High Ground Agro Farm
Located at Visapur – Guhaghar, in the heart of mango and cashew country between Ratnagiri and Raigad, High Ground Agro Tourism has a substantial mango, cashew, turmeric – strawberry (in season), honey bee farm with more than 2,000 Alphonso mango and Cashew trees spread over 45acres. The hilly terrain above the Vashishti River is picturesque and the sunrise – sunset views are outstanding.
We also operate a canning factory on the property where you can buy delicious mango products such as pickles and mango pulp and a cashew-processing unit from where you can pick up fresh cashew products.
We also have our own desi cow (Gir) dairy where you can pick up pure A2 ghee, enjoy fresh healthy Lassi and Chaas or simply enjoy the fresh yoghurt.
Most vegetables are organically grown on the farm for daily needs and if you are a non-vegetarian we have our own free grazing goats and desi chicken plus fresh fish straight from the river
For the children we have on view horses, rabbits, guinea pigs and fowls apart from ducks geese and turkey
Other activities include bird watching – with over 170 species spotted and recorded the area is a bird watchers delight, boat rides on the river Vashishti, ATV rides on the Guhaghar beach and bullock cart rides near the farm itself. Or, simply relax in a hammock! Tasty, home-cooked traditional vegetarian / non – vegetarian cuisine is served. There are seven well done up spacious and clean cottages with all modern amenities and even a private garden with a personal fish pond.. A one-night package costs 5,600 rupees for a couple including all meals, local sightseeing, and farm tour. Visit our website for more information.
High Ground Agro Tourism is located in the middle of Raigad and Ratnagiri and District. Just 30 km. from Mumbai – Goa National Highway.
Its is surrounded by little forest, hills, Arabian sea, and beautiful Vashishti River, A brake from their day to day hectic life they are also bored and stressed about their jobs and daily routine. Relaxing your mind and body in this stressful times is a need. So let us to welcome you to High Ground Agro Tourism.
Guhaghar Beach & Vyadeshwar Temple
Guhaghar is a small town is situated around 25 Km from the farm and home to people who are devotees of Mahadev & Laxmi-Narayan. This beautiful place has quite a few numbers of ponds. The houses in Guhaghar are charming and endearing, and it is slowly emerging to be the first white sand beach and is closest to the city of Mumbai and Pune. The crashing sound of waves and the pristine water makes the beach even more alluring.
Vyadeshwar Temple
According to Hindu mythology, sage Parashurama created the land of Konkan by shooting his arrow into the sea and commanding the Sea God to retract the waters to the point where his arrow landed. This new land came to be known as Sapta-Konkana, meaning “piece of earth”, “corner of earth”, or “piece of a corner”, derived from Sanskrit words: koṇa (कोण, corner) + kaṇa (कण, piece)
He asked various deities to settle in the newly created land and protect the resident clans. Parashurama was a devotee of the god Shiva, requested that the God appear to him daily, so Shiva appeared in 60 places where temples were built. The sage Vyad then installed the lingam of Shiva at this temple in Guhagar. The Shiva icon and temple was thus called Vyadeshwar (the Lord of Vyad).
The architectural style is called ‘Panchayatan’. A Panchayatan temple contains four subordinate shrines in four corners and the main shrine in the center of the podium, which forms the base. Here, Shiva is Vyadeshwar the central shrine, with Surya, Ganesha, Ambika (Shiva’s consort) and Vishnu with his wife Lakshmi as the South-East, South-West, North-West and North-East subordinate shrines respectively. Nandi (the vahana of Shiva) sits in front of the main shrine.
The temple has three entrances to the east, west and south. Garuda (the vahana of Vishnu) and the god Hanuman are installed on either side of the inside of the East entrance.
This can be done by car/bike, in the early evening, so you can watch the beautiful sunset plus enjoy water sports and ATV rides and witness the evening aarti at the temple.
Hedavi Beach & Velaneshwar Temple
Travellers for its natural beauty and ancient temples frequent Hedavi. Hedavi Ganpati Temple is a colorful temple located on a hill surrounded with dense forest. Many devotees from various parts of Maharashtra visit this wonderful temple to seek blessings of Lord Ganesha. Situated around 40 km from the farm this can be region can be made into a days outing. Leave after breakfast with a packed lunch visit the temple; laze around on the beach with your lunch and return back in the evening. The area offers great sites to also practice your photographic skills
Gopalgad Hills
Gopalgad hills are known for its beautiful and lavish surrounding. It is located 24 km from the farm near Anjanvel village of Guhaghar. The hill has a beautiful fort and is popularly known as Gopalgad Fort as well as Anjanvel Fort. This fort was constructed by the Bijapur Rulers in the 16th century and was then captured by Shivaji Maharaj in 1660.
A kilometer away from the fort lies a beautiful location where is situated a lighthouse and temple of Talakeshwar. It offers breathtaking views of sea and a high rock face entering the ocean.
This would be an ideal cycling option for the physically active. Leave early in the morning, pack a breakfast and lunch and return back in the evening. The other option is to do this by car/bike, in the early evening, so you can watch the sunset from the light house and capture some magical sunsets.
- Uttamrao Patil Biodiversity Garden – 14 Km
- Boating Club – 21 Km
- Crocodile viewing – 29 Kms
- Pandava Caves – 45 Km
- Sawatsade Waterfalls – 45 Km – only in monsoon
- Sheldi Dam – 65 Km
- Koyna Dam – 88 Km
Being located on the edge of the Visapur forest has its advantages. All around the farm, you can see rolling hills filled with greenery. For the active minded, there are options for trekking and this can be customized to the group’s fitness levels. Once you reach the top of the hill, there are open spaces for a nice picnic. (Please do ensure you do not leave any garbage on the hilltop and keep the noise levels down.)
