Packed my bags again within a month, this time off towards Dudhsagar falls, I will fill in the specifics by the weekend,
Borrowing a bag from Shivangi/Piyush's place as I did not want to carry two, I re-packed my stuff into the huge backpack and was off to the Kachiguda station to ensure my arrival before the train leaves unlike before. A quick dinner later, I was waiting on the right platform and soon found co-trip people and was delighted to know that all the tickets were booked together. Boarding on the train, I found Mr.Munni who delighted me with this interesting job profile before we called it a day. The next morning was a looong one with the train barely chugging away but the fresh and green view outside flanked by foggy hills played an ideal part in keeping the moods alive. A little burst of droplets through the window cheered us up as everyone(21?) finally pushed into a single coupe for a round of introductions before we got down finally. Some tea and group photographs later, off we went on our way, right behind the train from castlerock to stop not till we saw the falls which could be loosely translated as an ocean of milk.
Wary of approaching trains from both directions on the single track, specially after out organizers Srini and Jamila warned us of hugging the tunnel walls to prevent accidents when trains pass, we kept our pace on slowly enjoying the scenery but wary of gravel and the 'unclean' areas. The tunnels kept coming, one 400 meters long, with a blind turn ensured complete darkness in the day if not for our torch lights. Light drizzles kept the temperature in control with the rising levels of humidity. It seemed like forever although we had alighted at 1:15 pm and it would have been about 3:30 when we decided to freshen up at a small stream of water followed up by Muni garu's extra lunch which fueled all three of us(Srini was the third) for the rest of the trek along the rails.
As we reached the last leg, the scenery finally began to open up with trees widening enough to clear the view. Walking between a rail track and a good long drop, with no thick vegetation, occasional monkeys and amazing greenery the walk slowly started getting more and more fun.
Little bits of gossip gathered by us about more than 300 people trying to stay back at Dudhsagar made us keep our fingers crossed when we finally reached the station we were to come to. Around 6pm, we crossed the Dudhsagar station arriving to a loud noise which felt like a very heavy train moving and taking forever to go ahead. Walking ahead and there was the magical display of milky water flowing in streams from above with generous force and going on with a display certain to leave the viewer spellbound.
Finding one of the sheds empty, we made ourselves at home outside leaving the dirty interiors and deciding to camp in the open for the night. A while later the rest of the crew arrived flanked by a visibly angry Jamila who appeared to have a hard time controlling the ecstatic photographers from stopping to click everywhere.
All set up and a great packed lunch experience thanks to everyone who got something, we got ready for a long night of little or no sleep for many. I managed an hour or two after which I finally gave up on sleep and walked out of the tarp to stare in the darkness to the unending deafening sound which resembled the sound from a television when you lose cable connection.
An amazing bath in the icy cold water later we trekked up another kilometer for an amazing top to toe view of the Dudhsagar beauty after which we were back near the dudhsagar station waiting to get down at Loonda for the next train to take us back to our non-linearly noisy workplaces.
I, for one, carried back enough white noise in my ears to last for a long time and amazing company which would hopefully cross ways another time soon.
