Kude Caves - DiveAgar - Janjira Fort

Journey Title : Kude caves –Dive Agar – Janjira Fort

Jouney Dates: 22'nd and 23'rd January 2013.

Travel Mode: Bike (Honda Shine 125cc)

People: 2 (Abhishek Sawant and Mahesh Sontakke)

Route:

Day 1 : Pune – Mulshi – Tamhini - Mangao – Indapur – Tala – Kude Caves – Mhasla – DiveAgar (Total 192 KM)

Day 2 : DiveAgar – Dighi – Janjira (via launch) – Borli – Mhasla – Mangao – Tamhini – Mulshi – Pune (Total  182 KM)

Day 1 : We left Pune at 05:40 from Chintamani Hospital at Bibwewadi. It was dark and chill. Within 1 hour via Chandni Chowk, Pirangut, we arrived at Mulshi. We took almost 50 minutes Halt at Disha’s Dhaba (Very first food center in Mulshi on Pune – Tamhini road). We then moved via tamhini ghat.  The condition of road cannot be described in clear words. For few KMs you will find absolute clean and drench free roads. Some roads have patches applied and some are having a lot of drenches.  At the end of Tamhini ghat you will reach to Vile Bhagad MIDC. While going through MIDC road, do take precaution as heavy trucks and containers run around. We then reached to Mangao via Nizampur.

After arriving at Mumbai-Goa Highway, we took right turn towards Mumbai to reach Indapur. Indapur is 9-10 KM from Mangao. Keep your vehicle on left of the road as the Tala village is on left side of the road. After seeing the signboard of Tala or Talashet (written in Deonagari script), turn left at next road. From here, starts road towards Tala village. Drive for 13-14 KMs and you will see Tala Fort. We skipped this fort as we wanted to reach Kude caves as early as possible. Take left turn from Tala village. Ask villagers about Kude Caves and they will tell you the road better. (I believe, local people can tell you roads better than any navigation system in the world).

After leaving Tala village, you will find it difficult to search Kude caves as there is not a single signboard to tell the directions towards it. We kept asking road construction workers. Luckily, you don’t have to leave the main road. While travelling through the turning roads, keep a close eye on your left side. At one turn you will see a rough road, look for a signboard Kulkarni Farm around it. This is the place. The road is pretty rough and one should not risk driving on that road. A puncture can cost you dearer as nearest village is few KMs away on this isolated road. Park vehicle there and walk for 100-150m. You will see a bungalow/farmhouse on the way. Caves are at just 200m ahead from this location.

Kude caves were not known to me till 3 days before our trip. I tried to search it on Google map when read about it on few blogs. These caves are built around 2000 years ago and not known to many. These caves are of Buddhist Style. You can see “Stupa” in 2-3 caves. 

The biggest Cave (6’th or 7’th) has many things to see. Just outside this cave, you will find sculpture of an elephant with broken trunk. 

This cave has many Carvings of Lord Buddha. There are some inscriptions written in unknown script (could be Pali or Brahmi, not sure). 

Surprisingly, we found a graffiti made there in 1887 (written in Deonagari Script). This shows that bad habit of diminishing the beauty of monument is older than a century. Felt very sad to see that.

Many caves have similar interior. There are small rooms and shelf in each of cave. Hinges of doors and windows suggest that these caves were inhibited. 

Inscriptions written there might want to tell much about it, but only few will understand that script. (I have taken many photographs of these inscriptions, please email me/ write comment in case you need to study them). Inside caves, you will experience complete silence and a glance out of caves, you will see a breathtaking sea view. 

Wow, is the first word you will say when you’ll turn back to see out of the caves. It takes around 60-90 minutes to see these caves. Take a 3 minute visual tour on YouTube by clicking here.

After seeing these caves,  we left Kude Caves and headed for DiveAgar. The road goes down from Kude Caves can take you to Rowala and then to Mhasala village. From Mhasala, you can reach to DiveAgar via Borli village. We had already booked a room to stay at DiveAgar (Shivaji Chowk). Room did cost us Rs. 700, of which we had paid Rs. 350 in advance by internet banking and rest of money were paid after reaching there. At DiveAgar, you would hardly get lunch if you reach after 2 P.M.. Luckily, our room owner informed us about one Khanaval (lunch home) which serves food till 2:30 P.M. (Patil Khanaval).  After lunch, we went to Borli village to get Kites. Unfortunately, the only shop selling kites in village was closed on that day.

We returned to our room, parked my bike and walked towards beach. Beach was at 7-8 minutes walking distance from our room. The entire beach was empty. Far way, there was a group of 20-25 people enjoying cricket and parasailing. We enjoyed tides and sand till Sunset and returned.  After 7, you would hardly see activities in this village. Only few khanavals serve food (But, you need to tell them to cook food before 6 P.M.). After having dinner, we again went to Beach to see tides in moonlight. White tides look too beautiful in the dark. We stayed there for a while and returned to our room to take a good sleep.

Day 2:

We had Janjira on mind before coming back to Pune. We left DiveAgar at 8:30. Via Borli, we reached to Dighi village which is at 15 KM from DiveAgar. Dighi is also a port.

From Dighi village, we bought a return ticket of a Launch to Janjira (Rs. 52 per person). As soon as launch left the land, one assistant came to us and offered us  a seat at the top at Rs. 10 extra. We opted for it for better view of Janjira as our launch was full of school children on picnic. Janjira looks awesome from a distance. 

The solid architecture in sea built around 900-1000 years ago makes you speechless. You need to go to another boat which takes you to steps of Janjira. Be careful while jumping on these steps, especially when you have camera in your hand. 

Boatmen over there alternatively play role of Guide.We didn’t opt for a guide as everything there was in ruins and charges told by them were quite high. If you don’t opt for a guide, these boatmen will tell you to return in 45 minutes to board on boat again. Alongside the steps, you will see an emblem used by "Siddis" (Rulers of this fort).

We got disappointed as we walked through the remains of Janjira. In the large well of green water, people had thrown plastic bottles.  The fort that has survived high tides of Arabian sea for 1000 years, could not survive plastic tides. There are mosques and remains of old palace. 

We wandered through some interiors to see the architecture of that time. 

Through the windows of few rooms, you could see and hear tides hitting the wall of Janjira. Close your eyes and listen that sound. We then moved to upper area to see some old age Canons pointing at Murud Village. 

From the top of port, look at the North-West and you could see Padmadurg.

Padmadurg Fort was built by “Marathas”  to fight against Siddi of unconquered Janjira. Canons on Janjira were continuously attacking when the construction of Padmadurg was in progress. As per information given by localites, one need to take permission from Navy and Custom department to visit Padmadurg and local boatmen generally do not go there due to high tides. One local person admitted that, sometimes they go to Padmadurga to party with their family. (Now, I wonder about state of Padmadurg).

We came back to Dighi and headed to Pune. Earlier we had plan to come via Mahad- Varandha road. But we change our plan after reaching at Mangao since Sun on our head was at its peak of Day log schedule. We ate a some small food joint in Mangao and returned Pune via Tamhini. The return journey was bit painful. We had to stop for 10 minutes after every 25 KM due to heat. We came back to Pune and kept discussing about next trip for an hour. Next Bike Trip will be in February. I am hopeful to visit some unheard places.

Do write your feedback and queries if you wish to visit these places. You can directly email me or just write in comments section. Have a safe journey. J