To take advantage of the surprise holiday in Feb., decided to take a drive north of Mumbai without any destination in mind. After an hour's drive, around 55 kms from Kandivali on Mumbai-Ahmadabad highway, saw this signpost on the left near Varai village showing "Kelva beach - 32 kms" ! With no specific plans in mind, decided to try this and unexpectedly turned out a good outing.
The road from Varai to Kelva is in good condition barring initial patch of 3-4 kms. This journey off the highway towards Kelva would be more scenic in rainy season due to the trees and farms and ghat-a scenery typical of Konkan. After turning left at Varai on the highway, drove straight towards Kelva village with the help of posts. On the way, around 18 kms from Varai, passed through the town called Saphale. One can stop here for a tea/snacks or small shopping like water bottle though you can get the same on Kelva beach as well. Before I reached Kelva, passed one creek which offered a nice view of small boats returning from early morning fishing. In Kelva village, took left to reach the seashore.
As this was weekday and reached early morning, there was hardly anyone on the beach. So spent time strolling around the beach. Its not a white sand beach but very clean. Walking along the long long stretch of the beach was very refreshing. Walked northwards till the beach was cut by a small river meeting the Arabian sea. We spent time watching larger boats passing the marine catch to small boats and the small boats returning to their village sailing through the river.
After sometime crowd started gathering though in small scale which included tourists and fishermen. We had a nice ride on Horse-cart and Camel. Parallel to the beach is a small trail through the woods which is worth a walk.
There are couple of eateries very near to the beach which serve snacks / Chinese. So called resorts in Kelva village have restaurants but most of them were closed, may be they open on weekends !. These restaurants prepare meals only on order so plan accordingly or visit the small eateries on the beach for quick food.
After spending 5 hours, drove back to Mumbai with good memoirs of unplanned outing.
More photos at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tusharahire/sets/72157629451597727/show/
The road from Varai to Kelva is in good condition barring initial patch of 3-4 kms. This journey off the highway towards Kelva would be more scenic in rainy season due to the trees and farms and ghat-a scenery typical of Konkan. After turning left at Varai on the highway, drove straight towards Kelva village with the help of posts. On the way, around 18 kms from Varai, passed through the town called Saphale. One can stop here for a tea/snacks or small shopping like water bottle though you can get the same on Kelva beach as well. Before I reached Kelva, passed one creek which offered a nice view of small boats returning from early morning fishing. In Kelva village, took left to reach the seashore.As this was weekday and reached early morning, there was hardly anyone on the beach. So spent time strolling around the beach. Its not a white sand beach but very clean. Walking along the long long stretch of the beach was very refreshing. Walked northwards till the beach was cut by a small river meeting the Arabian sea. We spent time watching larger boats passing the marine catch to small boats and the small boats returning to their village sailing through the river.After sometime crowd started gathering though in small scale which included tourists and fishermen. We had a nice ride on Horse-cart and Camel. Parallel to the beach is a small trail through the woods which is worth a walk.
There are couple of eateries very near to the beach which serve snacks / Chinese. So called resorts in Kelva village have restaurants but most of them were closed, may be they open on weekends !. These restaurants prepare meals only on order so plan accordingly or visit the small eateries on the beach for quick food.
After spending 5 hours, drove back to Mumbai with good memoirs of unplanned outing.
More photos at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tusharahire/sets/72157629451597727/show/