Dudhsagar trek-Goa Calling!!

The cold breeze was making it very difficult to sleep in peace, I had to get off wobbling away to find something warm. It was the 04th of July 2015, I was onboard the 18047 Amravati Express en route to Goa from Vijayawada, by the time I woke up the next morning, the train and me were both at Gadag Junction in Karnataka, late by 02 hours and crawled our way into Hubli Junction in an hour.

Post Hubli is when you find a distinct change in the landscape, the semi-arid Deccan plateau transits to a greener and considerably wetter terrain and that’s when you know that you are approaching the western ghats (Or the Sahyadris if you prefer to call them that as called in Maharashtra). My destination for the day was the Kulem, a Goan village after Dudhsagar Waterfalls in Goa to board a train back to Bangalore. The Western ghats together, from Maharashtra to Kerala through Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu form one of the most diverse biodiversity hotspots in the world. Owing to the elevation and continuity of the western ghats range, they block much of the south-west monsoon from quickly spreading across the rest of the deccan plateau and as a result are wet most of the time with average rainfall much higher than the rest of the country, except perhaps the north-eastern States.

Needless to say, the difficulty in terrain has always made connectivity to the west coast difficult from the rest of the country. The four major crossings of the Western Ghats by rail are the Bhor and Thull Ghats near Kasara and Khandala in Maharashtra, Braganza ghats near Castle rock in Goa and Shiradi ghats between Sakleshpur and Subhramanya road in Karnataka. The Ghats are very steep for trains to operate with the usual locomotives and evidently require Bankers or breakers (Additional Locomotives at the front or rear of the train consist) to ascend/descend. This might appear interesting only to rail enthusiasts or technically inclined people in general but there is something in these ghats which immediately captivates everyone, the melancholy and sheer beauty, perhaps nature at its purest and best.

Dudhsagar waterfalls, my first pit stop happens to be in the Braganza ghats of Goa, about 12 km off the Karnataka State border on one of the railway ghat sections mentioned earlier, the ghat begins at Castlerock railway station in Karnataka (the last station in KA) and traverses through Caranzol, Dudhsagar and Sonalium Stations to end at Kulem station in Goa, descending 510 mts in a distance of 26 kms. The waterfalls, a beautiful four tired falls on the Mandovi river, in itself is seasonal and is usually at its full glory between August-October.

The train I was in, Amravati express, crossed Alnavar junction while I was lost in my own thoughts standing at the door, and started turning and twisting its way to Castle rock through the Anshi-Dandeli Tiger reserve. Apart from the train itself, everything else begins to appear green from this point, lush semi-evergreen forest engulfs you from everywhere around, transporting you into a world apart amidst which arrives Castle rock. Castle rock is a station with no apparent reason for existence, this is where breakers are attached for trains going downhill and detached for trains just having climbed uphill.

Three locomotives (WDG-4 from UBL  Shed) were attached at the front, ahead of the existing twin GY WDG-3G’s which hauled my train from Guntur and we slowly began going downhill with a Maximum permissible speed of 30KMPH. The Speed was absolutely no reason to complain though, right after Castle rock begins the spectacle of breathtaking views and jaw dropping moments traversing through tunnels amidst nearly incessant rain which keeps you hooked to the windows. The first station in this stretch is Caranzol (trains going downhill in this ghat section either freight or passenger are mandated to stop at all the three stations between Castle rock and Kulem for a brake test) after which the skies were literally pouring down all the way till Dudhsagar.

I got down at Dudhsagar station already in my raincoat and began the 2km trek to the waterfalls, walking close to the railway permanent way to avoid any mishaps. Now here’s the catch, you can’t walk on the track because the oil smears of the locomotive coupled with rain is a tried and tested recipe for a fall, possibly a bum breaking one or worse. The second issue is while walking through tunnels which are meant for trains and usually have less space to be safe if a train happens to pass through the tunnel. A tunnel and a not so nasty fall later Dudhsagar showed up in all its glory(with quite a lot of trekkers, serious, casual and boozers) around. I sat on a rock just listening to the water rushing downstream for a while and started trekking downhill after a good 30 minutes.

The track takes a complete U-turn after Dudhsagar proceeding downhill to Kulem after a few tunnels which actually offer a better view of the falls. It was sunset by the time I reached Sonalium station four kilometers away from the falls and optimistically enquired the station master if there were any freight trains scheduled to go downhill (although not strictly legal, trekkers can request and footplate on the locomotives of freight trains if the loco pilot agrees, and they usually do) but I was not lucky as none were to pass anytime soon. I was already tired from the dehydration and rain, adding to that was the fact that the twilight wouldn’t last that long and within no time would darkness engulf the forests. Trust me, the prospects didn’t seem that great although I did have a flashlight with me, absolutely alone in a dark jungle, crossing bridges and tunnels didn’t really seem that appealing all of a sudden.

After walking through the 2 kms U curve..

Light at the end of the tunnel

..but then the next one came around the corner.

With no choice left, I started walking briskly to finish my last 8 kms of walk to Kulem station hoping to cover a good part of it before it becomes completely dark. The entrances to tunnels suddenly seemed very menacing as it got darker while I barely walked a couple of kilometers and I began to hear all sorts of noises, not everything pleasant. After a certain tunnel, fireflies showed up, lots and lots of them which put me back in a gleeful mood again and I went on. Moments prior to the Outer signal of Kulem station though by when I was barely 2 kms from my destination, I saw branches swinging and distinct loud noises in both the directions, it was dark and I was alone, and the noises were overwhelming, I was scared, really scared and I froze.I couldn’t really figure out at that point of time about what it was all about, all I could sense was I was in some kind of a danger, I flashed my light in all directions frantically now sweating, my heart racing.

I could break into laughter moments later though, when I realized the source of all the commotion was equally alarmed monkeys in an act of jumping onto the nearest branch to safety.

Fear is one emotion which affects everyone, lump it or succumb to it is our choice, well I didn’t really think of philosophy back then, I was just glad to see the monkeys which made me realize I am not alone right there afterall(I am not sure they felt the same though). I don’t know if someone/something else was watching me too but I did feel eerie and cold for a bit and started to push myself faster.

I was totally glad to see the tiny station of kulem and human voices as I was approaching the railway gate, the dimly lit village lights brought me back to the regular hustle bustle from what seemed like a world away…

…and so I walked, now singing merrily towards the lights yet again leaving something better behind!