Aamner Fort

Fort: Aamner
Type: Land fort
Base: Dharni or Bhokarbardi (Amravati district)
Grade: Easy

The fort of Aamner is the last fort we had to cover in Amravati district. This fort is located at the confluence of 2 rivers , Tapi and one another(I don't remember the name). There is no specific recorded history of the fort. The fort is a mud fort and some of its bastions and walls are still intact.

The route we took was Chikhaldhara-Semadoh-Dharni-Dhulghat-Aamner Fort (about ~80 kms). In between we had nice snack of Rabri at Semadoh at a small dhaba type hotel. The rabri is indeed recommended if anyone goes that side. All these places are located on the route to Burhanpur (MP) from Amravati.

To get to the fort one has to cross the river (not much water in dry months).

The fort of Aamner from the base

One of the intact bastions of Aamner Fort now cracked.

The expanse of the fort

The river and the fort, you need to cross a small part to gain access to the fort

This was our last fort for day 1 and Amravati district. We set base in Dharni about 20 kms from this fort for the day and had to cover 4 forts the next day in Akola district. To cross into Akola district we had to goto Akot from here which involved crossing the Melghat jungle (famous for the Melghat tiger project) and the gates are closed by forest department from 6pm to 6am daily so we had to wait until the next day hence we stopped at a guest-house in Dharni and started early morning next day at 5am for the forts in Akola district.

Gawilgad Fort

Fort: Gawilgad or Gawilghur
Type: Hill fort
Base : Chikhaldhara (Amravati district)
Height : 2950 feet (above MSL)
Grade : Easy

The fort of Gawilgad is about 2 kms from Chikhaldhara a hillstation in Amravati district. It is located about 50 odd kms from Achalpur. This was the 2nd fort in our Vidharbh trek. Gawilgad is supposed to be build by the Gonds who dominated this region in the 12th century AD. It was a mud fort before and then was strenghtened by the Mughals when they captured this fort later and retained it. Gawilgad was also briefly under the rule of Marathas for sometime before the British took over it.

The fort is a huge structure with lots of remnants, entrance doors to it still intact. It would take around 4-5 hrs to see all the parts of the fort fully as the area is large.

Main entrance of Gawilgad Fort

The huge expanse of the fort

Some ruins of structures inside the fort
Gawilgad front view of the fort

History (from Wikipedia)

The fort has several inscriptions in Persian recording the date of building of each of its seven gates. It has two water tanks(Devtalav and Khantalav) which would have been the main water source in case the fort was besieged. Within the fort is the ruins of a mosque are the most conspicuous. It stands on at the highest point in the inner fort and is built in the Pathan style of architecture. The mosque has a square canopy with intricate stone lattice work and a seven arched façade. The mosque originally had two minarets, only one of which is intact today

There are several unrepaired breaches made by British guns, which remain to this day.

Achalpur Fort

We had done a 12 fort trek in 3 days in the districts of Amravati , Akola and Buldhana from 26-28 Feb 2010 so the information about the forts will be added now in sequence. We started with the fort of Achalpur in Amravati district. Fort: Achalpur Type: Land Fort Base: Achalpur village (Amravati District - Maharashtra)
Grade: Easy

Route : Amravati - Velgaon - Achalpur (~50 kms )

We started from Pune on 25th Feb for the Vidharbh trek and reached Amravati the next day 26th Feb. We had hired a sumo to take us through all these places of the trek. The first fort on the circuit was Achalpur Fort.

It took about 1 hour to get to Achalpur from Amravati via Paratwada. We missed some turns and sometime later we were near the gates of the Achalpur fort. Achalpur also known as Ellichpur (by the British) was an important place and was located in the then Berar district (now Amravati). The fort is a land fort and most of it is gone to the modern civilization but some entrance doors, bastions and walls are still intact.

The gates of Achalpur Fort

Inside the fort now there is a city
The intact walls and bastions of Achalpur Fort

History : Achalpur was ruled by the Muslim Delhi Sultanate from 1294 and that is when the fort must have been constructed. From Achalpur we started for Gawilgad fort near Chikhaldhara and about 50 kms approx from Achalpur.

