Bordi Beach

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Bordi is a small fishing village near the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. This small village offers a visual treat of green trees and a beach with black sand. A narrow road running through this village sees a stream of rickshaws, buses, cycles and private vehicles off and on.

Bordi

The roads offer a pleasant sight. As I walked along, I could see chikoo trees on my right and casuarina trees on my left on the beach front. There are a few old Parsi bungalows, all surrounded by trees, on this road. These old and beautiful bungalows rest peacefully near the black sand beach of Bordi.

For a moment, I felt a tinge of envy. What a fabulous way to spend the evening, every day, watching the sun go down right from the porch of your house. And if you were sitting on a rocking chair with a mug of beer or a cup of black tea, why, what could be better?

Beach

Small houses crowd both sides of the narrow roads. I wonder how the buses ply on these roads without damaging life or property. Some of the houses are in a very old and dilapidated state. You never know when they will come crashing down.

I landed on the beach of Bordi late in the afternoon. The heat was killing. It was low tide when I got there, and I had to walk almost a km to reach the water. I noticed that the water was rather dirty and completely unfit for swimming in.

The narrow lanes at Bordi

The crabs on the shore had created beautiful patterns there. Also, there were tiny dunes formed on the shore. This was the work of the winds on the sand. The casuarina trees were gently and delicately swaying in the wind. Altogether it offered me a very pleasing sensation. By this time, I had almost forgotten about the heat, thanks to the swaying winds.

As I walked along the stretch of the beach, I also found a couple of shells in a pattern I had not seen before on any of the beaches I had visited. I picked up some of these shells for my personal collection.

Pattern formed by crabs on the sand

I found a dead snake and many dead crabs on the beach shores. Looks like the waters here are not safe for crabs. I have never seen so much death and desolation on the beach.

I met a couple of fishermen who had just come back from the sea. So I asked them, “Masa bhetla ka?” (Did you catch any fish?) In my broken Marathi. One of them replied, “Nahi” (No) in a sad tone.

Dirty Water accumulated on the sand dunes

The fishermen were folding their nets rather dejectedly as they had not managed to catch any fish. I prayed that they might have better luck tomorrow.

I then moved on to explore the beach further. In the distance I saw a few mangroves in the middle of nowhere. As I approached nearer, I noted that the tide was rising. So I decided to head back to my starting point.

Fishermen pulling their nets

Returning to the shore, I sat on the sand and watched the sun drown in the water. I wished I had a hammock. I would have tied it between two of these casuarina trees, lain there quietly with a pint of beer in hand and watched the sun go down. Already I seemed to have drifted far away from the stresses of everyday life. I didn’t want to get out of this state of mind. But I had to as it was growing dark and I had to head back to my cottage.

My day in Bordi was a mix of both the silent beach and the small fishing town. It kept me away from my daily chores and let me be with myself.

Kelva Fort

Saturday, September 24, 2011

I decided to visit the forts of Palghar on a Saturday as Palghar is very close to Mumbai. Palghar district houses more than eight forts.

Palghar is located at a distance of 112 km from Mumbai. It is located near the Maharashtra–Gujarat border and can be approached by rail and road. Palghar is a quiet place with plenty of greenery. The roads are very narrow yet very scenic. Small and lovely houses dot both sides of the road.

I visited this sea fort along with my friend Nimish, who had earlier accompanied me to Kanheri Caves. We took the Virar Dahanu shuttle from Virar station. It took us approximately 45 minutes to reach Virar from Andheri. The shuttles are never on time. Ours was delayed by 15 minutes. In the end, it took us 40 minutes to reach Palghar station from Virar.

Kelva Fort

From Palghar, you can take ST (Stat Transport) buses and tum tum's to go to Kelva beach. We boarded the ST bus so that we could have a chat with locals regarding what we could look forward to seeing in Kelva as we were quite new to the place and there was not much information available online.

The driver of our bus turned out to be a very environmentally conscious guy. At one of the stops on the way, there were many people who wanted to alight. The driver actually shut down the engine. I was duly impressed. There aren’t many people who would remember to do that.

It took us around 30 minutes to reach Kelva beach. The beach houses a Sitladevi temple. This temple is a must-see on the itinerary of Hindus.

Fishing boats at Kelva Fort

To reach the fort we need to walk across the beach for at least an hour. The beach is covered by sur trees. We started walking towards the fort. However, as the sea was rough, it being the time of the high tide, we could not get close to the fort but were forced to see it from a distance. The fort was well fortified with the walls intact. This was indeed surprising, considering that it was built in the 16th century.

Disappointed at not being able to explore the interiors of the fort, we walked back to Kelva beach. On the way back, we saw that the fisherfolk had laid out their dried fish on thin bamboo sticks. The dry fish business in Kelva is a very lucrative one.

We had some snacks at a dhaba on Kelva beach. We asked the locals about the history of the fort. They told us that it was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century and that it was later conquered by Shivaji. The fort is rectangular in shape and it can be visited only by climbing the walls. They also informed us that there is nothing much to see in the fort.

Kelva Fort

Maybe they had read our disappointment on our faces and were trying to console us.

After having our snacks we decided to head for Shirgaon Fort located in Palghar.