Had decided to go to Mahabaleshwar during the long weekend with Christmas falling on Friday. However, courtesy one customer meeting fixed on Saturday I had to cancel the trip. Instead we decided on a short one day trip to Alibag.
We started at 7.30 from our residence in Goregaon (E). Getting out of Mumbai was not a problem on the sunday morning. However I misread the map and went all the way to the toll expressway naka before realising the mistake. I should not have gone on the flyover after Mac but below it and taken the right turn towards Panvel. Anyways, once I realised the mistake, we took the old Mumbai Pune road, paid 24/- toll and took a right turn at the next junction. That road went all the way to Panvel. There I made another mistake. The silver lining of the mistake was that we stumbled upon a nice snacks shop, where we had nice vada pav and misal pav. It was unbelievably crowded. From there we took a left turn and went around 20 km in the wrong direction, towards the Panvel market (also came across an upcoming residential project of Kalpataru called Riverside Residence which actually should have been named 'Nulla'side Residence). Anyways took a U turn when I realised the mistake and came at the same spot where we had the snacks. From the snacks shop, we went to the other direction, took a right turn at the juntion and then a left turn. At the left turn was the board about Karnala Bird Scantuary which is at 10 kms from that point. From there the route was fairly straight. We crossed Karnala Bird Sanctuary, Pen, paid a couple of tolls (yet again), one before Pen and another one at Vadkal.
Fianlly reached Alibag at 12. This could have been much earlier if we hadn't made the mistakes. The beach was not impressive. Our Mumbai beaches are better than this one. So, we decided to straighaway go to the Kolaba Fort. This is a 300 years old fort of Shivaji Maharaj which has been completely ruined by the British. Since the approach to the fort was quite marshy, we decided to hire a horse carriage. He asked for 250/- for hiring the full carriage (both ways with one hr waiting time) or 80/- per person but then he would take other passengers also. So we decided to hire the full carriage. The fort has been declared a heritage site by ASI. One needs to take tickets of 5/- per head for getting inside the fort. Its not a big fort and the fort is the complete island. There are 4 temples (Bhawani temple, Shiv temple, Hanuman temple and ganpati temple) and one dargah. There were 2 Muslim courtesans in Shivaji's court and he had got this dargah made for these courtesans. There are also 2 cannons of rot iron. The whole atmosphere (temples, cannons) gives you a feeling of travelling back in time, the time when Shivaji Maharaj used to rule this part of the country.
After spending close to 75 min (and having over 40 snaps), we got back to the beach. Had lunch at Sea Glow Resort and to our great surprise, the food was very good. By that time, it was 3 pm and hence we decided to start the journey back to Mumbai (since, after a terrifying incidence of flat tyre in a ghat 2 years back after sunset, I have decided not to be on the highway after sunset). Had tea at Amantran and managed to hit Belapur by 5.30. This time I had learnt from my mistakes.
If I had more time, I would have loved to go to the nearby beaches and realx as well... probabely next time.
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