Dronagiri Fort

Fort:Dronagiri
Height: 1001 feet above MSL
Base : Uran
Grade: Medium.

Dronagiri is a fort located near Uran in Raigad district. This fort was build in olden days and was captured by the Portuguese during their rule. It also houses a church on top of the fort built by the Portuguese.



We came to the base of Dronagiri after doing the Belapur fort. Uran is around 30km from Panvel by road. Once in Uran we get near the ST stand and then to Dahanu Nagar which is at the base of the mountain. ONGC has its main office in there at the base of Dronagiri. We asked for the route to get to the top of the fort and found that the route is to go ahead inside the nagar and then go up winding on the mountain.We started the trek to Dronagiri to get to the top. The route was very slushy due to the constant heavy rains pounding us continuously.

We got to the top in about 1 hour and there are lot of remnants on top to check out. The main door is a beauty and then there are remains of the church and a beautiful well.

My camera was damaged here due to entry of water inside it.

Belapur Fort

Fort: Belapur
Type: Land
Location : Belapur - Navi Mumbai

This fort has only 1 of its bastions left and is located in Belapur (Navi Mumbai). This is located near the highway to Uran. This fort was supposed to be built by the Siddis of Janjira during 1560-1570. The British partially destroyed this fort. Nowadays only a bastion remains to be seen of the fort.

Sole bastion of the Belapur fort

Sewree fort

Fort: Sewree fort
Location : Sewree (E) - Mumbai
Type: Sea fort.

Route: Dadar (TT) -> Khodadad Circle -> Wadala (E) -> Godrej Foods -> Hindustan Petroleum (Sewree) -> turn right in front of Railway Gate -> ask for Colgate Company -> Fort is near a Dargah.

Some type of inscription describing when the fort was built

One of the room type structures inside the fort

The expanse of the Sewree fort
Old entrance to the fort

This fort was built in 1680 by the British to ward off attacks by the Siddhis of Janjira. This was basically used as a watchtower. Structures inside the fort have been renovated recently and hence we can see many intact things.

Worli fort

Fort: Worli
Type: Sea fort
Location: Worli (south Mumbai)

The Bandra Worli Sea-Link bridge from the Worli fort

The Worli fort
The Worli fort entrance

This fort was built in 1675 by the British to keep a watch over the sea and to ward off enemies and pirates from the sea. It now houses a gym inside the fort. The above pictures seem to be of a facelifted fort done by some NGO and is not the actual fort. The actual fort lies just behind this one and is razed to the ground.

Mahim fort

Fort: Mahim (Mahim cha Killa)
Type: Sea fort
Location: Mahim (W) - Mumbai.

The Mahim fort located in Mahim Bay

Bastions of the Mahim fort
Ruins inside the fort
One of the doors of the fort opening into the sea

This fort is located on the seashore near Mahim(Mumbai). It is currently in dilapidated condition and slums have made their way into the fort. Most of the walls are in crumbling condition. This fort is supposed to be built as early as 1716 or before when Portuguese tried to capture this fort from the British. The area around this fort is strewn with garbage, excreta and what not making it a bad place. The Archeological Survey of India has done nothing to restore this fort.

Dharavi Fort (Kala Killa)

Fort: Dharavi (also known as Kala Killa)
Type: Land fort
Location : Sion (E) - Dharavi Slums (Mumbai)

Route: Sion circle (turn right to Sion railway station) - cross to Sion east and ask for Kala Killa (near Hanuman Seva Mandal)

The plaque on the fort describing the details

The walls of the fort

Some remnants of structure on top of the fort
A tunnel on top of the fort - this goes to sion fort as per locals (myth or reality?)

This fort is also known as Riwa fort and was built in 1669-1677. This was built by the British as a watchtower. Not many people know of the existence of the fort inside the slum. Although many of the structures are in good condition.

