Prologue:
I wasn't that enthusiastic about this trek, until 21st of December. The bookings were all done in July, but I was somehow not so excited about it. On Monday, I came to office and hadn't really much to do, and so I started to google about places that we were visiting; but I couldn't find much information. I could only make a list of few places that we could visit on the first and last day during the buffer time. Seeing the pics of those places made my anxiousness grow, and now I was in full josh of going for a long trek! And since this was my first visit to GOA, that too at new year time, I expected it to be very fancy and filled with all young party people and I was hoping it to be very lively. And of course not to miss the beaches, I had this image in my mind about Goa, and was eager to witness the same.
December 25th, Day 0: (Board Chennai-Vasco express at 8:05 PM)
The day was here. It was a holiday, and all day I packed my stuffs, and arrived at K R Puram station at 6:30 PM. I was hoping to board the train and find the TT first, since our tickets remained in Waiting List, even though we booked 118 days ago :P (Missing just 2 days costed us a lot) My friends Thejas and Priyanka would join me in Yeshwantpur railway station at 9:50 PM. I boarded the train, and for about 45 minutes, I walked from the last coach to first coach, and back again, trying to find the TT, but I never saw him. Leaving all hopes, decided to take seats in General compartment, and managed to get a full berth. My friends joined me at 9:40 PM, and we settled down. We played UNO for sometime and then started our "Effort to sleep". But then, 3 people on one berth is not a good idea. Couldn't sleep the whole night, and as soon as we reached Hubli, we picked our bags and moved to Sleeper coach, and found the entire coach to be empty and we were so happy. But we never slept though :P
December 26th, Day 1: (Reporting in the Base Camp, Campal, Panaji)
We were scheduled to arrive at Madgoan at 12 noon. The morning journey was much peaceful and we had Vada Pao and Mandakki as breakfast. The view of Western Ghats was amazing since the train moved slowly amidst those green hills. As soon as we arrived at Castle Rock station, we moved towards the door to get the view of the famous Dudh Sagar Falls. You get it at 39th km board, in between of 11th and 12th tunnel. We saw the falls and it was beautiful, though there wasn't much water in the falls.
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| One of the many tunnels on the way to Madgoan |
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| Vast and Green Western Ghats |
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| Dudhsagar falls as seen from train |
We enjoyed the journey and reached Madgoan at 12:10 PM. We got down, and started walking on the road next to the station, towards bus stop. I couldn't believe we were in Goa, since it was no where similar to what I expected! It was much like a calm and sober city; or perhaps the phrase "developed village" will suit better! We boarded a bus to Madgoan bus stand, and there took a bus to Panaji at 12:45 PM. It was a little hot, and the journey to Panjim took about 70 minutes, due to bad traffic at the entrance of city. We got down in bus stand, and went to take a local bus to our base camp which was located at Sports Authority Ground, Campal and within 10 minutes, we reached. It was 2:15 PM when we located the base camp, and we completed all the formalities, and rushed to have lunch since we were hungry.
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| Cool and Calm city Panaji |
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| Our Base Camp at Sports Authority Ground, Campal |
There were 8 ladies (All aged 40+) from Mumbai in our tent, who had come for trekking for first time. We joined them, and did some small chatting, and left at 3:45 PM to market area. We had Gol Gappa and lime juice and simply roamed around the streets. We also got a free ride across the backwaters, on the huge ship that was helping the vehicles cross by. We then left to Miramar beach at 5 PM. It was sunset time, and we enjoyed it. The beach was clean, and was not even crowded. We clicked some pics for DP's :P and started at 6:15 PM towards base camp. At 6:45 PM, we reached Base Camp, much in time for our Orientation about Rules of Base Camp. Our Field Director Chauhan sir, gave us general DO's and DONT's during our stay in the camp, since we would be here for 2 days. It went on till 7:45 PM, after which we were served dinner. At 9 PM, we had camp fire session, where the Biking and Trekking participants who had accomplished their expedition were given certificates. We also had some songs and dance and shayari's by various people, and at 10:15 PM, we were served Bournvita, and we went into our tents and slept at 10:30 PM.
