Devbagh – Dolphin Sighting

When we were planning to visit Goa for your daughters Communion, it occurred to us that why not stop at Tarkrali/Devbagh for dolphin sighting, which is very well known for. We did some googling 😊 to find out the appropriate place to stay. We found Devbagh also full of options to stay and also give the same experience. We found Rosary Paradise from trip advisor website it just on the beach, one can walk into beach literally from the resort, we arrived on April 28^th morning from Kudal railway station from Mumbai. We had out breakfast and headed to the beach to soak ourselves into the sea. We loved it with all the salt water 😊 in our system…. 😊

It was just like straight out of national geographic channel we saw eagles and seagulls diving into the sea and catching/scooping their prey i.e. fish from the sea and flying away. It was an amazing experience watching them live in action.

In the evening we went to Sindhudurg Fort. It was depressing the way a magnificent piece of history of our nation being maintained, but leaving that aside the fort is magnificent. The location and the Fort are magnificent worth a visit and appreciate the strategic location, purpose for which it was built and also the architecture by our great ancestors.

We had a relaxing evening and also got to see the fresh catch of fish caught by the local fisherman and selling it to the local vendors.

We arranged for the next day trip for dolphin sighting arranged by the resort i.e. Rosary Paradise. We were up the next morning and ready for the sighting and as we were waiting for the boatman to arrive we were having a cup of coffee, we suddenly out of nowhere we spotted dolphins swimming across while sitting in the resort, we were able to see their famous rotatory jump into the air and try savour the moment as it was unfolding. We then quickly scrambled ourselves and quickly made to our boat and headed towards the place where the dolphins were heading. First, we are taken through the Karli River and the place where the river and the sea meet, it was pretty rough and had some pretty close moments, we crossed the Sangam (the junction were the sea and the river meet) and went over in to the sea and saw the pod of dolphins crossing over other boat and heading our way 9these pod were the same which we watched from the resort earlier). It was amazing witnessing this dolphin pod crossing our boat.

We were taken to couple of points i.e. along the beach, later we crossed the same place/spot we sighted the dolphins, the dolphin had crossed from there and gone quite deep into the sea and we retuned into the river and headed to the Tsunami Island, which is a recent phenomenon after the Tsunami took place. This Island goes under water when there’s a tide i.e. during afternoon. One can enjoy water sports of all types. We headed back to the resort and soaked into the experience of sighting the dolphins.

We wanted to try scuba diving but since the water was not clear and visibility was almost only an arm’s length. So, after consulting with the resort we cancelled the idea of scuba diving.

Every visitor to Tarkrali/Devbagh question is when is the right time to visit for dolphin sighting and scuba diving, from Diwali i.e. the waters are pretty clear and sea is very quiet and calm and also increase in no. of sighting of dolphins have been reported during this season.

Accommodation/Stay @ Devbagh – Rosary Paradise:

As we were planning to visit Devbagh for the dolphin sighting we were hunting for a place/resort to stay in Tarkrali/Devbagh, actually if one observes Tarkrali and devbagh are along same beach, Tarkrali beach comes first and then devbagh beach comes at the Sangam or Junction of the Karli River and Arabian Sea. This land mass is one single stretch of which falls between Karli River and the sea i.e. Arabian Sea. One can see from the map screen shot below.

After quite bit of scouting around we found this property Rosary Paradise, which had good reviews in trip advisor and in other travel portals too. The property is bang on the sea shore, one can walk into the sea from the resort. We arrived in the morning pickup was arranged by the property owner from the Kudal Railway station (which is the nearest railway station). Its around roughly 40 to 50 mins drive from the resort to the station.

This resort is privately maintained by the family, they have around 4 to 5 rooms varying in size and nice place to have food facing the sea. They charged us Rs 2000/- for room for double occupancy. We opted to stay to 2N & 2D, they provide home cooked meals (Veg and Non-Veg options available). We preferred Veg thali, which was quite sufficient for one person, this veg thali comes along with Solkadhi (A traditional Maharashtrian drink/cooler made of buttermilk, Jeera and Garlic) 😊…! The food was good and hygienic.

The boat ride for the dolphin sighting is also arranged by the property (Rosary Paradise) owner, they have their own boats in which they arrange. Dolphin sighting is Rs 2500/- for total two to three hours package.

One our first day we saw the eagles and seagulls catching fish from sea by flying and diving on the surface of the sea. It was an awesome scene and my daughter was so excited seeing it, which we have seen only on Nat Geo or Animal Planet. This incident unfolded as we were soaking in the sea water in front of the resort.

The only drawback was the water in the bathroom was salty water and having shower in Salt water is very different experience 😊…, this is because in the summer the water in the well dries and the water from the sea seeps into the well and thus the situation……! And also, on the second day the sea water totally dirty with some oil spill kind of situation, we could not enter into the water at all…! Nobody knew why that happened.

Overall our Stay in Devbagh and Rosary Paradise was memorable and we created some fond memories along. From Devbagh we went to GOA ……. which I will write in my next post.

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