The ride to Dudhsagar Falls

I was celebrating Diwali holidays away from home that year; thankfully I had colleagues too who were in the same boat. Of course, you always have some friends at work who have the luxury of going home to celebrate almost every festival and fortunately I had an invite that year. Vijay gladly agreed to host 3 of us (Anjali, Yeswanth and I) at his home and we agreed almost shamelessly.

Diwali was on Sunday and office was off on Monday too; so, we all boarded the bus to Belgaum after work on Saturday night; landed fresh early in the morning and we got hungry just thinking of the home-made food. Aunty ensured no room for dilly-dallying; she fed us not just to our hearts’ full, but to the extent that we could barely move. We celebrated Diwali at home modestly and planned for the next day; Dudhsagar falls was a 3 and half hour’s car ride from Belgaum. We started early the following day and aunty packed piping hot tea, Murukku and Namakpare for our journey. 2 of Vijay’s school friends (Guru and Sachin) also joined us for the day’s trip and we kick started our ride to Dudhsagar. We reached on time to enroll ourselves for the SUV ride to the base of the fall and made the dvance payment. Just to set the background, Dudhsagar is a multi-tiered fall and its plunge-pool is most commonly visited; however, one cannot reach the area on foot or in their own saloon car. A car with heavy ground-clearance is required to cross the streams and the densely populated forest area; Tata’s Safari emerged victorious.

It was almost 2PM and the someone from the ticket window called out to us; more than 4 groups like ours gathered together; there was a problem. They returned our money first and then announced that admin dept. had stopped issuing permits to cross the forest post 2PM, which meant we were set up for disappointment. We argued to our might, but got a blunt no.

We stood there quite upset about the whole situation for some time; a lanky man introduced himself as Krishna and said sheepishly, “Main leke jayega, fall dekhna hai na..” (Hindi translating to “I can take you guys so see the falls”). We instantly sprung to action, and then he explained his plan in detail; "Gadi se nahi jayega, upar se dekhenge, train se jayenge” (Hindi translating to “We won’t go by car, we’ll see the fall from a height and will reach by train”; did sound quite fool-proof.

We would miss our night bus to Bangalore invariably; but we had gone quite a long distance to not see the famous waterfall at all, right? Krishna escorted us to Dudhsagar Railway station and went to arrange for tickets; plan was to board a train towards Bangalore, get off to see the falls and come back the same route.

The Vasco Da Gama-Yeswanthpur Express arrived on time at around 4PM; we hurried to board a compartment, but Krishna ushered us towards the Guard’s room in the front. We looked at each other puzzled yet followed him as the train stop was short; Krishna then grinned and confessed that he had not bought any tickets as it was a short journey. I believe it was the first time for all of us travelling in the guard’s room on a train as we let our mischievous selves free; within about 40 mins, we could see the falls from a distance and Chennai Express played on my mind; Thangabali’s troop had gathered near the fall while their train had been chain-pulled. As the train crossed multiple tunnels, I could hear the shriek of the chain, and the train slowed down to a screeching halt; was Thangabali waiting for us too??

Tunnels en route Castle Rock

We jumped off the train, onto the rocky tracks, in the middle of nowhere; frantically laughing and giggling at the entire arrangement and soon realized many others jumping off other compartments; atleast we were not the only cuckoo-head. We walked backwards along the one-way railway track, admiring multiple tunnels on the way and finally reached the 2nd-tier of the waterfall; it was ecstatic. The water gushed down at such a speed that the droplets turned into milky white mist, moistening the air around; giving it an incredible filmy vibe and very true to its name indeed. It was almost dusk; after clicking a bunch load of pictures, we decided to walk back to where we got off the train. Krishna guided us through the tracks in the dark and advised us to board the in-coming train.

