Awoke at 4.00 A.M. Left home by 4.45. Took a train to Churchgate and a taxi to the Gateway to meet PV and BD, who were already there. I reached just a couple of minutes after the first ferry of the day (6.15 A.M by Ajantha Launch Services) left.
So, after apologising for my lateness, we settled down to wait for the next ferry, at 7.15. PV and BD had a bite to eat while waiting. Taking the next ferry turned out to be something of a good thing, since we got to watch the sunrise as we pulled away from the harbour.
The ferry ride to Mandwa jetty took an hour, and the accompanying free bus ride to Alibag (also by Ajantha) took another 45 minutes, so it was 9.00 A.M by the time we reached Alibag.
We walked down the road to the S.T bus depo and hopped into a bus bound for Murud, which was the closest stop to our destination. The bus ride took another two hours.
We got off a few stops before the last stop, so we had to take a rick to Murud market and another rick to the jetty from where we could catch a boat to Janjira fort.
As the rick hugged the hilly coastline in its path towards the jetty, we caught a breathtaking glimpse of the fort.
The jetty is pretty enough with clear views of the fort, and boats were constantly ferrying visitors to and from the fort.
We spent about an hour at the fort looking around. It was large, very large, with cannon turrets around every corner, and ruins of what were storage, administration, religious and living dwellings within its confines.
Took a boat back to the mainland, and a rick to Murud beach, where we gorged on thalis for lunch - I had the mutton one whereas my two fellow explorers had the chicken ones. We then waited for an S.T bus to Alibag and then took an Ajantha bus and ferry combo back to Mumbai.
Got a chance to watch the sunset from the ferry on our way back.
We chilled out at Leopold's for a while before taking a taxi to Dadar where we split up and I took a train home.
