Exploring South Goa a bit

The long day exploring with the scooter turned out to be a really fantastic day. The bike I got was in great condition, so I was easily able to overtake most other traffic, not that there was much, and the bike had no problem with the few hills since the roads were in great condition (they're were even plenty of helpful signposts along the way).

It was a frustrating search for the petrol station at the start of the day (they never give you petrol when you rent a bike, and the guy who gave me the bike gave me crappy directions), but once fuelled up it was easy to find Agonda beach. Agonda is another stunning stretch of beach, much less developed than Palolem, with the same restrictions on concrete development, but with the shacks and huts far more spaced out. I actually thought Palolem was a tad nicer though, due to it's beautiful line of tall palm trees, but during the real high season I'm sure Agonda is a hell of a lot more peaceful.

So after a quick swim and a lovely curry breakfast it was back on the scooter to move on up the coast. The road from Agonda was just stunning, and I had to stop and take a couple of videos before we arrived just up the coast at Kola beach. Kola is only very briefly mentioned in one of our guidebooks, although it lists it as a top-five hidden beach. It turned out to be simply THE most idyllic beach I've ever seen! It's at the end of a pretty bad stretch of road and it's actually two small crescent beaches, connected with the usual little rocky outcrop.

One of those beaches (the more stunningly scenic one), is actually private with just one accommodation option that is owned and run by a package company (so we couldn't even buy a drink there). The first tiny beach also has very little development, mainly the Blue Lagoon Resort, and the prices for luxury tents (R900) and huts (Rs700) where very reasonable really (our ensuite hut with mozzy net on Palolem was just Rs200 a night though). When I come to Goa again (not 'if' of course), I like the idea of spending a few days here first, and then maybe moving on to Palolem or Agonda which have a lot more life, and choice of restaurants.


So after that quick pit stop it back on the bike and up to Cabo da Rama, which is an old fort build on a headland. There wasn't a lot to see here, just the remains of the fort's ramparts, although it did give good views out to sea and distant beaches. There was a lovely looking walk to a smaller headland further out, but Sarah had gone back to the bike due to the heat and she'd taken the water, so I didn't bother to hike out to check it out.

Back on the bike and up to the big town of Margao to try and book train tickets up to Rajastan. I knew this was going to be difficult, as the stretch from Goa up North is one of the most oversubscribed routes in India, and from checking online I could see that all the comfy class seats were already long gone. Anyway, after the usual stressful waiting in line, and then checking at the enquiry counter it turns out that we can waitlisted for 'sleeper' class seats. These are not air-conditioned and you aren't provided with bedding and is more cramped than what we've had before, but it was all that was available, so of course I took it. Luckily it means we can bypass Mumbai completely and get a single train all the way up to Jaipur. I didn't fancy spending time and effort getting accommodation in Mumbai, as the guidebooks say it's a messy and expensive city, and anyway I want to get up to Nepal fairly quickly to catch the Spring season there.

So much relieved to have our train tickets sorted (being 'waitlisted' doesn't guarantee a seat, and I'm still a bit confused by the Tatkal system, but both the ticket lady and a friendly guy in the queue both told us we had excellent chances as we were numbers 1 and 2), we just about had enough time to check out a couple of more beaches and so I headed back to the coast towards Benaulim.

I got a wee bit lost on the way though, and actually ended up at Varca beach. This is almost entirely run by big concrete resorts though, so after not even seening the beach itself I set off to find Benaulim, which is just up the coast. This was a nice beach, although just dead straight for as far as the eye can see, so in that regard not as pretty as the gently curving Palolem.

By this stage is getting late and I thought I'd have to drive in the dark for a bit, but it turned out that I'd timed things just about perfectly and we arrived back in Palolem just as the sun was setting. I missed the actual sunset itself, as I did every evening until the very last night - to see it set over the sea (as opposed to over a small headland), you have to swim out a couple of hundred meters and time it properly.

With the train tickets sorted out we knew exactly how much time we had left, and so decided to spend one more day lazing around on Palolem beach just doing nothing at all but swim, read, eat and drink. That left us two full days to explore around the state capital of Panjim, and the following morning we made our way there by local bus.