Chopara Fort – Visit for the scintillating view

By Vibha Ravi

If Bollywood fame is anything to go by, Chapora Fort has had its time in the sun with the blockbuster movie ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. Three best friends vacationing in Goa are soaking in a beautiful view of the sea from the fort when one of them remarks that life is unpredictable and it might take them in different directions.

When you visit, the fort’s rundown condition might prompt this kind of introspection on the impermanence of things. The next moment though a view of dazzling blue waters of Chapora River and the Arabian Sea meeting the blue of the sky on the horizon will make your spirit soar. Coconut groves on Vagator and Morjim beaches, rocky outcrops contrasting with the golden, dry grass and lush green patches of shrubbery on the gentle slopes of a hill on which the fort is perched, all add their own colours to the landscape.

Most people visit Chapora Fort in the evening in a bid to capture a spectacular orange-tinged sunset, but the mornings are beautiful too. It’s a short hike up a hill and when you pass an archway of rocks, a flat, seemingly never ending vista spreads out before you with the monotone of dry grass broken by green blobs of shrubbery.

Standing on a broad wall of red laterite rocks, its end out of sight, you can imagine the effort it must have taken to build the fort. After Adil Shah built it, the fort passed through several hands including Marathas and the Portuguese who rebuilt the fort in 1717 to include two hidden tunnels reaching the river and Vagator beach as a route for replenishing supplies and escape in times of a battle. One would love to go down these tunnels, but they’re both shut and inaccessible to the public now.

On the Vagator beach, holiday crowds frolic in the sand and on water scooters, snack vendors walk about hawking their food, cows munch on leftovers, and on a cliff above, are stalls where tourists buy ‘I love Goa’ T-shirts, fridge magnets, and knick-knacks to take back home as gifts for friends and relatives.

The hip Anjuna beach, known for its trance parties during tourist season, also adjoins the fort. Its Wednesday flea market attracts tourists from all over Goa with everything from jewelry to clothes and supposedly, even hashish, a cannabis family drug for sale. An early proponent of the hippie scene, Anjuna is where you’ll find the bikini crowds, sarongs wrapped around them.

Morjim Beach to the right of the fort is a nesting site for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle and its surrounds are referred to as ‘Little Russia’ on account of a large population of Russians staying there.

So whenever you go to Goa, don’t forget to hit the hillside leading up to Chapora Fort. Be careful, though, the black rock face is slippery at places. Once at the top, just enjoy a scintillating view of the kind that will keep drawing you back.