Weekend trip to Beautiful Dapoli

Dapoli ,is a small city in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Its almost 215 kms from Mumbai on the konkan Coastline. Separated from the Sahyadri range by Khed taluk, its seaboard of 50kms stretches from Burondi, kelashi  to Dabhol......

My story of our unplanned trip to Dapoli:

       It was one fine Saturday  morning, woke up to see that due to some water pipeline issue in my city, all taps in our flat went dry ...was very upset to even realise that it's going to be a bad weekend without water supply. After giving a cup of tea , I jokingly told my husband  ," how's my idea to go on a short trip somewhere for the weekend..? & what about driving out to Dapoli, which we haven't visited yet....& unlike other times, an obvious reply , " Yeh , not a bad idea ,but only if u can get ready in 1 hr only to push out...." That's really a big challenge  for me but I took up the challenge.......its though, lot of work...packing , charging cameras , getting ready ,checking out routes to drive down ...Uff!!! But I made it all in just 50 mins time and we were off on the road  ......though, google map was constantly guiding us the route via Khapoli- manpada route from Mumbai to Dapoli , But , instead we took palm beach road to Belapur then towards Ulve and then container road to Patalganga  cross - heading towards Pen- Nagothane- Manpada .....thereafter, took the hilly route as guided by Google Map ( turned out a bad idea though ,to take hilly terrain route instead of driving to Khed via the old MumbaiMumbai-Goa highway).....Anyways , its definitely  a long drive out of 6 hrs until we reached Dapoli around 4pm...We had a short break for lunch on our way to Dapoli , from where we did out resort booking via MMT , at The Fern Samali Resort & Spa at Dapoli.

     After checking in at the resort , without much delay, after sipping in a cup of tea and a quick stroll  across the resort premise, we drove out to the sea beach at Ladghar, which is 5kms from the resort....I simply didnt wish to miss out at the sunset from Ladghar beach....it was quite windy  at the beach , though ,quite a flat beach to drive on.....😃

Enjoyed a lovely sunset at the beach . 

It  was now time to push back to the resort ..To my surprise  ,the weather was quite cold out there.....we both were quite tired after whole day travelling and did  wish to have early dinner at the resort's restaurant itself  as there's nothing around ....The reception informed us that they have arranged for magic show for its guests ....Had a wonderful  evening and then it was time to go off to bed ......Didnt wish to get up early and head for Dolphin watching as we enjoyed that Harihareshwar  last time.....I had the thought that we need to get ready & finish breakfast by 10am and it's another 6 hrs drive back to Mumbai......After taking some beautiful  pics across the beautiful resort & enjoying sumptuous  breakfast  , it was time to kick start our journey  back home but this time we bad sure that we wont follow Google Map instead , drive down 30kms to Khed from Dapoli  and then take on the Old Mumbai Hoa highway ,which is now under reconstruction due to 4 lanning.....Oh , what a beautiful  drive , definitely  it will look amazingly beautiful during rainy season ....it was 5.30pm ,when we reached home ....

What an adventurous,  unplanned  weekend trip it had been ...... sometimes,  I really enjoy such type of madness ..😃....

My first visit to Ambernath Shiva temple.

It was 1stJan 2020 , and I wanted to visit a temple to bring in the beautiful new year with Almighty 'a blessings......Living in Mumbai  for almost  20 + yrs, have been to almost all temples/ shrine in & around Mumbai but , then, thought that my visit to Ambernath  shiva temple is long pending.....Did not have much idea about its location though , but when Google Map is there on my palm ,what's the issue....😃

   Woke up early so that we could start early too as the road near  Shilphatta  near Dombivilli is  always an headache to drive across .......But too my surprise,  that road is now so good that it was a pleasure drive upto Ullas Nagar...thereafter , a little bupping  drive upto the temple complex .

  It's an ancient  temple complex and beautiful sculptures  adorns its wall on black granite rocks...The first glance ,was very impressive...simply loved it ....Tried to capture various parts of the temple Architecture  in my camera  lens  before standing in the long queue  for darshan of the idol in its graba griha......it was huge crowd gathering for darshan of the lord ....After almost 30 mins in queue  could get my opportunity  to pray to lord ....Here , Shiva is worshipped not in ling form but in full body form in Gold .....

Really  happy soul , myself , felt that really I am blessed  to make it for His darshan on this auspicious day...