Murud Janjira and Alibaug

Writing blog after a long time gap. Monsoon has just started. The early showers few days back reminded my of my trip to Murud Janjira (Alibaug) last year with my friends.
This was long awaited trip by our group. Each time we planned it we cancelled for it being far off from our home. By road it was 190km (from Borivali) to be precise. Our trips were never over night ones, so covering close to 400kms in a day was in itself a big task.

Finally the big day dawned. We started at 6:00am. We have booked a private vehicle (we mostly preferred this option, as you can halt enjoy roadside food and click pics as and when u like ;-) ).
We were excited at the same time doubtful if the Janjira fort would be open to public. In monsoon access to this sea fort is closed. After a long drive of almost 4 hours we reached the ferry point from where small sails carry you to the fort (Similar to one at Essel World in Mumbai, just there are motor boats instead). Fortunately it not being a rainy day the fort was open also there were not many people for the ferry queue.

 Standing rock sturdy even today !! Far off view was itself enough to talk about its tough fortification.
Murud fort is almost an hour far from Alibaug's Kashisd beach.






The sailor on the ship offers you to be your guide at a small cost. Though few amongst us acted as misers :-P, I insisted on getting a guide. Good to know about the place in detail. Else you just wander , click snaps and come back.

The fort is built such that unless you come very close to it you cannot make out where its entrance is.

Took some 20 mins for the boat to reach to the entrance. Actually a marvelous architecture !!

That its tells as to why this fort has stayed invincible throughout history ( yes... Invincible !! )

Small entrance though it seems so from inside is actually very big. History tells repeated attempts of British, Portuguese and Marathas were always futile to capture this fortress. The guide said it was owned by Siddhi's. There are 3 gigantic cannons on this fort. One of them is actually a mammoth. The massive barrel is enough to indicate the annihilation by it. Sambhaji (Shivaji's son) had tried to capture this fort by building a similar sea fort, Padmadurg. It is said the massive cannon (named - Kalak Bangadi) was used to destroy Padmadurg while it was being built.

Thats the mammoth canon. A group pic besides it was must :-)

Huge barrel.










There is an underground tunnel from this fort to the viallge (murud). It has been closed now.
Next what we saw was much more surprising. There is a very big sweet water well inside the fort.
The guide said that all the stones that were needed to build the fort were dug from this well.

Now let the pictures do the talking from here.....

 

           Ruins of old Palace.

Very beautiful pictures you can get here. Need atleast 2-3 hours to view. But the sailors had given only an hours time (bad part of our visit) so had to return to the boat soon.


On our way back we halted at the famous Kashid beach in Alibaug.

 It started raining by now. So we thought to wind up quickly as we had a long journey back to reach home.

Group Pic !!