Cycling to Bhogave Beach and Trek to Nivti Fort

Cycling Dec 19, 2020

A few weeks ago, we drove from Mumbai to Malvan along the coast to arrive at Devbag, the southern tip of Malvan at the mouth of the Karli River.

See the amazing places we visited on the drive from Mumbai to Devbag

Our first cycling adventure from Devbag was to visit Bhogave Beach and trek up to Nivti Fort.

The map above shows the route we followed. The route combines our cycling and trekking route.

We were staying at the Windmill Resort in Devbag. We started early in the morning to cycle to the small fishing jetty behind the Vitthal Mandir, where we had arranged for a fishing boat to take us across the Karli river. The normal route would have been to go around and cross the bridge at Waghavane. However, we decided to take this short cut so as to conserve our energy for the trek.

We unloaded our bicycles on the other shore, and started cycling uphill towards Chipi Airport. The initial section of the road upto Chipi is quite bad. Rohan was using the Cannondale MTB so he was fine. I was on my Brompton, on which I am used to riding on all kinds of surfaces. But Sharmila was riding her new road bike, and she found the terrain to be quite challenging.

From Chipi, the road quality was much better. Plus we had a nice downhill ride up to Parule, where we turned towards Bhogave beach, and stopped at this small bridge before proceeding ahead.

From Parule, the road towards Bhogave is a steady climb to the top of a hill range that also hosts the Nivti fort. There is a road that branches off at the top to go to the fort, while the main road then rapidly descends to Bhogave beach. We decided to go to the beach first. The downhill ride was nice for a while, but just when we picked up speed, the road surface suddenly became very bad, and we had to slow down suddenly!

We were relieved to reach safely at Bhogave beach. We rested awhile, and ordered for breakfast at a small tea stall and looked around while it was being prepared.

The beach is clean and unspoiled. We enjoyed walking around on the beach for a while.

Breafast consisted of freshly made omelette and tea. We walloped the breakfast and then set out to walk along the beach north to the base of Nivti fort.

We tried to ride our bicycles on the beach, but the sand was so fine, that our wheels kept sinking into the sand. So we ended up walking and pushing our bicycles along. It was about a 2 km walk to the base of the fort. We parked the bicycles near a coconut tree, and requested a villager who was doing some work on his farm to look after them.

The climb up to the fort was quite easy, and we kept looking over our shoulders to see the view of Bhogave beach.

This is the stunning view of Bhogave beach from the top of the hill, just before we enter the fort.

We just sat there mesmerized by the view. No words are needed to describe the peace and tranquility of this place.

We could see boats plying in the sea, carting tourists to see dolphins, for parasailing and scuba diving. The water was clear and we could see the colors of the corals and rocks underneath.

As we walked around to enter the fort, we could see the rock formations dramatically rising from the sea.

The view from the fort towards the east is the Nivti beach and the Golden Rock jutting out into the sea.

The fort itself is not in a very good shape. The ramparts are falling apart and the bastions stand mute testimony to the neglect over the years.

The fort is a rectangular area surrounded by ramparts and bastions at the corners. At the south-east corner is a large courtyard that seems to be surrounded by living quarters and storage areas, while outside the courtyard there are other structures that are in ruins.

After enjoying the views from the fort, we started climbing down back to Bhogave beach to retrieve our bicycles and walk back.

We walked all the way around to the north-west corner of the beach. It was a long walk, but we hoped to catch a boat back across the river rather than ride over the hills again.

Luckily, we found a boatsman and his assitant loading logs in their boat to carry across, and they agreed to give us a ride.

We got back to the hotel, had a nice lunch and then it was time to work!

Come back to read about our other adventures in and around Devbag!

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ashutosh

Adventurer, cyclist, musician, mathematician, data architect