Doodhsagar Waterfalls

Getting up in a tented suite with a forest-like feel around is just awesome, but lazying around there is even more blissful.That was what Doodhsagar Spa Resort was like.

 “So what’s the plan for today?” None of us had really thought of anything. “Why don’t we go to Doodhsagar falls and decide the rest later.” So be it.

That's Bhabhi on the backseat !

Totally unplanned for the days itinerary, we left for Doodhsagar. The only way to go to Doodhsagar Falls is to go in a Jeep or a 2-day trek (which was clearly not happening). On some days, if you are lucky, there are bikers who take you to the falls. But we weren’t all that lucky. The resort people promised to provide us a Jeep there, so we save time but that also didn’t happen.

Anyways, we rode for some 18km and reached the base where we had to park our bikes and go in Jeeps further on. That place was crowded!! So we had to wait for almost 1.5 hours, which was quite a pain for me but not for these two guys happily searching for my “Bhabhi”.

The route to the falls

It was our turn now. We sat in the Jeep and in the next 2 minutes I understood why other vehicles are not allowed there. Jumping on that muddy and rocky road, going through 2ft deep water puddles and climbing up a 45 degree slope on that not so even track is not something other cars/ bikes can do. Boy was that fun! We even found some Youth Hostel people trekking their way up to the falls. 

Doodhsagar was just how I expected it to be-mighty!! Well it’s mightier if you go in the monsoons. With all heads up looking at the crest and clicking pictures, a train just passed by the track right along the middle of the falls. I wished I was in that train, to be so close to the waterfall. It’s dreamy!

We went ahead and without any thought, jumped into the still water with our life jackets on. Swam to where the waterfall could hit our heads and make it difficult to breathe. There’s nothing like swimming in cold fresh mountain water on a hot sunny day. 

With some 100 people at the falls, only a few would actually jump into the water. And it’s funny how the others just watch, standing out with their life jackets on. After all that fun, all refreshed, we headed back to the resort.

Ride to Goa !!

I always wanted to travel the western ghats. To feel what its like to experience the borders of your country with the blue waters of the Arabian sea on one hand and the beautiful countryside on the other. And yes to see the vast greenery and stroll through the uncountantable number of beaches. Unlike the last time, this time we were prepared with a full-proof plan. And the plan was something like this

Bangalore-Bandipur-Udupi-Gokarna

DAY 1

We left on Christmas morning with our heavy backpacks. Went to St Peters Church, MG road which was beautifully decorated and then set off for the real journey.

As always, we started late because of my excitement-related-digestion issues. And so the plan got a lil twisted(as all great plans always do)-

Bangalore-chitradurga-RaneBennur-Hubli-Belgaum-Goa

Ahh..riding an Enfield on those wide roads of NH7 to Chitradurga feels like you own those roads and nothing around you bothers. There’s a connection which pushes u more and more to travel. I’m sure all Enfield lovers would know. So yes, with that love and pride and a clear head, this journey was gonna be one crazy exploring ride. We had breakfast in Kamat and were back on the roads. After a long 4 hours and a lot of tea and bum breaks, we reached chitradurga around 2pm. Watching all those windmills made me go back to my childhood days. Always wanted to  go close to them.

A lot more riding and less bum breaks now, we rushed to Ranebennur, after which the roads got narrower. Its at this this time in the afternoon that u start feeling all drowsy. We were desperately waiting for a good coffee break and guess what, we found a CCD at Hubli. Another lone rider was taking a break there. You see anyone wearing a rider jacket, an LS2 and a backpack and you know he’s a rider too. So these people had some rider talks about the roads, routes and places, we had some yum coffee and dessert in the hot weather and left for Belgaum at 6:30pm.

The roads to Belgaum are beautiful, with trees,hillocks and vast land all around. Because of our horrible timing, we entered that road an hour after the sunset. Any which way, it was fun riding there even in the dark. We had a little celebration too- “Lighting a glow lantern on a Christmas night on the highway”.