With 172 species of birds recorded and photographed in the vicinity of the farm there are quite a few bird watching opportunities, which can be explored either by walk, and or car. The farm itself hosts a variety of birds, some of which are rare ones in this part of the state, like Paradise flycatcher, veridite flycatcher and bald eagle. Best time for bird watching is early morning and late evening and therefore overnight stay is suggested.
High Ground Farm is far enough from any big city or town and that the night sky is unpolluted by city lights or smog, this results in a very dark sky, that aid star gazers. Watching the dark sky on a moonless night is a sight to remember, and most city folks have lost the ability to enjoy the night sky. How often have you looked at the night sky and wondered about the glow of the milky way galaxy, did you see both Venus and Jupiter next to the moon in late 2015. How much of the children’s interest has been satiated by actually watching the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Have you stayed up late to watch the asteroid showers or to watch the International Space Station, glide over the face of the Full Moon.
At High Ground Farm, we are looking to provide an avenue for everyone to experience the night sky like never before. We conduct special tours around celestial events, which will require planning and reservation as we get specialists in the subject along with specialized high-end equipment’s for the same. On other days, you can peer through the simple telescope that we have and watch the cosmos in action.
We can also organize stargazing events exclusively for groups of people.
The Farm House with a Quadrangle
FARM STAY
The house has been designed by an architect, and incorporates reused doors, windows and Mangalore tiles. The team spent months and months in scouring the villages of rural Karnataka to procure these reusable materials. The compressed bricks are made on the farm and the roofing hay has been harvested from the local water bodies. The result is a very beautiful yet rustic barn, that immediately transports the visitor to a rural setting , yet have access to the modern amenities that we are so used to these days
With rural konkani cuisine, your taste buds are sure to delight any time of the day.
If relaxing is more your style, be sure to spend your afternoon unwinding and relaxing, reading a book amidst the birds and the trees.
Typical one-day stay schedule looks like the following:
Morning (before breakfast) – after a bed tea/coffee.
Yoga session or trekking or bird watching or visit a local village and experience the life there.
After that you can have breakfast and take bath, etc.
Before noon session is a guided farm tour with fresh lemon juice, tender coconut water or kokum sherbet.
After lunch you can play games like badminton, table tennis, snooker, etc. You can also play with cows, calf, chicken, dogs, goats, etc. if interested.
After evening snacks and tea/coffee, you can enjoy star-gazing in the fresh farm air, followed by a camp-fire. Dinner follows.
In addition to simply lazing around in the farm and doing nothing you can sit back and relax with a book on a hammock or play some rural indoor games like chowkabara, pagade, etc. any time throughout the day and in the evenings.
We do have TV for Wi-Fi we offer BSNL access, which has become quite reliable of late. Food is vegetarian and non – vegetarian, cooked fresh in front of your eyes in an open kitchen, by the lady cooks from the same village. (You are also free to take cooking sessions from them). You will be served local, rural Konkani specialties for all meals. from.
High Ground Agro Farm is only for those who are interested in natural space and farming,
We also offer weekend-packages for check-in on Saturday morning and check-out on Sunday evening.
This tour is best way to quickly get a feel for life on a farm. This is also a good educational tour for school kids to make them understand what it takes to grow their food. You’ll take a guided walking tour around the farm where you will be able to get out in the fields and learn about the various activities in the farm. You will see how fruits & vegetables grow. You also get a chance to familiarize yourself with a wide variety of fruit plants in the farm and utilize the opportunity to pluck and enjoy the fruits, according to what’s in season. This tour lasts 1.5-2 hours for family groups and little longer for educational school trips. Get to learn about different farming/organic farming techniques like beekeeping, vermicomposting, rainwater harvesting, greywater filtering, multicropping, nitrogen fixing, crop-rotation, intercropping, drip irrigation, etc. Also get an opportunity to pet and feed the farm animals like cows & calves, goats, chicken, climb a tree or two and/or dirty your hands by participating in some farming activities.
By now you will be hungry, lunch will be served which is traditional rural Konkani cuisine.
Post lunch, challenge your friends and family to a game of Pagade, Chouka Bara, Lagori, Al-guli-mane and many other traditional rural outdoor games. If this gets very tiring, you can indulge in modern sports like badminton, table tennis, snooker or just go for a relaxing swim in the pool.
We can also organize a pottery session at a nominal cost, after which the guests can take back their creations as a memento.
This is also a great option for family get together from morning to evening.
You will be walking in the fields, so remember to wear shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Also don’t underestimate Mumbai – Goa highway traffic and plan to get to the farm very early, so you can make best use of your visit.
The most popular is the morning trek, which covers 8 km and takes about 3 hours. This can be attempted by kids as small as 6 years. You can pack light breakfast for when you get to the top.
On request full day treks can be organized to the villages situated on the top of these hills, you will be walking in hip high dry grass and in the shade of the trees, you can enjoy the sunshine when you cross over the hills
These require advance notice, as they need forest department permissions and local guides will accompany the group. FOR YOUR SAFETY we recommend wearing comfortable shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty and long pants to protect your legs, shorts are perfectly fine if the long grass is not a concern. Please avoid wearing sandals/flip-flops, open-toed shoes or high heels.
In the vicinity of the farm there are quite a few bird watching opportunities, which can be explored either by walk, and or car. The farm itself hosts a variety of birds, some of which are rare ones in this part of the state, like Paradise flycatcher, veridite flycatcher and bald eagle. Best time for bird watching is early morning and late evening and therefore overnight stay is suggested.
Bird watching can be converted to a day of physical activity, followed by bird watching and a picnic and then the long cycle ride back home. It is amazing what you can find just a few hours away from Mumbai / Pune. You will be transferred into a totally different setup and far away from the hustle and bustle of the city.