Day 2 @ Doodhsagar Falls

Mornings in Goa are generally lazy unlike margoan railway station which was crowded with passengers and trains. I & Sumant scanned all the shops on our way looking for bread but all we found was Pav which our taste buds often dismiss. Sumant had to venture lil more deeper into the city to fetch some sweet wheat bread while I headed towards the station to meet those men from Mangalore. Met Jyothi sir after a long time near the ticket counter with his 3 other young-at-heart friends.

There is only one train from Margoan to Doodhsagar in the morning. Howrah or Amaravathi Express at 7:40am. Miss this, you miss the falls for the rest of the day and don’t even try to waste your money and energy trying to reach there on a bike.

The rest of our group reached after us to the crowded platform where we waited for the train to arrive. The train is crowded with long distance passengers and hence you will find it difficult to fetch a seat in general compartment. We managed to make some place for few of us and our luggage. It is also fun to sit next to the door peeping outside the train and enjoy the dark rides inside the tunnels. We waited near the doorstep with our luggage for Doodhsagar Station as the train unofficially stops for very short time. When the mighty falls arrived on the scene everyone in the train roared with bedazed expressions. 

The train crossed the bridge across the falls with a dull pace and continued for almost a kilometer to stop at the station. We had to walk back to reach the falls. While walking on the track we found a vendor selling pav bhaji and each of us hogged a couple of them. Back on track with happy tummies. While trekking its quiet common to see several goods train passing by while you are trekking on the track, it is real fun to stand close and watch a train pass by.

We stood near the falls to click few pictures and fill the sight in our eyes. Falls was at its best. Just as the name suggests the falls is milky white and truly a mesmerizing sight. My previous visit to this falls was during December and there was very little water. Since then I waited to visit this place again when it is in its full grandeur.

After spending some time relaxing near the falls we trekked in the forest to reach the base of the waterfall. The recent rains had made the path very sludgy and slippery. Tricky part was crossing the streams. We struggled to balance ourselves and more importantly the gadgets from getting wet. We made a chain and started passing our stuffs from one bank to the other. Few of us still enjoyed a free fall into the chilling water. As we trekked deeper into the forest we realized we had entered the monkey kingdom. The trek seemed never to end and we started giving reasons not to continue but on reaching the spot where we could view the waterfall in full length we were more than glad for all the merry-go-round we did to reach here. Our hungry stomachs craved for some nourishment but those monsters covered us in all directions not letting us get even a single bite. We had to convince our tummies to wait for some more time. We tried to fool our ancestors by getting into the middle of the water and without flaunting our food reserve, we made small rolls of roti and gulped  them but no sooner we were caught.

 While the stream was so welcoming and tempting, each one of us enjoyed a relaxing swim and a kneading under a natural Jacuzzi. With evening getting closer it became cloudy and we felt right to reach back to our campsite. Back near the falls, we were trying to make friends with tea shop guy and during our conversation he mentioned that Shah Rukh Khan had visited his shop during the shooting of Chennai Express. Someone in our group was now super excited. Rumz could not miss a single step in that place, the chai, not even a single thing that the tea shop guy said SRK did during his visit.

We sat watching the falls sipping hot tea. A truly magical moment of the whole trip. And suddenly from nowhere it started pouring like a cloud burst. It rained so heavy that everything outside got mute except for the rain lashing. With the rains outside, we enjoyed several servings of hot Maggie and boiled eggs cooked at the tea shop, so thoughtful of Suhas for suggesting carrying Maggie packets. There was another batch of 10 people who were planning to tent there for the night. Rains flooded everywhere and it looked difficult to pitch the tent if it rained the same way whole night.

Once the rain stopped, it was a whole new world outside. The water quantity in the falls had doubled and all those small streams in the morning were now flooding. As it got darker, the sky got clear and what a wonderful scene it was to watch full moon on the backdrop of the falls. It was stunning with the moonlight spread over everywhere. We refused to get into our tents while it continued to rain lightly. The other group was struggling to bring up a campfire as we continued to hum on some old songs to make the night more soothing. We sat out as long as we enjoyed being out in the open air and then go into our warm tents.