spotted in some well-known ones. Our driver was quite enterprising. Sensing our need, he drove the vehicle slowly and silently, himself looking for a movement here and there. He even allowed some of us to get on top of the vehicle, making the trip more memorable.

Disclaimer: No proof available to show this is the smallest WLS. 

At 5.15 sqkm, we presume this would be the smallest

WLS in the world

Eva is beautiful. Has naughty eyes. Very warm and friendly. But make no mistake. She is a 7-year old baby elephant.

Malayalees’ love story with elephants is centuries old. No temple festivals are complete without a procession with an elephant. And it is not just temples. Even churches and some mosque festivals have elephants that add glamour and pride to the festivities.

Kerala has a few elephant camps, where elephants used to be domesticated and trained by mahouts and other elephants. Since capturing elephants is banned in Kerala, these camps now cater to the injured or orphaned elephants rescued from the wild. Not surprisingly, these are big tourist attractions as well. Konni Elephant Camp is one such in the Pattanamthitta district in Kerala. The camp is adjoining the Konni reserve forest and the Achenkoil reserve forest. But Konni itself, like all villages in Kerala, is a small town. Capturing elephants in Konni Forest division started sometime in 1810 and continued till the ban was enforced.

The massive cage built entirely in wood was made in 1947 and can have 6 elephants at a time.

The Kerala Forest Department, Tourism Department, and the Forest Development Agency have jointly developed an eco-tourism initiative around this camp. An interesting Elephant Museum is also housed in this campus spread over 9 acres.

Anand Mishra is not the kind of guide we often meet at the historical sites of our country. Conversant in English, knowledgeable about his job, punctual, and eager to learn from whatever sources, Anand perhaps reflects the spirit of the much-talked about new, small-town India. To top it all, he has a fellowship from NASA. More than what you expect in a sleepy, dusty, village-town of Lonar in central Maharashtra.

But then Lonar is not just a historical place. Far removed from the typical tourist circuits and itineraries, Lonar is a place where history, geology, astronomy, ecology, and mythology meet to give a unique experience for travel lovers.

Anand, a college-educated boy, takes travel lovers in and around the crater telling stories that are part history and part mythology with the same ease as he explains the science behind the crater, its coloured rocks, and the pH value of the water.

Apart from having local knowledge, Anand’s comfort with English has helped him land a post of being a local assistant to researchers from many international universities and institutions including NASA, who camp in Lonar every winter. And there lies his NASA connection as well. He certainly is proud about his connections and enjoying his job well.