Dudh Sagar :

The love for nature unites everyone. None more exemplified than strangers meeting up on social networking sites and going on treks and hikes. 'Bangalore Trekkers' is one such community in orkut. I have made quite a few friends through that community. Lest I continue singing paens on the impact of social networking on the quotient of happiness in a person's life, let me stop myself from digressing on the topic further and come straight to our journey. Karthik, the trek-cordinator from Nisarga, a non-profit environmental organization, started the mail thread. Within a few days, the list got ready. Among them was a 10-member group of friends, which had 3 Madhus.

The trek plan was like this:

8th August evening : Board the Chennai-Vasco express from Yeshwantput.
9th August morning : Alight at Castle-Rock station, the last railway station on Karnataka side towards Goa, on the Hubli-Madgaon track.
9th August evening : Try not to do anything stupid and reach Dudhsagar falls, camp nearby. Try to get into the falls.
10th August morning : Start towards Molem. Try to reach by evening to board the Vasco-Bangalore express.

Trivia:

The Dudhsagar Falls are amongst the top 100 highest waterfalls in world. Situated on the border of Goa and Karnataka, the Dudhsagar Waterfalls takes a steep plunge 200(or more) feet down in the wooded mountains of the western Ghats. Believed to be amongst the highest falls in the country, these magnificent falls are located in a blissful tropical jungle with crisscrossing streams.

8th August:

Busy day, running after the kids from 4th standard of Boganahalli primary school, who came to Cisco campus for their annual sports day. Myself and Chinmoy were the guardians of 4th standard. Organized the games and then at the end had a tug-of-war with those kids, hopelessly outnumbered by 20-20( twenty young men on the right side of twenty). Events over by 1400 hours.

1600 hours: Office work done. Set out for home.

1900 hours: Set out for Yeshwantpur railway station, my first visit to that place.

2030 hours: Tried to find a eating joint. Could not. Thought of eating my dinner from railway pantry.

2045 hours: Watching passers-by. A major railway-station is the best way to capture a glimpse of India. Pesky tourists, entire family seeing off their lone child, eunuchs, beggars, pick-pocketers, touts etc. are a few species of the homospaien family to be found here.

2100 hours: Saw 3 girls approaching with wildcraft bags. But as is the case, the hottest girls are always in the other school/college/team or as in this case, trip!

2115 hours: Finally saw a man standing along side a bundle of bags. Thats Karthik. Along with him was Shiva. Got introduced to Madhu K, who told that the Madhu I was frequently interacting with was on his way.

2140 hours: Rest of the gang came in.

2145 hours: Train started from YPR.

2200 hours: Got bored. Listened to music and fell asleep.

9th August morning:

Woke up at 5 AM. It was drizzling and we were about to reach Hubli. Slowly, the other members came and sat in the compartment and had a healthy conversation going. I sat by the window.
It was drizzling outside. The overflowing lakes, the mind breeze and the fresh green everywhere reminded me of my travels in NE-India, notably my birth-place, Shillong & Cherrapunjee.

Had some Bhaji @ Londa(which is a major junction). We reached Castle rock at around
10.30 AM. It was drizzling outside. We distributed the sleepings bags, food-items and tents among ourselves and were set to start out trek by 11 AM.













About half-an-hour into the trek, Karthik , like a true team-leader listed out the do's and dont's of the trek. After a few group photos we set out on our way again.


I was at the front, as I was trying to balance my time between clicking and trekking.















In between we came across a few tunnels too.



Our break-fast stop came at Caranzol. The place has an abandoned railway gangmen's quarter and a dilapidated tea-stall. We had bread and jam here, along with some bhujias. This was a break of around half-an-hour. In between, we had a diesel engine passing by.





We started around 12.30 PM again. This trek section is a very scenic one, especially during the monsoons, where the monsoon works like a ghunghat over a newly-wed bride(in this case the green forest cover).







A few sample photos bear this testimony.
























































The trek was at a good pace. A few people were scared at the prospect of coming across a train while crossing a tunnel. We faced exactly that situation, but as the tunnels had enough side-space, there was nothing to worry. The only worry was regarding the bridges, they did not look too broad. One might have to scurry to the other side, if he or she hears the horn of the train. We missed a train by a whisker. The bridge was right after the tunnel.









