This is a long pending post which I have been thinking of writing since last year. Finally I am writing about this amazing Monsoon Trekking, I did last year (2014 sometimes in July) with Ranju, Sonal and her BHEL trekking group. It's time to walk down my memory-lane and do the trekking again ;)
Trek Location
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| Taken using Lumia 720 phone camera |
There are two routes to do this trekking one from Karnataka other from Goa side.
- Route-1: Caste Rock to Dudhsagar falls
- 14km one side.
- Takes about 7-8 hours one side
- Route-2: Kulem to Dudhsagar falls
- 12 kms one side which includes mud road as well.
- Takes about 5-6 hours one side.
Best time to trek: July to December (during Monsoon)
Permission: Not Required
Fee: None
Food availability: None, You need to carry your own
Our Plan
- Day-I (26-July-2014): Start from Bangalore in the afternoon and reach Castle Rock early morning next day.
- Day- II (27-July-2014): Start trekking to Dudhsagar and then catch a train to Karwar
- Day-III (28-July-2014): Explore the village Karwar
- Day-IV (29-July-2014): Get back to Bangalore by night
Day-I
(Bangalore - Hubli - Castle Rock)
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| All Set to Go! |
The plan was to meet at Majestic railway station to catch a train. As it was a week day I had to rush back from the office and thanks to Bangalore's traffic I reached home late and started late for railway station.
I hired an auto and started from HSR (area in Bangalore where I am put up currently) and told autowala that I need to catch a train and I am running out of time so he needs to ride as fast as he can. Surprisingly the autowala was more concerned for my train than me and once again I was having a race with the train, and was wishing to get lucky this time as well. So after a roller-coaster ride, I made it on time. Yey! and autowala got the well deserved tip from me :)
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| At Hubli Junction |
As decided we all met at the railways station, boarded the train and had a short introduction with each other before eating the tamarind rice I had prepared. There are 7 of us from 4 different Indian States. Good thing about India is that it has 29 States and each state has its on language and multiple dialects in each region. So in a group of 7 we are like 3 from Hindi speaking state Uttarakhand, 1 from Gujarat, 2 from Tamil Nadu, & 1 from Kerala, the perfect example of Unity is Diversity!
With chit-chatting and playing games like cards UNO etc, we didn't even realize that we were at Hubli junction. My eyes couldn't believe that its a railway station, that's because it's impossible to find a neat and clean railway station with good facilities in India!
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| The group! |
We quickly grabbed some food and got into the train which took us to Castle Rock junction.
Group picture at Castle Rock junction. From left to right Sahil, Kamlesh,Vishnuu, Me (Pratibha), Ranjana, Sonal and Suyambu.
Day-II
(Part 1. Castle Rock - Dudhsagar)
Castle Rock is the last railway station from Karnatak side. Very fancy name but don't go by it's name as this is one of the worst junction I have ever came across in my life. This junction doesn't even have a proper restroom forget about having other facilities.
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| The Platform |
This is the famous trek route among the options so you can find a lot of crowd here during weekends. I was amazed to see the crowd. There were many small and big groups, some of the big groups had come with guide from the travel/event agencies, some groups had only boys, some had only couples and some had both boys and girls.
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| Castle Rock Junction |
Many people were lying on the floor as there were no waiting rooms available at the junction.
We reached around 3 am in the morning. It was still dark so we decided that we will start the trek when we see some sun light.
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| Get Set Go! |
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| Scenic Route |
It was cold and drizzling, still it felt good to walk with heavy bag packs which we usually don't do in any normal days.
Fog and rain kept appearing and disappearing through out the route so do our raincoat & umbrellas.
The route was very scenic with green plants and tree in both extreme corners of the single lane railway track
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| Old Bridge |
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Tunnel Number 1
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After walking for an hour we could see the the first tunnel of the route. You can see the lights only at each end of the tunnels. Inside tunnel it's dark and wet (due to rain water which drains out through the tunnel walls), so with the help of torch we crossed the first tunnel. There were many more tunnels yet to come on the way.
Each tunnel we came across had a unique look, some were fully covered with green plants, some had just red brick walls, some had black wet look due to continuous rain water.
