Dudhsagar Trek
About
Dudhsagar Waterfalls
“The
majestic cascade of white water, gushing over the steep, nearly
vertical face of the mountain from a spectacular height of 1017ft; is
both breath taking and awe inspiring, making one aware that there are
many forces in nature much more powerful that the human mind and
body. ”
When
you are surrounded by thick green forest, when the dark black sky is
showering the drops of happiness, when you see Rocky Mountains
wrapped in fog and when you are enjoying this with your loved one,
life is at peace. There is no rush to catch the bus, no deadlines of
projects, no boring meetings, no traffic, no pollution just You and
Nature. Visiting the Western Ghats during peak monsoon season is a
visual delight for travelers. And when the location you are visiting
is Dudhsagar, you achieve Nirvana.
Dudhsagar
literally means 'Sea of Milk'. The name is completely justified when
you experience the majestic waterfalls during the peak monsoon. The
four tiered waterfall is located on Madgaon-Belgavi Rail route on the
Mandovi River in the Sanguem Taluka of Goa. The waterfall comes under
Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary.
Distance
From
Panaji – 60KM.
From
Madgaon – 46KM
From
Belgavi – 80KM
How
To Reach
Panaji
is easily accessible by Road, Rail or Airways from all parts of the
country.
The
nearest railway station is Kulem (60KM from Panaji)
From
Kulem one can travel by jeep or by walk up to the base of the
waterfall.
Trains
also stop at the Dudhsagar station; but that is a technical halt for
railway stop. It’s not a proper railway station with platform, so
you need to leave the train carefully. Although Dudhsagar is crowded
with tourist, it does not come under the Tourism department,
officially it comes under departments of Forest and Railways, and so
there is no facility of tourists to stay overnight. There are couple
of shades near the waterfall but those are definitely not sufficient
considering the volume of crowd visiting the place, especially on the
weekends.
Travel
Itinerary
We
chose to travel along the railways to the waterfall.
Our
plan was to alight at Castle Rock Railway station (14KM from
Dudhsagar) and go walking along the railway line.
| Day 1 |
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| Day 2 |
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Pritesh,
one of my friends and the organizer of this plan, had visited this
location before, so he drafted the plan. Since we would not be
getting anything over there, everything had to be carried with us for
this trip. Listing down the itinerary itself was a tedious process,
but since Pritesh and his wife Renuka had been to this trip before,
they had everything handy with them.
We
met at Pune Railway Station by 11 PM. We boarded the train
Pondicherry Express for Londa. By 9.30 on the Saturday morning we
reached Londa. To reach Castle Rock we had to catch another train,
the Amaravati Express. Dudhsagar is on the Konkan Railway line. An
hour long halt at Londa gave us a much needed break to get refreshed
and prepared for the forthcoming rainy adventure. We boarded the
train by 10.40 AM and reached Castle Rock by 12.30 just to be
welcomed by heavy rainfall.
The
Trail
Getting
ready with our Ponchos we started walking away from the Castle Rock
on the railway line. The nature seemed to bless us with some superb
scenery. There was greenery everywhere. As we went deep in the
forest, all the sounds that we could here were birds chirping, wind
blowing through the mountains, water streams running down the hills
and railway engines conveying their arrival. On the way we crossed
the Goa-Karnataka border and entered the state of Goa.
On the way, there is
one more station, kind of a technical halt, named Caranzol. It can be
considered a midpoint of the journey. There were total 13 tunnels we
crossed till the Dudhsagar, including the longest one of approx. 400
m. crossing the tunnel was a superb task. We had to pay attention,
before entering the tunnel, in case any train or an engine
approaching. Thankfully, the engine makes loud sound much before it
reaches the tunnel, so that gives us ample time to reach to a safer
place.
By
6 PM we reached our destination, the church near Dudhsagar station.
Pritesh and Renu, had already walked fast and reached early just to
make sure the place was unoccupied for us. They even cleaned it and
began the tea preparation. We were carrying a container, some rockel
and coal with us. We created a small Chullha and made tea for us. The
church is covered by 3 side with the front side open to the railway
track. We hanged our ponchos to avoid the raindrops entering inside.
