Day 4 : Netravali to Dudhsagar

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Today we bike to Dudhsagar waterfalls, approx 55. km away. The first half of the trip is through the mining area and is quite boring. On the way we took a short break at our guide Chandan's house. Rana and Rajath brought some suger-cane out of somewhere and we gave a little exercise to our lazy teeth. We took a break every half an hour. Once we just laid ourselves on the road. At the other point, a huge spider was a subject to the constant clicks of 7 cameras. We were exhausted and surrendered ourselves to an hour long afternoon siesta in a beautiful temple on the way where we had our lunch. A light, cool breeze made it very difficult to get our sore asses back on the bike. But we still had a long way to go. Finally we reached Colem the gateway to Bhagwan Mahavir wildlife sanctuary. Interestingly, all the tourist vehicles have to cross the knee deep river (without any bridge) to enter the sanctuary which they do without any hesitation. We hardly left any water points or stream on the way without having a dip. This was not an exception either. We entered the sanctuary for the best part of the trip, a ride on the dirt roads amidst dense jungle. The sunday traffic of the vehicles did spoil the fun a bit, but its still was Paisaa vasool. We took a small detour to Devil's Canyon, a miniature canyon carved out by the Dudhsagar river, which must have been fierce in this part earlier. Now it was as still as a photograph. Do not swim here. It is quite dangerous as undercurrents may sweep you to underwater caves, difficult to get out of. We finally reached the Dudhsagar camp at about 5.00 pm. We share this camp with the trekkers. There was a camp leader here and hence consequently a camp fire later. According to the program, we are not allowed to visit the Dudhsagar falls the next day. So after a hot glass of tea, we walked to the Dudhsagar falls 3 km away (No one was in a mood to ride the bike !). It was pretty late. But the timing was perfect for a long exposure shot of the magnificent Dudhsagar falls. The falls has three stages. The lower most is in the sanctuary where we were standing. The one above that is accessible by train. If you climb up a little, there is a small pond where the uppermost waterfall pours in. We returned back in pitch dark. There was a slight altercation in the trekking group whether to have or not to have the campfire. The biking group was unanimous in not having it and we excused ourself siting a long and tiring day which not doubt it was.

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