Driving to Goa..Not for Everyone ?

Driving to Goa Dec '15
Christmas time is always such a beautiful time to be around family and Mumbai weather isn't so bad.

And once that day is over , its like any other vacation week i havent used up !

I have always secretly hoped that somewhere during this mad rush of being Santa and attending masses and visiting family and celebrating birthdays , that i could somehow get away and bring in this gorgeous new years weather in Goa. 

With family friends visiting from Canada , plans were being made spontaneously and late night chats were all over the cards!

Our wedding anniversary due to come up soon, i did mention to Albert that leaving for a few days would be ideal considering we did not have any urgent commitments in the first few days of Jan 2015. Of course, inception took place and then followed by persuasion by dear Walter. And with the car serviced inside out , we hit the road early on Sunday 28th. 

Driving out of Mumbai through the Chembur expressway is such a boon ! We took the NH4 all the way to Nipani passing Kolhapur etc along the main highway route but only stopping for brief periods at well appointed Petrol Pumps and decent Dhabas (food cafes). I did not feel too well through the journey and only took over the wheel just before Nipani.

After Sawantwadi , is the treacherous dimly lit drive into Goa. First the Ghats (the one that kept me clutched) followed by the blaring lights of oncoming traffic on those indistinct roads.  Ok, this i clearly didn't want to forget because there is always this one thing thats going be the last straw for me and i think it definitely had to be the 'unilluminated' driving into Goa!

Well we always complain how things seem to change as time goes by and as we tried to navigate ourselves into Salgolda , this did happen to be the one thing that we kept mulling over and over again as each right turn turned into the wrong turn. We did pass Mapusa and then stopped to flag down two boys on a motorbike for directions. Predictably, as we asked for Sangolda they kept the conversation going with "Eh, Sundown ?" With Mae de deus Church in the distance to our right, we convincingly take the correct 'left ' turn and drive straight to the village home with enough time to settle in for some biryani at the local bar.