7th April 2007 : Conquest of Janjira

We got up at 7:00 am after a good night's sleep and decided to refuel ourselves. It was back to Nisarg to upload some idlis, vada, sambhar, bread and lots more. The owner of the resort had a cat that had multiplied since Sujit's trip to Prakruti Resort a couple of years back. We walked in the resort thinking on the next course of action. We were thinking of going to Murud and Janjira which boasted of two 16th century A.D. forts in the sea (Padmadurg and Janjira). Lots of information on these forts are available on the internet, hence I desist from adding my version of history to it.
We started for Murud, 17 Kms south of Kashid in Prashant's Swift at 10:30 a.m. After 20 minutes drive we spotted a beautiful coastline with a view of the Padmadurg Fort. We mistook the fort to be the Janjira Fort. After the usual photos we decided to return back to the resort. Some passerby told us the Janjira Fort was another 5-6 Kms south of where we were.

We continued on our journey and reached Murud town, but still there was no sight of the Janjira Fort. We saw the sleepy villages with its fishing boats having a fore-noon siesta and the Padmadurg far far away. The vendors on the beach told us that the Janjira Fort was just another 4 Kms away. We started following one of the tourist vehicles till we realised we were off track as we were reminded of Pune by the detoriating roads. We realised that we were taking a very circuitous route to Janjira. After asking about 10 people we could spot the shoreline again, but where was the Fort. We parked the car in a common parking lot. We were lucky to get a spot with less sand. We saw the parking attendents helping some of the tourists' car out of the sand. We paid these folks Rs.20 and started to walk towards the jetty for our ride to Janjira.
As we walked to the jetty I could spot a massive structure through the windows of some of the houses. There she stood alone and unconquered- the Janjira Fort.

We paid Rs.15 per person and sailed to conquer the Janjira Fort. We sailed towards Janjira, that was when Sowmya's tummy was rocked by the waves and the heat of the sun. Sowmya popped a toffee in the mouth from puking. I swallowed my trepidtation praying that I don't get puked on. We reached Janjira and Sowmya conquered her nausea but hunger and lunchtime pulled us back to the shores and towards Prakruti.

After yet another good meal, we slept for an hour and left for Kashids shore at 4:00 p.m