DUDHSAGAR FALLS- A trip must in Monsoon

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land”- Gilbert K. Chesterton 

Yes, There might be Niagara falls in Canada, Angels falls in Venezuela and number of such water falls throughout other parts of the world, which one would like to witness part of nature’s spectacle, but the real wonder of tasting one such spectacle here in our country and to feel like out of the native land can only be experienced if you find traveling for pleasure a necessity rather than a hobby. 

This blog will give you a slight glimpse of the hike which I had pursued on 28^th of July 2012 to the magnificent “Dudhsagar Waterfalls” in Goa. By the way don’t be misled by the word ‘slight glimpse’, because, no matter in whatever the way I explain my personal experience here, it won’t suffice until you pack a bag and feel the oneness in pristine western Ghats of Karnataka & Goa.

It wasn’t a random choice that I made to travel to Dudhsagar, it wasn’t just a weekend getaway, it wasn’t a trip for soothing mental stress, rather, it was for the pure love for travel, adventure, feel the heavy rains of western Ghats, thirst for hiking on long stretches of rail roads surrounded by fog covered dense forests and streams, picturesque landscape. In one word, nature lover’s admiration for the nature. 

The most memorable journey to Dudhsagar started from here in Pune on 27^th of July 2012. For this trip, the most preferred choice of travel mode is by train. There aren’t enough trains to reach Goa from Pune. The one which is most suitable for this trip is Goa express the starts from Delhi and ends in Goa (Goa express 12780). Goa Express reaches here in Pune at 4.20 PM. Even though Goa express is an everyday train, it would be wise to book tickets well in advance so that you would plan return journey accordingly in the crowded route from Goa. For the people who are interested in hiking to falls, it’s good if you reserve tickets till Castle Rock (CLR). Train reaches Castle rock at 3 AM following day. 

Including me, total 4 guys were in this well planned trip. We reached the Pune station on time, but the train arrived to the station at 5 PM. On the course of journey to till castle rock, you don’t find much food option. So, I was forced by myself to eat costly and inadequate IRCTC food. I would suggest you to pack enough energetic and healthy food that would last till you get return train. After the journey of total 10.5 hrs in train, as expected, train reached Castle rock station following morning on 28^th ,at 3 AM.

The whole Castle rock station was filled with hikers and tourists. There were about 50-80 nature enthusiasts on the only platform. For the time being, platform had become a launch pad or base camp for hikers and tourists. As it was dark, we 4 guys took another nap on the bench and floor until an twin engine WDG-4 honked right beside us under a shed-like structure in platform, torturing our ears and made us to jump out of sleep. Its one of the most painful way of waking up one from sleep !!!. .

There aren’t enough bathroom facilities in that station, so you have to look out for other options. Clean drinking water is scarce, but you will get enough water to freshen up in the station. 

Alright!!! From this point onwards you have 2 options to choose. In other words, you have 2 different ways to enjoy scenic beauty of Western Ghats. First one, If you can’t hold on to your urge to see Dudhsagar falls without hiking, then an exciting way is  to get on to any goods train engine (UBL WDG-4) by requesting LOCO pilot, reach Dudhsagar station (DDS) and hike a kilometer from there or so to reach Dudhsagar falls. In this mode you have very little advantage like free ride on a powerful WDG-4 engine and quick sail to the waterfall but all these at a cost of losing precious time with the nature, tunnels, streams, rain, fog, bridges and  many more.

Second one is the most eye candy and complete feast for your adventurous taste buds and here is how. . .  As me and my friends left castle roc k station at 6.30 AM, we realized that we are delving in to the territory, a path full of lush green wherever your eye reaches, fog swaying in morning mist, cold breeze from every direction increasing our excitation much more. 

 Hiking along the tracks is not easy it seems. One cannot continuously walk besides the track for long time; you have to switch between sides of the tracks to in between tracks many times. .

Many curves and mist make visibility difficult at morning times. In the case if train comes from forward or from behind, you’ll hear engine sound or whistle from large distance (thanks to silence in air) which makes it easy for us to get alerted to move away from the tracks.  

On the way you’ll get to feel countless number of streams that are flowing beside the tracks. As far as I believe, these streams can be used for collecting drinking water and no need to carry more than 1 bottle. Anyone could easily estimate that there is at least 1 stream every 80- 100 meters. Some are easily accessible near the track and some visible from the track but not easily accessible. Don’t spend too much time on to these smaller streams as this could delay your plan to reach Dudhsagar falls sooner.

The tunnel exhibition started after an hour of hike along the track. These tunnels are dark and wet with length ranging from about 100 meters- 250 meters. 

We had managed to get 2 torches which aided us in passing through the tunnels. There is mention of that particular tunnel specification at the start of the tunnel. 

The question might arise, what to do if we hear train engine sound when we are inside the tunnel? Well, it depends … if you want to test your adrenaline glands functioning ability then, stay inside the tunnel, very close the tunnel wall, remove your bag, keep it on the ground and sit down till the train passes else get the hell out of the tunnel as soon as possible even before train reaches the tunnel. Fortunately I didn’t come across any train when inside all 13 tunnels.

Tunnel 2 is the only well decorated tunnel in whole of the Ghats. The very moment when we came out of the tunnel 2, I saw a tall water fall behind the woods, tempting me to explore it further. Indeed it was tall and surrounded by tall trees around, cold water and slippery stones.

 As the hike continued, we thought to have breakfast. It was nothing special but bread, jam and sauce. After the tunnel 3 , we came across some more small streams flowing from the vertical rocks at high speed. This passage for the tracks was very narrow.  On the right side of this, it was a natural mountain just resembling like a castle made out of rocks. So this is how the place got its name. 

