The last night's camp fire and the light dinner was a memorable one. We all went to bed with the trek to Doodhsagar in our minds. The next morning we woke up a bit early since we had to travel around 40KM to reach a place called Castle Rock. We had booked the cab[mahindra bolero] previous day itself, it costed around 1300/- to reach Castle Rock railway station from Dandeli.
On the way we got to see the Supa dam,
We reached Castle Rock railway station around 9:00 AM. The cab driver came with us to guide till the start of the trek. While entering the railway platform the railway police officer warned us about the last night's accident of the goods train along the way to the falls and suggested us to give up the trek as there was some maintenance work going on and no public were allowed to enter that accident spot. They suggested us to catch a private vehicle to reach the place beneath the water fall spot [Doodhsagar taxi stand].
Later on, with a dual mindset and some discussions within ourselves and the railway guards we started the trek. Since we had the eager to experience the railway trek, ignored the officer's advice and started off the trek, remember we need trek for 14 KMS to reach Doodhsagar falls.
A lot of snaps is going to follow from now on...
Castle Rock Railway station itself is a treat to watch, here is initial glimpse of the trek path
Algaes grown on the structures were eye catching,
lush green views,
A group of aged people were spotted along the trek,
The rescue train carrying railway employees passes by,
The tunnels were really awesome, till then I had crossed the tunnel only while travelling in train but to cross it by trek is just mind blowing,
On the way we could spot some mini water falls and finished our breakfast.
After trekking for 5 KMS we came across a station by name Caranzol, we enquired about the train accident and other stuff with the station master and proceeded.
Just before the start of the 5th tunnel there was a small fall which attracted us,
After spending some time we started our journey again, this is one spot which is just awesome...
By this time we had covered around 8 KMS, and could see some folks sitting on a side by bench. We just spoke to them about their travel, we were betrayed to hear that railway officials are not allowing the public to cross the accident area[remember, earlier we ignored the same when the officials advised us in prior].
Then, we discussed and headed backwards. By the time we reached Caranzol station it was around 5:00 PM and we were surprised to see a passenger train in the station.
We directly spoke to the train operator he yelled us that we cannot board the train. Then we went to the station master and he said after this train passes a goods train is expected to arrive at the station which can drop us till Castle Rock station. But one of the railway guards suggested us to board the passenger train and go till Khulem and from there we get lot of buses which can take us till Dharwad[Our bus boarding point to reach Bengaluru].
With that said, we boarded the train without the tickets, in fact we informed the same to the TT before and hoped in. The train started moving slowly since the rescue work was just finished and everything was cleared by now. we could see that some parts of the goods train were lying beside the track and the laborers sitting with a pride on their face. Thanks a ton to those hard workers!
Finally, we reached Doodhsagar station and as the train was passing slowly my camera clicked this pic,
Thank god! Our wish was fufilled :).
Then, we reached Kulem station by 6:00 PM. From there we boarded a private vehicle to reach a place called Molem, then we hoped into a KSRTC bus which took us till Dharwad main bus stand. Our bus was about to start back to Bengaluru at 11:30 PM but we reached the stand by 10:45 PM.
That's it, I hope you enjoyed my writing and wish you all the best for your journey as well!
Awesome pics!!
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