I have a strange habit. Usually in weekends I sleep till noon but whenever I am in a holiday, I wake up very early. That day too I woke up early, all my friends were sleeping. I opened the window, it was still raining. I freshen up, took my raincoat and went to the roof. The dark sky was the perfect background for the green mountain. I was shivering due to the cold, but still I stood there, watching the mountain and the sea. I felt somewhat sad, realizing I have to leave this place soon and might never be back.
I came down after some time. My friends were up. The rain just stopped. We went to the nearby beach. It was all rock, no sand, but still it felt good to be so close to the water. We spend some time there and returned when the water level increased significantly. We had our breakfast in the hotel, packed our bags and left.
We went to the Datta Mandir. It is in a hill top. The mandir was empty, we couldn’t find anyone nearby. The view from here is beautiful, one can see the Arabian sea in one side and the mountain range in the opposite side. We were clicking photos when we saw that the mountains were fading. We realized it was raining in the nearby range and its advancing. We ran for shelter, but rain started even before we reached the shed. Heavy rain started. It was some experience, standing under a shed in a hilltop, watching the rain, feeling the cool breeze. We could hear the roar of a waterfall, started flowing in somewhere near. The rain took long to stop, we got down from the mandir after that.
We decided to go to the ‘Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary’ which is in the way to Murud. The road is through the mountain and you will enjoy the ride. It was raining when we reached there, but it couldn’t stop us from exploring. We didn’t see any wild animal there, but forest is not only about animal. It’s about the trees, the roads, the uncertainty, the chill, the vulnerability. I could feel everything there. It was raining like it will never going to stop. The raincoats couldn’t prevent us from getting drenched. After one hour of exploring we came back to the parking lot. There was a café, we decided to have lunch there, but they inform us that they will need 1-1:30 hours to cook so we dropped the idea. Do give order in that café before entering the sanctuary if you want to have lunch there.
We went to Murud next. It took us almost 45 minutes to reach there. We could see the Murud-Janjira fort from the road up in the mountain. We understood why it was closed, it was almost submerged in the sea. But it was awe inspiring. We decided to visit Murud again, just to see Janjira Fort.
We had our lunch in one roadside restaurant. Murud is more commercialized than Kashid. There are lots of hotels and homestays near the beach. The beach was populated but clean. We couldn’t spend much time there as it started raining again but I liked the place.
We started our return journey. We thought our trip was complete, not aware of what nature had in its store. We were in the Tamini Ghat again. It took us sometime to realize we were returning through the same road. The Tamini Ghat had transferred itself completely in one day. In every turn there was a waterfall. We stopped in front one waterfall for clicking photos. I always wanted to get drenched in a waterfall once and that waterfall was perfect for it, so I couldn’t stop myself that day. We all went down to the waterfall. The water was so cold, we were all shivering when we came back.
The main reason to select Kashid was Murud Janjira Fort. We saw photos of that fort and found it very interesting. Our plan was to visit Murud Janjira Fort & relax in the Kashid beach and those were the only things that didn’t happen in the trip. But it didn’t matter at the end. Perfect trip is not about perfect plan.
Photo Credit: Shamani Panja
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