the southern and northern tips of 'our' beach

of course we don't own the beach, the property belongs to the nation of India but we still refer to it as ours because we live right by it and even though we can't see it from our house we can certainly hear it and we often visit it both morning, midday and evening when there is often a great sunset

the southern tip of the beach is where the Tiroda Creek empties into the Arabian Sea. the beach on the north side of the creek is called Shiroda Beach, as it lies in the town of Shiroda. at some point south of the creek the beach becomes Redi beach, in the town of Redi. the creek is shallow apart from the channel so while at low tide it is possible for an adult to wade across but at high tide one has to swim a small stretch of the crossing. a little upstream there is a small fishing village with a great fish auction in the early morning. this boat is on the way out to set their nets which they will draw up before dawn with fish for sale at the auction

this shot facing north shows more of the creek but also much of the 4.5 km long beach. about 1.5 km of it lies in the town of Shiroda while the remaining section is in the village of Arawali, so the beach there is officially called Arawali Beach. for years the entire beach was fondly known as Paradise Beach but since there has been a lot of development for tourists it has pretty much lost that title. you would never know it viewed from where i stood on the top of the hill in an abandoned fort called Yashwantgad Fort or simply Redi fort

a visiting family crossing Tiroda Creek was escorted by a local dog

Arawali Beach ends in the north at the mouth of Mochemad River. this section of the beach is the least affected by human activity. at high tide the winding river is much wider but shallow apart from the channel, which for the most part is too deep to wade across. though at the very end of the river, where the ocean waves break even the channel is shallow even at relatively high tides so it is possible to wade across and there are almost never any boats traversing the river. the rocks are sharp with oysters so anybody wading must beware of them. during the monsoon the shape of the river can change quite dramatically so it is not the same from year to year. some years, a little ways upstream the river can seem almost like a lagoon while other years not.

Across Mochemad River is Mochemad Beach, perhaps it has overtaken the local title of Paradise Beach as it's lovely white sands remain virtually untouched by human activity. there is a village at the far north end of the beach but it is not at all developed for tourists and that is the only road accessing the entire beach. so the chances of turtles nesting here are better and there are far more seabirds here than south of the river