Tung Fort Aka Kathingad

The Imposing Tung Fort

Last week when we were going towards Korigad fort,I noticed this mountain top which looked quite imposing, upon inquiry I was given to understand that It's Tung Fort. "Bas ab kya tha, Dil ne soch liya ki bahut jaldi is kille ko bhi fathe karna hai !! (My heart was set to conquer this fort soon) but believe me even in my wildest dream I wouldn't have thought that the next Sunday I would be on the Tung Fort.

Our Journey:

It all started when my friend Avinash called and said "Aashish bhai, chalo yaar kuch program banao, I said yaar last sunday Tung fort dekha tha , kare kya ? and he immediately agreed and the best part was that Avinash offered his car for the trek,We set out early from Panvel the common meeting place,Driving down the expressway we proceeded toward Lonawala, It was a cool morning and sun was just peeping out of the fog making our journey all the more pleasant.

Morning sunrise on the way to Lonawala

Our drive from Panvel to Lonawala took  around 45mins, It was 8 am when we reached the Kumar Resort junction at Lonawala, Here we were to meet our friend Shashi who was coming on motorbike and from here we all proceeded towards the  Amby valley. In case if you are not having your own vehicle than in that case one can take Sahara bus or bus going to Bhamburde village  from Lonawala ST stand and get down at the Ghosalkhamb bus stop and from here there is a road going toward left side to Tungwadi the base of Tung Fort.Its a 8-9 kms long journey from here to base.

8-9 kms stretch of road leading toward the Tung Fort. 

The only problem is that there is no local transport available from this point, trekkers often trek this 8 kms route till the base or hitch a ride from passing by Tempo. Actually for this trek one should have own vehicle, the road as you can see is not in a very good shape but manageable. Driving down the road you can have the glimpse of Tung fort.

 Glimpse of Tung fort

The rough road ensured us the rattling drive passing through few villages and few Green houses. Soon we were seeing the Tung Fort ahead, the sight of the imposing fort right in front of us made us all excited. Here please note that one need not go till Tungwadi, You must take a little diversion to your left  before the Tungwadi which will take you to the Hanuman Temple.

Hanuman Temple at the base

and just opposite that there is this information board of Tung Fort which gives complete information of the fort.

Information board put up by Sahyadri Prathishan

We parked our car here and started walking towards the Tung. There is this tar road which takes you to the start point of this trek.One can see the fort on the right side from here.

Tar road leading towards the start of the trek

One look at the top of the fort and you may say "Arre baapre itna upar jane ka hai " In fact at first glance the fort true it's name looked Kathin ( The marathi word for difficult, hence aptly also named as Kathingad). 

Just 2 minutes of walk on the above tar road and we reached the stone stairs which is the start point of this trek.

Stone cut stairs at the start of the trek

Climbing on these stairs you realise that the ascent is quite steep but however the advantage of this is that you quickly gain height.

Steep climb 

The view was very beautiful as we climbed from here.Though the climate was hot but the breeze was cool. Most of the climb is on the edge of the mountain and route is quite narrow, hence we are always exposed toward the valley.

Exposed climb with lovely mountain range all around

within 25 minutes we were near the small cave and next to that there was this water tank. We rested for a while and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Pawna back waters.

Enjoying the beauty of Pawna Backwaters

Walking on this narrow path we kept enjoying the beauty of valley and Pawna Waters .

Narrow path

Pawna Back water behind us

Further on this route we saw Tung ki Toppe (Cannons of Tung Fort) in front of us, Now this was the term Avinash used when he saw this.

Tung ki Toppe or Banana trees

I hope to see smile on your face when you see these Tung ki Toppe,  Trekkers can have weird sense of humor. This walk from the water tank hardly lasted for 5mins and we come across Main Darwaza or entrance of the fort. A large stone entrance almost in ruins state.

Main entrance of Tung Fort

Main entrance of Tung Fort

entering through this door, on your left side there is a  fortification wall which allows you to view the mountain range and the road below and straight ahead there is a ridge which we wanted to explore but the overgrown bushes on this portion of the fort didn't allow us to do so.

