Butterfly Beach-Honeymoon Beach-Agonda: A Survival Adventure

My favorite genre of movies and TV shows has always been survival. TV shows like ‘LOST’, ‘The Wilds’

Or movies like ‘Cast Away’, ‘127 hours’, ‘Into The Wild’ ‘Bird Box’, ‘Trapped’, ‘Adrift’ – you get the drift, right?

I loved the way the survival instinct of the characters would kick in and how they would make do with whatever was available.

Never thought I would be in such a situation though.

Agonda to Butterfly Beach

In October 2021, I visited South Goa along with a friend. At that time, we were staying at Agonda and as per the forecast, there was a high chance of thunder showers in the afternoon. So we decided to make most of the morning good weather by going for an early morning walk to Butterfly Beach which was about a one hour walk (5km).

Armed with black coffee and some biscuits we headed to Butterfly beach at 6AM on that fateful Tuesday morning.

Most of the path was muddy interspersed with a few puddles across the entire width of the path making it impossible for us to cross over without getting our shoes a bit wet.

At each puddle, we would contemplate heading back, but the excitement of seeing a new beach was too big of a dangling carrot for a waterbaby like me.

In about a little more than an hour, we reached Butterfly beach.

Stay At Butterfly Beach

Our initial reaction was – This?!

It seemed like a regular beach. I believe there was a time when this beach was famous for its tranquility due to the fact that it was difficult to reach this beach as compared to other nearby beaches like Agonda and Palolem.

However, over tourism seems to have killed that charm.

We reached at 7AM and there was a large group (about 15-20 people) who had camped there overnight and were busy setting their breakfast and dismantling their tents.

We climbed the rocks dodging many crabs and finally settle down on a nice flat rock overlooking the beach. From that point, the beach looked really pretty. The water had a sparkling green colour and looked very clean. The green water, the crashing white waves and the golden sand was a very picturesque site.

We sat there for about one hour just soaking in the view and having our coffee and biscuits. Actually speaking, I believe my friend must be soaking in the view while my mind was racing through an alternate route to get back to Agonda. I started looking at the map to see if there was a way to reach Agonda through the coast.

When it was time for us to head back, my friend sighed and grunted about going through those puddles again.

That was all I needed to pitch my coastal trek idea. My friend was skeptical but I guess my enthusiasm was infectious.

Butterfly Beach to Honeymoon Beach

As per the map, we had to cross two hills to reach Agonda – lets call the first one as Butterfly hill and the second one as Agonda hill. Crossing the Butterfly hill would get us to Honeymoon beach. A few days earlier, we had already crossed the Agonda hill to reach Honeymoon beach (or so we had thought!). So as per my plan, we only had to cross one unknown hill (butterfly hill) and after that we would be in known territory.

We could see a path and started our trek. After a little over 5 minutes, the path seemed to end. In front of us was a thick jungle where quite a few trees had fallen due to the monsoons.

We contemplated heading back, but ‘adrenaline rush’ is not a myth – at least with me. I convinced my friend to go along the rocks. As per the map, once we crossed the rocky bit, we should have arrived at honeymoon beach.

We started our rock climbing session and thankfully since it was low tide, we managed to cross most of the rocks and entered the jungle only for the last stretch.

Honeymoon Beach

We successfully made it to Honeymoon beach in about 45 minutes. With a few scratches on the arms and legs – but nothing major.

We were elated to have crossed over and took a break to celebrate this feat. We started our discussion about where to go for breakfast and what to eat etc. The usual.

Since we thought we had already done the Agonda hill climb previously and that had taken merely 25 minutes, the breakfast discussion seemed apt.

After spending about half an hour on Honeymoon beach and clicking a few photos, we decided to continue and cross the Agonda hill and reach Agonda beach.

Honeymoon Beach To Agonda

Once we started the climb, it seemed very difficult to find the path which we had previously taken. We climbed up and down at least 10 possible paths, but nothing seemed familiar.

After the approximately 10th attempt, we were  exhausted and totally out of our wits as to why we could not find that well-trodden path which we had previously taken. It suddenly struck us – what we had previously crossed was not Agonda hill. That was a small cove amidst Agonda rocks and now we had to cross the huge Agonda huge hill to reach that cove.

There was no way we could trek back to Butterfly beach  – it just seemed so far now.

We decided to cross the hill through the coastal rocks as the forest was really thick and we were worried about the wildlife there. Thus started our second round of rock climbing.

This time we had no energy, no adrenaline, were dehydrated (water water everywhere not a drop to drink!) and the sun was out making us feel worse.

Yep, so much for that rain forecast.

We trekked for about an hour but could not see any cove. Moreover the rocks ahead were much more huge, sharp and also more slippery than what we had climbed till now.

Going ahead was not an option anymore.

We sat down in the shade of a rock. We could not get ourselves to move.