At Castle Rock

Dudhsagar Falls at Castle Rock

We got off in the middle of nowhere (it is called Castle Rock, we got to know later) while getting here and it is a single one-way railway track; so, there was barely any space left to stand on the cliff when a train arrived. Krishna ushered us towards the goods train approaching slowly; we targeted to get onto the LV board as ofcourse there were no doors to any compartment. I snug up against the mountain wall and literally felt the bare metal of the train sweeping the air cross my nose just an inch away; “Man! This thing is close.. I am so dead if mom gets to know… Let the train stop and I’ll board…” I thought to myself. I could see Vijay, Anjali and Yeswanth nervously saving themselves from the moving train while Krishna continued to shout, “Chadho! Chadho!”; “Huh? Is he nuts? We are not from Bombay, we can’t board a moving train, it needs to stop!”, we had made up our minds; but the train made no attempt to stop. Guru on the other hand made a successful jump onto the last train board as we waited for our turn and the train was gone in no time; Dang!

We only watched as the train picked up pace; “Now what?”; still unable to digest that we missed our only chance of returning! The only other soul apart from us tourists was a railway control room worker, who traveled to and fro in such trains; he informed us that we had missed the last train for the day and there was no information available on the arrival of the next one. Krishna threw a disappointed look at us and walked aside.

The place was signal jammed, so making any calls went out of the window; I was petrified and momentarily abused myself for even making such a plan. We found another group who could not board the train like us and lamented together; Guru joined us soon, as he was the only one who had boarded. It grew pitch dark quickly and the chill had also started to set in as night fell; the boys macho-ed up to gather some dry wood for fire; but it was way too dark for them to spot anything significant under the light of one phone. It was 8 PM and no info of any train.

Hunger pangs started to kick in and the mosquitoes feasted on us as we played dumb-charades to keep ourselves occupied. The railway worker offered his ration (raw rice, lentils and potato) out of sympathy, pointing at the time, it was 10 PM; asked us to use his room and utensils to prepare dinner for ourselves. Anjali had made the best Khichdi that night, we literally licked it clean; then went to the near bush with a leaky tap to wash the utensils; with the fear of anything crawling out the bush lurking over our heads. Try9ing to spot a few constellations kept us awake for a while; while some of us did doze off.

After hours of nap breaks and staring into oblivion, the signal man rushed to inform us about a train arriving at 4 AM, our joy knew no bounds. It was 3:45 in the morning as we counted every minute; we put our ears against the tracks and could hear the distant rumble and finally a passenger train screeched in. We ran towards a bogie; quickly climbed the stairs to open the door; they were bolted from inside; tried a couple of other doors, but no luck.

Krishna ran towards the engine to speak with the driver; and it took some major convincing for us to go anywhere near the engine; civilians are not allowed to enter the engine compartment. “Huh? Does such a rule even exist?” I thought to myself, but it was no time to become Arnab Goswami and initiate a debate, Beg Amu Beg! They finally let us board the narrow slice of area outside the engine room, surrounded by a scrawny railing; we stood next to each other with our backs riveted against the outer wall of the engine and held onto the rickety railing.

The train began moving with a thud of the engine and picked up pace; I stood wide-eyed, heart thumping in my mouth. I almost peed in my pants when I looked down, the never-ending sharp cliff gawking back at me gave me some major chill running down my spine; “This is murderous, Mom would not even know how I died”; looking straight ahead was the only option. We crossed one tunnel after the other; I suddenly heard a very shrill wail; trust me, I have never prayed that hard in my life. A shrill wail in a dark never-ending oblivion, made for the perfect witch plot. Thankfully it was an elderly woman from the other estranged group; she got overwhelmed with our travel arrangement and gave in with a shrill cry; the driver let her sit inside considering the situation.

It was a 50 mins ride back to Dudhsagar station; it felt never-ending and definitely the scariest train ride of my life. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of our lives, he hugged and jumped with joy, truly celebrating our survival. Krishna went his way after a hearty laugh with us and we took off to Palolem beach to spend the rest of the day.

Expense Summary Trip duration - 2 days

Bus tickets - INR 2,200 (return per head)

Cab fare - INR 2,100 (4 passengers one way) Stay - INR 2,000 twin sharing rooms for 2 nights

Food - INR 2,000

Basic expense total - INR 6,200 per head Recommendations -

• Club it with your South Goa trip

• Do the hiking trail to Dudhsagar Falls in Goa, it is a route less taken. However, please avail the hiking packages from one of the many tour organizers if you are looking for the railway track trails

• Carrying basic dry food and water bottles are a must while on the railway track hike