‘Jara Hatke’ - Korlai Fort

As summer offers very limited options for outing, I was looking for any offbeat destination this time. Suddenly I recollected one wonderful place which was showcased in ‘Discover Maharashtra’ serial by famous marathi actor Milind Gunaji. Recently I bought new CANON SX20IS camera and was excited to capture lovely seashores with it. So we finally decided to head towards Korlai fort on Saturday early morning. This fort is situated near Revdanda Village which is 21 kms from Alibag. One can also visit nearby places like Murud, Janjira, Kashid beach which are on the same way.
For Korlai we need to reach Alibag first. As the route goes through Pune-Mumbai express highway, travelling time is reduced considerably. At 10am we reached Nagaon beach which is 7 kms from Alibag and fortunately we got a beautiful cottage very close to beach. After enjoying delicious Konkani food in lunch, we took rest for sometime. At around 4pm we started for Korlai fort which is on the way to Murud. It did not take us long to reach Korlai and we were directed by the locals towards the correct path to the fort and the lighthouse. After seeing the superb location we really feel it ‘Jara Hatke’ !

The path towards the fort and lighthouse is a bit narrow and only one car can pass at a time. This way is really awesome. The sea on one side and a hill on another side topped by the Fort make for a pretty heady combination. There is no boundary wall on this stretch so one has to be expert in driving. After reaching the lighthouse, we were given a tour of the place by the guide there. He told us about the various characteristics of the lighthouse and what makes it different from others. Was quite a short but extremely insightful tour. We can imagine why the Portuguese must have selected this location. The tour was succeeded by a visit to the fort. The fort is situated in a good location and canons, rusted at that, dating back to the 16th century are still there. Fort is surrounded by sides by sea. This fort is not a big one. It takes hardly 30mts to reach the top. The view from there is spectacular. I enjoyed capturing beautiful images of seashore with new cam. Before heading for Pune, we spent sometime at lovely beach and started our return journey with memories of Korlai....

How to reach : By Pune-Mumbai expressway, reach Alibag which is 145 kms from Pune. From there proceed further for Revdanda village, which is 21 kms from Alibag. Just after that Korlai village and Korlai fort are situated.

Best time to visit : November to February.