Day 10: Dhartale – Devgadh

Despite our best efforts, we woke up late. Set off for Nate, 8km away. Across the creek by ferry is Jaitapur, from where an hour or so of peaceful riding took us to Ansure, Wadi Pangere. Here the ferry had just arrived from Vijaydurg and was scheduled to leave at 2:00pm. It was 11:30am and there was no food around. Hunger led to desperation. After repeatedly pleading with the ferryman, he agreed to take us across in his motorized launch for 80 bucks. It was a half hour ride (the longest so far) down the creek, and extremely enjoyable. We were against the tide, and the boat used to rock while riding the waves. This creek is very wide and long (40km inland) and the only other option is a long ride around it.

Vijaydurg is a land fort at the tip of a northwest pointing peninsula. It is in good shape. Raja Bhoj built this fort, Devgadh, and some others along the coast around 1200AD. Since then, the fort passed through many dynasties including Shivajis, who repeatedly renovated it.

We had our lunch at a hotel at Vijaydurg and left in the afternoon for Devgadh, which was about 30km of tarred road away. En route, we had GKRs at the crossroads at Padel Canteen (what a name!) The stretch of road after the bridge at Jamsande was beautiful. It was the first time I noticed mangroves in a Konkan creek.


At Devgadh, we cycled till the fort - but the light was fading and I couldn’t make out much. The guard at the lighthouse gave us information about shipping and lighthouses in the area.

Devgadh is a town of mangos, fishes and tourists in that order. Devgadh Alphonso mangos are exported the world over. We had inexpensive dinner here, and restarted our initial tradition of sleeping in the police station.