Wanderer-diweagar part 2

Forgot to mention one thing. The Tamhini ghat is also home to various rare species of plant and animal kingdom. There are a number of devrai’s (sacred groves) in the area. Here you can see what the tamhini jungle would have been few decades back…the denseness and the hugeness of the trees here is spellbounding. I also spotted a very rare species of orchid here while descendingthe ghat, the Button Orchid. Now I wish to go in its flowering season to see the flowering (orchid flowers look amazingly beautiful).



Now let us come back to Konkan…
Typically the descend of the ghats in the sahyadri’s is quite drastic...in just 3-4 turns u climb down a good amount of height.
Now my next destination is Mangaon..from here I will cross the Mumbai-Goa National highway and would reach Diweagar via Mhasala.

The heat which was welcoming in the morning at tamhini has now startd to become a headache..the landscape on this side of the sahyadris is also not that green…barren at places..but a sudden green patch on the small ghat sections of the sahyadri outcrops is always a welcome.

I reach Mhasala in an hour from Mangaon..a traffic jam is in place to welcome me..this patch is the only bottleneck in the whole road..it has been so for years. A new bypass is under construction.
Mhasala , is a central location for tourists who want to visit the 3 famous places in this region of Konkan, i.e. Diweagar, Shriwardhan and Harihareshwar. But I guess it is not very well equipped to handle tourists.

These 3 places I have mentioned above have an importance of their own for tourists. Diweagar, ofcourse for its golden idol of Lord Ganesh, and a beautiful beach. Harihareshwar for its Shiva Temple and a astounding Pradakshina marga. Shriwardhan for its beautiful beach again.

But this is what all people see…these attractions are for those tourists who just want to spend a day or two out of their daily routine. Doing n seeing nothing new.. but as a nature lover I need to find out something better than this to satisfy myself..

Now to tell you, these places are of great importance geologically... and historically.
First I will finish off the history… J

Shriwardhan was the birthplace of the first Peshwa, Balaji Vishwanath Bhat. Though nothing significant has been preserved in the village one can see a small building converted to a gymnasium on the grounds where the original house was and a statue. But that’s it..

Coming back to nature...
Diweagar is a small village which is settled on a huge sand deposit from the sea!! A small canal runs outside the village. If one takes a closer look at the banks of this canal sedimentation is seen. (If at all somebody decides to excavate there maybe chances of finding some interesting fossils here)
A very typical Konkani village, Diweagar has a number of coconut and betelnut plantations. Almost every house has a big plantation behind it. Apart from coconut and betelnut you can see a wide variety of hibiscus and lot of other flowering plants, vegetables, decorative plants etc. Due to these gardens (or “waadi” as it is commonly called) there is a wide variety of bird life.
The beach here also is lined with a dense strip of Kewda plants. This again is very rare.

Once a quiet n cozy village diweagar now has become a weekend getaway spot for many punekars and mumbaikars. Previously only a few houses provided lodging and lunch/dinner facilities..now a battery of lodges and resorts has come up in Diweagar. I was there in diweagar on Sunday the 25th of Jan followed by a national holiday. Diweagar was packed with flocks of people. One of my acquaintances in Diweagar gave me the information that on that particular weekend the place had 3 times the tourists than normal high season day!! I was lucky to get a room that day..else I was fully prepared to spend the night on the beach. (That would have been fun no doubt)

Diweagar also has several other things to see. As I have mentioned a number of times, the gold idol of Lord Ganesh is the main attraction. It was recently (8-10 years back) found in a womans waadi, packed in a big old wooden box, while she was digging the earth to plant a tree.
Also there is a beautiful temple of Roop Narayan, which is under construction. The statue of the Roop Narayan is carved in a black stone. The sides of the statue show the dashawtar of Lord Vishnu. The statue is just too good.. beautiful as the name suggests..



Its almost 4 in the afternoon now and it has been a long day for me…also I finally have a room to sleep…So I switch off…after a nice 2-3 hour nap I am ready to roam again on the beach.





The beach which normally would have been quite and peaceful has turned out to be a big amusement park today...people everywhere…chaos...Cricket...Bhel...coconut water. Not very pleasing. But I walk on…remove my slippers at a safe distance from the water, slowly dip my feet in the waters of the Arabian sea and close my eyes for some time… the feel makes me loose sense of all the chaos surrounding me.. its me n the water…cool…calm…serene...engulfing...the splashing of the waves...the foam…the setting sun…the colour it gives to the sky… I feel one with these…this experience is one which I will never miss when I am near the sea. For once all the crap in the mind is washed off…and you are free to feel…free to hear…free to see…free to understand the smallest small spec of sand…free to be one with nature.


After this again my stomach starts yelling for fuel…I have dinner at a MTDC resort…a very nice place.
Now my day at diweagar is over…tomorrow I leave for harihareshwar and shriwardhan…