Monday, August 17, 2009

Dudhsagar - 2nd version!

May 13th - Planned
May 15th - Finalized the date
May 30th - Booked the tickets for 21 people
August 2nd - Few people met to discuss on food stuffs
August 9th - Another meet to finalize the things

Finally, August 14th :- Sharp 8'0 clock the Yeshwantpur railway station was filled with people but the trekking group are still on their way. At 9.30 PM everybody is in the train compartment. Another 10 minutes, the train will leave Bangalore.

12'0 clock midnight :- most of them are sound asleep as the train moves, but there are few people who are wide awake chit chatting.

7 AM, 15th aug :- Reached Hubli, I brushed my teeth at the station and got into the train. Stomach was quite hungry. Ate bread and jam. Joined the group who were playing Anthakshari, I was not sleeping nor I was not singing but I was listening. :)
Thankfully after an hour or so the game ended, and I was so happy.. :P
Londa station arrived, another hour to reach Castle rock. An hour went by very soon and we reached Castle rock. The same station where we had started the last year DDS trek. This time the plan was different. We had plans to reach Kulem and then trek back from there.
When the train started, few of us sat at the door of the compartment and enjoyed watching the sceneric beauty of the place. Around 10.15 AM, we passed through the Dudhsagar water falls. Amazing, beautiful and wonderful as same as before though there was less water pouring down this time it still had the beauty in it. The very same attraction which made us to visit it again.

10.45 AM :- Reached Kulem, distributed the food stuffs and rest of the things. It was time to celebrate independence day. Raised the flag and celebrated the day in our way. With a wrist band of flag and sweets to eat, we enjoyed a different way of celebrating it.

11.30 AM:- Started trekking towards the fall. Passing by the forest and beauty of the nature it was our second experience. It started raining very heavily in between. My umbrella and the rain jacket was of no use at all. It did help a bit in saving my poor bag.

2 PM :- Lunch time! I was already late when I reached a small station where the rest of the team had finished their lunch. Credit goes to my legs which were not at all moving fast. Had Roti and Chapathi with variety of curries. I didnt even realize I was sitting on a ladder which was kept in a tilted mode. I just crashed down from the ladder when it broke all because of me. I didnt dare to sit anywhere after that.

4'o clock :- View of the falls every now and then making us more energetic to walk fast. With snaps shot everywhere we got close to the falls. This time I didnt wanted to be left behind from watching the beauty, hence moved so fast that I reached first with 3 more people. I dumped my backpack and other stuffs near one corner and went to every place I could, near to the falls to enjoy its glory. There were lot many people this time and the place was mostly covered with garbage things here and there.

5 PM :- No sign of other people, guessed that they might have got down into one of the streams flowing by for a dip. Madhukar came in search for us to ask us to come and join them. We went back with our backpacks to the place where the stream was. Already everyone had finished their bath. We got in and enjoyed the cold water bath in the bath tub.. ;)

6PM :- I trekked back again to Dudhsagar with few others and rest of the people were already pitching the tents by then. There was another group of guys who had occupied ther upper portion of the shed house so the tents were pitched at the bottom. I quickly got freshened up and had a nice time walking here and there. Exploring the place again with those moments that I had last year with fresh new ones.

8.30 PM :-Time for dinner. I ate chapathi with MTR curry and also had MTR sambhar rice. My dinner was over I went inside my tent to relax a bit. I was in no mood to come out as it was cozy inside and I was also very tired. But rest of the people had planned to gather outside for chit chatting and I badly wanted to go and enjoy with them. We sat on a brickbuilt place like a round table conference and started talking and shouting. We could not decide what exact game we can all play and hence finally thought of doing a brief introduction of everyone. It was fun talking and knowing more about each. After lot of jokes and talks, I went and slept off by around 11.30 PM.

6.30 AM :- It was pretty much warm inside the tents though I had expected it to be very cold in the morning. I came out and could see few people already awake. I had a small walk beside the falls on the train track and after an hour, few of us went to Dudhsagar station to enquire about the train which would take us to Kulem. On the way, we had a nice time with the photographers who were busy clicking our snaps on all possible places.
We came to know that there is a passenger train which would pass by 11 AM which would drop us at Kulem. We thought we might take a goods train or something which would be completely a new experience. With options in our mind, we went back to the base camp and got ready. We quickly had our breakfast which was bread with jam and pickle and i ate so many chocalates early in the morning. We cleared all the stuffs from there and came to Dudhsagar station again at sharp 10.45 AM.