Sion fort (Shiv cha Killa)

Fort : Sion (also known as Shiv cha Killa)
Location: Sion (west - Mumbai)
Type: Land fort





It was built by the British Governor of Bombay Gerard Aungier atop a conical hillock. The fort was built between 1669 and 1677 (source : Wikipedia). To get to this fort one has to goto Sion (west) (near Sion Circle - Mumbai) cross Sion circle and go towards Dadar. Turn left after the first signal and ask for Jawaharlal Nehru Park (udyan). The way to the fort goes via this park. It is a small fort in dilapidated condition and nothing much to see on top. However the view of the surrounding areas gives an idea behind the strategy of building this fort.

Thane Fort

Fort: Thane
Type: Land fort
Location: Thane city (Mumbai)



This fort is located near TalavPaali near Court Naka in Thane city. Locals do not know about this fort and this fort is converted into a Central Jail now and one cannot go inside to have a view. We saw this fort from the outside and got a view of the bastion. Nothing much known about the fort.

Jivdhani Fort

Fort : Jivdhani (better known as Jivdhani temple)
Grade: Easy
Base village: Virar (Mumbai Western)

Route: Thane->Ahmedabad highway->Virar (50 km)



This fort is located in Virar and is a temple now, a famous one of Jivdhani devi. It takes around 40 mins to get to the top via steps and there's nothing to see on top except the temple of Jivdhani Devi. No fort remains on top as most of it is gone in the reconstruction of the temple. Takes hardly 1 hour to go and come back.

Dativare (Sea fort) visit

Fort: Dativare
Type: Sea fort
Base village: Dativare

Route:
1. Thane->(Ahmedabad highway) Varai Phata->Tandulwadi->Safale->Dativare(75 km approx)

This was the 4th fort in the trek series and the first one today. As this was a sea fort we had ample time. We started from our base at Kelve in the morning at 6:30am and were on our way to Dativare via Safale.

Dativare is a small village on the west coast with a population of about 1500 odd. The Portugese had built a fort here when they ruled the coast here. However this fort is not known to many people including the locals.

We reached Dativare at around 8am and asked for the fort. First people looked at us like what we were asking as no one knew the fort existed here. Then they directed us to a talav and rocky structures nearby. We went near the talav and it was bliss there with Lotuses in the water and there were queer rocky structures where there was a temple.


After seeing the temple we went on ahead to check out the actual fort , nobody knew of the existance of such a fort here but some local boys told us that there is some fort wall which they can show. We went with them to check out and indeed there was the only sole remaining structure of the fort, a wall.





After seeing this we started back to check out the other fort Jivdhani near Virar.

Tandulwadi fort trek

Fort: Tandulwadi
Base : Tandulwadi Village (Thane district).
Height: 1900 feet above MSL
Grade: Medium

Route:
1. Thane->Varai phata->Tandulwadi (60 km)
2. Waghoba Khind -> Lalthane -> Tandulwadi (12 km).

We reached Tandulwadi from base of Kaldurg in about 30 mins. It was raining heavily now. Tandulwadi was a small village with the fort behind the village at some distance. We hired two guides to take us up the fort and come down as the route was via forested path and we didnt want to lose our way.


With the rain pelting down we started our trek at 3:30pm and at first it was ascent for 10 mins and then there was a clearing from where we got a good view of the fort on top. Continuing ahead it was continuous climb for around 25 more minutes and we reached one more clearing from where the fort seemed near but it was a very steep climb ahead. This was a supposed short cut to the fort.

Tandulwadi fort from base village

Tandulwadi fort after initial climb

We reached one more clearing ahead after a steep climb and some of us were hungry so we had chivda and water , refreshed ourselves and continued ahead where there was a rock patch which we climbed up without any problem and continued ahead. After some more steep climb we saw the bastion of the fort through which we came on top of the fort. On top we saw a series of water tanks which were full of water. It was raining on top too and nothing could be seen nearby due to the clouds.

