Would you ignore the call of the mountains for some cave searching? Earlier in June, I went on a vagabond cave searching tour that was full of surprise outcomes!
Aurangabad is now a village, located at about 8-hour bus ride and lesser train ride away from Mumbai. You won't believe it has so many historical stories trapped within its soil unless you see the forts and caves for real. I set out on a sudden plan and visited the Ellora caves and Daulatabad Fort in a 1 night 2 day span.
The city gets dark post sunset and I had many unexpected first time experiences that were a hippie-thing.
Travel details :
Mode of transport-
Pickup: Bisleri bus stop (near Andheri), 10 p.m.
Drop: Baba Bus Stop (Aurangabad), 8 a.m. next day. (delay)
Pocket pinch: 2205 for 3 via AC volvo sleeper bus.
Mode of transport -
A sharing auto-rickshaw is available up to the Daulatabad Fort.
Pocket pinch: An extended ride to Mayfair resort from the fort. We had to shell double fare for half the distance.
Traveling on a budget-
1.Staying in a tent-
After reaching Aurangabad in the morning, we first headed towards our home for that day.
We had booked a backpackers base camp in aurangabad online for 3 people. We had struck a cheap deal of 1.5k in total which was a yay.
2. Walking-
We walked from our campsite to the Daulatabad fort spanning less than half an hour.
3. No fixed transport-
We relied on abrupt transportation instead of a continuous one that would charge us for hours!
Although that was hectic but it was fun. We could book an auto enroute the caves and while returning we just hopped on to the back of a tempo that carries goods! I may not have dared this if my fellow companions would not have been there.
{Note- Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, post the closing hours of Ellora, it is reduced to a remote dark village which less transport facilities.}
4.Planning a day on the roads-
We had booked the tent for Day 2 until the morning of day 3. We ideally had our breakfast and left the premises for fort hopping the entire day. That meant we had to wait at restaurants for a considerable period of time so that we are not left wandering.
By the end of day 3,after climbing 750 steps to visit the Daulatabad fort, we had crossed the limits of exasperation but thanks to sugarcane juice and sudden drops of rain that kept us going! I in fact enjoyed my first monsoon rains in Aurangabad.
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