Vijaydurg

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Finally at 11 am we reached Devgad ST bus stand. The bus to Vijaydurg was at 1130 am. So we decided to refresh ourselves with some sugarcane juice at the sugarcane juice centre located at the entrance of the bus depot. 

Vijaydurg Fort from VIjaydurg Village

We then headed to the bus, only to find that the bus that had dropped us here from Kunkeshwar was going to take us to Vijaydurg.

Got ourselves a ticket at Rs. 58 for the 1 ½ hour journey only to be dropped off at the entrance of the fort. 

We were told by the bus conductor that the last bus is at 1630 hours to Devgad ST bus stand. 

Temple in fort premises

History states that this fort was constructed by Raja Bhoj of Shilahar Dynasty between 1193 AD to 1205 AD. Its original name was Gheria Fort. It was situated near village Girye.

Shivaji Maharaj won this fort from Adilshah of Bijapur in 1653 and renamed it Vijaydurg.

The massive walls of the fort were impressive. This 17 acre fort is 2/3 in the water and 1/3 on land access via land and has 17 bastions on it. Each of the bastions named after a particular person or God I guess. 

Cannons placed at the entrance of the fort

At the entrance of the fort is a house and a temple, the temple is painted orange in color. A few cannons were located there; they were mounted on the mud bricks.

At the main entrance of the fort are placed cannon balls on either side of the passage. There are many houses in its premises, though most of them are unoccupied but they are in good condition.

We decided to survey the entire fort by walking on the walls of the fort.  The walls give an amazing view of the sea and the village based near the fort.  It also offers a view of the fortification, similar to the one I saw in Lohgad. located near Visapur and Bhaje Caves.  

Fortification reminded me of Lohgad Fort

The walls were so broad that they could accommodate house like structures, a few of them have shapes in them like doors and windows and a few have tiled roofs. There are many with broken roofs too which have fallen within the structures.

Couldn’t stop myself from taking at photo at this place. Photo courtesy Hithakshi. 

That's Me

This fort had two walls for protection, one on the outside and the other on the inside, the outer one being small in height compared to the one inside.

Some parts of the fort are being redone, a big thanks to the guys who are trying to conserve our history.

We saw that one of the bastions was broken down; I guess this was done when a cannon ball was fired onto it from a sea vessel. I could see the damage it created. The impact bought down the entire bastion. 

View from the Fort Walls

I noticed that there are small openings in the wall for guns to shoot at the sea vessel, but what caught my eye is this mother opening that housed six small openings. I have been too many forts but something like this I noticed for the first time.

There were rooms for ammunition on the fort as well.

There are many huge structures placed all over the fort, they have windows in them but no roofs. No wonder what these were used for?

How I wish I had a time machine that could transport me in time.

One of the many structures built on the Fort

There are guides here who give information on the fort, but each guide interprets the fort differently. There is no uniformity in the information provided.

It takes around 4 hours to view the fort in entirety.

Again there were many idiots here who have ruined the walls by writing their names all over it.

Few visitors, maybe it was afternoon so it didn’t attract many. But to see this fort it takes around four hours so you will be baked in the sun. 

I located many of these unique slots on the fort walls, Maybe they were used to shot at the enemy outside the fort

This journey of ours through this magnificent fort was truly amazing. But we had to leave at our bus was at 1630 hours and to top it, it was the last bus for the day.

This fort surely ranks in the class of Murud Janjira. A beautiful fort.

A must on your trip to Devgad. 

Kunkeshwar Temple

Monday, March 10, 2014

A day before we had inquired at the ST bus stand regarding the timings for the buses to Kunkeshwar Temple and Vijaydurg Fort and how to go about it. We were told to do Kunkeshwar Temple in the morning and later head out to see Vijaydurg. Though there is no direct mode of transport to Vijaydurg we had to come back to the depot to board a bus to Vijaydurg.

We then decided to do Kunkeshwar Temple first and later do Vijaydurg. We planned to board the 730 hours bus to the temple.

As decided the night earlier, we boarded the 730 hours bus at Devgad ST bus stand. Note that there are few direct buses to Kunkeshwar and many going via Kunkeshwar, the bus we boarded goes via Kunkeshwar.

