The Spirit of the Western Coast - The Konkan Log - Episode 6

Episode 5 : Shrivardhan (Previous)

Chapter 7: Aravi Beach – One of the Best Beaches in Konkan

From Shrivardhan, driving towards Diveagar through the narrow village roads and through the magnificent coastal route, took us to the unspoiled and virgin beach of Aravi. The beach does not boast of any resort, no hotels and absolutely no form of unnecessary commercialization.

A tarred motorable path separates the Aravi village from the beach. We parked under the shadow of a tree, and went on the beach through a series of stairs.

It is almost stretched to a mile and one cannot miss this while driving through the road. The beach, from a distance, looked like a white sand beach but a closer inspection confirmed that it also was a combination of white and grey sands, but more white than grey.

Like a typical Konkani beach, as I noticed earlier with the other beaches, this one was also surrounded by hills.

The village was full of greeneries in the form of coconut and palm trees, the combination of blue sky and the green array of trees along with the whitish sand was too picturesque to be missed.

The above is an example of co-existence of a typical Konkani village and the beach.

Walking up towards the hills through the beach filled our minds with joy and peace. We only watched this kind of spellbound beauty in the Hollywood flicks. The coastal route penetrated the steep hills with a seemingly dangerous inclination. As I said in the introduction, India is truly a place with the most diversity.

A closer look on the hilly road is below.

The place where the inclination ended in a flat stretch of a valley and the hill and beach became one, we found there are some reefs formed by the salt and water dumpings from the sea waves on the rocks. This was the speciality of Aravi beach.

The rocky beds surfaced from beneath the water and held their heads high against the waves – a perfect romantic place for the couples who would like to spend a quality time in serenity with each other. But bathing may not be ideal and suitable at this side of the beach.
 

The village seemed to be far far away from this side. I was so over-enthusiastic I went into the water to click the following snap.

We walked through the beach for a long time, to and fro, many times.

My wife, as per her usual custom now, indulged herself on collecting the shell-souvenirs. Unlike the famous tongue-twister, she will never sell the sea shells on the sea shore, or anywhere for that matter.

The sea shore was not completely devoid of human soul. The villagers, mostly fishermen, were busy fishing, children were playing on the beach and still it looked fully secluded, perhaps because of the absence of the urbanization. I doubt how long Aravi can sustain its purity.

The snap below is one of my personal favourites.

Bidding a farewell to Aravi full of grief but with a promise to come back again, we headed towards Diveagar.

The whole Aravi beach was visible from the top of the hills.

If your nasal ability doesn’t betray you, you will surely not miss the dried fishes on the way.

At one place, the villagers anchored their fishing boats, waiting to set sail again next day and the day after and so on. The life goes on.

The monochrome effect of the same:

Episode 7: The Beauty of Diveagar (Next)