Dec 3, 2013 – Day 4 to Ratnagiri city

The sight of Jaigad from Velneshwar makes you impatient, makes u do the distance…Jaigad was on the otherside of creek. Our first stop was atop hills and back down to the sea level – Tavsal jetty. The road wasn’t good, and we nearing Tavsal gave us more beautiful scenery that awaited us further in our journey, the water now starting to turn bluer than the initial murky color that it had, the vegetation deeper and dense. We had a nice stop at Tavsal, savouring sweet tangy taste of Kokam sarbat.

The ferry took us to Jaigad, where we had to climb a hill again and down to Ganpatipule. We reached Ganpatipule around noon and decided to have lunch. The last day at Velneshwar we had come to a reassessment of our itinerary, we decided we’ll take a bus to Malvan, save 2 days which we could use to rest and enjoy at Malvan and Aarambol, Goa. A quick lunch and another big climb of Ganpatipule to Ratnagiri (sea-side route).

I and Surya were waiting for Puru when we saw him walking pulling his cycle. A scene we had got accustomed with during steep climbs. We refreshed ourselves in a deserted shack’s cool shadow. We climbed back again, the nightmare of any cycle tour awaited. Puru’s rear tire was flat. We managed to get Puru in a tuktuk with cycle in rear and me and Surya went on the lovely roads overlooking the beautiful beaches south of Ganpatipule. It was one of our most lovely routes.

Ratangiri was closer than we thought, around 4pm we were there. Puru waiting for us after getting his tire fixed. At the ST stand we found the Malvan bus at 4 had already left and another one for Sawantwadi at 6pm would drop us to Kasal. Deciding against the night travel we found a hotel to stay and headed towards Mandvi beach/jetty. Not a great one, but we relaxed along a beach side shack sipping tea and strange oval cut कांदा भजी.

Day in numbers

• Distance: ~65km
• Ghats: 2 normal + 1 BIG
• Cycling Time: ~5:30
• Water Rides: 1
• Relaxation Time: 4.5 hrs