To the Dudhsagar

I found one of the really blessed places in south india when I planned this journey. It looked attractive when I searched around on net, but the real beauty it showered (literally showered), when I was standing face on to this milk water falling directly from heaven. There may be other memories, other places I visit in future, or may be some from past, but this place held a good beautiful corner of my heart. Hear from me why:

Itinery: 29^th July 8:00pm leave from Hyderabad, 30^th July 4:00am reach Belgaum, 31^st July 10:15pm leave belgaum, 1^st Aug 06:30am reach hyderabad

The blind side: Yes, we were blind about how, where and when we will be witnessing the natural wonder. Only this we knew, our times to reach and leave from the city of belgaum. We reached at belgaum 2hrs late, @6am.. then the questions started flooding.. but stop.. lets have a tea first.. whish eventually was tea + dosa + idli + pulav.. v were full.. now find a place to freshen up.. hotels asked a lot.. but we were lucky to find a roadside ‘gud condition’ loo.. and then we started asking the local people.. their suggestions + my research on net, we headed towards Mollem..
Fog in July: the road was towards goa, so serene, so green.. and when I woke up from my 30min nap, I was shocked to see the dense fog in which our very experienced bus driver was driving, all on his intuition.. the bus took a stop, and v guys couldn’t miss to take some clicks.. and can’t miss the street food and tea.. the fog in the middle of july was exciting me..

Mollem 10 min: it was around 11.30am.. oh, we were there.. so hard to identify, it was hardly a town and we were expecting to find some tent wala.. after roaming here and there we realised, its gonna be bigger adventure than we thought.. ahh it was raining to.. and then a cute little bus arrived (god didn’t wanted to waste our time).. kollem? Yes collem!

Hard to start: At collem, we again asked about tent which was nearly obvious we’ll not find.. and we bought some breads for dinner.. Omens were bad.. 10kms became 14.. options were opening up to use bike ride to reach up and the enormous rain became more enormous every second.. all raincoats and polythenes came out.. people were struggling, and confused, but 1 thing was clear, we were gonna go walking.. and another omen.. karthik put his first step on the track and he slipped.. and mr. sharath was talking eternal time to save his cam, a SLR, specially brought for this trip..

Beautiful, green, wet:  rain was playing around, coming and going.. but the place was so serene, such a treat to eye.. there was a grey track in the middle of the green forest.. a flooded river on a side.. numerous waterfalls sounding their hush and the beautiful view of the distant cloud laden hills.. some trains passing by occasionally.. we were hardly feeling tired as we ascended the first 6kms.. talking n chantin.. n cursing some lazy legs..


Long tunnel: Not its length, this tunnel was longest owing to the time we took to cross it.. I heard a train horn, about 30min ago (only i).. but there were no sign of train coming our way from either direction.. and it was the first tunnel.. little inexperience.. but we decided to move on.. I was stepping fast, but when we reached the darkest part of it, it was hard to identifying where I was walking.. n the fear of train.. but finally we reached the other side (the so amazing n beautiful side), maybe just 5 minutes before the train entered the tunnel..

Tunnel side photo session: It seemed we were actually happy to reach the other side safe.. and the other side was quite a photogenic place.. water streams flowing from tunnel’s top.. and the beautiful cloud laden hills.. and moreover it had stopped raining, so sharath could bring out his SLR (+ the tripod) to click some amazing pics.. we infact became quite lazy.. strolled slowly, enjoyed the beauty of the place.. click more pics.. stopped, sat around the tracks.. there were multiple tracks now, as there was a small station ahead..

Small station saranyum: I started raining again and we started walking again, hoping to find a shed at the station where we could stop for a while.. walking became difficult as there was no side way now along the track.. we could walk on the stony/hard track only..  little walk and we reached a station.. never in my the life I could imagine such a station.. shed was hard to find.. no platform.. we stopped under a small shed, where some diesel tanks were there (so no smoking).. some biscuits were passed along, that everyone enjoyed.. and then an 3-engine set passed with many people onboard..

Hardest part: As we entered the shed, it stopped raining.. and after our small meal when we decided to move, it started raining again.. and this was the heaviest rain we witnessed.. it became really hard to continue walking on the track.. any dry part of the body was hard to identify.. and the leeches started bothering some people.. we were broken into 2 groups.. I was in the later one..