View from fort wall with overgrown bushes and ridge across

on your right side from here there is this stone stairs leading towards the second gate of the fort.

Stone stairs leading to the second entrance 

a little climb on these stair takes you to an enclosure kind of a place.
.

Enclosure before the second gate

The moment you enter this enclosure you feel quite cool. Standing atop on the stairs which comes to this enclosure offers you lovely view of the main entrance gate ,Pawana waters behind and majestic mountains across.

View of main gate from the top of stairs
 with pawna backwater

On entering this enclosure area you will notice the carving of Hanuman on the wall. 

Carving of Hanuman on the enclosure wall

And right opposite to this carving is the second entrance gate of the fort with the small stairs behind it,leading to the top.

Second entrance with the stairs behind ,leading to top.

Stairs leading to the top plateau

Once you climb these stairs you come across open top, just turn around at the top of this stone stairs you can have a terrific view of Tung fort on top along with the inside view of second gate.

 Terrific view of Tung fort on top along with the
 inside view of second gate

Coming out of this route we moved towards the right side, As one can see the towering fort ahead so there is little scope of losing your way here. Little walk ahead and you come across a small Ganesh temple with a water tank just next to it.

Ganpati Temple with water tank next to it

The water in this tank is quite dirty not potable.

Yours truly checking out the water

Just opposite the Ganpati Temple you see a stone boundary. I was told that in olden days this was kind of assembly hall. There is this board called Sadar which I assume in marathi means assemble hall.

Sader or the Assemble area

We offered the prayers in the temple, rested a bit and started our journey further toward the Tung top. The route is quite straight forward a little walk and you come across the base of the fort top or ballekilla as they say,there is this sign board directing you.

Base of the hill with sign board

As the sign board suggest that on your right there is a water tank and on the left the route leads you to the BhalleKilla

Sign board showing the route to Bhalekilla

The climb from the left of this hill is again a narrow path along the edge but the view of Pawana Backwater is absolutely mind blowing. I was walking carefully because I was worried 
"Ki kahi nature ka maza lete lete stretcher per nahi pahunch jao"  

Narrow path with serene Pawana waters

Walking towards the top of Tung ,on your left ,on the far horizon one can see Lohagad Fort and Visapur Fort behind the Pawana waters. The view all through this ascent is simply amazing.

Pawna waters and on the right side of picture on far end
Lohgad and Visapur Fort

A little simple rock patch and we were on the top of the Tung Fort.

So finally on the top of Tung Fort

Upon reaching the top we noticed that the top is not very large, As you touch the top deck on your left side you notice a small temple of Tungi devi.

Tungi Devi Temple on Top

Standing next to this temple you get amazing view of the Pawna backwater and the Tikona fort.I was completely mesmerized by this out of the world view in front of me.

I can stand for hours to watch this lovely view of
 Tung Fort surrounded by sublime water.

Standing at the top we were able to have perfect view of the base where we had parked our car,the temple and even the diversion of road going to Tungwadi. I must say this top indeed provided a perfect Watch Tower. 

View from the Top , showing the temple and
our parked car outside it

Next on the top we noticed this small cave kind of thing, so naturally the explorer instinct of mine got activated and hence I went to check out the same.

The explorer instinct prompted me to jump
 into that cave formation

There is a cave on the left side once you enter this 

After spending some time on the top , enjoying the lovely breeze we made our way back. All in all it was a superb sweet and small trek. It harddly took us 45 minutes to reach the Top.

Thankfully I can say Kathingad was not at all kathin.(Difficult).

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Arnala Fort

My niece had come from Delhi to visit me and she wanted me to take her for a trek.Knowing that she had never trekked before and with mercury hitting at 40 C plus I was wary of going to trek with her, So I suggested the middle path and decided to visit Arnala Fort.

