We woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of the early morning waves and the sight of the first sun rays of the day peering over from the hills to the east... felt great to poke out of the tent and see the wonderful early morning sight of the beach.. a few passers by looked on.. unable to comprehend why this pack of six vagabonds chose to spent a night on the beach when there was a full fledged resort right besides the beach.. :-) we quickly set about dismantling the tent.. and as with the erecting of the tent, pulling it down was also quick and neat... the entire tent (base of 6ft by 8ft and a height of 6 ft) alongwith accessories got neatly into a small handbag.. ready to be taken anywhere and everywhere.. its a reflection of the great love for the outdoors that people abroad have that you have such wonderful accessories being made there.... a camping trip in India is something most of us (even those in their teens and early 20s) simply cannot relate to.. but things are changing slowly and the spirit of adventure is slowly taking root in our psyche...
Once having packed our stuff, it was time to say goodbye to Ganpatipule and the resort.. got ready and headed straight for a quick breakfast.. then finally left the place to the tune of the "bye-bye bye-bye" ad of VIP... from there on we took a 40 km detour to the sea fort of Jaigad... this was used mainly as a vantage point to keep watch over the Jaigad port which was once a busy port on the Konkan coast.. this fort lies at the mouth of the Sangameshwar river, thus forming an excellent natural harbour for ships to enter and dock.. even on that day, we saw plenty of fishing boats all set to enter the sea for their daily catch.. the view of the sea (from above 500 ft or so) is spectacular.. you can actually see different shades of blue in the water below.. add to that boats and small ships of all sizes adorned the sea.. it all makes up for quite a scene.. plus there is a lighthouse there that works even till today..
From there, it was back to the pavilion.. began the long drive back to Mumbai.. by then most of us were half-dead and promptly went off to sleep in the car... but the pathetic state of the highway (mostly near Panvel) ensured that this did not happen.. finally we pulled in to Mumbai at around 8 pm on Sunday... with memories of a wonderful weekend gone by and the hope that such occassions would not be few and fare between... Hope to go on another such weekend very soon !!!!!
Ciao for now
Amit
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