We decided to call the boat guys and see if someone could come and pick us up as there were a lot of boat tours from Palolem and Agonda beaches to Honeymoon beach.

We called at least 6 numbers that we could find on google.

All of them had the same response “Wish we could help, but the government has strictly prohibited our operations due to some political VIP visit”.

All of them advised us to go back to butterfly beach as crossing Agonda rocks without a guide was impossible during the monsoons as the paths were not visible anymore.

By this time my friend’s phone was on ‘low battery’.

We had no option but to head back.

The Return: Agonda to Butterfly Beach

We turned back and all those rocks now seemed like mountains to us. We were totally drained out of energy but somehow managed to crawl our way back to honeymoon beach.

By this time, the tide had come in and the beach was now submerged in water. We waded through the a\water and crossed to the other end.

Now we had to cross Butterfly hill.

However, we could not find any possible path at all. Maybe, the earlier path that we took was now submerged in water due to the tide. We tried to climb the larger rocks. Within 5 minutes, both my friend and I slipped and hurt ourselves. My friend sprained his ankle and hurt his knee while I had a deep cut on my knee and sprained one finger.

The lack of water, the exhaustion, the heat, the lack of food, the injuries – all of these were now making us feel sick. We could barely move our body.

Stranded

This is when I officially started to panic. I declared us stranded.

Due to the high tide, there was no beachy part left for me to write HELP too.

We were stuck on a coast surrounded by thick forest on three sides and the sea on the fourth side. Each insect sound now seemed amplified to us and sounded like wild animals.

It’s not easy for anyone to think sensibly when I start to panic. But thankfully, my friend did that. He suggested that we should go to a network area and let someone know about our location before both our phones died. And also call a helpline number, while we are at it.

We limped our way through honeymoon beach again and reached the other end where I was getting some network. By this time my friend’s phone had died while I had about 20% battery left.

I googled on helpline numbers and dialed Goa coastguard number. It did not connect.

Panic level increased further.

I decided to dial 100. Someone picked up and heard my story patiently and said that he would let someone at Canacona Police Station know about us as this area was under Canacona jurisdiction.

Having watched a lot of Bollywood movies and TV serials, I thought this would be a typical case of no one taking responsibility for our area. My panic had by now given way to helplessness and tears. However, within 5 minutes, I received a call from Canacona police station. Between sobs, I repeated my story and was pleasantly surprised by the empathetic tone of the officer.

Not once did he say anything about us being foolish or increasing his workload (especially since there was a VIP visit happening) or anything of that sort. He said someone would reach us by boat in about 1-2 hours.

His voice had a lot of assurance and he seemed genuinely concerned.

We found a small abandoned hut and decided to just wait there. Luckily for us, behind the hut was a small stream which had fresh water. That water at that time seemed heavenly. Behind that stream was a thick forest – but we decided to try and ignore it.

The Rescue

We rested there for about 2 hours. While our previous discussion on the same beach was regarding breakfast options, now it was more about survival movies and hacks. Just incase the cops did not arrive in time. Or maybe the predicted thunderstorm arrived before the cops. Or maybe some wild animal.

At about 4PM, I saw a jet ski and a fishing boat heading towards us. we both started waving frantically.

The jet ski arrived first – that was the life guard along with a first aid box. We refused emergency first aid assistance as at that time all we wanted was to be in the comfort of our rooms.

The officer helped us get into the fishing boat and informed us that we had to go to Palolem beach and from there as per the protocol, we had to sign our statement at the Canacona police station. The officer was extremely sweet and kept saying that we were very lucky to have got network to make that call.

The conversation in that 15-minute boat ride was very pleasant. Not once did the officers judge us or say anything even vaguely derogatory. When we apologised for increasing his work, he smiled and said “this is our duty”.

As per the protocol, the officer wanted to take us to the medical facility for a check and dressing up of our wounds but we refused as all that we wanted was to get home.

We arrived at the police station where we met the inspector in charge. Again, no judgement, nothing derogatory, no smirk on finding us on ‘honeymoon’ beach. He genuinely seemed happy to see us safe.

We were given water and asked to write and sign our statement. The main sentence that the police wanted us to emphasize on was that we had gone on this trek at our own will and were not led to this place.

All that he said was to leave a positive review for Goa Police 🙂

In about 15 minutes we were out of the police station. This was my first time inside one and am glad it was such a pleasant experience.

Final Words

We left home at dawn and reached way past dusk. The only feeling I genuinely had was of Gratitude.

Hats off to Goa Police for being so prompt, empathetic and non judgmental.

I shudder to think of the many things that could have gone wrong on that day.

Being lost in that thick forest. Becoming a meal for some wild animal in that forest. Snake bites – maybe fatal ones. Falling off the rocks from a height. Fractures. Being stranded overnight or maybe for days.

Goosebumps.

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