After seeing the water tanks we inched ahead to the other way to get down which is supposed to be a long way but easy one. On the route we saw one more water tank with cool, crystal clear water in it and had our fill. We started climbing down from the other route. The route was full of waterfall stones and the rain water over it made life hell for us but it was easier than the route we climbed. We reached Tandulwadi village in about an hour and changed our clothes and got into the vehicle to get to the night halt for the day.

This was a nice trek indeed.

Kaldurg Trek

Fort: Kaldurg
Base : Waghoba Khind on road to Palghar (from Manor)
Grade : Medium
Height: 1547 feet above MSL.

Route:
1. Thane -> Manor -> Waghoba Khind (stop) route ahead goes to Palghar.
2. Varangade -> Kokner -> Waghoba Khind

This was the second fort of the day after Asawa and we left Varangade by 10.15am. We took the route to Kokner and the road of 10km was bad to worse and in about 45 mins we reached Kokner phata from where we turn right for Waghoba Khind. We could see Kaldurg's rocky structure from far away in fog. The rain too had now stopped and we prayed it shouldnt start for long as we wanted to trek Kaldurg.

Kaldurg in Clouds:

I had done Kaldurg before with friends and given my leg condition I didnt want to do it however I decided I would take a call at the base. We reached Waghoba Khind in about 45 min by 10.45am and there was a shop there where we ordered tea and had breakfast of bread / butter / jam and tea. Once refreshed I took the decision of not going up as I didnt want to get more cramps so I stayed back at the base and as I had done the fort before didnt want to do it again.

The route for Kaldurg goes from behind the Waghoba temple. Its an easy 1 hour walk to the top. On top there are a few steps , a temple of devi, some water tanks.


As I was at the base I decided to explore the temple and surrounding area.The temple had a nice shivling near it. The temple was dedicated to Waghoba. Not sure what exactly does that mean but its an incarnation of God Shiva.



Some distance ahead on the road I chanced across an amazing waterfall which was flowing in full glory. It was nice to see the waterfall and I sat nearby for some time listening to the sound of water and enjoying the nature nearby. Some time later drops of rain started coming down and I walked back to the temple. There were a few police officials there who were talking to me just like that to while away their time. They were talking about their experiences in their jobs and I had a good time chatting with them.

The others who had gone to the top came back in about 2 hours and we started for Tandulwadi fort our 3rd and last for the day. Its coming in the next blog.

Asawagad Trek

Fort: Asawa
Base Village: Varangade
Height : 1587 feet above MSL
Grade: Easy

Route: Thane->Ahmedabad Highway->Tarapur phata->Chillar->Varangade (75km)


We had gone on a mega trek of 14 forts in 3 days during last weekend of August. The first of them was Asawa fort. We started from Pune on Thursday night and had the plan to reach Varangade the base village of Asawa in the morning by 4am and rest and then on daybreak trek up the fort and come down. However due to the monsoon activity coming up in September , we encountered heavy rains on the way and the rains wont relent at all. We saw huge traffic jams on the NH4 and prayed that NH8 (Ahmedabad highway) shouldn't be like that.

We reached Thane at around 1am and continued ahead. It was raining very heavily , we connected to the Ahmedabad highway and continued. In between after Ghodbunder we had some snacks of Vadapav and Tea to refresh ourselves and continued. The highway roads were bad at some places due to the rain and hence our driver had to continuously check out the roads and keep speeding at bay. Adding to that the rain was relentless and didnt stop at all. We reached Chillar phata from where we take a turn to Varangade the base of Asawa. We turned and asked and found that Varangade is around 10km from here.

We reached Varangade at 4am and stopped. Due to the rain there wasnt an inch of dry land here and also there was no school in here to sleep so we had a problem. There was a factory here (Viraj) and we asked the guard about any place to sleep and he said there isn't any place. So we all slept in the sumo and it was uncomfortable to sleep but we did. Around 6.30 I woke up to find the rain still pouring on but the sun had risen. We looked towards the left side and checked out if we could see Asawa and we could see a hill from here and it resembled Asawa as seen in the photo.

