THE NOMADS HIT DUDHSAGAR

After stalling this blog for quite a long time, I finally find the patience and courage to write this blog, not because I din’t want to write it but because thinking about how huge this blog is going to be, makes me lazy...

So after a year and a half of cribbing and desperation I finally made it to Dudhsagar. Yayyyyyyyyyy!

Booking Details:

To Dudhsagar:

Option 1: From Bangalore to Castle rock (direct train)-> MAS VASCO EXP (Train no: 17311) at 8.10pm. Most of time tickets in this train is not available. So go for option 2. 

Option 2:

a. Bangalore to Hubli -> GARIB NAWAZ EXPRESS (Train no: 16532) at 5.00pm (also known as Ajmer Express) Make reservations.

b.  b. Hubli to Castle Rock ->MAS VASCO EXP (Train no: 17311) at 6.45. Buy General Tickets from Hubli to Castle Rock. Note that this train arrives 5 min after the GARIB NAWAZ  EX (GNE) arrives, and GNE will come on platform no 5 or 6. You have to go back to platform 1, buy general tickets and board the general compartment of MAS VASCO EXP (MVE). Usually MVE halts at platform 1 so boarding becomes easy after buying tickets. Time is of essence here, so be quick. Anyways MVE stays for 10 min at Hubli. One will have enough of time to go get the general tickets and board this train.

To Bangalore:

Option 1: VSG SBC LINK EXP (Train no: 02779)-> From Kulem to Bangalore (direct train). This train has hardly a handful of seats available. Better to go for option 2.

Option 2:

a a. Kulem/Castle Rock to Londa -> 2 trains available.

1.       1. VSG SBC LINK EXP (Train no: 02779) -> From Kulem to Londa at 4.35pm.

2.       2.GOA EXPRESS (Train no: 12779) -> From Kulem to Londa at 4.35pm.

Note: Even though the irctc site shows 2 trains, they are one combined train that runs till Londa, and at Londa jn this trains are separated. GOA EXPRESS goes via Belgaum route to Nizamuddin and VSG SBC LINK EXP waits at Londa jn to be merged with RANI CHENNAMA EX.

b.b.  Londa to Bangalore -> RANI CHENNAMA EX (Train no: 16590) at 7.50pm.

Back to my journey, since my plan was decided just a month back, I wasn’t able to get tickets on the direct train. After several R&D I finally found this apt way of traveling to Dudhsagar. We left Bangalore at 5 from GNE. Journey was wonderful. After several photos shoots and talking and intros and a lot of hoolaaahhsss we settled down with a bag of chips and UNO cards. We were acting typically like hooligans making enormous noise that sometimes the nearby passengers were irritated, but we couldn’t care more. It was our weekend getaway for some fun time and we did all we could. We played till 9 and then stopped for a while to eat our dinner. Meanwhile kapil had places this weird condition of getting down at each station and doing something crazy. Even though we dint agree to get down on all stations, we did get down at the first one, clicked few pics and then went back to our seats.

We had ordered for meals from the railway canteen and against all odds the food did taste good. It cost us 100 bucks per meal. LOOT.. But atleast the food was good. Rice dal chapatti’s curry onions and pickle. Stomach filling. We played UNO for a while again and by 11, all of us, and by all I mean “ME” retired to sleep.  Inspite the constant disturbance from Kapil I managed to sleep by 11.30. I dint mind staying up late chit chatting with all, but I knew what was in store the next day; a gruesome 14 km walk from castle rock with lots and lots of luggage. It was going to be a bumpy day and I had to take as much rest I could. Moreover I am a morning person so if I stay up late I will get more crankier. So I slept, and then got up around 4 the next day...I kept rolling on my seat till the clock ticks 5. Once we crossed the last stop before reaching Hubli I woke everyone happily. We took turns finishing the morning chores, meanwhile all of us got our phone charged. Around 6, we were all geared up for another adventure. Initial plan was to take the same GNE train till Londa and from there switching to MVE train.

But there were 2 problems:

1.  We couldn't get hold off general tickets from Hubli to Castle Rock, as the train was way too far from the ticket counter. So it was nearly impossible to run from platform 5 to ticket counter and back to the train.

2. We were still in our reserved compartments that we booked till Hubli and this compartment was booked by other folks from Hubli to Ajmer. So we had to either get down and walk till general compartment or catch the MVE train.

