Originally we were going to follow the coast to Goa, but when we saw it was a ton of steep climbs, we decided we should look at other options. Since the Tour of Deccan just came through here a few days ago, we decided to follow their route, thinking it would be on the best roads for cycling from Malvan to Mandrem Beach, Goa. And it was!
It was easy to follow with their route arrows clearly spray painted on the roads, but just in case, I found a participant on Strava and downloaded her GPX track.
Half and half well paved, half and half low traffic, we even spent about 10km on the Mumbai/Goa 4 lane divided highway with almost no traffic, gentle gradients, a nice shoulder that was 75% clear of overgrowth, and a smattering of wandering cows, drying hay, and herds of goats.
As we got closer to Goa, fewer and fewer people took any notice of us, just an occasional wave, thumbs up, or “hello!”.
We stopped at a small town looking for lunch but instead found a pastry shop. We’ve seen these everywhere, but amazingly (given Steve’s sweet tooth), we’ve yet to try anything! I ordered us two donut looking things, and they were so tasty, we ordered two more, much to the shopkeeper’s amusement.
A few kilometres later, we found a small stall selling our snack of champions, vada pav, potato cake sandwiches, and had two each. A guy there asked if we were Russian. I think Goa is popular with the Russian tourists.
As soon as we crossed the bridge from Maharashtra to Goa, everything changed. It was like being teleported to another universe (or maybe like the spore drive on Star Trek – I’m really enjoying it). We’ve only seen 2 white people since leaving Mumbai, but across the bridge in Goa, every other person was white. All the signs were in English. Restaurants advertised “continental food”. The roads were better paved. And the goddamn dogs chase bicycles here! We’ve seen hundreds of dogs in Maharashtra and not a single one paid us any attention except to get out of our way, but the first pack of 6 dogs we saw in Goa were close at our heels.
We stopped so I could have a beer before heading towards the beach to find our beach-side hut for the night. It’s super cute, just across a foot bridge from Mandrem Beach, and with a good seafood restaurant attached. After 6 days of consecutive cycling, we decided to spend two nights here and enjoyed a very lazy beach day, reading, planning, doing laundry, and having lunch and dinner on the beach.
Our beach hut. We snuck our bikes inside when the power went out lol.
Basic but comfortable. We didn’t even need the mosquito net.
The huts are separated from the beach with rickety bamboo bridges.
Sunset on the beach.
Sounds like you hit easy street for a bit. What is your protocol for dealing with aggressive dogs?
It’s only been an issue a few isolated times in Turkey and now India. Most of the dogs simply ignore us or are friendly or are behind fences. I usually look them in the eye and “bark” or yell loudly back at them and keep on riding past, out of their territory. The eye contact and yelling usually gives them enough pause to slow down and I can get past them. Have never been bit as an adult, but in some rural areas, rabies can be a concern, so it’s important to be careful. We encountered a dog in Bosnia that may have been rabid; he was foaming at the mouth, seemed a bit disoriented, and was unexpectedly aggressive with deep growling, so we got away from him ASAP. In Montenegro, a group of three really friendly dogs happily followed us for 2-3 kilometers out of town; they were just looking for company!
HAHAHA…Betty & I both got a big laugh with “I see white people”.
The hut looks very inviting and clean. What a wonderful view of the water and the sunset. I love the use of bamboo. I found it all over China. They even used it to build high rise hotels back in ’92. they had bamboo scaffolding that went up 8, 9,10 floors and sometimes more. The workers would climb all over the place outside the buildings. It was a moment where I held my breath while I watched them navigate the construction so high in the air. And orange plastic would hold it all in place. Nice to know you are relaxed for a few days. I use to carry a spray bottle of water with a little ground pepper in it to keep the dogs from my heels when I cycled but I’m sure you wouldn’t have room to do that on your trip with such limited room and weight. Thanks for the post…always brings a smile. 🙂
I apologize. I realize you are focused on day to day and what lies ahead, but I am a little confused. I’ve gone over your posts and I guess I just keep missing it. Did you go to New Delhi? It seems like you started your ride in Mumbai. But you took a ferry to Mandwa? Are there more than one Mandwas? The one I find on google maps is a 30 hour drive from Mumbai. I’m afraid I’m a bit confused.