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Wednesday, February 5th – Cabo de Rama to Palolem Beach, 17,294
We wake with the sun kissing the top of our tent inside the broken walls of the fortress at Cabo de Rama. When we exit, there is a gaggle of curious monkey watching us from the tops of the walls. They scatter as we climb out. It is a warm, sunny day with striations of cloud on a blue sky. Frank lights the stove for tea and we eat fruit and yogurt for breakfast.
It will be a short ride today, about 20 km, so we want to spend the morning hiking out to the end of the cape and exploring the area around the fort. We load our bags onto our bikes and hide them in bushes near to fort in case other visitors arrive.
We make sure they are tightly sealed so the monkeys cannot dig through them, before we set out. We follow the top of the bluff where the vegetation is light until we are near the end of the caper. There is no clear path leading down to the rocks but we hack our way through the palms and undergrowth until we are standing on the western tip. There is no safe way to reach the beaches below the bluff from the rocks so we climb back up. We find the semblance of a trail a few hundred metres back and follow it to an isolated beach, where we bathe naked for a couple hours before climbing back up to the fort.
Our bikes are untouched where we left them and there is no sign of any other visitors. There are no tire tracks on the dirt road as we make our way back to the highway. The highway climbs to a crest as we continue south. From the top it drops
steadily for a kilometre, aiming right at the sea and turning at a switchback at the top of a cliff. A kilometre later, still on the downhill, we stop to take a picture of an ornate Hindu temple with an incredibly long name. 
South of Cabo de Rama the road winds through rolling landscapes for a few kilometres. We take a brief side trip to Agonda Beach but it is quite undeveloped, some of the ground where we would camp is muddy and there are many mosquitoes. We have heard suggestions that Palolem Beach, a few kilometres further, is a good place to visit. It is not mentioned in the guide book, just as Cabo de Rama wasn't, and that could be the kind of off-the-beaten-track place Frank and I are looking for.
The road leads us inland around the next headland to the coastal plain on which Palolem Beach is situated. We reach the access road that leads through the village of Palolem to the beach. It is a dirt road but better marked than Cabo de Rama was. The village is half kilometre in along the shady road, a small collection of stores, a hotel and a restaurant. Half a kilometre further along we reach the beach, which opens up into bright sunlight again, the afternoon sun beaming under the palm canopy into our eyes. It is as wide as the beaches further north, but it only extends about a kilometre north and south before being chopped off by rocky headlands. There is a small, relaxed bar and restaurant at the end of the access road, but no sign of any other development along the beach.
There are three collections of cabins along the shady access road between the village and the beach. The one we choose is called the Palolem Paradise Resort. It is the only one that advertises that is has toilets and ceiling fans. It is only 300 m from the restaurant and bar. It looks perfect.
I like this place. I have an affinity to it, an ease with being here more than with other places I have been in Goa or anywhere on this trip. Our host and hostess are gracious and respectful, the setting very restive and nurturing. Even the fact that the beach here is contained within two kilometres with headlands on either end seems to feel more protected, yet large enough. There are other travelers here, but not very many. The restaurant has seats for slightly more than twenty people, so it feels very homey. I don't feel like a tourist here. I feel like an appreciated guest.
I sit with Frank and watch the sunset with a few others staying here. Two of them, Jesse and Karen, are living in a van up the road. No one seems to mind that they are not staying in a hotel. They have been here for three weeks and they too feel it is the best place they have been in Goa. Frank is very happy here too. We chat comfortably with the others and the restaurant owner at times, but at other times we just sit quietly to watch the sunset without needing to talk. This place is like a warm bath. I want time here to pass as slowly as possible. There is nothing more I want to ask for.
PHOTO 1: fortress at Cabo de Rama
PHOTO 2: Cabo de Rama
PHOTO 3: from the hiking trail on the bluff
PHOTO 4: the beach below the bluff
PHOTO 5: back on the highway south
PHOTO 6: view south from top of Cabo de Rama
PHOTO 7: temple: Shri Laxminarayamgramdev
PHOTO 8: road to Palolem
PHOTO 9: near Agonda Beach
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