South Goa, beach lovers paradise

After the fantastic time we had in north Goa, we headed for old Goa and it was even more majestic. Now it was again time for the beach. So south Goa was where we headed next. Well, in case you have directly come into this blog post, you might want to visit our posts on north Goa and old Goa and the churches of old Goa.

  When we left Panaji and drove towards Colva beach, the surrounding slowly became very quiet until we reached Marmagao. Marmagao is a city in Goa full of hassle and bustle. If you are coming from north Goa, you have to take a right at Marmagao to get to Colva beach. We chose Colva because of two reasons; one was that it is famous for its long white stretch of beach, the other was that Colva also had one GTDC hotel right by the beach. 

  When we reached Colva beach, the first thing we did was checking into the GTDC hotel. By far, it was the best GTDC hotel among the ones(Calangute and Panaji) we already stayed in this trip. And to our surprise we were given a cottage with nothing except a very low fence to block our view of the see. And the view was breathtaking. 

  Withing half an hour from checking into the hotel, we were on the beach. This was a different beach. Wide spread, bright white sand and colours everywhere. When we reached the beach, it was around 4 O' clock at afternoon. The beach was full of small creatures of sea. The majority was of star fish and hermit crab. They were in hundreds, if not thousands. 

Varieties of sea shells

A star fish and a different kind of crab

A star fish among thousands of sea shells

  We strolled across the beach almost till 6:30 pm. Although the evening was cloudy, the sunset was pretty relaxing.

The Colva beach

Watching over everyone, always

The beauty of Colva beach

One of the fishing boats at Colva beach

Sunset at Colva beach

Two fishing boats at Colva beach

  Walking and that also on the beach is definitely going to do one thing to you for sure. Its going to make you hungry, very hungry. We got hungry after our close-to-four hour walk on the beach. So we decided to go for some snack at one of the shacks by the beach. The experience with the shack was mixed. We liked the innovative and casual way they designed the shack. There was a projector and a cricket match on it. There were dresses on sale as well. The thing we did not expect was the price of the food. The sea food in these shacks generally don't have price printed by them. Rather you would find something like "price according to season and size" next to each food item. They brought a plate of fresh fish(uncooked) and told us the price if we wanted those cooked. And to our surprise, it was around 5 times higher than the price we found in Calangute. Anyway, we were hungry so we ordered something. 

  It started raining by the time we finished our overpriced meal/snack. So we got kind of drenched on our way back to the cottage. For dinner, we went out looking for reasonable restaurant and we found one. Though not absolutely reasonable, it was not that overpriced. We enjoyed a good sea crab dish. After that, it was a good night's sleep.

  The next morning, we hit the beach pretty early. And the beach was much less crowded. But the sea creatures were also gone. Maybe they appear only during the afternoon. The surprise, though, was something we never expected. It was the time for the fishing boats to return to the shore and bring the last night's catch to the wholesale market. The wholesale market is also right on the beach. Fish was everywhere. We saw how the fishermen clean their net, how they clean the fish right at the market, how they sell fish. And there were different types of fish; prawns, king fish, mackerel and many more.

A fishing boat being pulled and pushed to the shore

Stacks of fishing net by the beach

Cleaning of fish at the wholesale fish market.

Thousands of prawns at the fish market

These fishes are being dried

 

Arrangement to make dry fish

Spreading fish to be dried.

  The morning on the beach was fantastic. However, we had to keep an eye on the watch as this was our last day in the Goa trip. We quickly grabbed some breakfast and tea and were ready by 11 am, ready to leave Colva. 

  We decided to visit Palolem beach on our way back home. We've heard so much about this beach, that we just couldn't miss seeing it. 

  Palolem is about 40 Km from Colva. So it was a nice break for the journey. Parking fee was Rs. 25 (approx).

  The beach of Palolem is just beautiful. Its kind of different from the other beaches. The shape is a bit crescent, so perfect for taking breathtaking pictures. One part of the beach forms a kind of island and we could spot some huts in there as well. We also noticed several water sport arrangements on the beach. The number of shacks seemed more on Palolem. Palolem is a smaller beach than Colva. And personally we liked Colva more, mostly because of its vastness and the sea creatures on the beach. However, Palolem has its own beauty and is distinctively different from the other beaches. There are resorts and hotels available in Palolem as well, so spending a night there should be worthwhile.

Palolem beach

Fishing boats and other arrangements at Palolem beach

Boats for water sport at Palolem beach

Palolem beach

  So with the closure of our quick hour long trip to Palolem beach, we returned on the highway. Almost 10 hours of drive was ahead of us. We reached home(bangalore) at around 1 O' clock at night.

Karwar, on our way back home