Came across quite a few natural water springs(some like to call these waterfalls :-))
Our journey was interspersed with bouts of rain every now and then.

















In between, we had the minor excitement of crossing over to Goa.




1600 hours:

People were hungry. So, we had a late lunch about a mile from Dudhsagar station. The falls is a further mile from this station. The lunch comprised of Avalakki. I was tasting it for the first time and it was damn good.

We came across a railway gang-man, who gave valuable information on the arrival and departure of the trains. He also predicted about the weather after one glimpse at the sky(reminded me of the film 'Swades'). His words were a huge morale-booster to the folks who were tired of walking on the tracks.

After about half-an-hour, we started on our way. The rain intensified here. By the time, we reached Dudhsagar station, the rains were pouring. Its a small station for goods trains. Passenger trains don't stop here. We left our baggage and went towards the falls. We have to cross a small tunnel. The falls were in full glory. I thought about having a few good snaps, the next day, unaware of events that were about to unfold in the next 12 hours.














We went back to collect our baggage and by the time we set up our camps on one of the nearby elevated posts, it was already quite dark. The rains were quite heavy now. We had bread-jam as dinner and slept at around 9 PM. Myself, Prasanna, Jaggu and Madhu K were in one of the tents.







I woke up around 11.30PM to find that water was seeping into the tent. Even Prasanna woke up, and we both were idly trying to figure out whether the rains were being forced by the winds to blow in a obtuse angle. After a few minutes, it struck us that the outer cover had flown away. Even Jaggu woke up in the melee. But nothing could put an end to Madhu K's slumber.

We finally managed to woke up Karthik and got out of our tents to fix the issue. Boy, was it cold.
The rains were just too heavy and along with the winds, it was like water bullets being shot at you. We went again to our respective tents. I tossed and turned, but could not get any sleep.
I was missing the music :-(



Early morning around 5 AM, the rain had subsided , but the falls was just amazing. Droplets from the falls had overflown and now covered the entire bridge. Additionally, we came to know that landslides had blocked the track and the previous day's Vasco-Bangalore express was still stuck on the other side of the slide. We had special Black Tea(or was it coffee) prepared by Shilpa & Rashmi. Kudos to them!

After exploring our options, we decided to call off the trek to Molem and board the Vasco express. A particular railway officer helped us in getting accomodated on this train. Thanks , Sir!
Meanwhile a few of us explored the extent of the land slides and saw the workers clearing up the tracks.

Finally, around 11 AM, we boarded the train. Initially we planned to get down at Castle Rock. But since the TT stayed away, we managed to get a ride straight back to Bangalore.

The return train journey was pretty normal. Half the coach was empty. Peter & myself had an entire compartment to us. The others were chatting with a goan family in the nearby compartment. In between, Karthik had a few good real-life stories to tell about Black-Bucks, Elephants, Ranne-Bennur and Great Indian Bastard.

After exchanging contact numbers and pleasantries, we bade adieu as the train arrived at YPR around 2330 hours.

Participants:

Shilpa
Rashmi
Swetha
Madhu BR
Madhu K
Madhu Gopal
Rajesh
Prabhu
Saravanan
Prasanna
Peter
Jaggu
Karthik
Shiva
Myself

How to get there:

1. Trek from Castle Rock
2. Take a goods train to Dudhsagar
3. Goto Margaon. Board a goods train from there.
4. Hire a jeep from Margaon.

Accomodation Options:

Are you kidding?

Kuringal Gudda : Kudremukh

It was the second week of May, and two months since the debacle at Kumarparvatha, that the hills beckoned me once again. While looking for trek options, I came across the BMC post on the trek to Kuringal Gudda. I did not need to think twice before registering for this trek.

Kuringal Gudda is a trekking route in Kudremukh national park. The route is something like
Bhagavathi Nature Camp - Kuringal Gudda - Bhagavathi Nature Camp . The trek distance
is 14 kms with the difficulty level being moderate.