Asawa fort from base village Varangade

We went towards the village and asked a person who told us that there is a temple on top of the hill and he knew that but he didnt know of any fort. Usually people in the village associate a hill to the temple and usually if you ask fort they dont know. So we went inside the village the road to which goes after the company ends to the left. We asked someone for the Mahadev temple and they told us that hill which we saw in the morning which confirmed that it was indeed Asawa. So we asked one villager for the route and by now the rain had stopped. So it was good. We trudged on the path ahead which the villager pointed out and continued. To reach Asawa we had to climb one hill before it and continue to the fort ahead.

We started our trek at 8.15am in the morning and continued. The climb was not hectic so we made good time and continued ahead.We reached the top almost by 9am and I didnt go on top but I could see the bastion of the fort. My legs got some cramps and I stayed some distance below. On top one can see bastion, water tanks and the temple. Nothing much on top.

Others came back in about 15 mins from top and we continued back down. We reached the base village in about 45 mins and by 10 we were near our vehicle. We started for the second fort of the day Kaldurg which was about 15 km from here.

Panhala and Vishalgad Trek

Fort : Panhala
Base village : Panhala
Height : 3177 feet (above MSL)
Grade : Easy
Region: Kolhapur

Fort: Vishalgad
Base village: Vishalgad / Gajapur
Height : 3630 feet (above MSL)
Grade : Easy
Region: Malkapur

This was a long awaited trek from many years and came true when i was talking to Rohit and he told me that they planned to do it on the weekend of 14-15-16 August 2009. I was interested and got bookings by Sahyadri to Kolhapur and started the journey on 13th August night from Pune.

We reached Kolhapur in the morning at 6am. The trekkers were Rohit , Anu , Parag , Hemant, Pinak , Tanmaya , Sameer and me. Stuff was distributed among all of us to be carried. We walked upto the Kolhapur ST stand which is hardly 5 mins walk from the Railway station. On arriving there post enquiries we found that the first bus to Panhala was scheduled at 7.45am so we decided to get autos to Panhala at 200/- bucks per auto instead of waiting upto 7.45am. We had a quick breakfast at the ST canteen which consisted of pohe, upma and chai.

We boarded the autos and were on the way to Panhala. Panhala is about 20km from Kolhapur city and is located on the road from Kolhapur to Ratnagiri (NH-204). We need to take a diversion from the NH at a village called Waghbil. We reached Panhala without any problem by 8 am. There was a thick mist shrouding Panhala and it was somewhat cold now. We had planned to see the fort in 3 hours upto 11am and then proceed to the route of Vishalgad via the Pusati Buruj of Panhala.

Just to give an idea we were to trek the route from Panhala to Vishalgad a distance of about 65 odd kms. The significance of the route is such that when Siddi's troops laid a siege on Panhala in the 17th Century Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had escaped from this route to Vishalgad not before losing his able aide Baji Prabhu Deshpande who fought bravely at Pavankhind (a pass in the mountains) so that Maharaj would get safely to Vishalgad. This tale of bravery and the beauty of the route spurs on many enthusiasts to do the route and thus pay obesiance to the warriors of the yesteryears.

Statue of Bajiprabhu Deshpande

Andaarbaav on Panhala

There is a statue of Baji Prabhu Deshpande at Panhala and we paid our tributes to the great warrior here. We started our tour of Panhala post freshening up and filling up our bottles with water. We first saw the Andhaarbaav , a three storeyed well type structure and went ahead. We saw the Parashar cave (guha) where supposedly sage Parashar had meditated in olden times. Going ahead we saw typical temples and bastions on the fort. We also saw the Veer Shiva Kashid samadhi , Shiva Kashid was a lookalike of Maharaj Shivaji raje and he sacrificed his life by letting himself get captured by the Siddi's troops and posing as Shivaji Maharaj so that Maharaj could safely get away.

