After hearing a lot about Murud beach, our intentions got a further fillip when we got a chance 3 day weekend. The objective was the same, enjoy the drive, discover new little joints specializing in tasty local food, discover something new about Murud, the town and rate the beach amongst the best/worst we’ve visited so far. We’ve realized trip after trip that the best way to start a drive is to begin early and watch the sun rise out of an orange sky, brightening it to a clear and beautiful blue. Roads are quiet, but for an odd trucker or two who tries to stretch and cover a couple of miles. Apart from the feel good things, the roads are all yours, you don’t have to down the gears and worry about uncivilized roadsters J Anyway, coming back to the Murud drive, with a single breakfast stop at Panvel (Dutta Guru gives you hot, yummy Maharastrian fare, poha, upma and the evergreen vada-pav with mirchi chatni and it all this is too spicy, there’s sweet sheera)…food..mmmm.We reached Murud Harnai, the place at around 230pm, after a 252km drive&6.5 hrs. There are, rather two places to stay when we visited, atleast what we found comfortable – Silver Sand Beach Resort with a direct access to the beach and a little far away was Kamat Resorts though we found rooms at both too congested. Nevertheless, it was so terribly hot and humid that one hardly wanted to stay inside the room, we would rather laze around the hammocks under the shade of the palms. The beach at Murud Harnai is clean, strewn all over with shells –mostly small and medium and of course there are those white, translucent, active baby crabs. Waves regularly deposit batches of fledgling crabs on the shore in hundreds and they keep trying to ride back into the sea with the next wave…so cute. Neither the waves, nor the crabs give up! We came back to silver sands after a good stroll along the beach and were we hungry? Kartik, covered from head to toe with sand resembled sandman. At Harnai there’s a small port – enroute we witnessed a fisherfolk wedding procession, what a burst of colors. Mostly all the women were dressed in impressively bright brocaded sarees, dancing merrily (only true joy can make you dance in such a scorching heat at 3pm) with large plastic flowers fixed to their braids. As the procession progressed along the narrow lanes, we had to park our car in a side lane and give way, of course we were more than happy. Not everyday can you watch a joyous procession at such close quarters and with such leisure. The groom was held on the horseback (by two people) and looked pretty scared (of falling down?). Good fun ! From Harnai we moved towards Anjarle, a new bridge over the Anjarle creek takes you to a Ganpati temple which was built around 1187AD. A very scenic route with enjoyable company, through red-m,udded ghat roads neatly lined by mango trees…Anjarla is around 12-14kms from Murud Silver Sands resort. Darshan was peaceful, back to Murud for more play & beach.The sea-salt-spray was so strong I have to constantly wipe my glasses – I guess it’s the second strongest sea spray after Tarkarli. An early morning walk the next day gave us glimpses of hordes of sea-gulls. Since the sea was calm and sky clear, we could actually see the Suvarnadurg fort near Harnai bunder quite clearly. In the morning, there are boatmen who take tourists out into the sea, you can negotiate. A good 2.5 days, sea, sand, shells, a clean beach, lovely spicy food, lots of mangoes, a colorful marriage procession, a great view of the Harnai bunder from the port, nice pictures and a good drive back…home.
