Durgadi Fort in Kalyan

Monday, January 26, 2015

Just a day in advance, we decided to visit the Durgadi Fort in Kalyan.

Medu Vada at a local eatery

Masala Dosa at a local eatery

 Shilpa who had accompanied me to Ankai and Tankai forts   joined me in exploring Durgadi Fort.   

We decided on Thane station on the Central Line as our meeting point. Reason being, I stay on the Western Line and she stays on the Harbour Line. 

Statue of Shivaji

We met at 10:45 AM at Thane station and then boarded a Badlapur bound train at 10:48 AM to alight at Kalyan station at 11:07 AM.  

Now Kalyan is a busy station like Dadar because of two reasons.  All the outstation trains stop here and secondly it connects the Karjat and Kasara line on Central Railway. 

Entrance to Durgadi Fort

We had breakfast in the form of Medu Wada and Masala Dosa at one of the eateries outside the station and then asked for instructions to visit the Durgadi Fort. The hotel owner gave detailed instructions. He informed us to board a rickshaw or State Transport bus to take us to Lal Chowki. The fort is located at a walkable distance from here. Alternatively one can also walk to this fort, it is hardly 30 minutes away. Check google maps for more 

information.

Bastion and Temple on fort premises

 The roads were packed with people and vehicles. Share rickshaw are also available. Not sure about the cost per head. We inquired with a rickshaw driver and he took us to Lal Chowki at a cost of Rs.50. Alternatively the bus fare is Rs.12 for two. But the bus seats are usually dirty. Now the question you have in your head is, How do we know? because on our way back we were travelled by bus as we couldn't get a rickshaw.

View of Ulhas River from Durgadi Fort bastion

A statue of Shivaji is located very near to the fort. 

The fort is located near Ulhas River. But by the looks of it, it appeared more like a creek to me than a river.

The fort is extremely small in size. The fort takes a minute or two to see. Some portions of the fort are still old while others are renovated.

Dargah and Durgadi Temple on Durgadi Fort

The fort houses a Temple (Durgadi Temple) and a Dargah. Though by the looks of the it, the Dargah appears to be very old. Maybe the Temple was renovated.  

Outside the fort premises there was a Police Bus and the policemen were posted over there. I was curious to know, why?

Dargah

I spoke to one of the policeman on duty there, he advised me not to take photos of the Dargah. I asked him why so much police protection, to which he pointed out to the Temple and the Dargah. Sometimes signs speak louder than words. I didn't click too many photos here, but we did sit in the shade of the ashoka trees, as confirmed to me by Shilpa, I was under the impression it was a mango tree. It offered handsome shade from the sun and also the cool breeze. 

Durgadi Fort

Felt at peace here, though we were very near to the busy roads, the sound of the honking of the motor vehicles was replaced by the chirping sounds of the birds. It was soothing to our ears.

Directions

History states that Shivaji had built this fort near the Ulhas river,which looks more like a creek to dock ships. We did see a couple of ships docked here. Wealth was found during the excavation of the fort, the fort was named Durgadi after Goddess Durga. The fort has changed hands many a times after it was built Shivaji.   

We then decided to head back to Kalyan station to head back home as I had to visit Kohoj fort the next day.  

Goa - Cabo de Rama Fort

Monday, December 1, 2014

Cabo de Rama Fort also known as Cape Rama fort is located in located in Cancona district in Goa. It is located at the southern tip of Goa. Margao is located 25 KM away from here. 

After having breakfast at Madgaon Cafe in Margao we headed off on the bike to visit the fort. 

The roads to Cabo de Rama are lovely and it is fun driving on them. The locals are very helpful with directions. We found churches and markets on the roadside too. 

We inquired with one of the locals about the fort. He replied, "That is the fort" Pointing ahead. A yellowish color structure stood there. "That?" I asked to which he replied "Yes."

We raced to the fort and finally were there. We parked our bike near the bus. A private bus which plies from Margao City to this fort. But no sign of the driver on it.

Cabo De Rama got its name from Lord Rama. Legend goes the Lord Rama had taken refuge here with his wife Sita when he was exiled from Ayodhya for 14 years. 

Now this was much before the fort was built by the Raja (King) of Soonda. Portuguese defeated the Raja of Soonda to take possession of the Fort. The Portuguese fought continuous battles with Hindu and Muslim Kings inorder to retain possession of the fort. The Portuguese kept making amends to the fort. But they later deserted the fort in search of something better. 

