DUDHSAGAR UNLEASHED

Another Sunday and this time we had something concrete on our minds. We planned for a visit to Dudhsagar waterfalls. But we were uncertain on how to reach there, reason being the normal route that is taken by road is inaccesible during the monsoons as the river Dudhsagar that you might have seen on my earlier posts is flowing really full. And it carries with it the momentum to whisk away a big 4WD. So the option remaining with us was to walk it up thats about 12 kms of trek besides the railway track that leads to Belgaum in Karnataka or else take a Goods train or a engine that would ply up the route.

The whole process starts from Kulem a small village which is located at the base of the western ghats which has a railway station and about a dozen shops. Most of the people in this area have a 4 wheel drive for they do good business during the season carrying hundreds of tourists across the river, streams and the forests to the base of the Dudhsagar water falls.If you have been to Anups Blog youll get a good coverage of what it is like to go to Dudhsagar on 4WD jeep.

We reached Kulem and we had a couple of guys walking up to us and offering to set us up with the Engine driver of a Goods train that would drop or throw us off the engine which was to start from Kulem at about 1:30 pm. Well with my intentions of saving some money I decided to do it myself and used a little of my Kanada speaking ability to get the engine driver get us up the Railway engine. And there we were in ecstacy that we are making it and that too without paying any penny.. but it was short lived ecstacy. There were some officers at the Dudhsagar and we could not travel by the engine.

A little disappointed, we decided to take it up next sunday. We reached our car and were thinkin of getting back and then the guy who offered to set us up, walks by and offers to take us on BIKES... yea crazy that was. But we decided to give it a thought.

After much bargaining over the dough that we need to shell out we made up our minds on the ride up.

We had 2 bikes and 5 guys.. the guides included. We hit the railway track and rode parallel to the track for about 25 minutes. Amazing riding skills.. those guys were able to make us feel real comfortable on a narrow path besides the track. Then we had to move off road track used normally by the jeeps and ride till the station Sonaulim which is misspelt on some of the boards as 'Sonalium'..makes u think of radioactivity...

Well there on, we were on our feet again besides the railway track... walk walk and walk.. it was amazing feeling to be with the nature... walk up the western ghats besides the track. Yea you also get the aromas of litter along and on the railway track... well thats a part of this amazing trek.

Ahh then I see 2 Leeches hanging on to my legs...suckerssssssss... we managed to get them off and then we walked on...on and on and on... and finally we got a glimpse of the waterfalls which was on the other side of the valley... and then we realised that we got lot of walking to do. We were actually trekking from the bottom the western ghats and getting across U shaped valley on the other side..... kind of long long bend......

It was raining real heavy.. we were all drenched ...but spirited... we had some tough time catching up with the speed of our guides who just seemed to slip away if we stopped for a fraction to capature some pictures....

After about 45 minutes of paced walking we were at the Falls... Awesome awesome..simply awesome.. Dudhsagar was true to its name... it was white water that was flowing at a real scary pace ... a sure shot way to loose whatever...name it..:-)

We were to hitch down on an engine..but a stupid guy at the station there told us it would be some time for the engine to come down ..so we rolled up our sleeves and spirits and decided to walk it down again......

and just in case you need help going to Dushsagar and you are willing to shell out dollars.. you can call on us...;-)

Check out some of the pics ...... hope you guys like it.........