1^st Leech: we stopped at a tunnel and lalit removed a leech from his leg.. yess.. this was the first leech I saw in my entire life.. it was kinda cute.. but its strange behaviour was terrifying.. it was moving its suction here and there in the air searching for a victim.. I checked my legs to confirm any attack..

First sight: We finally witnessed what we were running after.. what we were waiting for.. what was so beautiful.. we were standing on the other side of the hill, directly opposite to the heaven fall.. it is so hard to put in words, how beautiful the view was.. the rain was heavy, all were tired.. amidst all that was forgotten and all were paused to see the amazing fall.. sharad took out his cam to capture the scene.. so did samir.. then a 3-engine train went from the front of the fall, worth capturing too.. people couldn’t wait any further to go nearer (about 1.5Km more)..

Risk factor: It always happens that the last few 100 metres sound longer than the entire journey.. we continued our walk.. the rain was still heavy.. and then we came across the ‘3-engine rail’ that we saw crossing the waterfall.. I was in kinda risky situation.. I decided to find a place left of the track, but there wasn’t any.. the engine was near and I could see vidhu standing comfortably on the other side.. I too reached there on time, but my imagination was telling me other possible stories..

The broken tunnel: Rain was heavy.. not in a mood to stop.. and we found this beautiful tunnel, which had a gap in the middle (or u can say 2 tunnels head on head, with a small gap).. the view was amazing.. rain and light falling in the middle of a dark cave.. we all took a pause there.. people were rinsing their clothes.. resting their feet in cold water.. I too removed my shoes..

Final steps and then: Rain became less aggressive and we crossed the tunnel.. there was a small waterfall on the right (m calling it small comparing to the size of dudhsagar fall).. and some monkeys started following us.. and it started to rain again.. we cancelled the idea to pause/click there and moved forward.. Finally me and vidhu were on the railway bridge, in the middle of the big enormous fall..

It wasn’t raining, so we were able to have a real good look at it.. the descending side was just fenced by weak walls, that shivered when I touched.. and the big water jet was just below it.. I stepped back from that deep gorge view.. on the other side was the big beauty.. the source of the fall was not easy to identify.. it was kinda falling from heaven..

Mission Nightstay: the photographers were behind, so we couldn’t click any pics.. it was already 5pm, so we decided to first search for a place to stay the falls could be enjoyed later.. I was also not feeling comfortable in my wet clothes.. There was a shed that we observed just reaching the falls and some people were already cooking something there.. we were just thinking to put our stuff there as it seemed a public plce.. but it was not.. the guys there guided us towards the raiway station around 1Km away.. they told us about a church there.. or we could stay at the station..

The disappointment: we walked hard for the last KM.. another tunnel we crossed.. there was a haunted kind of building just after the tunnel..
it looked a possible option to me, but somewhere in my heart I knew, its gonna be a tough call.. and before telling about the church, ask yourself 1 question.. what do you think of when somebody tells u about a church?? that’s exactly what we didn’t got to see.. there was a small room, 10X10 feet.. open ended from front.. a guy was sitting on a small seat.. we didn’t bothered to stop there too and moved forward to the station.. The station guys were not helpful.. ‘why would you stay in this jungle?’.. they said a big NO to all our queries.. and we started thinking, are we going back on the last train that was just about to come? NO WAY!

Back to the church: There was a helpful guy at the station that suggested us to stay at the church.. ‘no one will stop u from staying at God’s place’.. and we observed the only guy in the church also moved out.. we took the pleasure to occupy the empty church and spread our wet clothes all over the place.. everyone’s legs were blooded red due to leeches.. we went to take a bath at the waterfall nearby (first time in my life).. then put some semi-dry clothes on..

Search for fire: Me and Vidhu went around to find some wood.. our plan was to dry clothes and prepare some Maggi.. dry wood was impossible to find due to so much rain.. we went towards some homes away from the station to ask for some dry wood or candles.. a drunk guy came out, whom I so wanted to avoid.. nothing was available as they used gas stove to cook food.. then vidhu suggested, lets ask some kerosene from them.. the good people said NO as kerosene was really hard to get at this place.. but then the drunk guy came forward and gave us some.. we fools didn’t carry money.. I sent vidhu to get it while I waited with the drunk chap..