So, on friday night after having a quick dinner at Imperial, I was waiting outside Symphony theatre along with 15 other strangers, when the BMC bus came. Soon, all people got in and at around 10.45 PM, we started off, manouvering through the halogen lit empty streets of Bangalore. The exit from Bangalore was delayed by the customary traffic jam at Jalahalli cross, and the bus gained momentum only from Neelamangala. A brief stopover happened around 12.30 for people to have their dinner. After dinner, the people boarded the bus and as the bus started, a quick round of intoductions followed after waking up the sleepy folks. Mayuresh, in typical style, literally put the 'spotlight' on the tired folks :P

We reached Kalasa around 8 A.M. and had a brief stopover for tea & pee :D. At 9 A.M , we reached Kudremukh and we were waiting outside the DFO office. We had our breakast and after finishing the formalities at the forest office, we set off for Bhagavathi nature camp. The river "Bhadra" flows behind the camp.

After putting our rucksacks in the large dormitory, the guys rushed to the river to take a bath. The water was crystal clear. After an hour of frollicking around and pulling each other's legs, we had our lunch at around 12.30. The lunch was prepared by the local guard who doubles up as a cook. It tasted delicious for sure. Around 1.30 we set off for Hanuman Gundi falls, about 7 kms away for the Bhagavati nature camp. Around 2.30, we were at the falls and walking down the steps to the base. There most of the folks went down and enjoyed the cold water flowing from above. This went for quite sometime and by 4.30 almost everybody was tired and after drying themselves, they walked up the stairs and boarded the bus waiting outside. Now, Kudremukh seems to be full of forests and there was only one tea shop near KIOCL. So, again we went there for our cup of tea. This place also has a small marketplace, where once can buy local groceries and meat etc. The small, quaint market was located in the backdrop of the famed western ghats which added its own aura to that place.

Anyways, we started back towards Bhagavati nature camp and reached there by 6.00 PM. A few of us got down at the gate itself, from there it was another kilometre to the base camp. With the sun beating down and all eyes wide open looking our for wild-life, we did manage to come across some spotted dear.

But that was just about it. The rest of the evening was spent discussing about office, IT industry,
managers etc. A couple of guys stood out during these interactions. One was Roy, the guy from
Shillong, Anshul(who came from Chennai to join this trek) and Vaibhav.

Around 9 PM, we gathered around the fireplace thinking that dinner was ready, but truth was that dinner was still an hour away. To pass the time, jokes were cracked, attempts were made to sing some songs and finally everybody settled down on some light-hearted banter. Around 10, dinner came and everybody ate to their hearts' felt. There were quite a few dishes, veg and non-veg.

After dinner around midnight, everybody went for a walk to the front gate hoping to catch sight of some animals. But still no-luck, rather ill-luck as a forest department jeep came at that time and sternly asked us to move back to our dormitory , warning us about the dangers of the forest at night.

So everybody was back and people dozed off by 1 AM. I had a sound-sleep, but was awakened a couple of times briefly by the sound of water falling on the ground. At around 6.30 when I got up, I again heard the sound and thought that it was raining and was wondering how the famed Kudremukh leeches might be expecting a feast. But when I actually woke up and went outside, it was just the water tank leaking near the window :D .

Anyways by 8 AM, everybody was ready and set to go. We had a quick breakfast and then divided the supplies between us. Around 8.30 AM we started off by crossing the Bhadra river behind the camp. After 5 minutes of walk, there was the first cry of leeches. Thereafter everybody stated discovering leeches. Me being a past experience-holder of leeches continued moving forward. It was like rumble in the jungle as people started running uphill in the forests. I could barely manage a photo or two in the melee.

After 2 hours of running, pushing and shoving, we came out into the open from where we could see the peak of Kuringal Gudda. Now this was a steep climb and needed a good 45 minutes to over come it. Once at the peak, we spent the better part of 2 hours eating, clicking and just relaxing. Once can see the Kudremukh-mangalore road from this viewpoint. All were busy with something or the other. I just dozed off on a rock near the edge of the cliff after exhausting my hunger for photos.

Around 2 hours past noon, we finally got down from cliff and made our way to the Bhagavati nature camp via a seperate route which was almost fully a jeep track, devoid of any leeches. Had a few breaks in between and admired the Kudremukh grasslands. Also posed for quite a few photographs.

We were back at the base camp by 3.30 and after a quick dip in the Bhadra river, we had our much delayed lunch. The bus started off around 5.00 PM and we zipped past Kudremukh. In between we had a stopover at Kalasa for some quick coffee.

We stopped for dinner at Hassan and after finishing our dinner in half-an-hour, we started off for Bangalore and reached my home finally at around 3.30 AM.