Day 13: Panaji - Madgaon

We had our breakfast of bread-jam on a bench by the riverside. Good cloudy weather. Reminded me of Pune in the monsoons. Only it is a trifle humid. We cycled by the river to old Goa, where we saw the tourist attractions – the basilica of Bom Jesus and the church of St. Francis d’Assisi. In the latter, an archaeologist – my namesake – was at work restoring the wood carvings. We talked with him to find out that he’s a chemist based at Ajanta. According to him, restoring these paintings is much tougher than the ones at Ajanta, since these are mud based.

From old Goa, we took a winding country road to meet Highway 17 near Goa Vela (not to be confused with Velha Goa or old Goa). This was a beautiful route where the Goan countryside characterized by churches, old houses in the Portuguese style and locals in their distinctive dresses, could be fully appreciated.

On the highway, the common tourist’s perception of Goa – hotels, shops and bars – takes hold. We continued across the river to Cortalim where we had our lunch. We decided to make our night halt at Madgaon (Margao). The thought of Goa’s beaches (which we hadn’t yet experienced) made us leave immediately for Madgaon, via the scenic beach route.


We rested for half an hour at Velsanv beach, then continued southwards to reach Colva beach at five. This is a very long stretch (18km) of seashore. We walked a bit down the beach and saw quite a few foreigners. Sadly, none of the women were topless, as we had hoped! I went off to sleep on the beach to awake just before sunset. Then walked barefoot by the water back to the cycle park. By now the beach had considerably filled up, predominantly with Indians. Maybe we have more rigid views on the time to visit a beach than foreigners do?

We cycled the six km to Madgaon and then searched out Davorlim, where Krishnan’s dad had booked the ONGC guesthouse. The guesthouse turned out to be more like a chummery. We were provided accomodation in a room that someone had left for a few days, and served good grub.

Tomorrow, we plan to wake up late while Krishnan goes and visits relative in Marmagaon dry docks.

Estimate of distance covered today: 70km