While crossing the tunnels we cannot go as a group, we have to walk in a single row and also need to pay attention to the signals (people's scream "Train is coming, get aside") from people. These signals are required to be heard as one will not know train reaching the tunnel.
While crossing the tunnels we cannot go as a group, we have to walk in a single row and also need to pay attention to the signals (people's scream "Train is coming, get aside") from people. These signals are required to be heard as one will not know train reaching the tunnel.
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| The longest Tunnel |
The tunnels and their walls were very slippery due to rain water so we had to be very careful while getting aside.
The tunnel number 2 is the longest tunnel with length 409 meters. This tunnel has a nice structure.
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| Selfie Time! |
The trip is not done, until you have few selfies, so we took few selfies on the way.
We were also carrying nuts, mixture, biscuits, soaked grams, lemon and apples in our bag packs, which was a great help in supplying fuel to our bodies to keep us moving ahead.
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| After crossing tunnel number 3 |
This route is located in the Western Ghats and knows as Braganza Ghats which starts from Castle Rock Karnataka and ends at Kulem Goa.
After crossing the tunnel number 4, we reached at Caranzol railway station which is the first railway station between Castle Rock to Kulem. The second one is of-course the Dudhsagar and the third one is Sonalium.
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| @ Caranzol Railway Station |
Before Konkan Railways was introduced, this was the only way one could have reached Goa via train.
There is no train which originates from or terminates at Caranzol railway station but you can see few trains halting here for brake test.
In this route you can find many goods train as well, which one can board to reach Dudhsagar if the train driver agrees to take one along.
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| Ghost Inside Tunnel ;) |
We crossed close to 11+ tunnels to reach Dushsagar Railway station. The waterfall was only 1 kms from this place.
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| Destination |
Around 2:00 O'clock we reached at the waterfall. We covered the total distance (14 kms) in six and half hours.
Day-II
(Part 2. Dudhsagar - Kulem)
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| View of the Falls from far |
Around 2:30 pm, we started from Dhudsagar to Kulem. We passed through few more tunnels in this route as well and also got the view of the falls multiple times. After walking for half an hour or so we saw two routes one which of-course goes via the railway tracks and the other which goes via a small village, we decided to go via second route.
There were steps at the side of the railway track. We followed the steps and reached village. Village had a small shop where we could get some water and snacks.
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| Mud Road |
We rested there for some time and also asked the shopkeeper about the route to Kulem. He was like you need to follow the mud road which goes through a Jungle and the other alternative is to take a bike ride till Kulem. They were also charging 500 rps per person for the bike ride. We were little conscious to go for the second option because in an unknown place we cannot take the risk of trusting anybody. So we decided to walk, even though we were scared as the sun was setting and it was getting dark. Some of the other groups took the option of bike ride and we could see bikes coming both ways on the route.
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| Crossing |
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| Railway track |
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| River |
With walking, chatting & clicking pictures, we could manage to reach at Kulem around at 7:00 pm.
Day-II
(Part 3. Kulem - Madgaun - Karwar)
At Kulem we had no clue is to how to reach Madgaun, we didn't see any train coming which we can board, luckily we found a taxi driver, after negotiating with him, he agreed to drop us to Madgaun railways station. The taxi ride took like an hour to reach Madgaun junction.
At Madgaun junction we checked for tickets only local train tickets were available and we didn't have any other option because it was already too late and it was the last train of the day, so we took the tickets, parceled some food and got into the train when it arrived at the platform.
We got lucky again as the local compartment was fully empty, there was not even a single person in the train, it felt like as if we have booked the whole compartment for ourselves. Full day without proper food in fog and rain, walking on railway tracks and passing through dark tunnels, by covering 26 kms made us so exhausted that soon after having the food we all went to sound asleep till we reach the Karwar Junction at mid night.
After reaching Karwar jucntion we took a auto and with the help of auto guy we could find a decent hotel to stay. Once the check in was done, we ended our Day 2 with yummy ice cream :)
At Madgaun junction we checked for tickets only local train tickets were available and we didn't have any other option because it was already too late and it was the last train of the day, so we took the tickets, parceled some food and got into the train when it arrived at the platform.