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| Ferri transporting the vehicles across the backwaters |
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| Walk through across the backwaters near Panaji Market |
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| Sunset at Miramer beach |
December 27th, Day 2: (Acclimatization walk)
We were instructed to be up by 5 AM for Bed Tea, but our lazy bodies would not be ready to do so! We were up by 5:45 AM, only to realize in horror that we were supposed to be in ground for exercise by 6 AM! Me and Priya hurried to the bathrooms to freshen up, and made it at 6:10 AM to the ground, and the exercise session was already on. The instructor was Pushpa ma'am who was 50 years old, and yet she was as young as us! And she made us sweat like crazy, and even made us do some pushups. At 7, we had a mini running race, just for fun. Then we walked back to our tents, and came out for breakfast at 7.45 AM.
At 9, we all assembled for our walk to Dona Paula. Standing in the queue I first spoke to Sanchitha and her mom. I also met her dad, and Trupti and Unnati who were from Mumbai. We reached the resting point at 10:20, and from 10:30 to 10:50 we had intro session and electing of group leader, deputy group leader and Environment leader. Jayant Worlikar was our group leader, Jagadish Naik was our Deputy Group Leader and Rajesh Memdhani was Environment leader from Male group, and I from Female group. We continued our walk to reach Dona Paula at 11:20. We were said that we should assemble back at 12:20 PM. Me and Sanchitha went on to explore Dona Paula, more involved in talking about various things. We left at 12:30, when Trupti and Unnati got scoldings from the camp leader for being late from Para Sailing :P We reached Base Camp at 12:45, and we had lunch.
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| Walk to Dona Paula |
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| Dona Paula |
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| View from Dona Paula |
At 3 PM, we had orientation from FD, regarding YHAI and other programmes they organize, and about different programmes in Goa. We were told about the trek route and the precautions to be taken. After 5 PM, we were let free. We went for a round of shower, and at 7 PM we had a snake show, where they gave a brief intro about the common type of snakes we might encounter. They had also got a couple of snakes, and we got a chance to touch them. At 8:30 PM we had dinner, and at 9:20 PM Camp Fire started. Today it was our group's Camp Fire and we were responsible for giving performances, and we had planned to sing a few songs. The opra by Trupti was the last and it turned out to be super success, not at all like we had planned (We had planned it to look like a disaster, just for fun :P). We had many performances on that day, and it went on till 10:45 PM; by then the FD called off the day. We went into our tents and slept.
December 28th, Day 3: (Base Camp to Benaulim beach by Bus, and to Consaulim Beach by walk, 9 km trek)
Today, we woke up at 5:30 AM. We freshened up, and I found that 1 of my shoe was missing. I first was disgusted that people even steal shoe, and then I got to know it was the Dog's work! I searched the entire base Camp, the ground and almost took the survey of the entire plot searching for it, but couldn't find it. I went for breakfast, and at 9:00 AM, we had an orientation from Manoj Joshi, and he spoke about our trek route and about the places we will be visiting in the next 6 days. It ended at 10:15, and at 10:30 we deposited all out extra luggage in the base camp, and me and Priyanka left to Panjim market to buy shoes. I bought a canvas shoe at 280 bucks :P we also shopped Oranges, glucose and chocolates that would serve as back up when needed.
At 12:15 PM, we returned to base camp, and we sat under the tree and played a game of Uno and Mafia. Before we could end the mafia game, we were called for lunch and we all went to satisfy our hunger. We were all ready to leave for our day's trek, and at 2 PM, we were sent off with a packet of chocolates, biscuits and chikki. We boarded the bus, which would drop us at Benaulim Beach. While on bus, we started our antyakshari game. At 3:30 PM, we reached Benaulim beach. Group leaders gave us general instructions and asked us to stay together in group as much as possible. We started the walk alongside the beach at 4 PM. Walking along the beach, bare foot was an awesome experience. There were sports adventures going on at Colva beach, and though we were lagging behind, we decided to do Jet skiing. We found a guy who spoke Kannada, and bargained him from 300 to 250 and all 3 took a ride on the sea. It was indeed a nice experience. There was a marriage going on the beach, the couple belonged to some other country, and were getting married in Punjabi style that too on a beach in Goa! We went and danced for the bangra beats for a while, and we wished the couple and started walking, hoping to catch up soon with the other members of the group.
