Original source: Pranjal
The trek plan was like this:
8th August evening : Board the Chennai-Vasco express from Yeshwantput.
9th August morning : Alight at Castle-Rock station, the last railway station on Karnataka side towards Goa, on the Hubli-Madgaon track.
9th August evening : Try not to do anything stupid and reach Dudhsagar falls, camp nearby. Try to get into the falls.
10th August morning : Start towards Molem. Try to reach by evening to board the Vasco-Bangalore express.
Trivia:
The Dudhsagar Falls are amongst the top 100 highest waterfalls in world. Situated on the border of Goa and Karnataka, the Dudhsagar Waterfalls takes a steep plunge 200(or more) feet down in the wooded mountains of the western Ghats. Believed to be amongst the highest falls in the country, these magnificent falls are located in a blissful tropical jungle with crisscrossing streams.
8th August:
Busy day, running after the kids from 4th standard of Boganahalli primary school, who came to Cisco campus for their annual sports day. Myself and Chinmoy were the guardians of 4th standard. Organized the games and then at the end had a tug-of-war with those kids, hopelessly outnumbered by 20-20( twenty young men on the right side of twenty). Events over by 1400 hours.
1600 hours: Office work done. Set out for home.
1900 hours: Set out for Yeshwantpur railway station, my first visit to that place.
2030 hours: Tried to find a eating joint. Could not. Thought of eating my dinner from railway pantry.
2045 hours: Watching passers-by. A major railway-station is the best way to capture a glimpse of India. Pesky tourists, entire family seeing off their lone child, eunuchs, beggars, pick-pocketers, touts etc. are a few species of the homospaien family to be found here.
2100 hours: Saw 3 girls approaching with wildcraft bags. But as is the case, the hottest girls are always in the other school/college/team or as in this case, trip!
2115 hours: Finally saw a man standing along side a bundle of bags. Thats Karthik. Along with him was Shiva. Got introduced to Madhu K, who told that the Madhu I was frequently interacting with was on his way.
2140 hours: Rest of the gang came in.
2145 hours: Train started from YPR.
2200 hours: Got bored. Listened to music and fell asleep.
9th August morning:
Woke up at 5 AM. It was drizzling and we were about to reach Hubli. Slowly, the other members came and sat in the compartment and had a healthy conversation going. I sat by the window.
It was drizzling outside. The overflowing lakes, the mind breeze and the fresh green everywhere reminded me of my travels in NE-India, notably my birth-place, Shillong & Cherrapunjee.
Had some Bhaji @ Londa(which is a major junction). We reached Castle rock at around
10.30 AM. It was drizzling outside. We distributed the sleepings bags, food-items and tents among ourselves and were set to start out trek by 11 AM.
About half-an-hour into the trek, Karthik , like a true team-leader listed out the do's and dont's of the trek. After a few group photos we set out on our way again.
I was at the front, as I was trying to balance my time between clicking and trekking.
In between we came across a few tunnels too.
Our break-fast stop came at Caranzol. The place has an abandoned railway gangmen's quarter and a dilapidated tea-stall. We had bread and jam here, along with some bhujias. This was a break of around half-an-hour. In between, we had a diesel engine passing by.
We started around 12.30 PM again. This trek section is a very scenic one, especially during the monsoons, where the monsoon works like a ghunghat over a newly-wed bride(in this case the green forest cover).
A few sample photos bear this testimony.
The trek was at a good pace. A few people were scared at the prospect of coming across a train while crossing a tunnel. We faced exactly that situation, but as the tunnels had enough side-space, there was nothing to worry. The only worry was regarding the bridges, they did not look too broad. One might have to scurry to the other side, if he or she hears the horn of the train. We missed a train by a whisker. The bridge was right after the tunnel.
Came across quite a few natural water springs(some like to call these waterfalls :-))
Our journey was interspersed with bouts of rain every now and then.
In between, we had the minor excitement of crossing over to Goa.
1600 hours:
People were hungry. So, we had a late lunch about a mile from Dudhsagar station. The falls is a further mile from this station. The lunch comprised of Avalakki. I was tasting it for the first time and it was damn good.
We came across a railway gang-man, who gave valuable information on the arrival and departure of the trains. He also predicted about the weather after one glimpse at the sky(reminded me of the film 'Swades'). His words were a huge morale-booster to the folks who were tired of walking on the tracks.
After about half-an-hour, we started on our way. The rain intensified here. By the time, we reached Dudhsagar station, the rains were pouring. Its a small station for goods trains. Passenger trains don't stop here. We left our baggage and went towards the falls. We have to cross a small tunnel. The falls were in full glory. I thought about having a few good snaps, the next day, unaware of events that were about to unfold in the next 12 hours.
We went back to collect our baggage and by the time we set up our camps on one of the nearby elevated posts, it was already quite dark. The rains were quite heavy now. We had bread-jam as dinner and slept at around 9 PM. Myself, Prasanna, Jaggu and Madhu K were in one of the tents.
I woke up around 11.30PM to find that water was seeping into the tent. Even Prasanna woke up, and we both were idly trying to figure out whether the rains were being forced by the winds to blow in a obtuse angle. After a few minutes, it struck us that the outer cover had flown away. Even Jaggu woke up in the melee. But nothing could put an end to Madhu K's slumber.We finally managed to woke up Karthik and got out of our tents to fix the issue. Boy, was it cold.
The rains were just too heavy and along with the winds, it was like water bullets being shot at you. We went again to our respective tents. I tossed and turned, but could not get any sleep.
I was missing the music :-(
Early morning around 5 AM, the rain had subsided , but the falls was just amazing. Droplets from the falls had overflown and now covered the entire bridge. Additionally, we came to know that landslides had blocked the track and the previous day's Vasco-Bangalore express was still stuck on the other side of the slide. We had special Black Tea(or was it coffee) prepared by Shilpa & Rashmi. Kudos to them!
After exploring our options, we decided to call off the trek to Molem and board the Vasco express. A particular railway officer helped us in getting accomodated on this train. Thanks , Sir!
Meanwhile a few of us explored the extent of the land slides and saw the workers clearing up the tracks.
Finally, around 11 AM, we boarded the train. Initially we planned to get down at Castle Rock. But since the TT stayed away, we managed to get a ride straight back to Bangalore.
The return train journey was pretty normal. Half the coach was empty. Peter & myself had an entire compartment to us. The others were chatting with a goan family in the nearby compartment. In between, Karthik had a few good real-life stories to tell about Black-Bucks, Elephants, Ranne-Bennur and Great Indian Bastard.
After exchanging contact numbers and pleasantries, we bade adieu as the train arrived at YPR around 2330 hours.
Participants:
Shilpa
Rashmi
Swetha
Madhu BR
Madhu K
Madhu Gopal
Rajesh
Prabhu
Saravanan
Prasanna
Peter
Jaggu
Karthik
Shiva
Myself
How to get there:
1. Trek from Castle Rock
2. Take a goods train to Dudhsagar
3. Goto Margaon. Board a goods train from there.
4. Hire a jeep from Margaon.
Accomodation Options:
Are you kidding?
