Velas Turtle beach Trip Day 2

Hurray!!! Velas Turtle Beach sighting day. We got up early with enthusiasm around 6:45 am and after drinking tea went to see Olive Ridley Turtle hatchlings. We all especially Rhea, my niece were really looking forward to see tiny baby turtles. We met Mr. Mohan, he is part of a local NGO who promotes turtle conservation. The NGO, Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra protect these turtle from wild animals, etc by creating a enclosure. They number the individual nests depending on when the eggs were laid, the first turtle to lay eggs on the beach is marked No. 1 and so on. He gave us good insights about Olive Ridley turtles. 1 turtle lays between 80-150 eggs and the eggs hatch after 45-55 days. Only 40% of these eggs survive and only 1 out of 1000 hatchlings reach Adulthood after 15-17 years. Once any turtle reaches adulthood, it returns to the same beach to lay eggs from where it was released into the sea. Wow. We were now waiting for the moment, but Mr. Mohan told that since temperature has decreased in last 1-2 days, the hatchlings will take time to come out. Awww…we were really disappointed to hear this… But nevertheless, we had a great time at the beach, since there was nobody except us…Private beach 🙂

There were thousands of seagulls at Velas beach. It was an amazing sight to see them flying in different patterns.

We then went clicking near the hill, beach and in the woods…Mansi and Tina had to be pulled from the beach since they were continuously collecting shells and not stopping at that… 🙂

We spent more than 4 hours 🙂 at the beach before heading back. We were then had one of the best poha for breakfast. Our homestay was simple and nice, with LCD TV, balcony and western toilet.

We all really enjoyed the stay and hospitality of Mr. Sunil and his family. He is a firm believer of “Atithi Devo Bhava” and he took great care of us in the same way. We will definitely will be coming back and this time we won’t go back until we see a Olive Ridley turtle hatchling. 2 days after we had been there, a baby turle popped out of the sand..we were unlucky to miss it…But no worries, we will come back for sure. Our Velas beach trip was coming to an end 🙁 We left around 2:00 pm after having delicious lunch and headed for Shriwardhan. The route towards Shriwardhan was excellent, the roads and the sea parallel to each other.

At Shriwardhan, we checked in at Shree Holiday Home. We had dinner outside and bought few nice homemade Amla products from Shriwardhan Farm Products. (Address: V.V. Vaidya, Ojale Pakhadi, Shriwardhan, Mobile: 0952147222812). The next day we left around 10:00 am from Shriwardhan and reached Mumbai in the evening.

Day 2 Expenses:
Boat Ride at Baagmandla Jetty: Rs. 100 for Wagon R, Rs. 10 per passenger
Fuel: Rs. 1500
Accommodation at Shrivardhan Homestay: Rs. 1500
Dinner: Rs. 200
Amla Products: Rs. 400