We got lucky again as the local compartment was fully empty, there was not even a single person in the train, it felt like as if we have booked the whole compartment for ourselves. Full day without proper food in fog and rain, walking on railway tracks and passing through dark tunnels, by covering 26 kms made us so exhausted that soon after having the food we all went to sound asleep till we reach the Karwar Junction at mid night.
After reaching Karwar jucntion we took a auto and with the help of auto guy we could find a decent hotel to stay. Once the check in was done, we ended our Day 2 with yummy ice cream :)
Day-III
Day 3 was to explore village Karwar which is in Uttara Kannada district in the South Indian state of Karnataka. You can get more information about the village from this wiki link.
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| Breakfast |
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| @ Hotel Amrut |
We played at the beach till lunch time and then went to hotel "Amrut" and filled our tummies with amazing seafood.
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| @ Rabindranath Tagore Beach |
After having lunch we roamed around in village and then went to Warship Museum which is at the Karwar Beach. It is a vintage naval ship "INS Chapal (K94)" which is converted into a museum. The entry fee to museum is 25 rps.
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| View from INS Chapal (K94) |
In the museum, first they showed a short movie about Navy & later we went to see ships' internal parts, missile rooms, control rooms etc.
From museum we went to see the Karwar Aquarium and by the time we were done watching sea creatures, it was dinner time. We quickly finished dinner and decided to watch Salman Khan's movie Kick at the local theater. Despite seeing too much rush we were able to get the balcony seat for just Rps 60 per ticket and the 3rd day ended with a movie.
From museum we went to see the Karwar Aquarium and by the time we were done watching sea creatures, it was dinner time. We quickly finished dinner and decided to watch Salman Khan's movie Kick at the local theater. Despite seeing too much rush we were able to get the balcony seat for just Rps 60 per ticket and the 3rd day ended with a movie.
Day-IV
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| Train Route Map |
We took Karwar-Yesvanpur Express (16516) which starts from Karwar at 5:30 am & reaches Bangalore at 10 pm. It runs only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and has 15 stops from Karwar till Yesvanpur. It covers total 794 kms and passes through major cities like Udupi, Suratkal, Mangalore etc.
I had not slept properly since 3 days and was dead tired so, as soon as I got into train was full flat and was sound sleep till morning 10 am, when everyone woke me up for having breakfast.
There were many people who were just travelling to soak the scenic view into their eyes or to capture it in their cameras. We also clicked few pictures on the way. Even though the train journey was too long it was worth doing it :)
Few tips from me:
- If you can, do cover both the routes in one day like we did Castle Rock --> Dudhsagar --> Kulem. Trust me its possible, we did so can you! Having said that if someone who doesn't have stamina to walk full day can divide the trek in two parts, day one one can do Castle Rock to Dudhsagar and stay that night at Dudhsagar, it has place to do night camping and next day one can do Dudhsagar to Kulem.
- Take sufficient amount of food and water for this trek, you will need fuel supply to your body to walk full day since you will not find any shops from castle rock till dushsagar. In Dudhsagar you may find some shops selling snacks.
- On the way from Dudhsagar to Kulem you will come across a small village which has a small shop, where you can get some water and snacks, if you are running out of it do buy some from there as after that you wont find any shops.
- Carry a good Raincoat, small Umbrella and bag covers if you are not carrying waterproof bags. You do get some plastic rain shaded at castle-rock but its of not much use, you can still buy to protect you for sometime in case you had forgotten to carry one yourself.
- A good Torch which is required very much while crossing tunnels.
- This whole trekking route doesn't have the bathrooms, so you will have to use the nature for that.
- If you have time, do visit Karwar, it doesn't have happening beaches like Goa but its worth a visit!
- If you have buddies in your group who can help you carry your backpacks, the trekking will become very very easy. I had such buddies in my group, a big thanks to them for making this trek easy and fun filled for me ;)
The never ending (26+ km long) trek with #fogs + #rains + #waterfall + #selfies + #forest + #rivercross +#beach + #salmankhansmovie + #trainjourney
This is how I did my Monsoon trekking last year and if I had to rate my experience I would say 5 out of 5 will be less for this trek.
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