Live the Present: Monsoon trek to Dudhsagar

It’s always said, whenever you wish for something very hard, it does get fulfilled and so did mine too. I had been planning for it since last Aug and everytime I did plan, it got cancelled :(. As soon as I saw the event registration at BASC, I never gave a second thought and just went ahead and registered for it. The registrations in BASC close in hours and to my surprise I had made it to the list…. There were no limits to my happiness that day.

Finally Friday (5^th July) was here and I was all set with my bag pack. Made sure I didn’t miss out anything, reached the station on time and I should admit was feeling indifferent just like a student would feel when he goes to the school on first day. The group was totally new to me, all strangers, will I get adjusted?, Will I feel like a stranger in that group and all those thoughts running in mind, but also was confident that I would have a great experience.

As I entered my couch, I met people in my compartment and was happy meeting such enthusiasts and to my surprise all of us were strangers to each other. That made it so easier to jell with and know each other.

It was group of varied age people and we started off talking about our trek experiences and talking about places visited and their specialties. I learnt a lot from them and it was inspiring listening to their experiences and somewhere inside did feel that I am really lagging back and need to explore a lot of stuffs :).

Train journey was fun…. lot of talks and the bluff cards game that I learnt :P. Didn’t realize how time flew and we reached our destination Castlerock.

There are 2 ways to reach Dudhsagar via the railway track, one from CastleRock to Dudhsagar and another from Kulem to Dudhsagar. We started our trek from Castle rock at 11.30am. It was pretty simple route; just follow the railway track…. Amazing views and landscapes on route, it was bliss for all photographers and for posers too ;). Not to forget, we all were carrying heavy bagpacks (obviously had to carry food for 2 days, sleeping bags and tents). It was not easy walking….. Thanks to the pleasant weather and rain which made the journey fun. We would stop by and rest on the tracks to grab some food ;).

The moment you hear the train horn, we would inform each other and move aside the track and stop by watching the train pass by. We encountered in all 11 tunnels and was fun and exciting when the train passed by when we were in the tunnel (Scary and adventurous).

Before we reached Dudhsagar, we saw a lot of small and huge waterfalls on the way.

I cant forget the first fun at the falls, the water was forceful and I and Veena didn’t worry much and jumped into the falls to enjoy the flow ;). That is the time when we felt that all the walk was worth it and knew the remaining journey would be more fruitful :D. It was noon then, we had our lunch near those falls and left for our rest of the journey. As we approached Dudhsagar falls, I could see a lot of crowd at the station and felt the excitement to see the view of the beautiful falls. As we crossed the final 11^th tunnel, there I got the glimpse of the pretty falls. It was spectacular, simply amazing and realized why it is called “DudhSagar” (Sea of Milk). As I stood on the bridge, I could not see the falls for long, the mist was entering the eyes and covered it. I could feel it more than seeing it ;). An experience I can never forget…

I could not wait to unload my luggage and get back to the falls. We pitched our tent, kept our entire luggage and went to explore the location. I could hear the roar of the falls loud and clear; it created a mist all around it and never gave us a direct view of the falls. We walked thru the bridge dividing the falls… I cannot express it in words, you got to see and experience it yourself :D

We then went more ahead and explored the falls in between the twin tunnels (#12 and #13).It was a beautiful sight seeing water seeping through the gap between the tunnels. We spent our evening there enjoying under the falls and playing around :). As it got 8pm, we had finished with our dinner and went off to sleep (Since there were no light, it was difficult to hang around). It rained heavily the whole night and the trains passing by made it a little difficult to get a proper sleep….but once a while it is fun, being in the vicinity of the falls and enjoying, feeling it :).

Sunday, we got ready by 8.30am and had the view of the falls in the daylight. We started our 12km trek to Kulem station. After walking for little distance, we finally came to the point where we got the complete view, including the bridge which was passing right through the middle of the falls. Since it was raining heavily, the fog was covering the view and it was difficult to get a clear view, I tried capturing the view I could see ;).

We walked for 4 kms and reached Sonalium station where we diverted our route to the jeep track which is via the forest. It was somewhere around 4kms trek and got back to the rail track.

Another 2kms of walk and we reached a falls (I don’t recollect the name, its 2kms away from Kulem station). We played in the falls for nearly 2 hours. It was a good body massage and relaxing :), body really got some relaxation… We knew we were reaching the end of the trek…. so had mixed feelings. We freshened up in Kulem station and boarded the train to reach Londa. We got another final view of all the points on our way back to Londa.

The journey was just so mesmerizing and cherishable which I can’t forget for my lifetime. All those talks, breaks on rail tracks, crossing through the gushing stream on the way to Kulem and sharing of food that we had carried ;) and many more….

Finally we got a nice group pic of 30 people at Londa station and boarded our train back to Bangalore. Legs had given up but smiles and glow on the faces said it all that “The trek was rocking and all had a lot of memories to take away.”