Milk Or Water? You have to be there to find out

Five friends, fifth august, five dreams with one destination waiting for us ahead. So here we travel to find the milky waters, month of august when the monsoon is in its full roar & it gives a new life to the natural vegetation all around & makes it look like a wonderful thick green blanket. Dudhsagar here we come. Dudhsagar as the name speaks out is a sea of milk, waterfalls dropping milk like water from a great height. Dudhsagar falls is located in border of Goa & Karnataka on the mandovi river. The train route of this region is one among the best routes of Indian railways. The journey begins from Bangalore city, carrying backpacks with necessary items for the trek. Raincoats, torch, packets of salt to get rid of leeches, snacks etc. Its Yesvantpur to Goa train which we have to board and get down at Castle rock station in the middle of the night. Our journey was amazing with lot talking, fighting, shouting & of course disturbing the co passengers. Its 3am, pitch dark & we reached castle rock. A beautiful railway station nestled in the Western Ghats along the Karnataka-Goa border. Castle rock railway station, the names here are very much Portuguese probably because this rail head was once part of the Portuguese-Indian railway and the erstwhile Portuguese settlement, Goa is just a stone’s throw away.  It’s a very remote place & we decide who needs a hotel now and who really wants to rest as our plan was to start the trek at 6am in the morning. So we started roaming in & around the station, talking loud & chilling around. We also took a quick nap for a couple of hours. We were waiting for the first rays of sun as eagerly as a child waits for the school bell to go off. So here it was the first rays of sun & 6am and along with that heavy downpour of rain. We were waiting under the tin shed of the station for the rain to stop or at least get a little calm. The sound of the downpour hitting the tin shed was at times frightening. There were many other fellow trekkers who were also waiting for the rain to stop, but we decided not to waste time, our enthusiasm was such that we wore our raincoats, covered our backpacks as well with the raincoats and yelled out its time to start our trek, time to head towards one of the most beautiful waterfalls of India, time to celebrate our freedom of travelling & freedom of exploring. During the monsoon season the falls are transformed into one of the most powerful falls in India. Dudhsagar Falls is listed as India's fifth tallest waterfall and is 227th in the world at 310 m. It should be sounding amazing to you now. The water plummets hundreds of metres (over a thousand feet) in large volumes during the rainy monsoon season, forming one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in Goa Karnataka border.  It is a four-tiered waterfall with a total height of 310 metres (1017 feet) and an average width of 30 metres (100 feet). T he area is surrounded by a deciduous forest and many species of birds, insects, plants and animal abound here.  It’s a 15km trek and a rail route trek, yes it’s not the same as other mountain climbing treks, here we have to walk on the route which the train uses from and to Goa from castle rock station. The view is just spectacular as we leave the station behind, we were walking on the rails, on the stone path & also on a small muddy lane on our left just were the railway path ends. The walk on the crossbars that lay under the railway track was not easy if not difficult. The heavy rain had drenched us completely and made us even heavier. The trek was just turning amazing and the rains were giving us a totally different experience which I am not getting words to explain. We are in the middle of a forest, forest on our left & on our right with all kinds of animals & bird sounds.  Very soon we crossed our first tunnel, the tunnel was a small one and we did not bother to use torch as the natural sun rays were helping us to cross it without any problem. The monsoon not only brings the bigger falls to life but also gives birth to a number of beautiful smaller falls in the way. As we move ahead, we cross couple of tunnels and arrive at a viaduct, a small but high bridge built to connect the gap in the valley. The view from this point is something spectacular, something to cherish for some time to come and aptly makes for a pit stop. High raising rock mountain with green patches on it and a tunnel drilled right through the rock at the bottom and at the mouth of the tunnel was this bridge facing the valley. As the trek progresses, the welcome board at entrance of another tunnel signifies that we are crossing over the Karnataka – Goa border.  Yippee we are at the halfway mark now. It was already 9am as we used enough time enjoying, cherishing & clicking the spectacular views. We had to cross a few more tunnels & cover roughly a distance of about 8kms from here. We trekked almost half of the entire trek in heavy rains and that was just amazing. As we were closing on to our destination our enthusiasm was increasing every second every step. So here we see the milestone board of Dudhsagar, its 11am & we are finally a stone throw away from our mighty destination, a sound could be heard that resembles a very heavy rainfall and as we cross the curve, the first view of the destination is at sight, the left segment of Dudhsagar gushing down in milky white. Wow what a view, its un-imaginable white waters flowing down like milk. A few hundreds of meters ahead and there was the famed bridge that is built across the waterfall and with it, the sight to behold,  adjectives fail to describe the amazement and awe that was running through our veins as we stood watching the Mondovi River gushing down as Dudhsagar falls. It was high, it was mighty, it was voluminous and it was taking the plunge at an incredible force while creating a view that matches no other. The showers of the falls where hitting us like beautiful stream of spray. I admired and adored the mightiness of nature for I had never witnessed one such sight and it took time for me to sulk into the aura it created. Ah what a view it was, it just can’t be explained or penned down, you have to be here during monsoons to sulk into the beauty of nature at its ultimate bliss. We clicked many pictures with the mighty falls & also with fellow trekkers. My camera lens was almost gone, the spray of water from the falls had entered my camera lens and taking pictures now was of no use. Camera is not needed at such a spectacular sight, our eyes are enough to capture the beauty and our brains to store that for us till we die. It was difficult for me to move ahead from there, I wanted to just sit there throughout the day and watch the beauty of nature in its splendid form. As everything has to come to an end, it was time for us to head towards Goa our next adventure and chill out destination. We bowed down to the mighty falls & bid our good bye. We Travel Not To Escape Life, But For Life Not To Escape Us