Sea Kayaking Goa
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| Terraced fields between Kolhapur and Goa |
Driving anywhere in India is interesting but when you travel with a 5.8 metre sea kayak on the roof of your car you become the centre of interest. You get to drive past interesting things that you have never seen before and the locals get to see something they have never seen before too. We traveled via Pune down to Kolhapur which, my driver insisted was the turn off point for the "short cut" to Goa. What the route saved in distance it made up for in time. The route from this point proved to be scenic but very slow. We drove through villages that saw little traffic and descended to the coast below spectacular waterfalls past the Western Ghats. The country side was green and there was a lot of activity.
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| Descending the Western Ghats with the monssonal waterfalls in the back ground |
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| A farmer shaving a Buffalo with a straight razor. I am not sure why |
After negotiating the maze of small roads that is Goa, we finally made it to our accommodation eleven and a half hours later. Was the drive worthwhile? Definitely. Would Kate and Ada do the trip again? Maybe not!
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| Laxman, Kate and Ada and the evening meal and enjoying a glass of 'Diplomatic Import' wine |
As per normal Kate worked hard to find us some high quality and great value accommodation, in this case Isha Villa's, a Neemrana Hotel property in Siolim in North Goa. It consisted of a few rooms inside the main house and a couple of villas near a pool. The package included breakfast, which I missed most days due to an early start, and an excellent Indian evening meal prepared and served by the staff. There were only two other parties in the Hotel which made it very intimate and meant that we had the close attention of Laxman who ran the house.
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| Ada and Kate trying to convince Ganesh to some for a swim |
Half way through the week Kate, Ada and I would be joined by Lucy, my other daughter, and Tracey and Mia from Australia and Alastair from the UK. Tracey and Mia would take our spot at Isha Villa and we would re-locate to a neaby house that we had booked.
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| Mansoor at the put in point at Chapora and the obligatory road trip of the car |
Now, on to the serious stuff. Sunday was day 1 of the paddling and I decided to start close to our accommodation so I could get a feel for the area. I put in at 0700 hr after sorting my gear on Chapora Beach at a pier near the mouth of the Chapora estuary.
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| Sorting the gear at sunrise |
High tide was at 0745 hr which gave me an easy run over the bar. The seas were running at1 metre swell and there was on-shore breeze driven by approaching monsoonal rain clouds which resulted in a wind gusting to 8-10 knots which chopped up the swell and made the kayaking fun.
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| Just me and the fishermen |
The headland above the bar had the ruins of the Chapora Fort which was build by the Portugese. The coastline initially consisted of head lands with a small beach dotted with beach shacks, basic houses and simple resorts.
The local fishing fleet were out and the intermittent rain helped to keep me cool. It was great to get out in clean water as my paddling in India had consisted of the polluted waters near Mumbai. Ironically, I see more marine life in the polluted waters of Mumbai.
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| Typical fishing boat with an outboard |
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| Inspecting the morning catch |
After around 10 km the coast changed as Calangute Beach started. I decided to take a break and to take some photographs so I followed some fishing boats in across a small bar at Baga on the northern end of Calangute beach.
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| Aguada Gaol which reportedly contains Westerner on drug charges |
I had a snack and watched the locals unload their catch and sort their nets before running down the coast to Fort Aguada on the southern tip of Calangute beach. After rounding this, I paddled past the Aguada Gaol, the Church of St Lawrence and Palacio Aguada which was designed by Goan architect Gerard de Cunha, this is the home of Parsi entrepreneur, Jimmy Gazdar.
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| The pull out point day one |
I swung back north and and into the estuary and on to Aguada Jetty where I pulled out just near an abandoned Chapel and waited for Mansoor to pick me up after a nice 21km trip.
Monday, day two, I started further north at Querim which is just on the Goan side of the Maharashtran/ Goan border at the mouth of the Terekhol River. The put in point included a ferry which moved people and vehicles over from the small patch of Goa on the Maharashtran side of the river. Swells were at the consistent 1-1.5 m but it was high tide was at 0837 hr so the tide was still flooding at 0730 hr when I set off which gave me an easy ride over the bar.
The seas were smooth with a slight off shore breeze which made for easy and enjoyable paddling.
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| Under spectacular monsoonal skies with pleasant conditions across the bar at Terakol |
I ran south towards yesterdays put in point at Chapora Beach and with the seas a little smoother, I felt more comfortable getting the good camera out of the day hatch. Once again the coast consisted of headlands and small beaches. There were no nearby fishing boats to distract me and I enjoyed the solitude. When I turned to run into Chapora the tide was ebbing and in full flow and there were breaking waves over the bar of around 1-1.5 metres and it was nice to get a long surf across the bar and into the estuary
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| The remains of Fort Chapora on the headland and the surf over the bar in the foreground |
The estuary smoothed out and I glided past yesterdays put in point near a fisherman's jetty on the lee side of Fort Chapora just to get an extra kilometre or so into my arms.
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| The fishermans jetty at Terakoil |
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| Once again a chapel at the pull out - a great place to say a quick word of thanks |
I spotted a good pull out point which was, surprise surprise, located next to a small chapel on the outskirts of Siolim. A second good day which consisted of around 16 km.
After a great morning on the water we spent the rest of the day at Little Vagator Beach, our favourite beach in Goa. It is relatively quiet and has a great beach hut in a slightly elevated position looking over the beach where you can get a fresh lime soda for 20 INR, a perfect tonic after a good paddle.