There are very few places which are near Mumbai and yet offer you the peaceful bliss of country side's natural delight and Arnala Fort is one of them. Arnala Village is hardly 10kms away from Virar station and the best part is, as it is a sea fort, so one need not worry about the trekking hardship. In my opinion any new comer who wants to get acquainted with the History, Forts and trek and in this particular order should start from here.

picture taken from internet

Our Journey:
Once it was decided that it's Arnala Fort this Sunday, I called up few others also in case if they want to join me, However in the end it was me,my niece Sunisha and my friend Pooja who ended up for this trek.We took an early train to Virar Station and on reaching Virar station we got out of the station from the west side and walking for hardly 2-3 minutes we arrived at the Virar ST stand. We were given to understand that the frequency of the buses going to Arnala Village are good (Almost every 15 mins) and luckily for us the Local green coloured bus going to Arnala was waiting. we quickly got hold of the window seat, the bus journey lasted around 30 minutes and we reached the Arnala Market stop.

Crowded Arnala Market

After getting down from the bus the first thing that hit you big time is the smell of fish and the din of the crowded market place.My niece was quite amused and confused, She had this big question mark on her face " But chachu you said its a silent and serene place, yeah toh pura meena bazaar hai" I chuckled and said "Jaise Toofan se pehle shanti hoti hai , waise hi shor ke baad Shukun (peace) ... Bacha thodi Thand Rakho"

Fisher-women selling fishes at the fish market

 The Arnala Market or Naka has this big fish market and just opposite to that moving slightly toward the right side is a narrow road , a simple walk of 5 minutes  from here will take us to Ferry wharf or jetty. Yes friends one has to take a boat to reach this fort because this fort is located on an island !

A little walk through these narrow lanes and you reach Ferry Wharf

History:
Arnala fort is also called Jaldurg (Seafort) or Jangire Arnala , at one time the Portuguese who owned this fort had it rebuilt and named it ilha das vacas. In the year 1516 a local chieftain from Gujarat Sultan Mahmud Begde constructed this fort on the Arnala island ,but in 1530 Portuguese  gained the control of this island consequent to that the Portuguese nobleman tore down the old fort and did a new construction of 700 by 700 feet (210m x 210m) fort, since then for 2 centuries the control of the fort remained with the Portuguese who used it to control shipping and navigation along the northern Konkan coast. 

During the late 17th century, the then Peshwa Baji Rao I , sent his brother Chimaji Appa to take over the Bassein Fort from Portuguese, later after winning the battle of Vasai, on the insistence of Shankerji Pant, Chimaji Appa lauched an attack on Arnala Fort but it was a disaster, as the Maratha forces under the naval command of Manaji Angre was routed by the superior Portuguese naval forces, but however during the second attack on 28 March 1737 the Marathas caught Portuguese by surprise and forced them to abandon the fort. The Marathas rebuilt the fort and constructed 3 bastions Bahirav, Bhavani and Bava later this fort was lost by Marathas to the Britishers in 181. The Arnala and the Bassien Fort were returned to Marathas in the treaty of Salabai but yet again the fort went back to Britishers under the treaty of Pune.

Journey Continues :
I hope now that you have brushed up little history let's move back to our journey, After getting down the bus we walked and passed through the narrow lanes which housed fishermen houses to reach the Ferry Wharf. The earlier boat had just left and the next boat would be coming in 15 minutes so we spent our time clicking pictures 

Photo session at the Ferry wharf

One could see lots of hanging fishes being dried up in sun. It was like fishes all around you. The smell of the fish was now becoming a constant companion and we were getting pretty used to it.

Drying fishes

Soon our boat arrived and here there was another shock awaiting Pooja and Sunisha when they realised that they will have to wade through the water to get into the boat.Quickly we removed our shoes,our mobile,cameras etc and put them in our bag. and before we could realise we were almost deep in water till waist level. I was all prepared for the shrieks of my lady companions but to my surprise and relief both of them very sportingly and bravely climbed into the boat and heaved sigh of relief.The boat was rocking as if it would drown anytime,

The rocking boat

Just imagine rush hour crowded local train, same was the plight on this small overloaded boat. Luckily for us our fears were unfounded and we survived this sweet and small journey of hardly 5 minutes and reached the other shore. Getting down was another another task, jumping into the waist high water was now order of the day so we were well prepared for it, In fact we had started to enjoy this adventurous experience. 

