You can reach Goa from the north, in two possible ways. The first and the simplest, at least on the map, is to hit the Mumbai-Goa highway, which starts at Panvel, some 50 Km south of Mumbai. This road goes straight to Goa. There are no mountain passes or Ghats, as we call them here. Yet there is a catch. This road in most parts, is just a two lane road. Considering the volume of traffic on this road, and the trucks that ply on it, I think that it is best to avoid this road as far are possible. The other alternative is to take Mumbai-Pune expressway and then bypassing Pune city, take the National Highway No. 4 to Bengluru. This road is fairly wide (4 lanes) and in general one can have a pleasant journey. Since I started my journey from Pune, my choice was limited to latter, any way.
We had planned to leave Pune city early in the morning, have lunch at Kolhapur and then proceed to Goa. We managed to leave Pune, well in time, after having sumptuous breakfast of Idli's and other south Indian snacks, joined the Bengluru highway early morning. At a distance of 8 to 10 Km from the city, we had to cross the first mountain pass at Katraj. I had some apprehensions about this pass because of the heavy traffic, which I had experienced previously. I had somehow forgotten that it is no longer necessary to cross the Katraj pass as a new tunnel has been built. This tunnel, which removes the necessity of climbing a narrow mountain road , has made the travel much easier and before we knew it, we were already speeding towards Satara. Our holidays to Goa had truly began. Kolhapur city is about 200 Km south of Pune and we managed to reach there in about three and half hours after breaking for a cup of tea at Karad.
