The Goa They Didn't Tell You About - Dudhsagar Falls

Being working individuals, we boarded the Mangalore Express(12134) at 10 PM from Mumbai CSMT. We were pretty fortunate as we got Tatkal tickets(Rs. 530) in the sleeper coach which went from TQWL 3/4 to confirmed which meant we could enjoy a good night's sleep after a long day at work and wake up to the beauties of nature the next morning.

We arrived at Madgaon Jn. at around 9:30 AM and had just one motto "Visit Dudhsagar" by hook or by crook. Since we had not decided on the how just the where, we started off at the ticket counter at the station and soon realized that if we were to reach the falls before daylight disappeared, trains wouldn't cut it. Hence we moved out of the station and thought of taking a bus to the closest village accessible by road, Kulem. On inquiring around, we realized that even that was an infeasible option as there were too many variables along the way. By that time we were approached by local taxi drivers who offered to drop us to Kulem for Rs. 2000 if we chose a cab and Rs. 1000 if opted for the rickshaw. Since this option also did not make any sense to us, we started browsing the web for alternatives when suddenly we were offered a scooter on hire for Rs. 400/day with a minimum rental duration of 2 days which amounted to Rs. 800 for two days which was the duration we were going to be around for. After careful consideration, keeping in mind that we needed cheap accommodation as well, we decided to go ahead with the rental as it would not restrain us in terms of time or distance.

After wrapping up all the work, we finally left for Kulem and the journey was overwhelming with beautiful roads laid in the lap of nature weaving through forests with barely any vehicles traversing them. As soon as we arrived at Kulem, we encountered two men asking us if we were on our way to Dudhsagar Falls. On getting confirmation for the same, they asked us to pay Rs. 700 per person for the trek as Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary was shut for the rains and the jeeps would not ply to the base of the falls. Since we found the cost unreasonable, we parked the scooter and headed to a local grocery store to buy some eatables for the journey and crossed on to the tracks from under a stationary goods train and found ourselves between two goods trains of which one started moving in the direction of the falls. This provided us with an opportunity to disappear from the station without being seen by those so called guides. As per our knowledge the falls were around 10 KMS away from the station via the track route and hence began our journey towards the Sea of Milk. The hike was an interesting one we had to pay careful attention to the horns of the approaching trains and find a safe place to stop while the trains passed. One of the problems that we faced during this hike was walking on the sleepers between the tracks as they were placed too close to each other such that we had to take shorter strides to keep moving on them. Another problem that we came across was that the width of the sleeper was too short for our feet to fit which was gradually becoming painful. Despite all of these hardships we soldiered on as the desire to reach the falls surpassed all of that.

After hiking for about 2 hours and covering something like 6 KMS, we reached a station in the middle of nowhere called Sonalium where we came across the Amaravati Express(18047) from which a couple of people disembarked to go and absorb the beauty of the falls with a slight difference that they had a guide with them. On having a word with the guide we realized that walking on the track could result in a problem as there was a possibility of encountering the Railway Police Force(RPF) since it is not allowed to go to the rail bridge facing the falls and suggested us to go through the forest to the base of the falls. We decided to take his advice and headed into the forest and joined the Dudhsagar falls trail. At the beginning of this trail we came across a forest official and had to pay him Rs. 50 per person for the entrance into the forest.

It must have been a 15 minute walk from there to the falls during which we crossed two tunnels and at last we had reached our destination. The first sight of it left us speechless which is when we realized that no photo can do justice to the sheer size and beauty of it. We saw a group of people already on the bridge who had come from Castle Rock(Karnataka).

After spending quite some time there, we started on our journey back to Sonalium station. While we were heading back, we came across a group of people who were headed to the base of the falls and decided to join them and have the complete experience. On reaching the pool at the bottom, we realized that the water was too harsh to go close to and turned back. After walking for an hour or so we reached Sonalium station at around 6:30 PM and sat beside the tracks waiting for some train to give us a lift as walking back would take up a lot of time and it would get very dark. After waiting for 45 minutes, we finally came across a goods train, rushed to the locomotive and pleaded the pilots for a ride back to Kulem station. A few minutes of convincing got us a ride in the locomotive and we were on our way to Kulem during which we learnt a lot of things about the locomotive and the pilots which made the journey all the more interesting.

Once we got to Kulem, we picked up our scooter and realized that some of our fuel had been stolen but decided to let it go and left for Panjim. It must have been a few hours on empty dimly lit roads after which the new bridge(Atal Setu) in Panjim came into sight which brought us some relief and we headed to Kokni Kanteen for some authentic Goan food. At dinner we recharged our phones and bodies and started looking for places to spend the night. Our search was focused on hostels which is when we realized that most them are situated in the North of Goa near Anjuna which was another 30 mins away from where we were but the cost saving on those hostels justified the travel. We chose to stay in Pappi Chulo Hostel for the night where we got 2 beds in a Non AC dormitory for Rs. 498 for the night along with a free welcome shot which was more than economical.

The next morning we headed to the Burger Factory for some breakfast as we had read a lot about the place. The burgers were an absolute delight in every manner from presentation to the taste. Despite being expensive, we would suggest that you most definitely give it a go as it is worth every penny. We had the Double Cheddar + Bacon + BBQ Sauce and Green Chili + Cheddar + Bacon burgers both in Beef as Goa one of the few places left in the country where you will get Beef.

After getting done with breakfast, we wandered around the place for a while before heading back to the hostel. We rested for a while, packed up and left for Madgaon at 5 PM as Google Maps showed that we would reach the destination by 6:30 PM. Since time was a luxury we had, we decided to have some food in Panjim but the restaurant we chose had a name that was given to two restaurants in the vicinity and we headed to the wrong one which turned out to be in the Grand Hyatt at Bambolim. Once we realized that we were wrong, we had two choices one was to head straight to Madgaon and the other was to go to the right restaurant. After checking the live status of the train on Ixigo we decided that we had enough time to take the detour.

Now that our bellies were full, we got going on our way to catch our train back home. We covered the distance as fast as we could and made it to the station by 7:45 PM. The moment we reached the station our train was in sight at platform number 1 so we called up the scooter rental guy to pick it up from the station. That is when things stopped going our way as he refused to come due to the fact that he had to perform checks on the vehicle. Since we knew that we had to get done with it as soon as we could, we headed to the guy's shop where he took another 5 minutes to complete the checks and by the time he dropped us off at the station it was already too late. Now our only hope was to wait for Mumbai Express(12133) which was scheduled to arrive at 9:40 PM. Since we had about 2 hours to kill, we bought the tickets for the general compartment and got to charging our phones for the return journey. Due to the monsoon, the train arrived at 11:10 PM and to our surprise, the general compartment was nearly empty which brought us some relief. Without wasting any time we got in, climbed up to the luggage rack and claimed the space.

The compartment remained pretty empty throughout the journey and by the time we woke up in the morning, we had crossed Panvel. Everything seemed to be going fine until we reached Diva where the train was sidelined for over an hour. We finally reached home by 12 PM with some great memories of Goa.

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