Hello friends, I am back after a short
vacation in Mumbai where we had to attend a close relatives wedding. While there, we took this opportunity to meet our old friends and
relatives too. We also thought it would be a good idea to spend some
quality time with my brother's and cousin's family away from the
hustle and bustle of the city life. After a lot of discussions, we
unanimously chose Murud-Janjira for our family get-together.
Murud-Janjira is the local name for the
fort which is situated on the island off the coastal village of
Murud, in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. It is a fishing village
and is about 150 kms drive from Mumbai. Once we reach Murud town, we
need to take a sail boat from Rajapuri jetty to reach the island
fort. The fort is spread across 22 acres and has many cannons. One of
the cannons weigh about 12 tons and the unique feature of these
cannons is that they do not get heated even though they are exposed
to the sunlight throughout the day. We were quite baked in the hot sun (temp around 35 degrees centigrade) but these cannons were very cold to the touch inspite of the heat !
The entrance to the fort is
not visible from outside unless and until you are very close it. It also has a few secret escape routes.
We drove from Mumbai to the resort and we stayed at Golden Swan Beach Resort
at Murud-Janjira. It is a nice place with cottages and is situated
right on the beach itself. The sunset view is quite breathtaking. The
beach is very clean and quite picturesque. At the other end of the
beach, water sports are conducted. We took the horse-driven carriage along the beach and back as we had to rush back to the sunset
point.
The next morning, after a sumptuous
breakfast, we headed for the fort. Following are some of the pictures of the beach, fort and the resort.
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| This is the sight that greeted us as soon as we entered the beach from the resort |
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| A Close-up of the sea-gulls that were there in hundreds |
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| View of the Fort from the beach |
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| Spectacular view of the sunset taken from the Idgah (sunset point) |
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| View of the Fort from the road |
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| Yet another view of the Fort from the road |
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| View of the fort from the jetty |
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| The Big Cannon weighing about 12 tons as was told to us by our guide |
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| The inside of the fort |
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| The Inside of the Fort |
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| One of the escape routes |
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| We were told that once upon a time this was sweet water pond. But now, it has turned green with slime and algae |
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| The sculpture at the entrance of the wall of the fort |
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| Golden Swan Beach Resort - where we stayed |
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| Couldn't help clicking these beauties where they were happily swimming and waddling around the premises |
We all had a wonderful time together and wished we had one more day to laze around and enjoy some water sports. Maybe next time....
To know more about the history of the ancient Murud-Janjira Fort, see the following links:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murud-Janjira
- http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/MTDC/HTML/MaharashtraTourism/TouristDelight/Forts/Forts.aspx?strpage=Murud_JanjiraForts.html
