Dudhsagar - A Fall to Remember

Dudhsagar : Photo Credits : Anuradha Anmol

Massive Waterfall. Trek through forest. 30 hours of travel. 2 days of happiness. That should probably sum up my experience of the Dudhsagar Jungle Trek.

With Trekmates India, this was my 4^th experience after Konkan, Saguna Baug and Sandhan Valley. With time the group size has been populating immensely. We were in total 63 trekkers and 6 leaders which made the train coach all occupied by trekkers.

We started a day before Raksha Bandhan which was on Friday from Mumbai. I was accompanied by Vidya and Apurva from Thane and we were not sure of what was it likely to be. Pretentious about the travel time (16hrs both ways), I cribbed a lot, however, I was sure that it would be worth the time.

The trains were on time. We routed from Mumbai to Pune and reached there well before time. I headed to my uncles place for a quick snack while the rest headed for a restaurant. Our train from Pune (Hazrat Nizamuddin – Goa Express) was scheduled at 4 and we all assembled on time.

While the train surpassed Satara, I started reading ‘And the Mountains Echoed….’ By Khalid Hosseini. The book is a must read for fiction lovers and I read approximately half the book while the lights went off. We had dinner ordered in the train and realized it was horrible. Post dinner we had some light snacks and then dozed off for a power snap.

I was feeling a bit under the weather due to my chronic toothache and at half past 2 in the morning our trek lead Manoj woke us up. I requested him for meds as I was feeling feverish and he provided a couple of cold n flu tablets. I was afraid that the fever does not come in way of the trek and ruin it.

I gobbled up the tablet hoping for relief at around 3.30 AM.

We reached Dudhsagar Railway Station at early dawn. Strict instructions were given by Manoj about getting off the train as there was no platform and all had to alight within 30 secs as it was a request stop.

Everyone assembled in the dark and it was raining there. I was freezing an extra bit due to the fever and we had to wait for an hour in rains for the sunshine to light up the dark. People were clicking photos, singing songs, chit chatting, siting in silence and napping along and many other expressions were experienced.

The rays of sun landed and we moved a bit further from the Dudhsagar Railway station. The formal round of introduction started. This time, 2 groups were formed for introducing themselves to each other because of the large size of team. Instructions were passed on about the further course. It was a 3 step course as explained:

• Get your breakfast done and gaze the mighty falls as much as you can (6.30 to 8.30 AM)
• Head for a point where you can witness the train pass through the falls (8.45 AM to 9.30 AM)
• Trek through the Jungle for 4 hours and reach Kulem where you shall have lunch (9.30 AM to 1.30 PM)

From Kulem, it was understood that there shall be nothing else but a return journey waiting for us.

The waterfall was a 5 minute walk from the introduction point. We walked there and we glimpsed the gigantic waterfall. Over 300 meters of water gushing on the left I was amazed by its beauty. We could not stop there as the instructions stated for breakfast.

At 7.00 AM we had Poha and Tea to satiate our hungry appetites and quickly we moved to the waterfalls again.

Head on with Dudhsagar

For over 10 minutes, I was standing there on the parapet gaping at this humongous, gigantic, gargantuan, colossal, enormous natural structure. Significant streams of water gushing through the cliff and I was standing on the bridge gazing it with utmost silence. The entire group was awed by its sheer beauty. The sheer force of the water drops emanating from it was exuberant. At a distance of approximately 50-100 meters away we were observing the water sprinkle on all.

From the water fall we started moving towards the point where we could observe the immaculate scene of a train passing by the falls. We reached on time and so did the train. All the shutterbugs snapped the train in motion on the bridge against Dudhsagar.

We completed this stint and prepared for the jungle trek. Prior to the Jungle trek one of the trek leads showed us an injured Indian Rock Python. When I saw the snake I pitied its condition. Nothing could be done apart from putting it back in the wild.

The jungle trek started with a steep descend from the tracks into the jungle.’

Everyone were well informed about getting in salt in their backpack. I was unaware why? Truth was that the jungle was filled with leeches. It was informed that each and every one had to wear proper gear to avoid getting attacked. Fortunately or unfortunately I was dressed as they say ‘the least’ and I was a potential prey to the mini but dangerous predators.

Over an hour of strolling through the damp forest people started inspecting themselves. Lo and behold not one but many of them were attacked by leeches. The best part of their attack is no body is ifnromed nor it hurts when they bite. People were sprinkling salt, burning match sticks and some were just shrugging them off.

Luckily, not even a single leech attacked me or my peers.

It took 3 hours of strolling to clear the jungle tracks and eventually we landed back on the railway tracks to reach to the hotel in Kulem where lunch was planned. The last stretch was a bit boring but chit chatting with folks held us up till the end.

We reached Kulem at around 1.30 PM to the Hotel. Everyone was exhausted. Some of them were recuperating from the leech attack. Some were all lost. Many like were looking for an option to sleep off somewhere.

We had delicious lunch at Kulem and at around 4PM headed to the Kulem railway station. It marked the end of the tour. This time we were IN the train while it passed the Dudhsagar. Within no time I dozed off and woke up at 5.00AM at Pune.

From Pune we hired a cab that dropped us back home.

An experience worth it.