One fine evening sipping a cup of coffee with two of my friends in the office cafe, I was scrolling the Instagram feeds and suddenly I saw a post of scuba diving. "Scuba diving kare?". I said this a moment after and they both replied with excited "Chalo". So this is how this trip was planned. I was aware that Maharashtra's Konkan region is known for its clean beaches and scuba diving is also available in most of the regions as it is my native place too. We planned to go Devbaug a place near Malvan famous for this. First thing first we checked the tickets available and booked it soon. We planned for a 2-day weekend trip.
Train - Jan Shatabdi Exp from Thane at 6 am
Stop - Kudal at 1 pm
As soon as we reached Kudal we headed towards a nearby hotel for lunch. We ordered fish thali and it was delicious. If you are traveling in Konkan seafood is the best you can get. After that lip-smacking lunch, we took a bus to Malvan which took around 1 hour to reach there. From Malvan, Devbaug is 10kms inside so we had to take another bus to reach our destination. We reached our stay at around 4 pm and were exhausted.
We got freshen up, had some tea, and headed towards the beach which was a minute away from our stay. All the tiredness got vanished in seconds as soon as we experienced a cool breeze on the beach. Only locals were there on this beach, some fishermen were returning to shore with their boats. Sun was kissing the ocean and there was a colorful canvas in the sky. Walking barefoot on beaches is truly peaceful.
After a couple of hours of spending time on the beach, we head back to our stay. We had informed the person-in-charge for dinner which was again our special seafood also he had arranged for scuba the next day. We had our dinner and spent some time outside with never-ending talks, singing songs with the sound of ocean waves in the background. Aur kya chahiye zindagi mein.
The next day we need to report at around 9 am for scuba but who is gonna sleep if there is so much excitement, we were up by 6 am and went for a long walk on the beach till Sangam. Sangam point of Devbag is a place where Karli river meets Arabian sea. It was a mesmerizing view that will take you close to nature for sure.
We had our tea and breakfast and went for scuba but we got the news that there is not much light so we need to wait. If it's cloudy then they don't take you for scuba as the view inside the ocean has to be clear. We were wishing for the sky to be clear enough as we had only one day here. Luckily the sky was clear and the team took us to the Tsunami Island from a small boat, The island got created due to Tsunami hence the name. It's another beautiful place where various water sports you can experience. We were taken into a big boat from there inside the sea to the spot where we have to do scuba. Initially, we were given instructions about breathing, the sign language used inside the sea, and were given 10-15 mins practice time to go inside the sea and breathe correctly. After that the real match got started somewhere we all were having fear to go in the sea. But that was the only thing for which we came so far, to overcome our fear. Finally, our turn came and one by one we all 3 were in the sea. Speechless. Yes after coming out we were just silent and smiling looking at each other. We did it. Completing any adventure makes you feel content for sure.
With happy memories we were back at our stay had lunch which was a bit late as it was 5 pm in the evening. We checked out but got to know that the bus will be available in the next one hour which would make it impossible to catch a train back to Mumbai. The person who was in charge of homestay arranged a vehicle for us to reach Malvan depot (it was so kind of him) and from there we took an auto as we were short of time. The driver assured us that he will take us before the train comes but we still were checking the live status of the train. To our bad train was on time and for a moment Geet from Jab We Met came in my mind. What if we miss the train? We were so tired to travel for 8-9 hours in the general compartment of another train. As we were having booked tickets we cannot afford to miss this train. It was at the same time our auto and train reached the station. We just ran like anything to catch the train and finally, we did. Yipeee. This time we laughed looking at each other.
Amazing trip. Amazing experience. Amazing memories I would say.
Kehte hai na jo hota hai acche k liye hota hai...sahi kehte hai.
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