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| Cows sun baking in the rock between Littel Vagator and Vagator beaches |
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| A typical Portugese bungalow this one is in good repair |
Goa is full of magnificent Portugese villas all in various states of repair ranging from spectacular to falling down but it is fair to say that most are in disrepair. It is a treat driving through the numerous small towns looking at the cultural legacy of the Colonial era which only ended in 1961 when India invaded Portuguese Goa
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| Lounge Room |
I needed to return to work for a while and at the same time Lucy, Tracey, Mia and Alastair traveled down from Mumbai to Goa. Kate, Ada, Lucy, Alastair and I relocated to Hotel Soraya. A private Portugese bungalow in Siolim, close to Isha Villas. It was basic but well maintained and very well decorated. It certainly had character in spades
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| Dining Room |
Even better, the owners, Atul and Pierre, operated an NGO service for animal rescue and had a calf, Ghopal, with a broken leg and, coinciding with our arrival, two puppies. Ada was in little girl heaven and was given the privilege of name the puppy, Patches. And no, we have not added her to the existing Vasukamal (our building) menagerie!
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| The hallway of the house, not a street in Amsterdam |
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| A neighboring Gray Langur |
I passed floating whiskey advertising, Casinos and Churches, all very Catholic, and up to Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary to try to get some photos of the wildlife.
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| An osprey near the bird sanctuary |
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| Fontainhas the Latin Quarter (Thanks to Mia for the photo) |
I organised to meet Mansoor, Kate and the crew at a convenient pull out where I was briefly hassled by the local constabulary who I largely ignored before loading the boat. The weather was grim so, we decide to wander around Panjim and get some lunch while Kate took Lucy to the airport.
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| Streetscape in Fontainhas from the restaurant (Thanks to Alistair for the photo) |
We spent most of our time around Fontainhas, the old latin quarter. Apparently the Portuguese had a rule that all building must be painted after the monsoon and only churches could be white. The result is a series of blue, yellow, and ochre buildings many with multiple layers of different coloured paint. We looked at some local retail and had lunch at Venite, a great little hotel restaurant.
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| Flowers for garlands and offerings to the gods |
After lunch and a a short visit to Fort Aguada, we decided to check out Mapusa markets.
The markets were great. It was down season so there were not many tourists but I don't think Mapusa markets are on the must see list for your your average tourist looking for the local trance/dance/party drug scene.
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| Alastair in the red and white hoops checking out the local produce |
But for middle aged tourists with teenage children it was the perfect afternoon outing. The market was a hit. Fresh bread, spices, Indian sweets and some fresh banana passion fruit - magnificent
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| A similar boat as the one encountered off Vengurla seen on the beach at Arambol. The boats were held together by tar and rope! |
The forecast for the last day paddling was equally grim with strong winds predicted. I woke early and, to my surprise, it was overcast with some ominously dark skies but with a light off shore breeze. I headed north into Maharastra to Vengurla, a small fishing village. I launched at around 0815 hr at slack water and with a 1-1.5 metre swell and, once again had an easy run over the bar albeit with heavy rain.
I noticed some locals in an out rigged boat of a type I had not seen before. There were four guys rowing with basic oars, one guy laying nets and a fifth on a sweep oar like on a surf boat crew. To make it even more interesting they seemed to be tethered to the shore by a thick hawser laid rope and there was a team of guys ready to help pull them into shore. I paddled by to say hello and swung south.
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| The outrigger in the rolling swell |
The rain stopped and I realized that I had left my sunglasses back in Siolim and to make matters worse I didn't bring my good sunscreen Thankfully it was overcast so I hoped that I would not have too many problems. Unfortunately, by the time I reached the pull-out at Terakol I was squinting and alternating closing an eye because they were sore from a combination of glare and cheap sunscreen streaming into my eyes. To make matters worse, the ebbing tide was in full flow on the bar at Terakol which had increased the size of the surf which I was now trying to negotiate with one eye shut. I only have myself to blame, it is often the little details that catch you out.
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| Overcast, but not overcast enough |
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| Gratuitous road trip shot |
On shore, I was picked up by the team and we drove to Arambol a northern beach town that seems to attract the hard core Euro-Goa veterans We had a pleasant lunch before heading back to Siolim
Kate and Ada opted out of the drive home so Mansoor and I were joined by Alastair for the journey, the scenery and the battle with Indian bureaucracy. Our first encounter was crossing the border between Goa and Maharashtra. When it became apparent to the officials that we had no dutiable alcohol, they tried to extort money because we did not have an emission certificate. The fact that we did not require an emission certificate as the car was less than three years old meant nothing. I took the argumentative white guy approach demanding to see superiors. One constable came out and led me to the car while patting me on the back and indicating to Mansoor in Hindi to come back and negotiate a "deal" after they put me in the car. Much to his surprise we got in the car and just drove off. Problem solved.
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| I am sure he would have liked to tax us too! |
The next battle was at OCTROI on the Municipal boundary between Mumbai and Maharashtra where they wanted to tax the kayak that I had owned for 10 years and had already imported into Mumbai and paid all required import duties. Mansoor had organised an agent to facilitate the process and we met him at OCTROI. Unfortunately the RTO traffic police were there and immediately took an interest in my oversize kayak. Six hundred INR for OCTROI and 200 for the Roads and Traffic Authority and we were on our way home.
Despite the challenges, when driving through India you see a side of the country that you seldom see in Mumbai. You see things that have not changed in hundreds, if not thousands of years and a style and pace of life that is far removed from Western society. Is is a real privileged to have had the opportunity.
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| A farmers standing on a log and a stone being threshing threshing the rice on the side of the road |