My plans dint work out as expected, which meant improvising, and we did coz I am always prepared for the worst. And that how Plan B came in. Ani and Ramesh took little luggage and ran to get general tickets. And we 4 took the rest of the luggage and ran to platform 1. We had to find the General compartment and wait for Ani and Ramesh to arrive. Now we didn’t know where Platform 1 is, nor we had time to waste finding it. So we asked a nearby TT to guide us to Platform 1 and he being a sweet person, took us to platform 1. We ran towards the train, checked if the train was MVE, found the general compartment, placed all our luggage carefully and waited for Ani and Ramesh to arrive. They made it 5 min later and we all let out a SIGH! The train waited for another 15 min before leaving Hubli.

We had 2 and a half hours of journey ahead before making it to Castle Rock. It was breakfast time. We had packed 3 packets of bread and one packet of butter and jam each. We reached castle rock around 10 and after counting and recounting our bags we divided the luggage equally among the 6 and started our trek. The sun was hot that day so trekking became a little difficult. Walking along the railway line seems easy but it isn’t when you have kg’s of luggage to carry on your shoulders and the sun is being cruel. But we kept going. I cannot describe the amount of struggle we went through before finally making it to Dudhsagar.

Pulpy orange, Slice, Tang, Bhel, Chips, Energy Bars, these were our energy companions. We kept walking and walking, but our destination still looked very far away. We reached Caranzol railway station, rested for a while, and asked the distance that’s remaining to Dudhsagar. That’s when we realized we have covered just half the distance and we are yet to walk for 8-9 km’s. We manned up, boosted our will power and started walking again. We sang songs to entertain ourselves. Made fun of each other’s and somehow finally managed to reach Dudhsagar around 4 in the evening.

Dudhsagar falls are a km aways from the station and we had to reach the falls as we planned on staying there for the night.  Around 4.30 we reached the falls, placed all our luggage down and relaxed for a while we enjoyed the majestic falls. I thought reaching the falls will be the biggest challenge for us. But as fate intervened we had a new hurdle to cross.

This tenting place has a small canteen run by a localite from Kulem. We had gone to him to ask for his cooking vessels as we had forgotten ours. While we spoke to him, he mentioned about another group who planned on tenting at the same place. This was a huge group of 15-20 guys from either Goa or some part of Maharashtra who planned on boozing at this place entire night. Now my group had 3 girls and 3 guys which is quite a small count when compared to the other group and there were no other groups planning on staying back here. This got us worried. Among all of us Kapil was terrified, I could see the look on his face, the blood completely drained out his face, he was literally worried than any of us here. I mean I understand the risks involved if we stay here, but I was not as worried as others may be because I stopped myself from thinking the worst. But one thing I was sure was I cannot trust any person with alcohol content in his blood stream. There are a lot of folks who just don’t know how to contain there alcohol just to themselves.

So we started searching an alternative. The canteen guy asked us to either stay at the house near the falls which is few hundred feet away from this place or to stay in the church found near the station. This house had another group of guys staying, they also came from Bangalore but they are college kids so we cannot expect responsible actions from them. So we decided to walk all the way back to the church and tent there peacefully. This way we were near to the railway station in case we needed help.

Once we made it back to the church, we divided out task. We made 2 groups, each group with 2 members. One group will pitch the tent  and another will cook dinner. I was on the pitch tent side coz I like doing those stuffs moreover I can cook only in full-fledged kitchen. So Bhoo, Ani and Ramesh were cooking, me Pri and Kapil were pitching tent. We pitched our tent as per the video the tent guy send us. We were done in an hour and all set to eat.

But looks like firing up a stove with sticks coal and petrol is not that easy. They took an hour just to light it. After this it was a cake walk. We had purchased ready to eat curries and half cooked chapattis. While the trio cooked this I made cold coffee for all of us. And it was yummyyyyy! After half an hour our food was ready.  We had 3 different types of curry, lots and lots of chapattis, pickle and onions. All of us started eating like hungry tigers. We managed to eat everything. After dinner we played cards for a while and then went to sleep. Meanwhile I forgot to mention about this extra unexpected person we met on our trek. She met us coincidently at castle rock and kept following us always. Sometimes when we eat, we share small treats with her too. She loved nachos and chocolates. He even ate little bit of chapatti and curry. She stayed with us over night, guarded us from various creatures, a true guardian angel. She was a dog and I am not sure if we named her, so let’s call her Angel.