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| Beach trek from Benaulim to Cansaulim Beach |
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| Star fish that we found on the beach |
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| The blue waters of sea |
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| Para-sailing at Colva beach |
After half an hour of brisk walk, we reached a crowded area, where parasailing, banana ride, jet ski etc were happening. We were 3 of us, and wanted 2 more for banana ride for a deal of 1500 in all. We found some random people, and went for it. Banana ride was too good. We were now completely wet in the salt water :P We picked our bags again, and started walking ahead, realizing that all other group members had left. Me Tj Priya Chetan Naga and Madhu walked along, talking about various stuffs, and since the sun was signing off for the day, we did some photo sessions too. Trupti, Sanchitha and Unnati also joined us for a while, and we played rin tin tin while walking along. The beach walk for 9 kms was really a good experience, and we reached the end point at Magoda beach at 8 PM, where the guide found us and guided to Cansaulim camp. It was about 2 kms, and we reached the camp at 8:45 PM. We went to took bath in toilets (since we had no other option) to take off the salt that deposited on our skin :-P At 9:30 we were served dinner. The Camp leader Pushkarendra at Cansaulim was a jovial person, and was a great acupressure specialist! His massage on our arms and shoulders made us feel much better. At 11:15 PM we slept.
December 29th, Day 4: (Cansaulim to Kulem by train, and to Doodhsagar camp by trek, 14 km trek)
At 5:30, we woke up and got fresh. We had breakfast (Pav Bhaji :P) and packed our lunch, and we were given a short intro about our todays trek route. We would cover 14 kms today, and would come across 7-8 water streams to be crossed, and finally reach Doodhsagar camp. We left at 7:15 AM towards Cansaulim Railway station, and it was hardly 5 minute walk.
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| Cansaulim campsite |
Our train was at 8 AM, and since we had enough time, we started photo session. The train arrived at 8:05, and we boarded it. It was empty and was not difficult to get the seats. We started Antyakshari, and sang songs all along the journey until we reached Kulem at 9:20 AM. We got down, and started our walk. Just beside the station, there were a couple of groups who were calling out for tourists for jeep ride until the base of Dudhsagar falls. There were many people, and we started our trek on the Jeep route. At around 10 AM, we found a board which had a deviation to Devil's Canyon, which was only 0.5 km. Half the group decided to go, and the other half resumed to walk. We all had to make it soon, and return and join them as soon as possible. It was only 10 minute walk, and the place had stagnant water, with huge fishes, and god knows how deep it was. If one falls, sure they would never be seen again. Yet the scenery was good, and we got some good pics :P We started again, and reached the road at 10:30, realizing that we were lagginig the group only by 30 minutes :P We walked along the Jeep route, and sometimes inside the jungle too. It was mostly plain land- no ups/downs. There were about 6-7 water streams, and we were frustrated to remove/put on the shoes again and again. We finally took out our chappals and put the shoes in bag. At around 1 PM, we found a Lime juice stall, Which was operated by an old woman and 2 kids. Lime juice energized us, and we got to know that the rest of the group had left just 10 minutes before. The lunch point was about 20 minutes of walk, and we hoped to see the group there.
At 2 PM, we reached the lunch point, and the entire group was there. It was a water place, and sitting there on the rock, underneath a tree's shade felt heavenly. People who had arrived there first- left, and we stayed back till 2:30 PM.
