| The Chennai Trekking Club

Post Trek Write up by Priya Balakrishnan

Like a baby who knows not of his wants

We went on a quest seeking nothing but to get lost

And lost we got amongst the forest

To find love, warmth and peace nature had to offer....

Well, no words tethered can be put together...

To express the fun we had over and over....

They say a picture is worth thousand words....

Well we have hundreds of pictures to share...

But alas, they can’t express the memories, forever that we shall all bear....

by Santhosh Krishnamurthi

Well!!!DudhSagar has been on my to-do list since forever. The mail from CTC came as a life saver and I registered for it without much ado. Can’t think of any better company on this quest to conquer the most exquisite waterfall than the super fun and energetic 27 CTC'ians+1[definitely some credit goes to me too :P ]

Nestled among the hills of Western Ghats on the Karnataka-Goa border, this cascading beauty is the 5th tallest waterfall in India. Its breathtaking serenity and lush green settings made the ascent to Dudhsagar one of the loveliest and challenging treks. What with our Organizer “Mowgli” [Ramjan] pushing us to move it, move it all the time :)

The eventful journey began with us (Obviously Me and my friend :P ) missing the train at Bangalore. But there was no way we were gonna miss our dream trek for a missed train :P. We boarded a bus to Londa which was supposed to reach the destination at 8.30am but alas! dropped us off at 9.30am instead and as our charming fate had it we missed the connecting train from Londa to Dudhsagar, i know, not again :P(that was exactly my thought too) We were in a state of total dilemma when Ramjan and Ritesh came for us like knights in trekking attire :P.To cut the long story short we got dropped at Collem,and following a Bumpy Jeep ride along the national park from Collem to Dudhsagar we made it to the bottom most tier of the fall only to notice the conspicuous absence of the rest of our group.

Trusting our instincts that the rest of us would definitely be there by the railway track we started climbing towards the Railway track. The view of the falls from the railway track was amazingly breathtaking and soothed our weary minds J

Finally we found the track and started walking through the cool dark tunnels towards the pool by the railway bridges.

and we were greeted by Deepak who was clicking away. Boy, were we relieved to be re-united.

We thanked our stars and sprinted to meet the rest of the gang who had spent an equally exciting time by the pool. We got to know that the train stopped at the “so called” Dudhsagar station only for a minute and 11 among the 25 missed to get down. What a damper our group of 28 had come down to 17. Now tell me has it not been such an eventful adventure.

After a dip in the pool and some pet pooja, Ramjan and his explorers (Vikas, Sashi, Umesh, Harish and Prashant ) took on the task to find a trail up the waterfall.

The 11 who went missing re-joined us by the pool and at last the lost were listed!!

Well fed and energetic we finally started off on our quest “Mission Dudhsagar”. Along the path we met Steve an Englishman who told us that we chose to tread a tough and challenging path and might need to consider a de-tour, but since when did we CTC’ians find any trail intimidating or tough. We took the challenge head on. After an eventful 4 hr ascent through rocky terrains and untamed wilderness, devouring Oranges, raisins and Bakarwadis, we marched under the star studded canopy and gathered at our campsite by the calm pacific stream.

It was time to feed the hungry famished souls whose spirits Jwere still soaring.Tatha took the responsibility to cook us a lip smacking meal and we pounced on the delicious food like we hadn’t eaten for ages J.After some gaana waana and mauj masti, Ramjan surprised us by pulling out a cake from his goody bag and we wished CTC a very Happy 4^th Birthday at 00:00 J.

After the never ending late night chatting we finally decided to hit the mats and snuggle in our sleeping bags, with the gentle sound of flowing water singing a lullaby J

Day 2 began with sunshine filtering through the dense foliage that sheltered us and revealed a breathtaking view of the pool. The truly blissful sight warmed our teeny-weeny sleepy eyes and filled us with ecstasy and we could not stop exclaiming wowww!!!

While the rest of the troop began waking and set out on early morning chores, a few of us put on our wilderness explorer shoes and ran to discover the untouched,the unseen. After a long walk by the stream and ascent through patches of thorny shrubs we found a view point that made the exploration worthwhile. We couldn’t have asked for more as further down we reached the stream which looked like a setting out of a fantasy movie with the cool white stream gloriously flowing through jet black boulders and colorful butterflies fluttering by its side. It was heavenly is all I can say. We marched through the trees and a patch of long brown grass (that smelt like lemon and honey) to be welcomed with hot milk and bread at the campsite-courtesy Deepa J.

Ensuring the campsite was spic and span, we packed our stuff and embarked on the journey to splash some aqua and hit the tip of Dudhsagar. That is when we chanced upon this wonderful pool with a tiny fall, without any delay all of us just jumped in. Some were engrossed in catching poor little tadpoles and using them for the famous dil chahta hai pose. After a lot of posing for the pics ,sliding down the slippery rocks and whooshing into the crystal clear water, splashing water on each other and more pics J and from a lot of insistence by the organizer Ramjan tht we move ahead we got ready to take on Dudhsagar J

Crawling over magnificent boulders, jumping hopping and sliding over rocks we finally reached the tip of Dudhsagar and what a beauty J we were bowled over by an exhilarating sense of amazement and accomplishment. With all yelling “we did it” and “awesome” we posed for more snaps and the shutterbugs clicked away to all glory.

The final call to get moving came loud and clear from Ramjan and we had to literally tear ourselves away the sea of milk [Though it was nothing close to a sea this time ;) ], we jumped into another pool on our way back, mother earth is really a temptress!!!

We gathered in a clearing, re-filled our water bottles and started the descent on the trail leading us downhill. We reached a guest house and filled our near empty stomachs with a tasty sumptuous meal of chapathis and mutter paneer J This followed by more chatting and relaxing in the guest house and on the tracks, we started walking towards Dudhsagar Railway station to board the 4.30 train for Londa.

While we waited for the train at the station people caught up on beauty sleep, and some like Gerald were busy memorizing names of fellow trekkers J and few others had to play monkey and sit on the goods train which had stopped by only to be called and reprimanded by the station master :P

We saw the train coming, spread around and got ready to board coz it would wait there only for a min and thus we travelled ticketless too ;) till Londa. We had awesome fun at the station, drank lemon juice made using glucose. With the announcements reminding us our train back to reality was on the way we got into the train. Had more crazy fun till the police made us go to sleep and finally had to crash.

Thus our eventful, amazing, superfun, crazy weekend came to an end. But the memories of these days, with super crazy CTC’ians will last forever. Three cheers to the most rocking amazing guys to set foot on earth J And I end on the note that this legacy will continue J

Follow this fun filled group on Nabble at

http://chennai-trekking-club.32436.n3.nabble.com/CTC-turns-4-Dudhsagar-waterfall-trek-19th-amp-20th-Feb-2012-td3775581.html