The fort currently has got fantastic fortification, a church of Santo Antonio (St. Anthony) in its premises and a couple of broken down structures in its premises and cannons The fort has drop dead cliffs all around it. It offers an interesting view of the sea and another hill next to it. 

The fort is surrounded by a moat on one side and the sea on the other. The moat is filled with wild vegetation. The the moat was huge we were not sure, as to how deep it was. Moat can be a great way to protect the fort from enemy attacks. This is the second instance of a moat, the first one I had seen in Daulatabad in Aurangabad. 

The walls of the fort are built of Chire. Chire's are used all over Goa to built houses and boundary walls. This is from where they originated. Though the walls of the fort are in good condition but they are not  tall enough. Maybe that's why they built a moat around it.

The entry to the fort is via a big yellow color building tiles on the roof. Two cannons are placed on either side of the entrance to welcome you. I can recollect a smiliar entrance at Vijaydurg Fort where in cannon balls were placed on either side of the entry point. 

The Yellow House houses a very old statue of St. Mark who was martyred on a tree.

We entered the fort premises now. We saw the St. Anthony Church in a distance. A couple of cannons scattered all over the place.

As it had just rained here, the smell of the soil was just amazing and  it was green all over.

The best way to see the fort is my walking on the walls of it, and that is just what we did.

As the fort is located at the end of the land  it offers a beautiful view of the sea and land around.

In a distance we saw a small rock with a tree on it. As the sea was rough, the water was lashing on it. We were waiting here to get a perfect shot.

We located this water body on the fort premises. Currently filled with muddy water. But it has steps leading to it on one side. Maybe once upon a time, it might have been surrounded by steps on all four sides leading to it. This is what remains of it.

There are a couple of structures on the fort. But today they are just walls with no roofs, maybe these were houses once upon a time.

Fort has a couple of bastions which offer a very good view of the Fort, but as it is monsoon there is wild vegetation all over. As we wore shorts here we were attached by mosquitoes. On my legs there were at least 8 mosquitoes trying to suck blood at one point and me trying to kill them. They managed to suck blood out of me and I managed to kill them all in the end. Damages I suffered , loss of blood and mosquito bite marks all over my legs till the knee.So if you visiting this fort do wear long pants.

Soon the weather changed, The sun was making its presence felt and we started to sweat and thirst for water. But that didn't dampen our spirits and we still went on exploring the fort.

In a distance we saw the color of the water. Two shades of water. It was due to the shallowness on the water.

We managed to locate another way to enter the fort. The walls of this entry point had small crabs all over it. There were steps here which took us to down to the sea. There is no beach here but just small pebbles and rocks to which water was lashing against due to the tides. The smell of it was awful. The water was dirty.

We climbed up the stairs once again and started walking on the walls. We noticed a few cannons here. These cannons had emblems on them. Thought he emblem was not clear there was a number 1206 below it. Trying to understand what that meant. Was it that there were 1206 cannons atop this fort or was it built in that year. This remains a mystery. Saw cannons with emblems in Daman

Had noticed cannons with emblems in Moti Daman fort too.

We finally reached the St. Anthony Church. There is no date mentioned as to when the Church was built. Maybe it s mentioned on the inside. The church is painted white in color with dark blue borders. The Church shone in the hot sun. Making it one of my best pics on the fort.

Services are held in the church. The church was closed as it was a weekday and there was no way we could enter its premises. The area around the church is clean and the vegetation nicely trimmed. The church has 14 Stations of the Cross around it. All churches have the 14 Stations in it, this is the first time I have seen something like it on the outside.

Guess how many people were here. Just the two if us. We walked out of the fort and entered a shop on the outskirts of the fort. We had cold drinks here. We inquired as to how many people come here, to which we were informed that in the summers loads of people pay it a visit, but thi sis off season and so its just us.

We refreshed ourselves and kick started to Margao city.

We skid and fell in the fields as our bike lost control on a sharp right turn. We were driving at a speed of 70 km per hour.State of our bike and my pants here. As the fields were filled with water we didn't get hurt but managed to get bruises on our legs and hands. First fall on our trip.

We then moved to our second spot the Holy Cross Chapel at Baradi.