So....After 8 months sitting @ Home due to Covid, we were really craving for a long trip to relax and what better than Goa 🏖️. With Covid still a reality, we planned for a road trip (Pune to Goa) and booked an independent beach house at Agonda beach for 6 Days to keep social contact minimum. Day before our travel we packed our stuff and loaded in car to save time. Next day we ( Me - Jyotin, My Wife - Anki and My Daughter - Manu) left at around 4 am, swiftly crossed Pune .. what a bliss crossing Pune without traffic. Reached Satara in 2 hrs 🚗.. took a quick break to eat homemade snacks and started again. With Fastag being implemented, crossing tolls is much easier nowadays. Till Belgavi it was smooth ride as highway is in very good shape. As usual we faced traffic hurdles in Belgavi and after crossing Belgavi we took another snack break. We reached Agonda at around 1 Pm. Checking into our airbnb hotel was smooth, house was bang on beach with fully loaded kitchen. Took some rest after reaching and ended our day with lovely sunset at Agonda beach ⛱️.
Next day we woke up early for our morning routine of long walk on agonda beach till the rocky part of beach. Its a long beach with the length of close to 2.5 Kms.. After quick breakfast we went to point where Saleri river meets sea on Agoda beach. What a beautiful place it was ..nature's best .. lush green. Looking at the river 🏞️.. you can't hold yourself from jumping into it. Many times when I used to go for swimming I tried to float but couldn't but this time in this beautiful river somehow it clicked and finally I was able to float. Floating in the river while eyes closed.. going with the flow is like mediation .. Just loved it ❤️!!! After 2 hours we shifted from river to sea and enjoyed sea waves 🤪. In the evening Anki cooked delicious pasta.. and we ended our day with yummy food and a glass of wine.
Highlight of Day 3 was boat ride in Saleri river.. and a new place "Manveer's Kitchen" we found for lunch. During our morning walks we met Pritesh, he told us about boat rides he arranges on Saleri river. Pictures of ride he showed us looked interesting.. so we went for evening boat ride. Boat ride 🛶 starts with passing by mangroves and then goes into the river further. Pritesh was a good guide, he had knowledge of birds too .. we saw many bird species 🐦 while on boat ride - Kingfisher, Common Kites, Money Kites, Woodpecker, Sandpiper, Parrots, Crane, Green Bee-eater, Little Cormorant, Black Drongo and Little Egret. For Lunch we were looking for a nice place to eat and finally found this nice place called Manveer's Kitchen. They have yummy food and amazing drinks ... over coming days we explored most of menu and tried almost all cocktails 🍸.
We followed our usual routine of morning walks on the beach then cooking breakfast mostly bread omlette for us and sandwiches for Manu. After breakfast going to river.. long back i have seen videos/picture of stonebalancing. I tried my hand on balancing stones :) . Post river fun.. moving to sea .. Manu playing with sands .. making sand castles and finally hitting Manveer's Kitchen for delicious lunch. I realised today there is special astronomical event 🌌 ... great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. So what better than watching it from beach at night when the lights are off. So late at night we went to watch it and stayed on there for lot of time to see stars and constellations 💫... reliving childhood summer days when we used to sleep at terrace watching stars.
Just before our travel to goa I have read about jelly fish being spotted at Goa beaches 🌊 and people being stung by them. While our stay we haven't heard about any such incident and we were enjoying sea carefree. But that morning while we were in the river we saw a jelly fish floating by and then another one moments later .. and a squid 🦑 too. We were out of river in no time :) .. that evening we heard life guards vacated a part of beach due lot of jelly fish being spotted. Now jelly fish occupying the sea... we turned to land. Spending rest of the time on beach playing with sand 🌅.
Final day @ Goa .. My cousins were also visiting Goa and they were also staying at Agonda beach. We spent that day and late night having beers 🍻 and talking endlessly on the beach. As we were travelling back to Pune next day, we also started packing our bags 🧳.. Next day we said Goodbye to Goa after such relaxed vacation. Left from Goa at around 10 am in morning .. took few breaks in between .. and reach our home Pune by 9 Pm.😌
