Track Trek - Doodhsaagar

Plan : For all those who complain for time, this is a brief of our plan. Hope this helps.

Day/Date Oct, 2013	Start time	Start Place	Reach time	Dest Place	Transport	Other details
Wed/16	3:30pm	Mysore	9:30pm	Puttur	car	Approx for 20kms after sampajje the roads are bad rest are excellent
Thr/17	10am	Puttur	11:30am	Mangalore	Car
Thr/17	12:50pm	Mangalore(MAQ)	7:15pm	Margoan(MAO)	Mathsyaganda express (only train that was booked)	This is the only train which reaches on time
Fri/18	7:40am	MAO	9:30am	Doodhsagar	Howrah express	Only train towards DS till evening
Sat/19	11:50am	Kullem	1:00pm	MAO	Chennai exp	Train is usually delayed
Sat/19	2:00pm	MAO	8:00pm	Udupi	Mangalore passenger	Not crowded, Fare is just Rs65/- to Mlore
Sun/20	3:00pm	Mangalore	11:30pm	Mysore	Car

My way,  

Having been to all those well planned treks and trips had started getting too monotonous and less fun for me. Doodhsagar was the one followed with this mindset. I posted on my wall to know if anyone out there were interested in joining me in this trek. I & Suhas were still trying to tweak the plan to accommodate it over weekend. Sadly weekends in a spot like Doodhsagar is extremely crowded and I hated to end up in such a noisy & messy situation. So by the time we freezed the weekday trek plan it was late and naturally train status showed big numbers of waiting list. Four of us from Mysore, two of our friends from Bangalore and an interesting bunch of 4 people from Mangalore finally packed our bags.

Wednesday, it must have been late noon we started in our car to Puttur. Me & Raja both being beginners took our sweetest time driving to Puttur by night. It was a very long time meeting Harianna & his wife. It’s always a pleasure being with their company and I was way to glad that this trip gave us time to meet up. After a stomach full of delicious dinner we gave rest to our bodies till morning. Their house is at a higher land than the rest of the houses around, sipping a hot tea in the balcony watching the greenery around make me feels these people are damn too lucky to be there. This also reminds me that my dad and mum too spent their early years of married life in this very place Puttur. Lot of things might have changed but Puttur is still remote-like n fun!

After bidding bye to them we continued in our car to Manglore. On our way, we stopped for Kalladka tea aka KT. It’s a nice technique to pour the tea syrup on a layer of milk and it tastes unique. I mean good :P. We rushed to the Mangalore central station after making an unnecessary trip to the Mangalore Junction station. Dropped our luggage at the station before parking the car at a fren’s place near Urva Stores. Mathsyganda express chugging its way through the green spread on both sides of the track. It was post lunch & we struggled to keep awake in that heat outside, mangalore weather was humid as always. As train gets close to Murudeshwara, Kumta, Ankola, Gokarna and Karwar there is endless greenery, numerous hills, long tunnels and endless water joining the sea close by. It’s definitely a treat to your eyes. The huge statue of Shiva in Murudeshwara is visible from train and with that we can make a guess of close we are to those beautiful beaches. It was close to dusk when the train was passing over Karwar & I loved it, surrounded by hills on the east and the beach towards west. It was spellbinding. We sat near the doors enjoying the sun going down.

Reaching Margoan by 7:15 in the evening, we had to look for a hotel for the night. Heavy bags and tents forced us to take an expensive ride to a nearby hotel. The place looked good but the sight outside the hotel looked like a dumping yard. By the time we ordered our dinner at a Veg hotel, two of them from Bangalore joined us. Managed to get a hot water bath back in our room and had a good night sleep with AC ON.

Tomorrow was fun ...