Parashar cave on Panhala

There are a lot of temples and lakes on top of Panhala , Someshwar Talav is one of them.We could see Pavangad - sort of sister fort to Panhala from Panhala on the other side. We saw the Sajja Kothi (royal palace of the olden times) and then we went to the tabak udyan (garden). This garden is located inside the fort and was part of it from olden times. After visiting tabak udyan we visited the Ambarkhana (granary) and some other structures there. Finally we visited the Teen Darwaza a series of 3 doors through which you enter the fort from the other side. After all this we walked our way to the Pusati Buruz from where the route to Vishalgad starts. It was roughly 11.15am when we reached the route and waited for others to join in.

Pusati Buruj of Panhala from where the route to Vishalgad starts

We started on this route down Panhala with others. The first village on this route is Turukwadi as soon as you get down Panhala. From here the route gradually ascends to Mhalunge village and onto the Mhasai Pathar. Disaster struck me before Mhanlunge. While negotiating a path filled with stones my ankle twisted so badly that I could not walk without pain. I took a decision there that I couldn't walk the whole 60 km ahead without inconveniencing others so i told other to continue and i would return back to Panhala and get to Vishalgad and meet them. This was the saddest moment for me on the trek to come so far and not be able to do the famed route. Such is fate.

I returned back to Panhala limping in about 2 hours to catch a bus and the others continued on the journey. Coming back to Panhala I had lunch and took a bus to Kolhapur for the day and stayed at Kolhapur. Next day morning I decided to goto Vishalgad by bus and then meet the others who come by the trek route.

Vishalgad from Base

Steps to top of Vishalgad

Morning I got the 6.45 bus for Vishalgad from Kolhapur ST stand and it reached Vishalgad via Malkapur at 9.45am. I went to top of Vishalgad by steps. The fort is a huge place and is located in a strategic area. However people live on top of the fort making the fort dirty. There is also a famous dargah on top of the fort where people from far off places come and pay their respects. This fort contains the mahadev temple , amruteshwar temple , ganesh temple and the samadhis of Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Fulaji Prabhu Deshpande brother of Baji. After seeing all these points I came back to the base and waited for the others to join in. However they were not to be seen so I decided to get back to the point where the trek ends at Pandhrepani. I got a bus immediately from here and went to Pandhrepani. By then heavy showers had started.

I waited at Pandhrepani for almost an hour but finding no sight of the others decided to take the bus back to Kolhapur as I wasn't sure when they would reach here as there was no network too to call them up. I reached Kolhapur at 3pm and immediately visited Mahalaxmi temple and came back to the bus stand. I decided to return back to pune now as I wasnt sure when the others would come back. So leaving a message to the others I started for home by Asiad bus and reached home by 11.30pm in the night.

Although the trek didnt happen as it had to but i could do something and the views of both the regions was too good. I will do the route sometime surely.

Padmadurg - Samrajgad

Fort: Samrajgad
Base village: Ekdara (Murud)
Type : Hill fort

Fort: Padmadurg
Base village: Murud
Type: Sea fort

Had gone on the weekend of 25-26 April 2009 to visit Padmadurg (Kasa killa) with Vinay from Chakram. This was a private sort of trek and Vinay had called me if I would like to join for which I couldn't say No because I wanted to do Padmadurg from a long time and it wouldnt be easy to do it on own.

When I had visited Janjira last time , the guide had shown us Padmadurg from one of the windows of Janjira and had mentioned that this was built by Shivaji Maharaj to wage a campaign against Janjira. The fort of Padmadurg is around 4km inside the sea making it difficult to visit it and boats do not ply to Padmadurg because its too far and only on special request do boats ply there.

I started from Pune on 25th night for Murud on bike. The others would start from Mumbai for Murud. The going was easy with almost no traffic and I covered the distance upto Murud in about 2.5 hours (184km) and reached Murud at 2.30am in the morning of 26th April. The others would still take time as they would reach around 3:45am so I found refuge in a temple "Koteshwari Devi Temple" near Murud.

