Dudhsagar 24-25/7/2010

Friday night:  At 9:00 pm we all boarded the train that was to take us to Castle rock. We were all exhausted for the night and so got to our berths and slept tight.

Saturday:  After waking up, we all realised our journey was still not over. the train got delayed for an hour making the remaining four hour journey, a five hour one! To kill time, we all started playing dumb charades. During the game, we discovered great PhD holders...masters of the game... you know who I'm "referring" to, don't you, Dudhsagar gang?

We finally reached Castle rock. By then it was noon. We all "disembarked" ourselves and our luggage, at the station and had our lunch. Then we set out for our 14 km trek to Dudhsagar. We had to walk along the railway track that led to the Dudhsagar station. The railway track was cut along the western ghats and so we experinced an ecstatic panorama of the foggy(and rainy) hilltops, and the little waterfalls that fell from different little hills surrounding the valley. There were wild banana trees with flowers blooming. We heard cries of a variety of birds and animals, though I couldn't personally figure out which one belonged to which. We also got off the track umpteen times to let the trains go by. We saw snails and monkeys on our way. A few of the members of the group got to see leeches( sucking their blood) too!

We crossed 10 tunnels to reach Dudhsagar, and a 11th one to reach our final night halt. The largest of the tunnels was half a kilometre long. It was leaky everywhere, and pitch dark, just like the other members of its "brethren". The smallest tunnel was hardly hundred metres long. The horizontal abyss of the tunnels had many perilious snares in them. We had railway track bars haphazardly laid on the track. We were as blind as bats without torches in the hands. In the scanty light that strived hard to chase away the darkness, we struggled our way out of each tunnel and started counting down the number of tunnels to be crossed.
After crossing the last tunnel, we let a sigh of relief...not out of fatigue, but out of pity for the aching feet.

We left our bags at a safe but wet place and rushed down to take a look at THE Dudhsagar waterfall(which happens to be the second largest in India, if i'm not wrong). The mere force of the water droplets that splashed from the waterfall, was pushing me away. True to its name, the descent of the waterfall was as white as milk. The stream that the fall formed was very violent at the beginning of the course. But as it crossed the bridge that we stood on, it was tamed a little by the arch of the bridge it crossed. A few little falls, along the course of the river, acted tributaries to it. Watching it from the top was a sight to relish.

The rain and the waterfall conduced in perfect proportions to the water content in our dresses...we were drenched head to toe...literally...not one single part of our bodies was spared. After the waterfall episode, we went back to our venue of night halt, which I dont have words to describe. We dragged our aching legs up a staircase only to find a wet surface! But we were thankful we atleast had shelter on our heads. We set up tents and had our dinner...which as anyone can guess, was cold by then...but I think it was one of the best dinners anyone could have had in such a place and situation. After dinner, we retired into the tents. But a few people got unlucky as the tents could accommodate only 12 people in all, and we were 18. These unlucky people, the ones that couldn't fit into the tents, had a hell of a night. Sleepless, wet, cold and what not....sigh....

Sunday:  we went to pay a last visit to Dudhsagar, and were all packed, ready to leave. We reached the Dudhsagar station and waited for the train to arrive. We hurled ourselves into the train that came and took our seats, waiting impatiently for it to reach our destination. We then got down at Londa, where we had to spend time till the evening. Some of us went to a nearby river, while some went to the market. we whiled away our time until it was time for us to do some serious packing and last minute checks. Our train arrived on time and we settled in our seats. As the train gathered speed, we called the whole gang to one of the alcoves and started playing Dum charades again, but this time, with twists. after everyone got bored of it, we switched to another game, which we played until we were asked to keep our volumes down for the hundredth time. Finally, we all went to sleep. the next morning, we all parted at different points, but with a memory involving every single person in the group, a memory to be cherished lifelong.

I'm writing down the name sof the group members:
Chetana
Bhavana
Priyank
Sapna
Shraddha
Niha
Nandan
Nataraj
Prashant
Pratik
Praveen
Ranjit
Venkee
Phani
Varun
Satish
Jitendra
Aditya
Vikram