During my summer vacation stay at Pune this year, I went on a short trip to Kihim and Alibaug over a weekend. Kihim is a beach at south of Mumbai. By road Mumbai to Kihim is 120 km and takes approx 3 hrs. Pune to Kihim is 150 km and takes 4 hrs. So we decided to go to Mumbai by train and then by ferry to Mandwa port which takes 1 hr only.

Our train was to reach CST at 4 am or so. The first ferry for Mandwa port leaves Apollo Bandar at 6 am. After having tea and sandwich, we decided to go and sit at Gateway of India to enjoy the open space and oceanic breeze at least. It was wonderful seeing the dawn break at Gateway of India. Lot of people had gathered there by 6 am…I guess Alibaug is a popular weekend getaway for Mumbai folks. Our ferry left at 6.15 am and thus began my first boat ride.

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It’s become a feature of my weekends now. A new place to visit and explore every Sunday and last Sunday was no different! Korlai was always on the agenda and this time my friends and me were eager to check out the lighthouse and the fort. Though the initial plan was to ride all the way to Alibaug, where Korlai is located, we decided to head by boat to save on time (Which we eventually didn’t!). A quick view at the Google Maps made us relatively comfortable that Ferry Warf (Bhaucha Dhakka), from where bikes can be ferried to Alibaug wasn’t so far away from Bandra, but alas we still ended up getting lost! Thankfully some really helpful and extremely sleep uncles (yes in that order) did help us figure out the way to Bhaucha Dhakka and boy were in time or what! Reached there just 5 minutes before the boat left the shores! Phew!

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