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| First water stream on the way to Dudhsagar camp |
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| Jeep route to the falls |
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| Devil's Canyon |
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| Bamboo bridge on the way |
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| Lunch spot |
After about another 1.5 hours of walk, we reached the last stream that we had to cross, and there our Doodhsagar camp leader was waiting. We were the last ones to arrive, and he walked along with us. At 4:10 we reached the camp. The location of the camp was awesome. We could see the hills all around, and we could also see a railway track. Every now and then, we could hear the train sound too. The best part was that the water stream was only 5 minute walk :P and we all went at 5 PM to take a bath in the stream. We played in water for about an hour, and we were feeling cold now, since we were far from any road/crowd, amidst jungle! It felt good to be there, and there was no electricity in this camp. We had dinner at 7, and from 8:15 to 9:15 we had campfire, and everyone involved in singing/shayari, and at 9:15 PM, people sneaked in to their tents. We girls and a few other guys wanted to do something else since it was very early to sleep, so we played Uno till 10:15 PM. And since we couldn't tolerate cold, we also sneaked in under the blankets and slept at 10:30 PM.
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| Dudhsagar camp |
December 30th, Day 5: (Doodhsagar to Kuveshi, 9 km trek)
We woke up at 6:30 today, and quickly had breakfast at 7 and got out of tents at 8 AM. We were told about the day's trek by our CL, and we left at 8:15. In about 20 minutes we reached the view point/entrance to doodhsagar falls, and after taking many pics for about 10 mins, we reached the base of the falls at 8:45 PM. There was not much water but the falls looked majestic! We were called by our leaders to move on, but we all wanted to stay there for some more time. With a heavy heart, we finally started at 9 AM, and trekked up inside the jungle to reach the railway track at 10, and crossing a couple of tunnels bought us to the view of falls at 10:15 AM. There was a water pipe form where we got fresh water and we filled our bottles.
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| GT-12 Ready to witness Dudhsagar |
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| View of falls from base |
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| Base of the falls |
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| Walking on the track and through tunnels |
We left at 10:30 AM, crossed 2 more tunnels, and entered the jungle to trek up again to reach the hilltop. We kept talking all along to keep us diverted from tiredness and we reached a lime juice stall again at 1:15 PM. He also had bananas and cucumbers. We rested for a while and started again, to reach our lunch point at 2 PM, again near a water place. Here we could take bath, and it felt great to jump into the water in hot sun. We changed quickly and had lunch, and at 3 PM, our CL was there to recieve us, and we walked along with him to reach Kuveshi camp at 3:40 PM. This was the best camp, since there was a huge field in front of tents, and the nature view was awesome. We got some good pics here :P and after welcome drink, we sat for a game of Uno that went till 5:15 PM. We were called for tea, and we removed all the eatables from our bags and deposited with CL, since we were warned of too many insects/ants, that might creep into the tents just by the smell of food, and thus not allowing us to sleep for the entire night. This camp also didnt have electricity, and at 6:30 PM, we had soup and Uno game was going on side by side. At 7, we stopped playing Uno since there was no enough light. We then had some bhoot photography session, and me and Tippu became Vikram-Betal and gave some scary poses. At 7:30 we had dinner, and 8:30 to 9:30 we had campfire session, and after that, we all sat with Anita aunty to watch the sky and stars, and she showed us some 3-4 constellations. She even had a binocular, and it was good to see starts through it. We were thus done for the day and we went to sleep at 10:30 PM.
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| Trekking up towards peak |
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| Kuvashi Camp |
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| Uno at Kuveshi |
December 31st, Day 6: (Kuveshi to Anmod, 18 km trek)
The day with longest trek was here! We woke up at 6:30 AM, and at 8, we were ready after having breakfast and packed our lunch. We were given short intro about today's route, and we started at 8:15 AM. First 20 minutes was inside the jungle, and then it was a plain terrain, until we reached the road that led to Castle Rock Railway station. On this road, we stopped at a house where they were selling nandini curd, lassi, shreekhand and butter milk, and we had it. Shreekhand specially was too yumm and then we started again to reach the castle rock station at 1:40 PM.
