It was more than an year's wait for this trek. I had planned it last year in 2011, contacted a lot of people, colleagues, friends, acquaintances, all but destiny had its plans to ensure it would not happen that year long.
I was disappointed, frustrated and was angry at people, for disowning the plan, at destiny that how much ever I planned it had its ways and last myself for giving in ultimately. I was not the only one let down, there was a shoulder for support from Ravi-sir aka RC. But then this was all soon to vanish and the enduring wait culminated at the Nirvana, the blissful view of the Dudhsagar falls.
With the monsoons hitting Kerala by June 1st week, RC and I had already determined this is the year of the Dudhsagar season, and yes it was karo ya maro; koi aaye naa aaye, hum duno hi kaafi hain.
We had the last years itinerary, planing etc, we brought it out all to the table, contacted very few guys and did not even worry about anyone else's participation. Finally it would be 4 guys for the podium finish; must mention that Sankar was the first to be affirmative that he was in, later RaviKumar joined.
We prepared the itinerary, did not get the train tickets, in the end decided that we will take the bus. We then chalked out the other details, macro and the minute ones and were raring to go on 3rd August. Though I must mention that very few websites mentioned about the travel from Hyderabad to CastleRock (starting point for the trek), most of the websites referred to the train travel or the travel from Panaji to Kulem.
So here is the clarification; Dudhsagar can be trekked from both Kulem (Goa side) and from CastleRock (Karnataka side). These are railway stations respectively and are not easily approachable by buses (public, private and local), hence most of information point to train travel. From CastleRock side, the best option is to get down at Anmodi (On Belgaum-Ponda-Panjim highway) and take cabs/taxi or walk it to CastleRock railway station, the distance approximately being 9 kms.
So dilating back, we took a AC sleeper coach from Hyderabad to Goa, which was scheduled to leave at 5:45pm. Sankar, RC and I decided to hire a rickshaw to the pickup point, and on the way were continuously bombarded with phone calls from the bus guy that the bus would depart. Here the accolades for causing the delay caused must go to the reluctant rickshaw driver, who declined all my suggestions on taking a shortcut, in the end broke a dozen traffic rules before he landed us at the boarding point. Somehow we managed to board before the scheduled departure but without RaviKumar aka RK. I was a touch feeling pulled down with the course of evemts, but soon RK joined us at the next boarding point, in what was soon to be a Gospel scripted by nature.
We had the banal chitchat going along, with a few taunts at each other, Sankar bearing the most of it. At the dinner pitstop at Jadcherla, we had a very light food to close it for the night. The next day began with the scenic Ghat sections with chicanes and hairpin bends and we decided to alight at Ponda rather than at Panji. We got ourselves freshened up at Ponda, quickly had a snack and started to look out for a conveyance to CastleRock. It was here we got to know that there would no buses to CastleRock/Kulem. We then got goaded by TaxiDriver, it was left to me to do the coaxing, much of the coercion seemed to give way till the mellifluous Marathi language stepped in and saved the time. The taxi driver then mentioned that we should have alighted at Anmodi, which would have saved us 2 hours of the extra travel, since we would be tracing the same route in the other direction. The distance from Ponda to CastleRock is around 70 kms.
The taxi driver dropped us at CastleRock and it was 10:30 when we reached the station. We decided to enquire about GuestHouses or Railway Waiting rooms since we had decided to return to CastleRock and stop for the night. It took more than a while to get details for the lodging, but soon found out the Inspection Bungalow (IB) hardly a kilometre from the station. The necessary items such as biscuits, dates, first-aid kit etc were stuffed in a common bag which was to be only backpack to be carried all along the trail. We soon got ourselves going and began on the long flipflop to Dudhsagar.
The trail was all along the railway track from CastleRock station. The cameras were out and we were mesmerized by the caricature of nature. Every single stroke of nature seemed as its magnum-opus which it kept dishing out every time we glanced on it, or perhaps it had decided to ameliorate my sunken heart and mollify my grounded senses for the perilous patient wait for the trek. Every single step in the direction towards our destination was like a process which kept us effervescent with enthusiasm.
We came across tunnels, the first one being around a 100ms, the second one being around 500m, the torch had to make its way out if we had to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. After a few metres, we made way for a goods train to make its pass, after which we resumed our march. We came across two more tunnels after which we reached Caranzol station. We were greeted by the hoot passenger train Howrah-Vasco Express from CastleRock. We had a pitstop to give our knees a break, replenished ourselves with glucose biscuits and water, before tugging along.
