Whispers..Shouts and Echoes!!: Trip to Kashid-Murud #3

Today we planned to go to Marud and see the famed Fort Janzira and then head back to Mumbi.

We resumed from where we had left and after getting up, quickly changed into our swimming trunks and without delay went and jumped into the ocean. This time we knew was the last time we would go into the sea this trip and so we spent most of the time letting the sea sink onto us. We swam far into the ocean and then came back riding the waves. After a quick swim we went back to the vada pao centre had our fill and took quick baths. We packed and settled the dues and finally caught a bus to Murud.

Murud is an old fisherman town with one very nice beach...with calm water and Janjira is a famous fort in the middle of the sea near Murud. The setting for the fort is perfect for any film shooting.

Murud, though was unlike Kashid and lacked the cozy and laid back feeling of Kashid. We bought some juices and some chocolates and decided to book the tickets for Mumbai before we started exploring. It was in the end one of the most brilliant decisions that we took because by the evening when we got to the bus stand, all the seats were full and there were scores of people wanting to get a seat.

So after booking our return bus at 1800 hrs, we decided to go to the famed Janjira fort. Janjira fort is bang in

the middle of the ocean and is perhaps one of the only forts that did not fall to the English forces as well. We took a ferry to the Fort. It was filled to the extreme and was a little unstable as well. But the feeling was very good. It reminded me of the scene in “Swades” in the song” Yeh Jo Desh hai mera”. We reached the Fort in about 20 minutes and took it on ourselves to explore the place. I wanted to take the guide but the rest of the gang was more for exploring the place by ourselves. Well to fight off the blaring sun I bought myself a Sun Cap and was happy to wear it throughout for the rest of the trip. The fort had a wonderful history and some of the salient points were:

1) No army conquered this fort because they could not get to it
2) There was an underground tunnel 40 ft underwater connecting the fort to the mainland
3) There was a main barrel gun (tope) which was made of an

alloy which did not get heated up even in the afternoon
4) There were 120 guns in all and were positioned all over the castle
5) Although it was covered with salt water, it had sweet water lakes inside.
6) It was made of natural things only. The main ingredients were
a. Jaggery
b. Salt
c. Sand
d. Lead
e. Chuna

Well I had not really had my full of the fort, but then everybody was tired and so we decided to head back to the mainland. Since the only way back was through the boats, hence there was a huge crowd waiting for the boats. We had to wait for nearly an hour before we got a boat, again full to the brim, and headed back.

This time Dipu decided to use his Rough Guide and then found a restaurant which had got a mention in the book. We took an

auto to that restaurant and after waiting for a while got a table and finally had loads of food again! It was still 4 when we finished another eating marathon and since the bus was at 6, we decided to take one last walk along the beach. We went to the beach and saw a lot of people playing a lot of different sports there and wished we had got some as well. Dipu (who wanted to play cards and was anguished when we refused) retired into one of the benches on the shores and read a book, so the rest of us walked the beach and admired the beauty of the sea in the evening sun. The difference you will find in the both beaches are, Murud has got clear greenish water whereas Kashid has clear blue one.
We finally made it to the Bus stand all set with sweets and bottles of mineral water, waited for the bus for over an hour, sat in a very crowded bus and finally made it to Mumbai at about 12:30 at night.