Woohooo. Am back from the ride. My internet had conked off, so I wasn't able to get online the past 3 days. But I can still adjust my blog post settings to pretend that I blogged on time. Weird, like playing games with time.
Anyway. Garreth, Edwin and I met up at 6:30am on Friday morning, and pulled out Outlook's 52 Weekend Getaways and looked it over. Finally, Edwin mentioned that he's been meaning to go to Murud-Janjira for a long while. Looked at it, pictures looked amazing (a gorgeous blue sea beach, with a fort in the sea!) and we set off.
The ride was amazing. I felt so liberated to be on the bike again, clear blue sky, and wind keeping us cool. I took a zillion pictures while we were riding. It was quite nostalgic too, coz it was the same route Gary and I had taken last June when we rode down to Goa.
Reached Kashid at noon, grabbed hammocks, coconut water, and plonked for a rest. Kashid is a sweet little beach a little further south of Alibaug, on the coastal highway in the konkan area of Maharashtra. Murud-Janjira are some 25 km further south of Kashid.
We checked in at The Shacks, and went off to lunch at the highly recommended Patil's Khanaval. For fish and beer. And meowing cats. It was great to eat fish after ages of being in the un-fish-friendly Hyderabad.
The evening we tried to visit the fort, but were too late, and so rode around to the top of a hill, climbed up and saw the sun set. After that, we rode into the little village /town, bought random things like soap, toothpaste, and a pack of cards, and of course, a whole assortment of beer. Played cards (rummy) until dinner time.
After a nice sea side dinner, where Edwin tried his best to scare me with 'supernatural' stories, lucky Garreth was around with his obvious scorn for anything unnatural, I absolutely insisted we go for a walk.
And this is when.. it began.
The uncanny resemblance to a Famous Five setting, straight out of Enid Blyton's book.
A beach (with dogs). 2 island forts. 2 glorious lighthouses.
Let me describe the scene. Jal Jeera (now called Janjira) was a fort build by Africans, and is called the unconquered fort, because Shivaji (or anyone) never managed to capture it. But, on an island nearby, Shivaji's son built another replicate fort (which is now quite in tatters.)
So this Shivaji's son's fort, is restricted. Used by the government for no body knows what.
Garreth said he was sure the ministers used it to have sex whenever the wanted to. But I was happier imagining some secret undercover operations, which hopefully involved pulling treasure out of the sea.
Ya, so that was Enid Blyton enough, and then we saw the fantastically strong light beam of the lighthouses. Sweeping across the sea. Wow, stunning. We were so mesmerized, and marveled at how it worked. Finally, Edwin pulled out his fancy phone and we Googled it and read about lighthouses and their fascinating source of light. The most interesting fact was that there are only about 1500 functioning lighthouses left in the world, and there there were two, right in front of us. And the stars on the crazy black velvet night were stunning. Except for the fact that there was no moon and Edwin kept trying to scare me.
We got back, played more rummy and drank more beer. And woke up the next day and headed off to see the fort. Took a sweet sailboat, on which we were seduced by the sailor(?) to take him on as guide and be toured around the fort. Nice job. Nice fort. Pics here.
Ride back was nice. Cool, airy, and ass soring. But totally worth it.
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