Recommended places - Cabo de Rama (GA)

Cabo de Rama is worth visiting as much for the surrounding landscape as for the Portuguese fort itself, and if you have rented or own a motorbike a visit to the area is an excellent excuse to get out and explore the Goan landscape.

Set at the tip of a rocky headland, the isolated and crumbling fort of is one of the relics of Goa's former status as a Portuguese colony. In common with many historical Indian buildings, there's nothing on the graffiti covered Archeological Survey of India sign outside to give any clue as to the fort's age, history or role in Goa's past. The main outer wall is intact, but there is not much left of the inside except for a guardhouse and the shell of what must have been a chapel. Steps lead up to a parapet, and at one corner of the building is a tower with a stunning view of the sea and the coast beyond, with a heavy muzzle loading cannon on one side.

The headland itself is a beautiful and wild landscape, with huge areas of terraced fields of the deep red earth common in Goa, and outcrops and cliffs of dark volcanic rock interspersed with patches of tough looking grass. A few empty looking buildings dot the landscape, and are the only obvious signs of human habitation in an area with unusually few villages. Part of the area's attraction is its stark, barren look, standing as it does in such harsh contrast with the rest of Goa's lush green and gentle landscape.

A couple of kilometers before reaching the fort, just off to the right of the road, is a small cove with a patch of beach at the bottom of a steep, rocky cliff shaded by a few clinging palms. There's no fixed path, and it takes about 10 minutes of trial and error to get to the bottom. Getting back up is rather less fun.