Temporarily fog had disappeared for some time, so we were able to get snap of the rock.

Between tunnel 3 and 4 it started to rain heavily. No raincoat could protect us from getting drenched and even that’s what I wanted after all.  

 After crossing tunnel 4, we got to see the first human settlement, that’s caranzol railway station (distance). It was a heavy cover of fog at the railway station and pouring rain. Within no time, fog cleared and so does the rain when we still were there in railway station. 

Proceeding further it was something interesting, a big bridge over a big stream just in front of the tunnel 5. This amazing spot captivated some of our time there in taking photos and see a passenger train pass by with spell bounded passengers inside. Due to tight curve, tunnel 5 is the darkest among all the tunnels we had came across.

Exit of tunnel 6 is another amazing spot for capturing photos. This tunnel is carved out of a big single rocky mountain leading to a long metal bridge of dangerous height.

 It is one such bridge where you should spend less time on. In the case if train comes, it’s risky to jump from track to walk able path on the bridge. When we about to enter next tunnel, we heard train whistle and realized that a train is approaching us but we were not sure from which direction train was coming. 2 of my friends we already in tunnel and they were expecting the train from back, but they were shocked to see PentaWDG4 led freight train from the front within few meters and making them to flee towards exit of the tunnel 7.

Tunnel 7 is again a small rocky tunnel. Remaining tunnels till number 10 are easy to cross and they are not much distant apart. Dudhsagar station is just after tunnel 10.  The distance between caranzol and Dudhsagar is about 7 Kms. The moment I saw the station board, i was much relieved and excited because from that point we were just 1 km away from the roaring milky falls.

Tunnel 11 comes in between station and falls,  its just about 100 mtrs away from dudhsagar station. As the distance between us and falls got narrower, our excitement grew exponentially.

The Epicenter: The very first thing we noticed when coming out of tunnel 11 is the roaring sound of  water falls on the backdrop of  a huge rocky mountain. A furlong from there, our pace picked up until we stood exactly opposite to 300 mtrs tall, white, huge, roaring dudhsagar throwing enormous blanket of mist all over the railway bridge and into air.

Words alone won’t get the real feeling of this. 

Around the falls there are many positions to get the view. The one closest to the falls is on left side of the bridge, downstairs. This is the position where one has to lift his head 90 degrees to see the origin of falls on the edge and feel a splash of mist all over.

We spent most of the time taking photos in different views and angles, spent some time near a small Canteen and started walking for the important view point which was 1 Km away from the Dudhsagar falls. 

On the way to this view point we came across tandem tunnels. Tunnel 12 and Tunnel 13 are just few meters apart having a gap between them where a small water stream falls and sunlight illuminates the spot. 

View point is place to be visited if you plan to dudhsagar. Bright dudhsagar surrounded by dark green and rocky mountain is truly picturesque. It’s the one of the point where I could clearly see the apex and nadir of the falls below the bridge. 

So, still there was one bonus view left out and we 4 guys were unaware of it that, we were lucky on that day.  A passenger train (Amravati Express) passed over the bridge as if it was bisecting the water falls like a slowly piercing arrow from left to right.

Satisfied with visual treat, we started having lunch there itself with food that we had bought. Spent about 1 hour or so in view point and started walking back to dudhsagar station, again passing through the falls.

Prior to reaching the station, we 4 guys had planned to get a free engine ride from dudhsagar station to castle rock station. Engine side ride around the Ghats and waterfalls is one of the unique experience anyone aspires to have. As we reached dudhsagar station, there was a penta engine WDG-4 freight train waiting for green signal to leave for castle rock. But to the disappointment, none of the last 3 engines loco pilots didn’t allow to board on to engine, giving some silly reasons. We thought that our trip would end in a sad note and sat beside side track giving a jealous look at engines.

Within few minutes another double engine WDG-4 came to dudhsagar station which was on its way to Kulem station (QLM). Our zeal to travel on engine and never give up attitude made us to ask this Loco pilot for a ride. Surprisingly he agreed for us to get on to engine and there was a Giga watt smile on all of our faces and within no time we were on 2 stroke, V16, 11.5 Crore Rs, 186160 CC, AWD (All wheel drive), 21 mtrs long, Turbo-supercharged massive WDG-4 Diesel Engine. Our childhood dream of getting on to engine was at last fulfilled!!!!

Ear drum tearing whistle of the train indicated start of very special journey towards kullem about 12 kms from dudhsagar station. It was a slow and enjoyable journey with limited movement on the engine. The train passed through green leveled forest and dropped us till kulem station.

The main risk of traveling on train engine is not fear of  fall down, but the deafening sound of the horn that makes your ear drum to pain to its extreme.

After getting down at kulem at 4 PM, we thanked the WDG-4 loco pilot for his courtesy, changed our wet dresses on the station platform open view and waited for the Goa Express that was supposed to arrive from Goa at 4.30 PM to Kullem station.

Following day we returned to Pune at 3 AM, ending one of the most pleasurable trip I ever made as of now.

Hike to Dudhsagar is one such trip which compels me to take every year in monsoon.

Total distance hiked: 16 Km

Things to carry:

1.      Rain coat and water proof pant or shorts.

2.      Torch

3.      Food

4.      Water proof socks and shoes

5.      Waste newspapers

6.      Water

7.      First aid kit

8.      Water proof Cover for camera

9.      Extra pair of clothes and towels.