Kunkeshwar Temple

The bus was comparatively empty though it was morning. The view is amazing as the road is a rollercoaster ride in the hills offering amazing view of the land. The roads were good for car drifters, it reminded me of the scene in the movie, Fast and Furious 3 where they had ad drifting race downhill.

Finally after 1 ½ hours at a cost of Rs. 28 one way we were at the footsteps of the temple.

There are many stalls selling offerings outside the temple.

Hithakshi offered prayers here while I started my photo shoot of the temple.

The Kunkeshwar Temple is located in Kunkeshwar Village which is situated around 14 km from Devgad and the temple is dedicated to Shiva. This temple was built in 100 AD by the Yadav Kings. Shivaji Maharaj too tied to keep this temple intact.

Beach outside the temple premises

The temple was newly constructed near the sea. The beach had beige sands and grey colored water lashing on the shore. The water was good for a swim, but I couldn’t locate any one swimming on the shore. Some stretch of the beach was rocky especially the one near the temple.

There were no waste or sea weeds on the shore.

After we were done with Hithakshi’s prayers and my photo shoot we headed back to Devgad ST bus depot as we planned to do Vijaydurg today.

The ride back was also a rollercoaster ride, but this time cost of the ticket is Rs. 24. How come the price reduced by Rs.4. So we asked the conductor on which he told us it is based on the no.  of stops it makes. Ooo iii cccc

At around 1100 hours we were at Devgad ST bus stand.

Journey Malvan to Devgad

Friday, February 28, 2014

Devgad was on our list when we set off from Mumbai. So we had made inquiries at the Malvan ST Depot regarding a bus to Devgad.

We were informed by one of the staff, a day before our journey that there is direct bus at 730 hours to Devgad and that it would take around 3 hours for us to reach there.

We then planned to board the bus at 730 hours to take us to Devgad.

The next day we were up at 600 hours. We headed to the beach for a morning walk and then packed our stuff to go to the ST bus stand.

We reached the bus stand at 7:15 hours. Without wasting anytime we decided to ask the Inquiry counter the pickup point of the bus, to which the person at the counter replied “Bus gele, ata dusri bus sade nau la ahai” meaning the 730 hours bus departed and the next bus is at 930 hours.

We checked up on one of the boards with bus timings and it stated a bus at 830 hours. We told the Inquiry desk about the same, to which he replied, “Toh zuna timing ahai” meaning it is the old timing.

Two hours of waiting time just to board a bus to Devgad.

What is more annoying is that the boards had the wrong timing and no one paid any heed to get the timing rectified.  And the next bus was in two hours time. I guess the bus at 730 hours would have been full so they let if off even before we arrived :(

Rickshaws are a very expensive affair here as they don’t charge via the meter and it would cost us more cash and time so we decided to wait for the 930 hours bus. Just hoped that the bus is on time.

Finally at 925 hours the bus arrived at the stop, we immediately boarded the bus and got a place to sit in it. Luckily the bus was less crowded.

We got ourselves a ticket at a cost of Rs. 91 each. For a three hour journey.

The view from the bus was simply amazing.

Plenty of jackfruit and mango farms on the way. Hithakshi wanted to reach out her hand and pluck mangoes and jackfruits. They were that close to us.

This year I guess the harvest is going to be real good.

The roads were very narrow and used to go up and down the terrain in the jungle, giving us different views of the land. Shades of green all around us. The tree sporting different shades of green leaves and the green waters of the lake nearby was amazing. The color green was so soothing to our eyes.

Suddenly the view changed to barren lands as far as my eye could see. In a distance I could see houses made of mud with tiled roofs which were around 100 years old but they looked beautiful in a distance.

The view from the bus, on our way to Devgad was beautiful. As the bus was racing at high speed, I was having a tough time taking photos.

After 3 ½ hours we reached Devgad ST Bus Depot. This was a fun filled rollercoaster ride for us and now we had to find ourselves a place for the night.

There are not many stay options in Devgad. It is not as well developed as Malvan in regards to tourism. But we managed to get a place to rest for the night behind the bus stand.

Pacific Safari charged us Rs. 500 as rent for a twin sharing room (Non AC) and Rs.1000 for a twin sharing room (AC). The rooms weren’t that great, but for travelers who are out exploring the entire day it isn’t going to be much of an issue.

We then set off the explore Devgad Fort in the afternoon.