Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Island and Caves are accessible by a pleasant 1hr ferry ride from the Gateway of India, first boat at 0830hrs. Once at the island, a cute faux steam toy train awaits to take you 400m to the entry point. Or you can walk but the train ride is rather cute. An ancient old stone staircase lined on either side by souvenir vendors, leads to the caves site. The main cave houses the famous and exquisite Mahesha murthy or Trimurthi sculpture. If you reach early, you will have the main hall reasonably empty, take a later boat and noisy crowds spoil the effect. The rest of the caves are either unfinished or totally defaced. It is worth walking up Cannon Hill to see the Upper Cannon and Lower Cannon and the views from these points. Another walk can be to the pretty check dam, and to Diyacha Dongar which also has a couple of ruined Buddhist sites. Elephanta is a good bird watching site, you can also walk around the island for this purpose. Plenty of food and drink available so no need to pack any, but do watch out for nuisance monkeys! Night stay not permitted but MTDC has rooms for day use.