Hard decisions: Before vidhu came back, lalit came with some news. ‘There are around 15-20 more people at the church’.. now what.. its really hard to spent a night with 15-20 strangers, that too at a small room.. with all our stuff spread around.. news no 2: ‘there’s an engine coming 1 hour later, that we need to stop to reach back to Collem’. Vidhu also arrived. he looked convinced, those people are not gonna stay there, they are waiting for the engine (there were 2-3 females, that made it look more obvious).. We reached back to the church.. people were tired and some decided to go back on the engine.. but I was not willing.. we (me/vidhu/Rafeeq++) wanted to view the fall again.. and to click some pics.. and to enjoy the jungle night.. Finally the decision was made, we were going to stay there and we all waited for those people to go.. the wait was long.. more than an hour..

The loooong night: The night came sooner.. it was just 07.30 when the darkness surrounded us.. there was little (very very little) twilight, which we assumed would stay for entire night.. the train engine came eventually.. never in my life I saw train stopped by people waving their hands.. they were all gone and we 7 left.. the assumption was wrong, it became dense dark soon.. we started to prepare the fire on wet woods.. after trying around 1 hour with all sort of techniques, there was NO fire at the end.. we were left to spend the night with the torch lights, which didn’t look a great idea at all.. but thanks to the engineer brains of me and vidhu, we could see plenty of wax around Miss Mary’s idol in the church.. I created a wick from my bed sheet’s thread ends and we created a small candle in the tiny metal vases.. the vases were small and unreliable, so we need to continuously create more candles and keep feeding them to keep the light.. Light is so important.. it helps u feel secure and in this case it also kept us busy and avoid thinking about the fears of that dark jungle night.. meanwhile there was dinner.. I mean just bread jam that rafeeque served.. other guys were slepping or talking, I don’t remember much as we were busy around the candle and kept talking some stuff till 1am I feel.. there was a degree of anxiety that never went down.. the anxiety of ‘what will happen next’ as it was a jungle after all and we were there with limited resources.. I was pretty sure, the fear of animals is ruled out as there were Big noisy trains/engines crossing there now and then.. the animals will be too afraid to come near.. sad for them, but good for us.. the fire seemed stable for some time and we find time to rest.. but as the night progressed, wax became hard to find and fire hard to sustain.. we gave up putting anymore effort and sat there in dark.. I tried to sleep in between as Samir and Karthik too were awake (someone has to be awake, just for safety).. but it was hard to sleep in semi-wet clothes and fear of jungle.. that too sandwiched between 2 guys..

Engine Thesis: Now this part is important.. this is the full night jungle stay analysis of indian railways operation in the dudhsagar region.. Actually these rails run through the western ghats, so they face little steepness in this hilly region only.. rail engine’s help the regular trains, especially the goods train on the climbing slant.. so we always saw rails with 3 Engine set pushing from behind.. and then the set returning back to the other side.. due to forest silence during night, you can listen the engine sounding miles away.. then some light appears on the opposite side of the hill.. as if a big moster is crawling  through jungle darkness, not bothered about anyone.. it will move slowly due to ascend and then be invisible again..  then 15-20 minutes later, he’ll cross just infront of the church.. Its hard to put in words, but that was quite a unique thing to see/feel/observe..

Morning view: A group of noisy people entered the church around 4am.. disturbing all that were sleeping or trying to sleep.. all were waiting for the day to start to ascend to the falls.. finally it happened and all vanished.. we also geared up for the final view of the fall.. we headed towards the fall at 6am.. The fall was in totally different mood in the morning.. there was a drizzle too, but the mist from the falls was heavy.. you can hardly stare at the walls.. and thanks to my specs, it made the view even harder.. we find few spots, mainly on the sides, to have a detailed view..

the top left of the falls seemed as if the falls was running in a slow motion.. milky waves of water falling from quite a height.. On top right, the falls were colliding with a wall of rock producing a big mist cloud.. and this mist seemed defying gravity. It seemed lost in the clouds just above.. amazing!

The unimportant part: a lucky escape, when were we in  tunnel and a train coming from opposite side, we ran out back to safety.. then at church we found some ladies cooking some food for the groiup of children they brought along to see the falls.. they offered tea and I instantly said yes! Tea on hill top, with parle-G, great! The journey was now about to end.. we were enjoying and trying to capture every beautiful view around.. which I still remember!