Dudhsagar - Ocean of mik

Dudhsagar has been on my wish list for long, but time had not come. I knew that monsoons are the best time to see the milky falls in full glory, but we just couldn’t plan.  Ultimately we decided to do the Dudhsagar trek on 9^th November 2014. Though not comparable to the monsoon glory, it was still spectacular.

For those who are new, Dudhsagar (ocean of milk) is a waterfall located on the Mandovi River in the Indian state of Goa, very close to the Karnataka border, north of Belgaum. It is one of the tallest falls in the country with a height of 310 m and an average width of 30 m. The Hindi movie Chennai Express popularised the falls and the number of people visiting is very high on weekends, particularly during the monsoon. I was told that the crowd is thousands some times. Considering that the place can be reached only on foot or by train, this shows its huge popularity among trekkers and nature lovers.

Our effort started during early August with Manohar sending a mail to GEET members looking for some weekend activity during the Independence Day weekend. Hariprasad suggested Dudhsagar, but there was no real enthusiasm by the group. The interest got revived again during September, but the train tickets were not available for any weekend. Hari took the initiative and started booking of tickets for the November 9^th weekend, and people started responding.

Hari had booked 32 tickets. The trip was from Bangalore to Hubli and Hubli to Castle Rock. Return was from Londa to Bangalore and the idea was to buy tickets at Dudhsagar for the journey to Londa. We started from Bangalore railway station at 1 pm on Saturday, 8^th November 2014. The final number was 28 with some people opting out. People had come well prepared. We had a good time during the journey playing games like dumb charade and antakshari. We just didn’t realise how the time had passed. 

Some of the photos taken from the train

We reached Hubli at 9.30 pm and the next train was at 11 pm. We had dinner at the railway station cafeteria that was tolerable. The next train came much later and it was not clear as to where the coach will come. We managed to get on to our berths, but many of us could not sleep as we wanted to be awake when the train stopped at Castle Rock. We reached at 3 am in the morning and proceeded to the TB that was arranged by Sujith and his brother in law. There were two rooms and the men and women took one each. We freshened up quickly and were ready by 5.30 am. It took some time to get the packed breakfast (avalakki) and lunch (pulav). We left at 6 am. Everyone was in full ‘josh’.  It was still dark and the torches were useful. The biggest drawback of walking on rail tracks is the possibility of stamping human excreta.

The view on the way was breathtaking. Though we could not see many birds in the thick jungle around, we could hear them. There were also smaller falls and streams on the way. The tunnels and bridges were thrilling. We finished our breakfast on the way near a stream. The torches were really useful in the long, dark tunnels. We could see a couple of passenger trains and many goods trains passing though the route. There were many groups trekking that day as it was a weekend, some of them quite noisy. The distance between Castle Rock and Dudhsagar  is 14 Kms with Caranzol station at the midpoint. It is easy to know the distance covered by looking at the milestones by the side of the track. The first among us reached Dudhsagar by 12 noon and the slower ones could reach by 1 pm. For my wife Hema, this was the first serious trek, and she did well. So did many of the ladies and children who were trekking for the first time. The falls is about a km away from the station. The first sight of the falls was good enough to chase away all the fatigue.

We proceeded towards the falls. What a sight it was! Though much after the monsoon, the falls looked majestic. People got busy with getting themselves photographed. Many of us got settled in some places in front of the falls wetting our feet in the water. There were small fish poking the feet providing pedicure. Some of us took bath. The lifeguards there take good care to see that people don’t enter dangerous areas. On the opposite side, way below is a picnic spot where vehicles bring people from Kulem, but reaching over there from Dudhsagar is difficult. We could see many people there.

We spent good three hours near the falls and finished our packed lunch making sure not to litter the place. We were told that there will be goods train to Londa at 3.30 pm. We had our return tickets from Londa to Bangalore booked, but reaching Londa from Dudhsagar was tricky. The goods train didn’t arrive and we had to wait for the only train that arrived around 5.45 pm. We got in wherever possible struggling through the crowd. With the help of the TC, we managed to travel to Londa. I feel it would be good make the Dudhsagar station regular, from where one can get booking to the next places. With so many people traveling, the uncertainty certainly is not a great thing. We reached Londa and had refreshment at the station. Sujith’s friend is the catering contractor there and some of us could savour a better meal. The next train arrived late, but we slept peacefully till Bangalore. The train reached much later than the scheduled time, but we were happy to have been to Dudhsagar!

Some tips for people visiting:

Make sure to book return tickets (from Kulem to Londa) at Castle Rock before starting the trek.

Things to carry:

Water (though there are places where we can get natural water).

Powerful Torch

Shoes with good grip (preferably trekking shoes)

Cap

Camera

It was indeed a memorable trek. Thanks to Hari for booking the tickets and Sujith for arranging the food and shelter. Thanks to the team for a wonderful time!