Antarvedi - a place unexplored

A couple of weeks back, my boss called us for a sudden meeting at his guest house in Antarvedi. Thats when I looked it up on google maps. So Antarvedi is located on the banks of river Godavari in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pardesh. The location is beautiful because it is at this point that Godavari merges into the Indian Ocean.

Antarvedi has a sleepy village setting with all the paddy fields, the coconut leaf huts, the long unending stretches of coconut trees, very cheerful locals and of course the prawn farm landlords (earning crores of Rs).  It has a small but ancient temple with a story of Sage Vashishta associated with it. As I mentioned earlier as the river meets the sea you also have a beautiful, virtually unexplored beach. My boss has a few acres of land right on the banks of Godavari and has build a beautiful guest house over looking it. I had the privilege of staying there for a few days.

So if you do get to this part of Andhra and you are not a local and are wondering as to what you could do, here are a few tips
1) Walk around to get a true village feel. Check out the prawn and fish farms. The locals will be delighted to pull out a fish and show you. See if you can meet any of the prawn crorepati and get a few tips from them.
2) Lot of rare birds around. Take out your SLR and click away.
3) Ofcourse visit the beach. Make sure you do so either in the early mornings or towards the late evening. While you are at it, see if you can spot any dolphins swimming by.  I visited the beach in the morning and was very lucky to spot a few dolphins by just standing right there on the beach
4) Visit the local fish market and buy your share of the best quality prawn either dried or fresh
5) See if you can get yourself invited to any of the locals house. People in this part of Andhra are known to be generous with their guest and make amazing food. I got to relish a couple of crab and fish(chepala pulusu) dishes during my stay and they did taste yummy.
6) If all this is done and you still have time, find a comfortable place, settle down to read or even better write a book. 

Dophin swimming by

Sunset on river Godavari

Sunrise amidst coco palms

I think this is a Racquet Tail

Indian Roller or the Blue Jay

Cute crabs on the beach

Structure in the middle of no where

Fresh catch of the day

Fish from the farm

APTDC also has a resort in this region at a place called Dindi. I think there is another privately run resort just opposite the APTDC resort. Its hard to find any other accommodation here. The best time to  visit is the winters as Andhra as a whole has harsh summers.  The nearest towns are Narsapur and Bhimavaram.