One of Daisy’s favourite days – and indeed, our’s too – in Goa, is a visit to Galgibaga Beach, more commonly named Turtle Beach. It’s the most amazing long, white sand beach backed by a mix of palm and fir trees with just a few low key shacks visible amongst them. But the big thing for us, is to go there, enjoy the swimming and surfing and then have a long boozy lunch up in the trees, enjoying the fabulous seafood caught in the sea or in the salt water lagoon behind the sandspit.
We started the day with breakfast at Eve’s and then 3 tuks turned up to ferry us the 15 minute trip to the beach, crossing the Talpona River on the way. We get our tuk to drop us behind Santosh’s shack restaurant. We walk up to the restaurant and get him to reserve us a table – for 7 today – and to put 4 bottles of Sauvignon blanc on ice for us. Then we pick up a couple of bodyboards and wander to the south end of the beach where there are some rocks on the edge of the beach proper and the “lagoon”.
About 3 hours of watery fun now takes place. We move between the lagoon and the open sea. Today the sea was really calm, almost too calm for any body boarding, and glass clear. Daisy and I did manage to catch some waves just right and we had a lot of fun zooming up the beach, riding the waves to the end. Santosh has the boards for free use for customers. I’ve always enjoyed surfing and in the warm water here, it is just a total pleasure. Of course, we also enjoyed floating on the boards in the water and generally wallowing.
Wandered back to Santosh’s after 1pm and began our long lunch. Bob, Daisy and I shared a number of dishes and 2 bottles of wine and 1 of water. We had a platter of rawa fried oysters, calamari in a garlic butter sauce (and it was a LOT of garlic), prawns in a garlic butter sauce, chips, and a platter of prawns sitwa – prawns sitting amongst a mound of herby bulgar wheat and spices. Everything was absolutely fantastic and it was after 3 before we all finished. Our bill was about £35 which was a bargain for all we’d had. Totally full up by the end of it. Eddie and Pamela had a chicken biriani plus wine and water. Deborah and David had a massive platter of huge king prawns in a sauce, rice, wine and water. We also enjoyed much story telling and great chat. It is a lovely way to spend the day. We will no doubt do it again before the end of our time here.
Our tuks ferried us home at about 3.30. Showers and then naps were the order of the day.
Tonight we 3 went down to the beach and had light bites and drinks at Tantra. Such a hot night. Daisy got her ring back from the Kashmiri jeweller. 2 of her diamond chips in this delicate little ring had gone black. He repaired/replaced free of charge as we have supported him in the past. So nice. We had a lovely evening looking forward to Bobs birthday tomorrow.
