Quick trip to Kelshi beach in Konkan

We wanted to visit Konkan costal before we say goodbye to the year 2014. We along with few friends, decided to visit Kelshi beach. As our friend came with his 1.5 year old son, we restricted our location to Kelshi only. This time we went by 14 seater bus as there were 10 travelers for this trip.

We on Kelshi Beach

About Kelshi:-

              Kelshi is a small sea-side village, Famous for its Mahalaxmi Temple (350 years old temple), Sand hillocks and Yakub baba's dargah (7th Guru of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaja), built during the Peshwa era. Also Beach is very clean and hardly any tourists visit this place. You can feel typically Konkani lifestyle in Kelshi.

Our Route:-
Best way to reach Kelshi is Pune - Tahmini - Mangaon - Goregaon - Mandangad - Kelshi. Road condition after Goregaon is in horrible state.
While returning, we chose different route. It was from Kelshi - Anjarle - Harne - Dapoli - Ambet - Mandangad - Mangaon - Tahmini - Pune. Sign boards are available to guide you.

Road in Tahmini is newly constructed and in excellent condition.

Day 1: 27nd Dec 2014, Pune – Kelshi (Total Distance traveled: 192 km):
            We started our journey at 7 AM in morning. We wanted to reach at Kelshi as soon as possible. We had our breakfast at “Quick bite” in Tahmini. Road condition in Tamhini ghat was surprisingly in excellent condition. Manasi-Abhijit joined us in Mangaon town. We chose shortest path via Goregaon.
            We reached Kelshi by 1 PM and everybody was hungry. Our stay was at Bivalkar’s house who is also poojari of Laxmi temple. Kelshi is typically kokani village and takes you to old time Konkan village. After putting bags in room, we had tasty vegetarian meal along with modak as sweet dish. We took some rest in the afternoon and got ready for beach activity by evening time. We reached the beach around 4 PM. There were hardly 9-10 tourists excluding us. Beach is not a sandy but is a bit dark brown in color. Flow of tourists is mainly in Karde, Murud or in Anjarle beach so Kelshi beach is quite lonely. You can see Yakub baba's dargah on hill from beach. We spend some time on beach playing cricket rather than entering in water for swimming. After our cricket game where our wives enjoyed more than us, we went in water. After watching beautiful sunset, we came back at Bivalkar’s house.

Kelshi Beach

Sunset...

Sunset from Kelshi

Watching beautiful Sunset

             As Me, Himanshu and Ketaki wanted to have sea food for dinner; we went at Pawar’s home. I came here for dinner after 2 years so was aware of quality of meal. We had tasty Surmai fry and prawns curry. We wanted to have Pomfret hence we decided to visit Harne port in morning to buy Pomfret. My wife and other friends had there veg meal with Modak at Bivalkar’s house. After Dinner we went for rest in room. Our day ends with tasty sea food.

Surmai (King) fish meal

Expenses:

• Breakfast at Quick bite: INR 800/- for 8 people
• Stay cost at Kelshi: INR 2400/- for 2 rooms (5 people in 1 room)
• Veg Lunch (Unlimited): INR 150/- per person + Modak at INR 10/- per pic
• Tea: INR 10/- per glass
• Surmai (king fish) meal: INR 200/- per person
• Veg Dinner (Unlimited): INR 150/- per person

Day 2: 28nd Dec 2014, Kelshi – harne – Kelshi - Pune (Total Distance traveled: 192 km):
             We woke up early morning around 7 AM. After breakfast, I, Renuka, Himanshu and Ketaki went to Harne for some fish shopping whereas other went to beach for swimming. Harne port is famous for fish market which is assumed to be one of the largest suppliers of fish to Maharashtra and also Export. Fish auction carried on daily basis on the beach is must visit place. We reached at Harne by 8.30 AM. I was very excited to watch the fish auction and market. We decided to purchase fish for lunch as well as to take home. There are many shops where you have to just give them a purchased fish and then will pack in ice box. It is great place for fish lovers and after some bargaining, we purchased Prawns, king fish and Pomplet fish. You can have huge verity of fishes which are fresh and brought directly from sea. After my favorite fish shopping, we came back home at Kelshi.

Harne Beach

Harne Fish Market

Paradise for Fish lover

              After quick tea/coffee break, we all went on beach for swimming. Kelshi has a long, scenic, unexplored beach. Only we were on the beach with only the sea waves for company and it was like we were on our private beach. We spent around two hours and then returned to our rooms. We had tasty sea food at Pawar’s place. As we had visited temple and Darga in Kelshi, we took rest in the noon. 

             Mahalaxmi Temple was built during the Peshwa regime. It also houses the idols of Lord Ganpati and Lord Shiva. The temple lies beneath two huge domes. The famous Yakub Baba dargah is located at a distance of about one kilometer from the Mahalaxmi temple. Yakub baba's dargah is a great example of Hindu Muslim unity in India. He had given advice to Shivaji Maharaja during attack on Dabhol. Later on Shivaji Maharaja – The King of Hindu Empire expressed his wish to build a Dargah & awarded land measuring 653 acres. The work on the Dargah of Yakub baba was started by Shivaji Maharaja and later continued by SambhajiRaje but somehow it was never completed. Later Bajirao-I tried to take the work to its fruition. Every year people celebrate Urus on 6th December. The tradition to begin this Urus by Hindu people is practiced even today. From this place, you can see scenic Kelshi beach view and large number of coconut trees.

Mahalaxmi Temple

Yakub baba Darga

Kelshi beach view from Darga

             By 4 pm, we started with our return journey to Pune via Dapoli. In Anjarle there is Kadyavaracha Ganapati (कड्यावरचा गणपती) temple. As I had sea food lunch, I skipped temple visit but others went inside. I have been to this temple earlier. It’s Very clean and beautiful Ganesh temple. Load Ganapati idol from this temple is very old. There is small manmade lake in front of temple and you can see large number of turtles in the lake. Overall atmosphere in the temple was very pleasant. We saw thousands of Sea gulls on Anjarle beach. When I was busy in clicking these beautiful migratory birds, all of sudden small girl came on beach and ran towards birds so they flew away. Her parents were enjoying this act and I was highly disappointed by it. 

            We took small break between Anjarle and Harne for Sunset. There is a point from where you can see entire village name Pajpandhari which is located very close to sea. Typically Konkani village located very close to sea, Suvarnadurg fort and Anjarle beach on right side – it gives you breathtaking view. This is our favorite point on this route. We choose Tahmini ghat for return journey and we cross Tamhini by 10 PM as there was enough traffic in ghat section. We reached home by 1 AM mid-night safely.

Mobile Photography Trick w/o using software tool... Me at Kelshi Beach

Expense:

• Breakfast: INR 20/- per person
• Tea: INR 10/- per person
• Bus entry fee at Harne port: INR 50/-
• Fish as per size and season availability
• Pomplet fish meal making chargers: INR 100/- per plate
• Veg unlimited lunch: INR 150/- + Modak at INR 10/- per pic
• Vada pav at Mangaon: INR 15/-
• Bus Rent for 2 days-600km: INR 8400/- (As it was my office bus with same driver, he didn’t charge me for night halt else halt chargers are between INR 200 to 400/- per night)

Contact numbers for your reference:

• Home stay Hotel Surabhi, Kelshi (Naresh Vartak): 02358-287240 / 9623113162 / 9820441985.
• Kokan Bhojanalay at Kelshi (V Pavar): 02358-287379 / 9604104380 / 9850398893.

I will try to upload more and more travel blogs. Thanks for reading this Travel Blog.

Pritesh Kulkarni

Pune