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| Queen's path, on the way to Anmod |
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| Jungle way that looked mysterious and a bit scary |
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| Plains on the way to Anmod |
We had lunch there on a train platform :P and then started to walk again, this time again on road and jungle path, but mostly plain. At 4:45 PM, we found our Anmod CL waiting for us and we accompanied him to reach the camp at 5:15 PM. The trek route was easy but the distance was more. At 6 PM, we started with UNO after welcome drink, and other people got busy taking shower. At 7, we were served dinner, and it was the birthday of one of our group member Aditya. His friends had got a cake, balloons and decoration stuff, and we silently made preparations in our room. After dinner, we put up the decorations in the camp fire area, and surprised him. We then had camp fire for about one and a half hour, and poeple went to sleep, despite it being a new year's eve! We were a group of about 10 people who stayed back to play Dumb Charrads, and we played till 11:15 PM. We couldn't continue it any further, so we went to our rooms. We girls started playing UNO under torch light, trying to kill time till 12 midnight, and we also made some devils poses (Thank god nobody saw that :P) At 11:55 PM we came out, and as soon as it was 12, We wished each other, and even guys started coming out. But our CL told the girls to get inside since there were some local guys in that village and it isn't safe for us to stay out at that time. We got inside, and slept at 12:15PM.
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| Lunch at Castle Rock Station |
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| Birthday celebration of Adithya bhai |
January 1st, Day 7: (Anmod to Tambdi Surla, 9 km trek)
Today, it was a 9 km walk, and mostly inside thick jungle. We thus had a guide, who would accompany us till the end. We started at 8:00 AM, and for only 10 minutes, we were on plain terrain, and then the jungle started. There were too many ups and downs, and it was thus a little tiring. In between, we found a plain land and the scenery was good there. Some photos there, and started to walk again inside the jungle. We were all waiting to reach the lunch spot, and we reached Tambdi Surla temple at 2:15, from where the base camp was only 5 minutes. We didn't know that, and we sat on the road, and there were a couple of shops, and we had lime juice, chips, boti, chocolate and then we had our packed lunch. Our group leader treated all of us with Ice cream too :) Most of them even lied down on the road for a while, and we finally picked up our bags and reached the camp at 3:15 PM.
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| Tambdi Surla campsite |
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| Mahadev Temple at Tambdi Surla |
We were just too tired and we wanted to settle down in our tents, but the CL wouldn't let us go with his stories, and after about 15 minutes, we went to our tents, cleaned up and settled down. We went to the temple at 4 PM, and spent time in the river for about half an hour.
We then went to temple, and sat there for a while and came back to the camp around 6 PM. We then started with Uno, and it went till about 7:30 PM, until we were called for dinner. We had dinner, and in the camp fire session, we were asked for the feedback by our group leaders. For an hour, people shared their experiences with YHAI and the group. After this, we went to the tent and slept at 10:30 PM.
January 2nd, Day 8: (Tambdi Surla to (some village) 8 km trek, and to base camp by bus )
It was the last day of our trek!! Since the distance was too less, we were supposed to depart by 9 AM, and we took time in getting fresh, breakfast and we came out of our tents and a guide was waiting for us. We left at 9 AM, and we first went to temple, where the primary reason was to fill our bottles with water :P We all took a group snap near the temple, and started to walk at 9:45 AM. We were heading to a Betal temple, and it was 11:15 PM when we reached there. Me and Tippu gave some Betal poses again, and even made a slow motion video :P
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| GT-12 getting devotional at Mahadev Temple |
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| Betal temple |
At about 11:45 AM, we started again, and at 1:45, we reached a home and it was the end point of our trek. From here we would move to base camp by bus. At this home, they were selling Mango juice and we all had it, and finished our lunch too. the bus was no where to be seen, and thus we started with UNO and at 3:00 PM, the bus arrived. We all got into the bus., and after about 15 minutes, all phones started buzzing since we were back in network zone! Few of them wanted to play Antyakshari, but many others got busy in phone. We had a few chocolates, and everyone almost slept, and we were troubling people who had slept :P At 4:15 PM, we reached the base camp. We took our luggage that we had deposited and first rushed to the wash room to take a cold shower!
