Thursday, May 27, 2010

Dajjipur , Goa - A short road trip


It was just about a month after we returned from Kerala where we got married, the itch in the heel to go some place started resurfacing. We decided to go some place which is not a too obvious choice for a weekend trip and we decided on a wild life sanctuary. After a bit of research on wild life sanctuary we zeroed in on Dajipur There wasn't much literature on Dajipur on the internet and all we got to know about the Bison National Park is that its beautiful!
It was august a nd the monsoons hadn't subsided. We left pune headed for Dajipur on a friday morning. We were on a pulsar which and uptil satara it was quite ok. Once we reached satara it started drizzling and it just wouldn't stop. So we started riding in the rain!! By the time we reached Kolhapur we were quite drenched and we stopped at Mcdonalds to dry ourselves and we waited for the rain to stop.
From Kolhapur to reach Dajipur we could have taken a easier rather shorter route but we we didnt know the way then, so we took the longer route without entering Kolhapur. The route through the Kolhapur city via Radhanagari is shorter by about 40kms. Once we were closer to Radhanagari the landscape turned out to be quite interesting with the roads traversing through thick forest. The Radhanagari dam is quite a big dam which is turnung out to be a popular picnic spot from Kolhapur. The lake and the trees on either side of the road was creating a very relaxing ambiance. We reached Dajipur towards evening and now we were looking for the Bison jungle park a resort maintained by MTDC. We werent able to find any structure like that but after scouting the place couple of time we found the place. They could have atleast had the board fixed up. The resort was appalling. Literally in shambles i was surprised to see so many people who were boarding there. May be the kack of options. The charged us about 200Rs and that too seemed like we were over paying. Anyways the place is beautiful and the lake side offered a perfect camping 

ground.  The Bison National Park is the primary attraction in Dajipur. However the point to note is that the National park is open only from November to June and is closed during the rains. The Ponda Ghats is another attraction and the view from here is magnificent. The Radhanagri and the Dajipur dharan or the lakes offers some very calm and soulful moments.The stay at the jumgle park was too much for us to take so we were thinking of returning the next day. We were sitting near the ponda ghats when we noticed a sign board indicating that Goa was just 144KM from there. So we decided to ride down to goa and so we did!!

It was off seasons in goa and we headed straight to Anjuna our favorite beach. Ever since we had done the backpacker trip to goa where we traveled across goa on foot camping where ever we reached that day, Anjuna has


 remained the soul of Goa for us. We rented a beach side hotel . It was amazing how different Goa looked without the crowds The sad part was that since we had packed our bags for a wild life sanctuary holiday we didnt have much of beach clothes and we had to stay on the shores.
Curly's was the only beach shack that was still serving with patrons who were still staying on in Goa even sfter the season was over. We returned the next day and reached Pune late in the evening with a long story to tell all who were ready to listen!!

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