Uninviting hot sand

Getting down in cool water was a delightful experience in this hot weather but once we started walking on the beach to our despair we realised how hot the dry sand was, As we were bare footed so the burning sand had an impact of what a person must have felt walking on hot coal, running in despair we broke into unintentional tap dance to save our feets and dived into the shelter of the nearby fishermen's house.Catching our breath we started our walk to the fort.

Walk through the village to the fort

The walk from the beach to the fort entrance is hardly a 5 minutes walk through narrow lane with the fishermen folks houses on both sides of lane and as we reached closer to the fort entrance we saw few abandoned boats and Fishermen folks unloading the mud bags for the reconstruction of the fort.

Fishermen folks unloading the mud bags

Few abandoned boats

The Fort entrance has this beautiful carving of a tiger and an elephant. I had read about this carving of Elephant and tiger so was very keen to capture it on my camera 

Carvings of Tiger and the Elephant on the main entrance

but I was shocked and saddened by the state of the gate, Some voyeuristic people who I never understood, as to what pleasure they get in proclaiming their love on the walls of heritage site,had defaced it.

Shameful destruction of heritage site

 Hey man you have a Living room in your house Please go and put that graffiti on the living room wall,Jab baap do Jhappad lagayega sab hosh thikhane aa jayega spare the historical sites.

Another thing on entering the gate I noticed was the stack of sand bags, which meant that the restoration work is going. 

 Stack of sand bags meant for the restoration work

As soon as we entered the fort from this gate , I noticed that one can see almost the entire wall of the fort.as the fort is kind of rectangular in shape.We saw few broken walls of old quarters, 

Broken walls of old quarters

Lovely sea view from the fort

The moment we reach the top wall, we get the lovely view of the sea ahead,with small boats all around and bird's eye view of the entire fort.

Bird's eye view of Fort Complex

we started walking on the fort wall with the intent of circumventing and this is possible because the entire Rampart wall is interconnected.

Walking on the interconnected  Rampart of the fort  

walking along the way we noticed secret doors,Passages going down at some places,small windows along the wall of bastions, which in earlier they must be using to look out for the enemy. But today this small windows provided excellent location to click beautiful pictures.

Some pretty sights from Fort windows

 The portion which consists of bastion had passages going down which could take you out of the fort.However thanks to the onslaught of modern civilization which gives two hoots for maintaining the historical places these passage were blocked due to the mud,dust and the plastic waste thrown by the visitors to the fort. How I wish someone takes the initiative to clean up these passages. If this kind of initiative will be undertaken I would love to be the part of same.

Passages at the bastions

 Blocked passage due to the mud,dust and the plastic waste thrown by the visitors to the fort

Once we completed our exploration of the entire fort wall we moved down from the same stairs from which we had come up and moved toward the center of the Fort. Arnala Fort has a fantastic combination of 2 different cultures with a Shrine and a Temple in the Fort complex. we first decided to explore the Shrine of Hazratshah Alishah Baba,

Shrine of Hazratshah Alishah Baba,

 Its  a cool green coloured stucture and next to that there is a grave. Next to shrine there is a nice resting place below the tree which offers cool pleasure ,after spending some peaceful moments here we started to walk towards the Shiva Temple nearby.

On the way as we were walking we noticed this Banyan tree where we couldn't help taking some swings as they say Dil toh bacha hai ji !! 

Swinging times ..Dil tho bacha hai ji

One very hilarious incident happened here , my niece got a call from her mother and she asked my niece how is the fort and she very innocently replied " Mom yeah Khandar jaisa hai " I was aghast to hear the word Khandar I said ' Beta tune toh Dil hi thod diya,I find solace in these kind of places and tune toh ishe Khanhar bol diya." 

