Open Road Drifter: Tigers and Dolphins on Maharashtra’s Broken Coast

Anand Shivalkar is a photographer and adventurer planning to bike Alaska’s Dalton Highway.

I biked my whole life and fantasized about doing a long distance trip. It was me and my friends Prathamesh and Bhavesh, six days in total, exploring the western coast of Maharashtra, going through some very remote places. We were gonna do it a year earlier, but I was in an accident while training. It was kind of stupid. We accidentally went into a private area — it was completely deserted — we didn't know that. As we were coming down a hill, the guy who was guarding the place tried to stop me by holding my hand as I was moving. He came out of nowhere. I fell off my bike on my head and damaged my spine. I still have a titanium plate on my spine because of that. I was really not allowed to go the next year, but I wanted to.

I lived in suburban Mumbai, which is really far from the main town. We took the train to where they have ferries and took the ferry to Mandwa Beach. From there, it was 40 kilometers to our first stop. We met a family friend of one of the guys, who had a house, so we stayed the night. The actual journey started the next morning, around 7 a.m. We rode around a hundred kilometers, ending up at Harihareshwar. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it got hilly. We saw cool beaches and were just chugging along. Maharashtra is famous for seafood. There were a lot of extremely small local restaurants, in some we were literally going in a house and sitting on the floors to eat. That was the restaurant.

The coast is broken. There are a lot of inlets of rivers, so the path is not straight. Local people have tiny rowing boats they use to cross. On the third day, we went up a hill and down to the bottom of the ravine where there was a mine — I forget what mineral they were mining, but we were all covered in red dust. It was right next to an inlet. There was a small row boat which shouldn’t have taken more than five people. We were ten, along with our bikes. We crossed to the other side and kept going. A wind was blowing and we were riding across the beach. Then we encountered our first mountain and our speed drastically fell. At one point, we were literally walking up the hill. And then the downhill was so much fun.

We had gotten off track. This was 2016 in India. We were using Google Maps, but they were not the best, especially with smaller roads. We had to find our way back on our own, going 30ish kilometers on sketchy roads. We finally got back on GPS, but we couldn’t see any towns on the map and it was starting to get dark. I saw a fox on the side of the road and my friend was like, “I’ve heard this area could also have tigers.” We reached a village. They gave us water from the well and snacks. We could have stayed there at someone’s house, but they said that there was a tiny town at the bottom of the hill that was better because there’s another inlet and an early morning ferry. So we decided to go there. We didn’t have lights. My phone had been on the entire day. It had 20 minutes of battery left. We attached it to the front of the bike using tape, put the flashlight on, and went in a single file down the hill. 

After 15 scary minutes, we reached the town. There was this 14-year-old, he’s like, “Oh my God, you guys are biking. If you want to stay the night, you can come stay at my place.” It was a little sketchy, but he introduced us to his parents and they were very welcoming. We were extremely gross from riding all day. They had a well in their house, so the guy gave us soap and we all took a bath together. He was pulling water from the well and giving it to us to clean ourselves. We were gonna leave at six in the morning, so his mom got up at four and made an entire breakfast. We had to do our morning routine and use a restroom. He's like, “We have a restroom near the beach.” It was a secluded part of the beach. There was a three feet by three feet bathroom with wooden walls. It was weird, but we all went. Then we took the ferry to the other side. 

This was a messed up day for me, because halfway through my rear cassette started having issues. It was not shifting properly and, at one point, it just gave up. The closest town was not that far, but it was far for walking, so we found a rickshaw. Generally, they don’t allow bikes, but he was fascinated by what we were doing, so he was like, “Okay, I’ll help you guys.” The other two biked and I went with the driver to a tiny shop. The guy there found a cassette that came from a kid’s bike. He retrofitted that tiny cassette onto my bike, I think he had to reduce the length of the chain. We still had 200 kilometers left. I’m not sure how long the bike would have been able to take it.

My friends came to the shop and I told them to not waste time. I’d catch up with them. They reached the next town before me and went to a local bar — I don't think it could qualify as a bar, but they served drinks there. They started talking about what we were doing and a doctor, who had a decent house, offered to let us stay there for the night. We were just sleeping on the floor, they gave us floor mats. It was amazing that he would do that. 

In the morning, we were going by the coast and there was this castle in the middle of the sea, Murud-Janjira. We reached a temple and had a beautiful meal. We sat by the water, dipping our toes for 40 minutes. It was springtime, but the days were still pretty long. We stopped by another temple. For the night, we stayed in a hotel in a town called Ratnagiri, where my family originally comes from.

I wanted to take my friends to Tarkarli, this secluded beach away from civilization. I’d spent a night there, gazing at stars. From the main road, it was 30 kilometers on gravel, but when we reached it, it was all worth it. It had a population of a hundred. We’d been hoping someone would let us stay in their home, which was extremely stupid. It started getting dark. Then we saw these two old guys who looked like city folk. We started chatting with them. They were also from Mumbai, there with a group of high school friends in their 70s who go there once a year. They're like, “We’re staying in this old friend’s house,” so they invited us to stay with them two minutes from the beach. 

At night, I was like, “Let’s go to the beach and look at the stars.” I don’t remember where the police officer came from, but when he found out we were trying to go to the beach, he warned us there was a leopard loose in the area that had killed some animals. He showed us photos to scare us off. That was creepy, but also possibly saved our lives. In the morning, we climbed some rocks to see the sunrise. I had heard that you can see dolphins, if you're lucky, in the distance. I think we saw one really far away, but I’m not sure. 

As we were heading back to the main road, this car coming in the opposite direction stopped us. It turned out the guy in the car was a triathlete who’d represented India. He’d done a lot of biking, the entirety of India, north to south and east to west, so he was very intrigued by what we were doing. We headed to Malvan, which was actually not too far away. We were going to take a rest day there and go scuba diving. The water was not so clear, but we did it. After we were done chilling, a lot of the day was left, so we were like maybe we should make a little headway. We rode again ‘til the evening, maybe 40 kilometers, to a place called Vengurla.

The next day, it was not far to Goa. There was a bridge we crossed, which meant we were inside Goa. From there, ten kilometers away there was a beach. We had an excellent meal and stayed in a hut on the beach for the night.