My travelogues: Nagaon - Cricket on the beach!

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Nagaon - Cricket on the beach!

Nagaon Beach (09th Nov 2013)

Nagaon beach - all to ourselves!

Beaches somehow don’t enthrall me that much, but I guess the group was a little weary of the same old trekking and needed another kind of getaway. So we planned a short visit to Nagaon beach near Alibaug. The list of beach bums was more or less constant this time, 10 former and present colleagues to be precise. Special migratory couple from Gujarat also joined us on this trip and PP, the profile princess also joined (He just couldn’t stop requesting for profile pics for facebook). The new entrant was Sumit Jagtap. It was also different this time since we behaved richer and went by cars instead of the usual local transport. Andy’s Ertiga and Jitesh’s Vento flew us to our destination.

Our initial plan of leaving early was disturbed by Andy and group coming late and I had to face the brunt throughout the trip from Chu Chida and Profile Pravin. On the way we halted at Ekveera restaurant near Karnala and had our usual missal paavs and wada usals, the only things available on the breakfast menu – a huge relief for Chu Chida since he was almost fainting from hunger - Never bring children on such trips!

We reached Nagaon by around 1 pm and were desperately hunting for our booked hotel Niwant. Hotel Niwant (http://www.niwant.com/) is an MTDC approved homestay type of hotel and is about a km further from the way to the beach. We had a room to accommodate ten people together with an open terrace. There are other a/c and non/ac rooms downstairs. The service is good. We immediately ordered for our lunch and really feasted on it. It was fantastic local food, both the veg and non-veg grubs. Once the feast was over, the lazy bums wanted to rest their bums and spoiled the initial plan of going to Kankeshwar Temple which is around 14 - 16 kms from Nagaon. Nagesh and I tried every possible way to disturb the sleeping fancies by playing cricket in the room and hitting the ball all over them but then we expressed pity on them and went to play downstairs. Sumit, Nagesh and I played one-tappi out below the coconut trees and Sumit was clean bowled for at least 5 times…haha!!

It was waky waky time for others as we kicked and abused and finally left for the beach at 4 pm. When I had visited Nagaon beach about 4 years back, it used to be pretty secluded but now there were huge crowds of people come out to enjoy the weekend. The beach is clean and is a long stretch where you can pick up your own spot either for a romantic rendezvous or mingle in the crowd. The beach is lined with Suru trees. There are water sports available at Nagaon like Banana boat ride, para sailing, speed boats etc. Horse rides and cart rides also feature! It was low tide when we entered into the water and till quite a distance the water level was pretty low. Water anywhere is pretty luring and we had great fun jumping and splashing in the water. As usual, no event can end normally with Chu Chida around and everyone involuntarily cornered him and hurled sand all over his body. As the sun was setting Chida was turning brown!

Then came the main event of this beach trip…Cricket! Nagesh’s Ch… vs Soumen’s Bhoots! We won the toss and elected to bat and pulled out a decent score in spite of Profile Pravin wasting the entire over and then getting out. Till then we didn’t know that he was an impostor in our team and was bought by the opposite team. We almost won the match but Profile Pravin, like Ishant Sharma, as they say….showed his aukad and was hit sixes on practically every ball and we lost. Nagesh and Chida danced jubilantly like the ‘Chak De’ hockey team girls.

Returning back, we saw lots of wet stuff walking on two legs. Everybody drooled – just human man! Returning back at the hotel, we cleaned ourselves of the beach sand by the spouting water from the pipe in the garden. That was fun too!! Then we went for a walk in the countryside, had ice creams and bought booze for the boozers. As usual Profile Pravin had his unique demand of Tuborg…we are getting used to him! Back at the hotel, the boozing party begun with a singing session but wasn't enjoyed as much as we did on the Bhimashankar trek. Then came dinner and with it came Bhai stories which was listened to with rapt attention. Pravin had just read the book ‘From Dongri to Dubai’ and was narrating excerpts from it and Jitesh had his own incidents to tell.

While others went to sleep, 5 of us played cards till the wee hours of morning. In fact we were planning to drive home with the first rays of the sun but finally left at 7 am. Chida lost a lot, Pravin and I won and Chida has promised not to play again with us. Khelega kya Chida? ‘Tereko actual mein chu banaya’ J . Nagesh as usual knew all the roads and misled us continuously, but we reached home earlier than we anticipated (Pravin, Chida, Sumit and me not having slept a wink – and I drove most of the journey…pat my back please!!). A fun trip with a big enough group and it turned out to be the lowest budget trip.

A bit about Nagaon

Nagaon is about 10 kms from Alibaug and though currently not secluded, you can find your own spot and have fun if you do not want to mingle with the crowd. It’s a long stretch of sand.
The water levels are pretty low during low tide.
As I have mentioned water sports are available.
There are a lot of staying options around the beach and a little away from it too, depending on the damage you can handle on your pocket.
Try the local culinary treats and have sol kadi for sure (I had 5-6 glasses each time!)
The other spots nearby are Alibaug beach and Colaba fort on Alibaug beach, Kihim beach, Akshi beach and Kankeshwar Devasthan which is supposed to be scenic since on a hill top (We missed it this time).
Mumbai to Nagaon distance - around 100 kms