At 5:45 AM, we were completely fresh, and were planning to go out for dinner. Tippu and Unnati had gone to bus stand to inquire about their bus and were still not back. Few of them were leaving the base camp on the same evening, and goodbyes had already started. We left to the hotel at 6:30 PM. We ordered food, and we were too hungry to wait till the waiter bought it to us. The moment it came on our table, non veg lovers were so excited to see the leg piece, as if they hadn't seen one in their life! :P We finished our food within 10 minutes, and thought of having gol gappa. We stepped out and Tippu called us to inform that they were leaving, and we met them near the market. It was really sad to see them leave, but life has to move on :( We had realized that we all had become just so close that it was very difficult to see them leave. We bid them goodbye, and we 5 walked into the market to have Bhel puri, since gol gappa was already over, and also orange juice (which was expensive than a beer can) and it was almost 8:30 by the time we started to walk to the base camp. Though we were informed to be back by 7:30, we didnn't bother. We were suppose to make it before the camp fire starts, since there was certificate distribution for our group. We just made it in time, and we sneaked in through the back gate :P
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| Beaming faces after yumm dinner |
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| Goodbye to Trupti and Unnati |
After certificate distribution, Our Manorama aunty was again the master of the ceremony, and our group only had many performances again, since there were not much people from other groups to perform. At 10:15 PM, lights went off and we went into our tents, missing the people who had already left.
January 3rd, Day 9: (Checkout after breakfast)
Last day at the camp, and time to get back to our homes.. Such a sad feeling it is! We were all up at 7 AM, and had our last breakfast, it was idly sambar! One after other were moving out, and even we were ready with our bags packed to leave. We were only making reasons enough to stay back there for as long, and bidding bye to everyone took almost half an hour. We then left to Panaji bus stand, from where we took bus to Margoa.
A group of 49 was all broken again, and Priya, Tj and I visited the Basilica and the museum. It was a little crowded, and at 11:30 AM, we sat under the tree. Naga Chetan and Madhu said they were coming to old goa, and we waited for them. I had never got a chance to tell them goodbye in the base camp, and now they were coming here to see us off. They came at 12:30 PM, and we spoke for a few minutes, and we left to Panjim again, to head towards Margoa. Our train was at 3:00 PM.
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| Museum |
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| The body of St. Francis Xavier in the Basilica |
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| Basilica of Bom Jesus |
We reached Panjim at 1:00 PM and had our lunch. We then took a bus, and at 2:40, we were on platform. We boarded the train, and it felt a little weird and very lonely, after 9 awesome days with 49 awesome people. It was really a bad feeling to get back to the normal routine of life. At 3:15 the train arrived, and we started our journey back to Bangalore.
Next day at 7 AM, the train reached Bengaluru Station, from where I bid bye to Priya and Tj. They continued their journey to Mysuru. I was feeling much fresh and enthusiastic to get back to my city, though I was missing all those days in Goa. It felt like it was soo many days since I had been there. On reaching home, I quiclky got ready and I went to office, and resumed my work!
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| 49 people of GT-12 :-D |
Epilogue:
Many people asked me "Goa during new year sounds great, but trekking in Goa?" Even I kind of had a same feeling, until I started googling about the places I was going. And now, having been there, I say that it was all worth it. This was indeed very different, since we got to do all kinda treks- Beach trek, road trek, amidst jungle, on rail tracks, muddy path, barren land etc. We also were pushed to limits in some base camps, where there was no electricity, where there were no proper bathrooms etc, but still none of us complained, and just accommodated ourselves to whatever was available. It only made us realize that whatever we think are important are not really so, and we can live without the so called luxuries of our normal lives.
And lastly, the group was amazing, and I feel so happy that I have made quiet a lot of friends from different places across India. Its good to know them all, and it gives a sense of unitedness inspite of the differences. I really like this feeling. And big Thank You to YHAI, as always for organizing such awesome and well planned treks. Hoping to join for more and more programmes with them.