 
Well it required a bit of a patience because the wind would just hit when the lantern is lit, but then we made it happen. Imagine a blue lantern right above a highway surrounded by vast lands, flying away with the sound of trucks passing by and the crazy cold breeze. We stared at it until it vanished somewhere among the stars, and then with smiles on our faces, moved ahead to reach our destination.

Highway Talks+late night chai

Dark empty roads

Till now, everything was good. But a little ahead there was a 30km stretch which was horrible. It was 10:30 in the night and we were struggling on that ghat road full of potholes. That’s when we decided we would stay the night somewhere close by since we had no clue of how the roads were gonna be ahead. To our luck, we found a resort- Doodhsagar Spa Resort. We thought we’d continue to Goa, but the tents in that resort were so good, we just wanted to stay. A much needed break for our backs and bums. 

DAY2

Well, Doodhsagar Waterfalls does takes off an entire day (the next post is all about it).

It was 5pm by the time we reached back to the resort. So we hogged, checked out and left for Goa without wasting a minute. Another 80km of beautifully lit houses with Christmas star-lights (kinda obsessed with those) and the celebration mood gave me a slight kick even before reaching our destination - Baga. We Checked in into a hotel called Ancore Beach Resort and rushed to the beach. Ate in a beautiful blue- lit canopy, stayed on the beach until our eyes started to close and then went back to the room.

Day 3

GOAAAAAAA!!

Waking up anywhere in Goa is like waking up on a beach. You can smell it from miles away let alone being 100mts from there. A refreshing coffee with some food and we were off to Arambol ( 20 km from Baga towards the North of Goa). I won’t say its deserted, because there are quite a lot of people there. I would neither say it’s like any other beach in Goa, because Arambol’s got its own charm.

Anand's hardwork paid off

Pavan bhaiya with Yogi

Arambol beach from the top

Watching the endless waters

A refreshing swim in Sweet Lake

Pavan bhaiya and the freaky guy

That's me paragliding

Sunset at the beach

Some cold lime juice on a hot sunny day, a small little trek to para glide down to the beach and a rejuvenating swim in the sweet lake with a beer. That’s like it- a summary of one hell of a day in Goa. And yes, you get brilliant food in some of the shacks there. I wish we could stay there for the night, but we had to go back to Baga. I so totally didn’t miss it. But yes, the next time I go to Goa, Arambol’s gonna be my destination.

PS- Don’t forget paragliding. I fell in love with the sunset at the beach all over again (with just a tiny angle change).

For paragliding information, contact Yogi(instructor)-0959214187

Or, just reach the sweet lake somehow and you’d know what to do.

DAY4
Getting up with a depressing thought of leaving Goa and the not-so-depressing thought of the ride along the western Ghats, left mixed feeling in my heart. It was 11am, and we were out of Goa. The roads to Karwar is a rider's paradise.With endless beaches and tiny villages all in the Christmas mood, we found a lot of interesting things on the way.

Our new friends :D

We made a few friends too. A short nap under the tree, chit-chatting with these new friends and some posing for beautiful memories.We had lunch in Karwar and then just followed that one road along the Coast. Navigation is just a waste of time there.We crossed Gokarna and watched the sunset on the beautiful bridge before Murudeshwar. With our horrible experience of night riding near Doodhsagar, we did not want to take a chance. So the plan got twisted a little and rather than staying the night in Udupi, we planned to stay the night in Maravanthe, around 50km from Murudeshwara.

The only thing we knew about Maravanthe was that theres a lake on one side and the beach on the other side of the road, that there are very few accomodation choices and few tiny places to eat. So we decided to stay in a hotel called Sagar Kinara Resort. It wasn't really a resort, but the beach was right in front. What else do you want. Plus the owner had an interesting ancestral story.Shockingly, he had a family history of 1040 years. The king then in the year 1240, had given the entire village of Maravanthe to his ancestors. "We survived with Dharma" is what he said.