The next few kilometres were all along the tracks with the streams and the bridges on these keeping us motivated. We had our shutters clicking, but the ephemeral rains would force the cameras back into the kangaroos pouch. We kept chugging along,walking at a brisk but consistent speed with no big stops till we reached the Scarpment Viaduct, where I decided to change into full trousers, and the rest of team got busy in taking the panoramic view of the landscape around.
We kept our "chal chal re naujavan", negotiated a few more tunnels 5 or 6 and were soon greeted by a goods train at rest waiting for its share of the green. We were exhausted a bit due to continuous non stop walk. RC suggested that we have the dates, which will immediately rejuvenate us. A few of the railway men affirmed our belied belief that Dudhsagar was around a few turns. Soon our eyes laid on the RailwayStation with its proud name Dudhsagar. The last tunnel negotiation and half a kilometre trail gave way for the decibel thrashing water splurge. A few more metres and the breath taking, jaw dropping and the mouth opening magnum-opus nature's caricature aka Dudhsagar right in front of our eyes. The eyelids would not close, the heartbeats were not felt, goose bumps did not distract us, the eyes were in a trance fixed on the grand gushing water torrent.
My eyes were moist and a look at RC sir confirmed the sentiment, a year long wait had ended and how, it was divine and the divinity seemed in an ethereal way to reach out to us to give the words, "jab sach, ichha aur sahas ho man me, anth mein jeeth usi ki rahe".
We pounced on every single take the camera could capture, videos and snaps alike, waited for a few more divine moments to feel ourselves with Dudhsagar; satiated to our fill, started the way back to Dudhsagar Station. Away from the falls, the first human sense of hunger interrupted us to have our lunch which was Uppittu and Kande-Wade. After a brief inquiry at the station, found that there was an imminent train towards CastleRock, which we all boarded in no time. We were ticketless and found wanted by the TC, who gifted us generously with a receipt till CastleRock, when we decided to calm ourselves with tomato-soup. We kept our eyes out of the window for the track and trail, recalled our nostalgic moments just hours ago and soon we were at CasleRock by 6pm. The train took just 40 minutes against our 260 minutes. A word of mention, there is no ticket counter at Dudhsagar station, one needs to buy these at CastleRock itself for the return.
We inquired about trains for the next day and trudged to IB. We got oursleves freshened up, had coffee and waited for the dinner to be served. The dinner was a simple one with chappati, bhaaji, dal and rice, nevertheless we gorged on the food and tucked ourselves in blankets. The early morning greeted us with the train hoots and the splendid view of the mist, mountains and greenery alike. After a few minutes of babbling, we got ourselves going, got freshened up, had our breakfast, waived farewell to the bungalow manager and set out to the station to catch the Pune-Ernakulam Express due to arrive at 10. The train was late and we had no problem in settling down. This time we had our tickets, and as it is with Murphy's law no TC's. We patiently waited for a final pupil-fixation at the waterfalls till it it was out of our sights. After a couple of hours we alighted at Madgaon, and post a long deliberation, booked a prepaid taxi to Panaji, since we had to board our return journey via bus.
At Panjim, post a 45 minute drive, we had our lunch at Kamat's where the waiters would get appraisals based on amount of food saved during serving. We had our fill and proceeded to purchase dry-fruits which are known to be inexpensive at Goa. We took a few formality snaps for evidence at Panjim and proceeded to the bus-stand to board our bus. We got to our rake, quickly settled down and in not much time, commenced our return journey. We enjoyed the bends, the mist , the mountains every spec that our eyes could itself upon, got back to the mundane banality, and to a quick power nap session. In a few hours we were at Belgaum, for dinner, after which we all cozily pushed into blankets for a sleepy jaunt into our dreams. The next day dawned itself with the noisy conductor waking us all at Jadcherla for leak-break, which we all relieved ourselves after which we resumed our soporific state. In a couple of hours we were at Hyderabad with heavy bodies but a light but a satisfied heart of a purpose achieved.
All in all, a patient enduring penance had ended, which bore the fruits of satisfaction and calm in our minds. The gushing torrent of Dudhsagar had flushed out the disappointment and resentment in its current and left behind placidity and tranquility. This was indeed a penance that had unfolded.
