Benaulim

January 8, 2011

via Mobor and Cavelossim

My wheels bounce away from Forget Me Not guesthouse along the bumpy red rocky trail for a few hundred metres at nine o'clock to reach tarmac, where I make a left.

Not sure where I'll end up, but know from the now-battered Lonely Planet that there's a fort not far away.

What isn't mentioned is how hilly this road is.

The civil engineers who decided the route had a total disregard for contours and just headed for hilltops. Not sure why.

I'm in my lowest gear and some climbs last for over 1 km, but there're trees growing by the verge so it's not too bad and the sun is pretty low still with the shade giving me some nice coolness. Midday this wouldn't be such a picnic.

I get off and walk up one section.

After an hour I stop for a drink and have Pepsi for 10 rupees and take the seller's portrait, which makes him happy. From his cafe I can see the turnoff for the fort and he says it's nearly 3 km to reach it... a bit more up and down. He doesn't do food, otherwise I'd eat something.

The narrow road rises and falls and after 15 minutes I get to a place where a bunch of young scooter riders turn right in front of me, so I opt follow them like a sheep thinking this must be to the fort, but it turns out they're going to a beach.

It's a trek across what is actually a flat bed of rock, which has a trail worn on it. It's that red stuff they build walls and homes with and must be volcanic.

I get to the end and the scooter guys walk down to the beach through shrubs while I perch on the edge of the cliff and watch them play around with a football in the surf. It looks hyper-idylic.

There's a guy selling juice from a wheeled barrow nearby and although it's 50 rupees a glass I have a pineapple one as I know he's had to trek here too with his gear and fruit, and he uses a manual press that has a handle he has to spin. This is my breakfast I tell him.

The fort is built of that red rock that the Portugese must have cut from the local terrain a few hundred years ago.

I have another drink at a nearby cafe whose owner seems to have had a stroke, as his left side is limp and he walks slowly and his movements are carefully considered movements. He seems like he's had a lot of time to think about stuff and comes across as a gentleman.

I have two small chocolate ice cream-lollies while sat outside on a chair that's in the shade. It's hot now.

Back on the main road, which isn't really what you'd call a main road, there's a ferry that I read about last night while waiting for my fish curry and that my goal. It's near Betul.

As luck would have it there's no waiting and off we sail on a short ride. No one asks for my fare.

Mobor and Cavelossim seem to be one place joined together and they're on a finger of land that's a few Km long and very thin.

I ride along the beach road and it's gone one o'clock and my stomach feels empty, so I stop at a place that has tables with cloths on all set on a trimmed lawn.

The menu has Italian and I order penne quatro fromaggio e fieno - four cheeses pasta - which is super and really hits the spot.

For dessert I have 'Hello to the Queen' - it's banana and warm chocolate with ice cream decked by nuts and biscuits crumbled together. A new one on me and really fab.

My bill is over 700 rupees, but don't forget I'm on vacation.

The waiter says 75 percent of customers are Russian and that there's karaoke on tonight, which puts me off staying. It's too early to quit today anyway.

The place is called Spicy Bella and he shows me his bilingual name card which has Russian on it.

I reach the end of the cul-de-sac beach road and do a U and ride straight back as there's not much here. The book says it's one of Goa's best spots. Those writers must have been on glue when they came.

Varca comes and goes without me knowing much about it. It's a beach place.

I reach Benaulim, which the guidebook likens to a wind-blown Welsh seaside town and that strikes me as not being very nice as it seems more than okay to me, and besides I'm Welsh and was there on the north coast last summer with Debbie and we loved the area... very beautiful.

The beach has huts somewhere, but tonight I want a room that's going to be away from the sand and a few hundred metres away I make a left when a sign says 'rooms' and I find Lloyd's where the lady says the bedroom she shows me is 500 rupees, which is very reasonable and I take it.

My progress is slow, as it was always likely to be in pretty Goa.

My Asus Eee PC is still out of order.

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,875 km (1,785 miles)

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