Light at the end of the tunnel - Dudh Sagr trek.!

This is a trek which we completed many months ago but I now finally got time to write about this amazing trek. After completing some twenty treks..most of it in the Western Ghats, we felt we had to do a different kind of trek and we decided to go on a railway track trek to Dudh Sagar which lies in the Karnataka-Goa border. We had no idea about the place n stuff as none of us had done this trek before. We searched for information about this place on net and booked our train tickets to Castle rock from Yeshwanthpur. We were five of this time and played rummy til late night during our train journey. At around 3am we reached Castle rock and got down with our backpacks. We then started walking in the pitch dark along the railway track and through the tunnels and paved way for the fast incoming trains. After some two hours we realised we were missing out the scenery and decided to sit in the tunnel and have our early morning breakfast. For those of you who don't know about the location let me tel you this place is a heaven. It lies amidst the thick jungles of the Western ghats and the track follows a hell lot of tunnels and old slippery bridges. There is no roadway in this place. At the beginning of dawn we could see things clearly around us n trust me I cant explain the beauty of the place in words. For those of you who love photography this is the place to be.! We walked for some three hours from then and at around 8:45am we reached Dudh Sagar station..Its just a platform where trains exchange tracks. We couldn't find anyone there and we had no idea how to reach the falls but we could hear the roaring water. Then we spotted the Station master n he told us there was no train that day in that route and we'd to walk all the way to Madgaon(Goa). We were already tired and thought we would first sort out this issue n then go to the world famous falls. He then contacted the Castle rock Station and found out that a Goods train had just left Castle rock and that it would reach Dudh Sagar in sometime. We then dropped our backpacks there and walked to the falls. It was Amazing. It is one of the biggest water falls in the country and the water actually falls on the track near it.! We screamed out of joy to our limits but sadly couldn't stay there for long as we had to run back to the station. The Station master told us ways to get a lift in a train. We went n stood at the place where the engine was supposed to stop n got ready with our backpacks. The train arrived in sometime n we used the tricks taught to us by the Station master..i mean we had to salute him first n speak to him in kannada n tel him we were students..Guess what it worked.! We actually got a lift in the four-engin long Goods train and for the first time in life I actually got to travel in the engine..It was an awesome experience.! The train then passed by the falls n the water splashed on to us..n passed through some strange stations actually platforms like Sonalium n stuff. It seemed like we were in some radioactive site..lol.! The train travelled at around 20km/hr speed coz it was a Goods carrier n we were in the Ghat section. The driver moved the train only using brakes after he accelerated at the Dudh Sagar station. We reached Madgaon at around 12:30..it took three hours to cover just 40km. by train.! But anyways thanks to him that offered us lift. I then thought of paying him something n went to offer a 100 Rs. note n he blasted me for it.! How nice.? I'd never thought that somebody wouldn't accept money for that great help. He then guided us to reach Panjim from there n went to the office. By then none of us were in a position to walk n we caught a passenger train to vasco. We were very lucky to get a lift or else we had to walk 40km. more that would have been more than 65km. in total. After that we reached Panjim n I guess no need to write from here:-)

- Vishwas.V

Team members:

Name: Vishwas. V
College: DSCE (BT)
Age: 20

Name: Nitin. G
College: BNMIT (EC)
Age: 21

Name: Pavan Acharya
College: BMSCE (IT)
Age: 20

Name : Vinod.R.M.
College: Don Bosco(EC)
Age : 21


Name : Pavan.Y.
College: KSIT(Mech.)
Age : 21