The twilight was about to fade out and the church was illuminated by
couple of LED lamps and some candles. We started the dinner
preparations. The container got filled with water, masala pouches
were emptied in the boiling water along with Maggie cakes. After a
hectic 14 km long trail any food would have tasted delicious.
The same church acted
as a living room, a kitchen, a dressing room and a bedroom for us.
Post dinner there was again a round of tea/coffee and then we began
preparing for sleep. We spread newspapers on the flooring; a
fortification was created with the help of our bagpacks around us;
boys were sleeping on the outer sides and girls in the central part,
the cotton balls went into the ear holes to avoid the insects to
enter and everyone went inside their sleeping bags, LED lamps were
switched off and just a single candle was lit in front of Jesus
Christ.
The
dawn came with a killer sound of an engine approaching the church. It
was the Nizamuddin-Goa express, which unloaded lot of tourists at
Dudhsagar. We waited for sunrise, got refreshed and left the church
by 9AM to experience the waterfall.
We crossed the last
tunnel before the waterfall and reached a spectacular world where
there was an old stone cut train bridge, on the right side there was
a valley and on the left side a huge waterfall originating from sky
and flowing below the bridge into the valley. The flow of water was
creating a sound similar to that of a thunder storm. The surrounding
near the bridge was totally covered with water sprinkles. There was a
gallery near the waterfall but if you wanted to see the real gigantic
view of this waterfall, you needed to take some extra efforts and
travel a kilometer more.
Dudhsagar
trail was an amazing experience. It reiterated a thought in my mind
that the Western Ghats region is a travelers’ paradise in India.
Reminiscing about the entire journey we boarded the return train to
Pune.
Things
To Remember
- If you miss the 5 PM Goa Express while returning home, there is no train till the early morning. So make sure you do reach the Dudhsagar station well in time.
- It is to be noted that once the train arrives, they will make sure that everybody waiting on the station get boarded in the train and nobody is left behind.
- There are railway engines traveling on the track less frequently throughout the day.
- In case of any emergency you can request them to either drop you to one of the ends (Kulem or Castle Rock)
Food facility
There
is a food stall just near the waterfall. You can get tea, snacks
(Pohe, Samosa, Wadapav, Chips etc), Water bottles over there. But
better carry your own water. On the way, from castle rock to
Dudhsagar you get nothing to eat or drink.
Accommodation
There is a small church
along the railway line that can accommodate max 12-13 people.
If
it is not raining, you can get some place near the Dudhsagar station.
The viewing galary near the waterfall can also be a decent place for
tenting when not raining.
Things To Carry
- Enough water (min. 4 liters pear head)
- Enough food for breakfast - snacks, biscuits, glucose powder, bread, butter, jam, parathas, ketchups, milk powder, sugar, tea, coffee etc.
- Cooking stuff for dinner - coal, rockel, container, cloth pieces, salt, Maggie pouches, dal-rice etc
- Torch - A must for crossing tunnels
- Candles, match sticks, LED lamps if possible.
- Raincoat, if possible a poncho
- If you have advanced railway bookings, better not carry too much cash. No jewelry to be carried.
- A Nylon Rope - to dry clothes
- Tissues, NewsPapers, Sleeping bags
- Carry couple of 'use and throw' kind of water bottles to attend the Nature's Call. :)
- Medical kit
- Camera, Binoculars if possible.
Expenses
- Pune - Londa Railway Ticket – Rs.204 Per Head for Sleeper Non AC
- Londa - Castle Rock Railway Tikcker – Rs.35 Per Sleeper Head Non AC
- Dudhsagar – Pune Railway Ticker – Rs.400 Per Head for Sleeper Non AC
- Breakfast at Londa station - Idli/WadaPav Rs.20 Tea Rs.10
- Maggie - Rs.40 per packet
- Coal - Rs. 20
- Rockel – Rs.25 Per Litre
- Water bottles/Snacks near the waterfall- Rs.20 each
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