Escape from soliloquy: When I Missed Home
When you are away from home, nature can provide you with the best alternative. With this belief in my mind, and the companionship of my friend Vipul, I was all set to explore the milky mighty Dudhsagar waterfalls. I started from bangalore on 10th November after a day bike trip to Chunchi falls and Mekedatu. I took bus from Bangalore to reach belgaum. Vipul came to belgaum on his yamaha fz. We met near Belgaum railway station at around 10 pm. Hired a small dormitory for an hour to get fresh and started our way towards Goa from Belgaum. We followed the NH4A via Angol from Belgaum. The first 70 km from Belgaum was mapped with awful road. As soon as we entered the Goa border the condition of the road significantly improved and to our luxury the weather was also not hot on that day. We reached the Baga beach by 3 30pm and sat down for a nice beer and view. The beach was just getting prepared at that time for the coming season. All the places were building their DJ floors and beach side eating place.
Sublime
We hired a place to sleep at night near the beach only, 600 rs per day and then left to explore the night life of GOA. We left for the Anjuna beach where there is a secret pub called Curley’s. You can not reach there on car. You will have to park it around a km before the actual place. The ambiance at the place was just ecstatic, with a mixed Indian and foreigner crowd, the place was too good for the prices quoted. We had another pint of beer, checked about the dance party every night there. It was scheduled to start by 10 30, so we thought we won’t join it, as we wanted to start early morning next day towards Dudhsagar. Came back to the baga beach grabbed a bite and then went off to sleep.
Next morning we started towards Castle rock station, around 80 km from Panaji. To reach dudhsagar falls, one has to do trekking atleast for 2 km. There are 4 routes to reach the place, of which the Castle rock railway track trek is the longest 14 km and the best one too. We opted for the best. Reaching Castle rock by 9 30. We got ready for the trek, by giving away the extra luggage at a food shop on the station. Took idli from the shop, and started our trek. It was difficult to walk on the track and there was no parallel way to walk on. The enthralling views and the desire to reach the destination kept us moving.
The route is having the maximum density of tunnels, and each one adds to the route’s beauty. The tunnel number 2, is the longest around 500 m. There were times when we were walking inside the tunnels with no clue of what’s ahead us and what’s following us. Lot of small waterfalls, valleys, over bridges garland the way.
After 4 km we crossed the Karnataka border and entered GOA. 2-3 trains crossed us on the way, and we reached the Carlzone station around 8 km from the Castle rock and around 6.5 km before Dudhsagar. The last train from Dudhsagar to Castle rock was at 5 30, so we thought it would be better if we hop on to any train which comes next and reach Dudhsagar on time. A good’s train came and we ran to catch it in Kachche Dhaage style.
We finally jumped out of the train about 500 m before the Dudhsagar station. Even after Dudhsagar station, you have to walk for about 500 m more and between the 12th and the 13th tunnel, there is a way to go down to the base of the falls. We reached to the base but were on the opposite side of the pathway to the falls. The way to cross was like 500 m more from there so we decided to cross the stream and slippery boulders and reached to what is called Dudhsagar falls.
We took a nice bath at the waterfalls, the water was cold and there is a nice pool to swim too. We followed the same route back up by crossing the stream. From castlerock it took us another 2 hours to reach belgaum. I had my bus back to bangalore and vipul decided to ride back to pune, though not a good decision, as he fell asleep in the middle and did face a fall too. Thanks to his biking gears!!! All in all a nice trip where again nothing was planned and turned out good. One lesson I learned, that you can never be alone in this world, coz the world itself is a great companion.
Ashu,
Amazing, Mesmerizing & Captivating pictures which made this a Wowwww post. The pictures are awesome, though the narration is in very brief or say bit at shorter side but pictures fulfilled the gap. This post made my day. Picture no 10 & 11 from top and 3 & 4 from bottom are such that I immediately set one of them as my desktop wallpaper.
Thanks for sharing…….
Thanks Mukesh. Even i felt the words are less, but I wanted all the pictures to go in and not make it a long story there for others to scroll, so I avoided words, and as they say pictures speak louder than words, so I thought let’s have it that way. Dudhsagar falls is infact the name that makes konkan railway the most beautiful tracks to travel on. This track is having the highest density of tunnels in the world and was supposed to be the sight for the latest Bond movie skyfall. This location also featured in Chennai Express. It’s a beautiful spot, but not easily accessible, may be that is why it’s still beautiful.