Because the passenger train came early we had to go in that and couldnt wait for any goods train. :( we reached Kulem at 12 PM and walked along the track to find a place near the flowing water. We went inside some jungle cafe and found a place where we could play in the flowing water. But unlucky time, it started raining all of a sudden and made me wet all over again. I had a tough time protecting my stuffs. We got a place to keep our backpacks and so dumped everything and went to play. We enjoyed playing in the water though I was not very comfortable this time as I was feeling very cold. I didnt get into water much. Just sat and watched and few dips inside. By around 2 PM, we all were out and were almost dried up. We had our lunch at the same place and this time it was yummy as we ate MTR ready to eat rice items like bisibele baath, pongal etc with chapathi and curry.

3PM :- Few went in search of fish curry and rest of us took complete rest and we all gathered again at Kulem station at sharp 4 PM. The one most thing which we all did everytime was talking, so whenever possible we were chit chatting. The train was supposed to arrive at 4.35 PM until then we went on with this and that topics.

4.40 PM :- Train arrived. We had to run to the last compartment which was reserved for us and we finally settled down to our seats after we got into it. Train started moving after 5 mins and we came across the same tunnels and same falls again on the way back. With howlings and shoutings while crossing the tunnels, we were exhausted but still had that potential to enjoy the train journey.

6 PM :- We started playing dumb charades and it was so much fun that everyone enjoyed playing it. The whole compartment was shaking and growling with our noises that probably our neigbhour people out there might have been scolding us inside their minds.
The train had stopped for more than an hour at Londa and we didnt even realize to peek outside. We went on playing and enjoying.

I was shocked to see the time when it showed 9.30 PM. Time to sleep? and then we will get up in the morning and go back home? :( sad part ...
So I tried to be awake as much as I could to enjoy the most. People were tired of playing Dumb charades so they all opted for anathakshari. I knew i would sleep off in little time if we started this game but all started it and went on singing. I couldnt keep myself awake after this. I took small naps there itself every now and then and finally I realized I didnt have dinner. I was afraid that I might feel hungry in the middle of the night so tried to fetch something on coming station. We couldnt find anything nor I wanted to buy junk food so had a bit of cold pongal. I badly wanted to shut my eyes then so finally at around 12 PM, I went to the upper birth and slept off...
zzzzzzzzzz....

6.30 AM :- No idea at which place I was. I got up and brushed my teeth and sat down yawning. Everyone woke up and all gathered after getting freshen up. Few had energy to talk and few did not. We reached Tumkur by 7.30 AM and I started eating chocalates as I felt hungry.

9 AM :- Reached Yeshwantpur Railway station. Time to depart. Bid good byes to all and went on my way to my hostel at RT Nagar!

Total People: 19
Names: Deepika, Ashwini, Sindhu, Jaggu, Sudhir, Vishnu, Rashmi, Madhu Gopal, Madhu karuthedath, Prasanna, Madhukar, Karthik, Sathya, Chethan, Harish, Bishu, Peter, Raghavendra and myself!

Further note: Dudhsagar is truly amazing BUT now the place will no longer remain beautiful as the place is getting destroyed by people. We could see all sorts of garbage and unwanted things thrown near the falls. We even came across with people who came there to drink and enjoy dancing. Presently, every weekend there are minimum of 500 people visiting the falls. Last time we went, there was not even a single soul. Looks like every individual who visits the place is destructing this beauty (including us).

P.S: This is just a personal thought of mine. I'm not pointing to any individual person.

P.P.S: It was indeed another best times out there! Different from first yet both the times it was truly best.

P.P.P.S: Pics from Chethan; Madhu karuthedath; Prasanna; Sathya

5 comments:

  1. good writeup..hope u update the trekalogue with photos..regarding the noisy/littering part..any place approachable by wheels is doomed....Boom-shankar

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  2. wow.. full masti..!! gr8 gr8 :)

    Abt dudh sagar .. an article had come in a newspaper.. so that might have increased tourism to that place....

    Anyway.. glad u ppl enjoyed..!! :)

    Cheers..!!
    Arjun

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  3. i saw u in kumara parvatha, camping near butter mane,

    Caio

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