A Railway line trek to Dudhsagar Falls

• Dudhsagar Falls -  literally Sea of Milk
• India's 5th tallest waterfall
• Distance from Bangalore – 570kms
• Trek difficulty Level -  Moderate

Trek to Dudhsagar would undeniably be a dream trekking place for all the trek freaks and it was on my bucket list since last few months.

Etymology:
As the cascading waters appear white like milk, the waterfall is called Dudhsagar, Doodh being the Hindi word for milk.

Legend:
Legend has it that a beautiful princess lived in the forest (near present day Dudhsagar Falls) in a palace. She loved and enjoyed bathing in a lake nearby and used to drink "sweetened milk" from her "golden jug" after finishing with her bath. One day while enjoying her jug of milk she found herself being watched by a prince, who was standing amongst the trees. Red with embarrassment at her inadequate bathing attire, she poured the jug of milk in front of him to form an improvised curtain to hide her body while the maids rushed to cover her with her dress. It is said that it is that sweetened milk that cascades down the mountain slope as Dudhsagar Falls to this day as a tribute to the virtue and modesty of the princess.

My Experience:
We had 2 options to board the train -one from KR Puram and other from Yeshwantpur station. The adventures started well before we boarded the train. Yes, we were lost in conversation about previous trekking experience and were waiting in Platform number 3 for Vasco express. On hearing the train whistle we took all the huge luggage and gawked the direction of the sound. Unfortunately, the whistle boomed from platform number 4. Dead opposite to us. We all were disappointed and placed the luggage’s back in place. The train halted in platform no 4 and luckily, “Chennai to Vasco” caught the attention of our eyes and someone screamed, “That’s our train”.  We snatched all our luggage’s again and jumped on to the railway track and rushed to our respective coach which was little far.  We could not stop the discussion of how the railway trek got kicked off right from there. After chit-chats we went to sleep and woke up next day. The time we got up we were about to reach Hubli station. The view from Hubli station to Dharwad was mesmerizing. Almost at 11 P.M we got down at Castle Rock

Day 1: CastleRock to Dudhsagar
The team was split into 2 and the first group started walking away. (Let the reason for splitting into 2 groups be a secret within US). Megharaj had a tough time to make us stroll as we kept halting for posing the camera and got struck by magnificence of Dudhsagar.  The big twist and challenge came to him, when he observed Kushal (who was an amateur photographer) went on with a few professional photographers (Not from our team). The professional photography team was capturing each and every move and it took a hard time to pull him back to our team.

“Train, Guys Train. Get off the Track” - It was really an amusing experience on alarming our friends behind us on hearing a whistle sound. "Wow...Jaw-dropping,.. Look there..., Mind Blowing..." was the most frequent words we kept repeating during our whole trek

When we were about to cross the tunnel, a train came and all engrossed to the wall. It was mind-blowing to see the train passing inside the dark tunnel and sensing its vibration. Finally, We all reached at 4 PM and started building the tent beside the water fall (Just 100mts from the waterfall) and 5mts from Railway track. After a nice bath in the water, we came to our camping, prepared food and finished our dinner. It was an astounding to sleep inside the tent, listening to the shuddering train sound and water gushing.

Day 2(Dudhsagar to Sonalium station)

We all got up at 5 next morning and after preparing the breakfast the rain started cats and dogs. We packed all our tents drenching in the rain and started our day 2 trek (Another 10 KMS). 6kms in railway line and 4 KMS in Forest Route. After bidding bye to few people at Sonalium station who planned to visit GOA, we took the forest route. As we went deep inside forest, a wild animal stopped us and was staring at us. Since I was wearing a red-t shirt all perpetuated the myth that red makes bulls go wild and it’s going to attack you. Fear in my eyes, I pushed another person forward, but the bull took one step forward and we took one step backward. By the time, few other friends joined us, and on seeing a big gang, the bull ran away.

We passed almost 5 streams and finally reached the station. We all took a train to Londa by 4:45 PM. We had to take General compartment, as there was no booking. A drunker who was sitting on foot board and taking snaps in his camera lost his balance and fell down from the running train. We tried to stop the train by pulling the chain, but as we already crossed 1 km we ignored. Now each and every tunnel which we crossed by our feet, we were passing by train.

One would definitely take back 3 memories - camping beside a waterfall, travelling in dark tunnel, walking for 14 kms along the railway tracks admiring the greenery, mist, and rain and playing in mini-waterfalls...

P.S: Trip to Dudhsagar would definitely a rejuvenating one.

Written By        : Deepika M
Main Blog         : My Fun My Memories My Life
Organized By   : Megharaj Kurkoti
Date of event   : 21st Sept, 2013
Members count: 24 (18M, 6F)
Place               : Dudhsagar
Pictures           : Chaitanya