Ruins or Past National Glory

As they say the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, same goes here,because honestly speaking it actually is ruins but we Fort lovers see it differently because we connect and try to live the history that has happened here.On her part she had a valid point because being from north she has seen Red Fort, Hawa Mahal and few other forts So I must have smashed her fortwala dream. She kept apologizing profusely to me and I kept pulling her leg for this faux pas.

After finishing our swinging session at the Banyan tree we moved to the Shiva Temple.

Shiva Temple with the octagonal well opposite it. 

The Shiva Temple on the fort is just next to the unique octagonal well. The temple offers such peace and serenity that one would simply like to sit there and meditate,

Perfect place to meditate 

 Despite the harsh sun-rays the breeze was quite cool within the temple. the sight of fort wall looked quite interesting from the temple so I took few pictures.

View from the Temple

Just outside this Shiva temple there is this unique Octagonal water well which has steps leading down the well and on the periphery of the well wall there was this Ganapati Idol. after offering our prayers to Ganpatiji and Shivji we started to move out of the Fort 

Unique Octagonal Water well

Steps leading to the well

Ganpati Idol on the periphery wall of octagonal well 

This time we decided to use the rear exit to go out of the Fort, Its a  a small door through which one or two person can go out at a time. The reason we exited out of the rear door was that when we were on the top wall of the fort I saw this stand alone Stone bastion behind the fort at some distance which I wanted to explore.

Small rear exit door of the Fort

Moving out of this door we started walking through the fields and the local fishermen house.Keeping the Bastion in our sight we moved towards it,our little walk along the coast brought us near the Stone Tower,

Walk along the coast brought us near this Stone watch Tower

We could see the Stone watch tower almost at the corner of the island with few abandoned boats scattered near it.

Stone watch tower with scattered abandoned boat around it

 While exploring this Stone Bastions /watch tower I couldn't find any entrance to it so I encircled the whole watchtower and ultimately my persistence paid off when I noticed a small passage which allows the entry into this watch tower,

Small entry passage to the Stone Tower

 The problem was that it was blocked due to growth of vegetation and the passing local fishermen who saw me peeking through the narrow passage, warned me not to try any stunt of entering through this narrow passage as there could be snakes so I dropped my frivolous idea and moved on for the return journey back to the ferry wharf or jetty.Walking along the island coast we reached the point where in the morning the boat had dropped us, Now standing in the middle of nowhere its little difficult to know whether you are at the right place.

Is it a deserted Island

 Not a soul was in sight and only the small boats lying around. we were worried as to when the boat will come, just then I noticed a woman sitting under a shadow of an old boat. I asked her when the boat will come she said as the boat guy is gone for lunch so the next boat will be at 3 pm. The time on our watch was 2.30 and sitting on the hot burning sand under equally hot sun was not on our agenda so we decided to go and check out the temple which was just at a distance from where we were standing.

Mata Kalika and  Shitla Mata  Temple

The freshly orange painted temple looked too tempting to be missed so we walked through houses and reached the temple complex within 5 minutes. This was as we came to know Mata Kalka and Shitla mata mandir,We had our darshan and in the court yard of the temple we had our packed lunch of, Parathas,Theplas Puran polis and biscuits

Kalika and Shitla Mata Mandir with it's large courtyard where we had our lunch

 and just before 3 pm we were again standing at the Jetty when we saw the arriving boat, It was the same adventure all over again of getting we,,climbing the rocking boat for our return journey. After crossing the sea and reaching the Arnala side we walked back to the fish market we saw a ST bus going to Kolhapur, On enquiring as to whether the bus will go to Virar Bus stand, we got positive response so we all quickly hopped into the bus and in 25 minutes reached the Virar ST stand and from there back to Virar station and finally home.

Points to Remember:
1. Carry your own water and food as the fort is on island so you may not get the stuff.
2. Once you reach the island please do enquire when the last boat will leave.
3.While alighting the boat ensure all your belongings  like camera,mobile etc are in your bag because the possibility of their getting wet is very high.
4.Bus/autos are easily available to go till Arnala Naka.
5.If coming by car , remember that the Arnala Naka is a very crowed place so parking could be a big headache in that case you may have to park your car near Arnala Beach.
      

Our Team