The final day of India 2025! Another boat trip, this time to Elephanta Island and more caves. As usual I was up early and headed for the Gateway of India. As is also usual, there was no definitive information about the first ferry to Elephant. I got to the ticket office about 8:15 and the man there sold me a ticket and told me the first ferry left at 9 but could be earlier if there were enough people and indeed we set off at 8:30 for the hour trip. On the island there was a long pier and most people were waiting for the toy train which takes people to the entrance. I fancied a walk and so was easily the first person to get a ticket and ascend rather a lot of steps to the actual cave. In fact I was there even before the stallholders.

I have to say the cave itself was not a patch on those at Ellora or Ajanta but I suppose its closeness to Mumbai made it a World Heritage Site and it was still quite impressive.

There was one main cave with the carvings above and then a smaller cave just off it:

After seeing the cave I stopped outside to write my diary and have some fruit. I didn’t see one of the “wild animals” a monkey, appear from no where and grab my bananas. As an old India hand, I should have known better!

I then descended the stairs again and most of the stall holders were now open selling the usual tat which I managed to avoid. I had to stop at one place for a quick snack though, an onion uttapam. Very nice it was too.

Back on the pier, I still preferred to walk rather than take the train.

More photos of Elephanta here

And here is a map of the India 2025 journey: