Cheap thrills!- Velas

Most of us have experienced spontaneous plans, it either becomes our best memory or something falls short and it is forgotten for good. Well, this is about me and my friend Drashti back in March when we came across an emerging tourist destination not far from Mumbai. Velas, an unexplored gem in Ratnagiri district.

As we started researching how to reach and what to do in this village it led us to understand this place further. The main reason why we got attracted was the opportunity of witnessing baby-‘Olive Ridley’ turtles being hatched. Even, this entire village ran on homestays with no single hotel in the vicinity. A beach with such simple yet beautiful experiences.

We started jotting down options of the mode of transportation for reaching Velas. Riffling through bizarre options like riding my scooter for 5 hours at a stretch or hiring a car for just the two of us, we came to a conclusion that we would go by the public transportation available at hand. The reason behind this being we were at that point of the month where we hardly had any cash. Still, our priorities were on an upscale where no matter what, we wanted to take a trip.

The route we took to reach Velas goes something like this. First half was a general compartment in a local train to Mangaon Station. When you travel for 5 hours without sitting down you understand the value of your legs. Second half was an ST bus from Mangaon to Mandangad which was at night. It was filled with many emotions, fear to be the most prominent one, as we were two girls completely alone on a trip. Upon reaching Mandangad we decided to pitch a tent in any safe place we could find (we were carrying a tent with us for such emergencies). But we thankfully found few people closing the shutter to their restaurant and asked where we could pitch a tent as we didn’t have money to spend on a lodge.

The lady was very generous towards us and she and her husband took us in. We were shocked at first to see such kindness but later on, we accepted and through sheer luck we had a place to stay for the night. They even took us out for a late night dinner in their car. And all of this compiled together gave us a sense of relief and safety that such people do exist. And eventually, we spent a peaceful night at their house and it taught us to be more considerate and kind in our life.

Until this point, we had already reached the 5th layer of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The fifth and the last layer being the need of self-actualization, wherein a person has a need to realize his/her potential by giving a higher goal outside themselves. Ours was to complete this trip- in the decided budget without feeling helpless. And we were getting good at it.

As we left the next day for Velas by an ST bus (again), the road lit up and made us see different aspects of how nature can be beautiful in different ways. The entire route from Mandangad to Velas was a pleasant surprise with rocky banks, unfinished bridges, tiny lighthouses, green colored mini rickshaws and so much more.

As we got down in Velas there were a plethora of homestays waiting for us to choose. Walking down the small lane of the village which was flanked by local huts and houses we tried not to be very stringent. So we opted for the homestay which was a bit nearer to the beach. This family’s house had an enclosed barn for their buffalo and it was quite spacious. The owner of the house made typical Maharashtrian lunch for us inclusive of all thecha’s and chutney’s which was mouthwatering. And due to the exhaustion from our long journey we slept after our heavy lunch on the Charpai put up in their Verandah. 

In the evening at around 4 pm, we decided to visit the beach. The family was super caring of us and warned us to not stray away alone at night. They even reminded us to come back at night for the common Holi(bonfire) in the main square of the village. We made a mental note and started walking towards the beach.

Upon reaching the beach we were disappointed as we weren’t able to witness any turtle getting hatched (the locals suggested that we come back in April for that).But we were shocked to see that the villagers had undertaken a turtle conservation movement wherein care was taken that these baby turtles stay safe from the clutches of tourists or predators till they crawled into the sea. It is an applaudable action as far as the villagers are concerned.

So as it neared dusk we asked a random person (his name was Kashish) to click our photos together. He got quite bored of us as we weren’t posing for any photo. So finally he suggested us poses eg. the above photo of us trying to make a heart around the setting sun. And clearly, we weren’t getting any good at posing. One thing led to another and we got familiar with Kashish and his friend Mohit as they were both from Pune.

And as the darkness set in we had to still walk for 20 mins to reach the village. Right at that moment a tempo passed by, so we asked for a lift and the driver obliged. All 4 of us traveled back in style in the back of a tempo. As we neared the village we could see the fumes of Holi going up into the sky. We paid our respects at the bonfire trying to get warmth from it.

Then bidding farewell to the family who had provided us with lunch we set out to pitch our tent near the dying bonfire. This was our only chance on the trip to pitch a tent and still feel safe as everyone was just a call away if need be. Preparing our food supplies for the long night- which included chips and biscuits we sat inside the tent and just marveled over our trip. Despite the fact that we didn’t get to see the turtles and we had to go through so much to reach this village it was an achievement none the less. And we were living this last chapter of the trip to its fullest. When we finally went to sleep we learned that experience is what makes or breaks a person. And that day we were reborn with new experiences.

Early morning we packed our tent and caught the first ST bus which took us all the way to Mumbai. During our return journey, we started adding up our expenses and found out we had spent much less than expected.Surprisingly our entire trip had cost us 800 Rs/ head to be precise. We had our little victory moment, as now we could flaunt our trip as a trip worth taking.