The others came in around 4am and we directly went to Rajpuri from where we were to get the boat. As it was 4am we slept for about an hour and a half near the temple and then everyone woke up. We had tea at the boatmans place (Kunbi koli) and it was followed by a round of breakfast , sumptous bread / butter / chutney and biscuits. After having our fill we started for Padmadurg fort visit with the boat man and his sons.

One more good thing was we had Sadanand Apte kaka with us , Kaka is learning history of forts and knows a lot about forts and its always good to know the history of forts when we visit. We finally went upto the Rajpuri jetty and the boat came in. It was a dual cylinder fishing boat and we all got inside not before everyone got their share of fright of falling into the water.

We started towards Padmadurg , in between we saw Janjira fort , the stronghold of the Siddhi's for a long time. The history states that the Siddhi's controlled the land from the Kundalika river to the Savitri river near Harihareshwar during their rule and were never defeated. Siddhi's were basically Abyssinians (current Eithopia) and had come here by sea. They built Janjira on the island and made it very strong and controlled the sea and land from here.

One history heard from Apte kaka was that Siddhi's came by sea-route to India on the west coast. However the island on which Janjira stands was occupied by Koli's at that time and it was a stronghold of Koli's. Siddhi's captured that island with treason by asking shelter to the Koli's there and then feeding them wine and then killing them.

Shivaji Maharaj waged a losing battle against the Siddhi's but he could not capture Janjira anytime. Shivaji Maharaj built Padmadurg to keep a check on Siddhi as he could not let Siddhi rule with oppression. Padmadurg was built around 1675 by Daulatkhan (an architect) and was in the control of Marathas until 1698 when Siddhi captured it and ruled it until the end.

The main fort of Padmadurg

The boat was rocking and we were approaching Padmadurg. The fort is divided into 3 parts. The main fort , the padkot (or the supporting fort) and the retaining wall of the fort. We reached Padmadurg and got off , the boat was rocking strongly as high tide was setting in and we got down with difficulty.

The sea door (darya darwaza) of Padmadurg

We came to the door of Padmadurg known as Darya Darwaza (or the door facing the sea). We could see what the sea had made of Padmadurg by lashing its waves on the structure but the cementing material keeps the wall still intact after so many centuries. We went around the fort to the main door and to the padkot where Apte kaka read out a letter from Shivaji Maharaj to Jivaji Vinayak who was responsible for providing logistics for building Padmadurg. The fort of Padmadurg is still in somewhat intact condition.

The padkot of Padmadurg

The main fort of Padmadurg (inside)

The route to top of one of the bastions of Padmadurg

We then saw the retaining wall (the 3rd part of the fort) which has withstood the ravages of the sea and protects against lashing waves. There are some barracks in here constructed by the indian customs dept who had their base here until some years ago. We then went inside the main fort area. The fort area consists of many structures and 3 water tanks and some store rooms.We made a round of the inside of the fort first and then went to the top bastions. There were a lot of cannons lying around the fort, a total of 47 in rusted state. This showed how the protection of the fort was carried out.

After visiting almost all parts of the fort and post some photosessions we started back our return journey. The return journey was uneventful and we came back safely to Rajpuri. We then started off towards Samrajgad , a relatively unknown fort built by Samraj Pant the lieutanent of Shivaji Maharaj. This fort was built to carry out planning of the campaign of the capture of Janjira which was never done. This fort fell to the Siddhi's in 1675 and that was the end of the Janjira campaign.

Part of retaining wall of Samrajgad

There is a small double wall showing that Samrajgad existed sometime at this place. From the top we can clearly see Janjira to the left and Padmadurg to the right. No notable structures exist on the top. After doing Samrajgad we came down to the base village of Ekdara and started to Murud for lunch at Patil's inn. After a sumptous lunch of konkani delicacies we started back. The others planned to do Revdanda fort but I planned to return home fast as I was on bike so started back at 2.30pm and reached back home by 5.30pm.

Nice trip and trek. Great history.