Tent Details:

We had taken two 2 person tent, which meant 3 in one tent. Sleeping 3 in one tent was a  little congested. But we managed to sleep anyways. Sometime when it gets too hot I would get up open the zip of the tent for a while and inhale the fresh cold air and after cooling down go back to sleep.

So I would recommend taking three 2- person tent if you want to be comfortable. But remember the luggage will increase.

We rented the tent from X Dog trekking. Following are the details:

Website: http://xdogtrekking.com/

Contact no: +917411472672

Name: Manjunath

They offer 2 packages:

4-person package: 4-person tent, 1 camping light, 1 backpack and 4 sleeping bags. Rate 530/day

2-person package: 2-person tent, 1 camping light, 1 backpack and 2 sleeping bags. Rate 350/day

Other rates are as below.

Finally I got up at 5. Ramesh was already awake. Seems like he dint sleep much. We made everyone else get up. The morning view is beautiful. Among the wilds under open air when the sun is just rising up, a beautiful scenery. Early morning at 5 walking up into the nature. Bliss! 

Funny part was Kapil going far away with a bottle of water in hand, which was really funny. Che I should have captured an image. Not that we weren’t into all this ;) After finishing our morning chores we retired to our tents. We folded our tents and sleeping bags back into the covers and went on to cook our breakfasts.

We had a 3 course bf and hot coffee. Chocos, Bread and Cup Noodles were our energy bars for the day. After satisfying our hunger,  we returned the canteen guy his vessels and  caught a train from Dudhsagar to Kulem. We wanted to get into the engine part of the train but damn that engine master, he denied us an awesome opportunity. Sadly we got into the compartment right after the train, which was luckily an empty compartment. We paced all our luggages inside and sat across the door enjoying the view.  We reached Kulem around 11.45 took tickets from Kulem to Londa for our return journey and then went to this place where we can hire a vehicle to go to the base of the falls.

A mere walk of 5 min from the station, we went in enquired the rates and booked the vehicle. We had exactly 4 hrs to be back. This included to fro journey of 45 min each and then the remaining to play in water. It will cost u 400/person or 2400/vehicle each accommodating 6. If u r 6 people well and good else either u have to share the vehicle with someone else or pay the entire amount. Apart from this you have to pay for the life jacket too, which is around 30/person.  Also there are separate entry tickets and camera entrance charges that you have to pay near the forest entrance gate; around 30/person and 50/still camera and 150/video camera. Also there is a waiting period near the gate as it involves checking of vehicle and buying tickets.  

After half an hour we made our way inside. The ride was bumpy but beautiful. We passed across the river, actually rode right through the river. If you are lucky u can spot animals. These roads are forest track so u can imagine how bad it will be. There is a separate entrance for bikers. We did spot few bikes here and there, but those require special permission. Usually these routes are used during monsoon season when the rivers flow fiercely and its impossible for the jeeps to cross it.  We reached the base of the falls, went around searching for a perfect spot to play around. Played for an hour which wasn't enough, but we had to leave else we would miss the train. We were already late and one cannot just go driving fast, coz the roads are bad and narrow.. We told our driver our situation and he said he will drop us at railway station directly. He did manage to get us on time. The train was yet to arrive.

Note: Daily around 250 vehicles are allowed, so u have to reach the place quickly to get the slot within 250. We were lucky enough to get a vehicle despite coming late. Also one can trek along the muddy roads, its fun but we couldn’t as we were tired and running short on time. Also the driver told us that, there is a way from dudhsagar falls to the base that is just a couple of  km away which we dint no. Else we could have trekked that way down to reach the base.

The train arrived late. It was very crowded. Hardly some place to stand, and we had to stand till Londa, which means 4 hrs of standing.That was quite difficult. The first thing I did when I reached Londa was sit for a while. After relaxing we bought few pakodas and vada pav and ate. Gulped few gallons of water and then when satisfied called our respective homes. Our train was supposed to arrive at 7.50pm but it was delayed by 45 and reached around 8.35. We got seated comfortably on our seats. 2 middle aged couple had occupied the lower berth and they were so arrogant, that they slept before we arrived. I was quite sure they haven’t slept, but they refused to move so that we could atleast sit to eat our dinner. We sat on the side berth which belonged to some RAC guy, requested him to sit on the side-upper seat till we ate. We ordered for pulav and meals. Again ate like a hungry tiger and then went to sleep. Next day we bid farewell to this amazing experience and each other and all of us went to office.