Very well written post !
Pictures are awesome !
Thanks Mahesh.
Good post. Dudhsagar is beautiful and I hope to go there one day
thanks for sharing
Thanks
What a wonderful post Dear Ashuji ? I was lost in the sweet memories during reading. Many times I tried to remember this place but can’nt recall. I enjoyed the rail journey from (perhaps) Ratnagiri to Margoa in 1972, entire route was most pictureque landscape having numerous tunnels, lush green area and number of water falls. It was meter guage single route and that’s why it took much time, the Sahydri Hills range enroute was most beautiful.
Good write up with less words and extremely beautiful pics.
Thanks.
Thanks for your appreciation, and it does is a very nice place where nature garlands the whole train route. I think the trains must take a lot of time on this route for it to be enjoyed thoroughly :p
Nice post, Ashu. The picture of the base of the falls with people bathing around it was beautiful.
Thanks Venkatt
congrats for a post with such beautiful photographs.11th and 12th from top are really outstanding.
2nd great shot in a row, wonderful Ashu bhai! The photos are just awesome as magical as the place itself…the photos of Dudhsagar with trains passing by has always grabbed our attention & every time we see it, it just creates an itch…The only thing that i personally felt was lacking…a bit of more experiences…as soon as we started relishing the post, it seemed to come to an end & finally ended…:(…would have loved to hear more of your experiences on this natural wonder! Though, photos speak for itself, but you can try to add some captions to the photos whatever you like…to give it a more powerful voice…this is my opinion, may not be required everywhere & every time…:)
Keep inspiring us with these wonderful tales!
Thanks Vipin for your input. Next time I will make sure these things are covered. I don’t know why but I was unable to ad the captions to the pics this time, everytime I used to save them they used to go away :(
Seems to be an adventurous trip, I saw this fall in Chennai Express and wanted to visit and now I have more reasons to go after reading your post. All pictures are very nice, specially the first one.
I have read about this in past and always fancied walking alongside the track. Interestingly I was in Goa last week of August 13 for a short trip but could only manage Bagah/dona-paula/mira-mar/panjim.
Great shots Ashu. I have the same comment as Vipin and some of the other folks. Also please add more factual info around reaching this place so that fellow travellers can benefit more. Thanks again.
Wonderful portrait of the place Ashu.
Reminded me my visit there a couple of years back.
Pictures are awesome, your Nikon D5100 really doing doing the trick… :)
Hope to read more such inspiring writings, and more such photos.
Thanks
Hi Ashu,
Incredible adventure with equally amazing photos!
Is it safe to walk on the tracks in the a tunnel. I have travelled on the Konkan rail between Mumbai and Goa several times. The views are incredible durng the rains. Once we were stuck in the train for a day because of landslide.
That was nice of the train guard to let you hitch a ride on the kaboose.
Hi Nirdesh, thanks for the appreciation.
It was safe, as the frequency of the trains is less and the tunnels are also not very long there is a faint light every time you are inside, except the 2nd tunnel which is approx, 0.5 km long.
The views are truly beyond the words of any dictionary, and yes the guard showed nice gesture to let us be on the train and do the photo session, though he was very pissed off.
Nice adventurous post Ashu, with excellent photos.
Last year too a post was published here and that too by some friends from Bangalore in bikes…though, they couldn’t go to the end and missed the Waterfalls most probably, if I remember it correctly. Wonderful pictures and as Vipin and Nandan suggested, no doubt that you will take care of them in your next post(s)…The beauty of Konkan railway is awesome…once I also thought ‘it’s difficult to stay alone in a big city’…but it didn’t take much time and things changed for good and I have earned few friends for life.
fantastic article!!!!! congratulations.
very crisp,compact but covering every essential detail. Felt as if our trip was fast forwarded in front of our eyes.
Regards,
Ankit Saxena
Hi Ashu Good work and you have kept it really simple yet informative ,keep up this style and looking forward for more such nice travel stories from your side.
It was an excellent trip with sea water sports, Dudh Sagar waterfall visit was one of the best memorable trips of my life. The natural beauty and white (milk) waterfall were the best. It was an awesome experience. Thank u sea water sports.