Wow! A 1040 years of history is not a joke. All I know about my ancestors is that they ran from Pakistan and settled here during the partition. This wasn't it. There was more fun to the day. There was a wedding reception taking place right next door with brilliant music to dance on. So we danced our hearts out in the room. All hungry, we wandered for food and finally found a dal-rice place after a lot of efforts, after which we came back to room for a nice good sleep.

DAY5

Staying in Maravanthe was probably the best decision we took in the entire trip. Watching the sun rise from behind the lake on the left, to shining on the waters of the beach on the right is a completely different experience. You wouldn’t want to miss it.

And the bike got stuck

After the whole sunrise scene and a silent walk on the beach, we started for home at 9am. In no time we reached Mangalore and had breakfast. After that was a long ride on a 50km stretch of horrible roads. It took more than 3 hours to cover up the Sakkleshpur-Hassan route. And at the end of it, was a tiny waterfall to compensate with all the potholes and dust. A refreshing little break and we moved on.

With the estate women

 
On the way, I took a small ride with a bunch of tea estate ladies. We were somehow trying to converse with all the language issues. Sweet people, they even called me home. It was such a relief to reach Hassan. We knew the rest of the way back was gonna be a smooth ride on NH4.

Long, smooth wide roads and the wind hitting my face. You kinda get addicted to it. So yes, taking barely any bum breaks, we stopped at Chanaraipatna for an evening lunch and through Neelamangala and Nice road, we reached home sweet home after an overwhelmingly exhausting journey.

Exploring the Niagara Falls

Coming to the US and not visiting the mighty Niagara is out of question. A planned 3 day trip to the Niagara falls, Philadelphia and Washington DC wasn’t the best choice but the falls alone made it up to the rest two not-so-interesting days of the trip.

Day 1- We left New York at 7 in the morning. The bus took us for a beautiful ride through New Jersey to The Niagara Falls, stopping by at a place called Secret Caverns( which isn’t quite a mysterious place as the name suggests). We reached there at 6 in the evening and attended the half an hour Spirit of the Mist. A dance show portraying the history of the native American Indians with some interesting dance forms which you probably won’t understand, but it looks kinda nice with those colorful costumes. 

After the show, we went to watch the giant falls in the colors of illumination. Pink, blue, green, yellow!! Wow!! A water color palette (like literally). 

Since Niagara is at the border of Canada and New York state, you get to enjoy it from both the countries (a better view from Canada though).While I took some time drowning in those colors (disadvantage of being an artist), others were happily taking pictures. We then left for the hotel we were to stay in Maryland-Adam’s Mark. 

 

Day 2 -After a nice short nap of 7 hours we headed to the Old Niagara Fort. The 18^th century buildings built by the French were fascinating. With Lake Ontario to this end, the fortress looked beautiful (No wonder they fought so much for it). The firing musket demonstration was kinda fun. We got an hour or so to look around the fort. It was like a time machine travel to the past, imagining how the war happened, how 500 British troops crossed the river in 1813 and acquired the fort.

The Fort on Lake Ontario

Outside the fort

The Enterance

From inside the fort

Me and my sister all set to enter the falls (ignore the bald guy)

With brains quite filled with knowledge, we headed to the falls, this time to actually go inside it. The Maid of the Mist is what I am talking about. We got our tickets, wore the raincoat they gave us and waited in line to get to the boat which was gonna take us inside the enormous waterfall right behind us. Almost lost inside that raincoat, I was looking at the Canadian end, wondering about “The extra” that Canada offers. It takes you to a “Journey behind the falls” where a tunnel would lead you to portals where you could watch the thunderous Niagara right in front of you, being one-third of the way behind the massive sheet of water. Plus the observation deck is right beside the waterfall.  Yes we did miss out on that. But none of it mattered when we got on that boat.

Yes, that's the Maid of the Mist

Rainbow :D

 I had my camera ready to capture the most beautiful sight of the sun shining on the water and a rainbow just above our heads.

Like a little kid, I wanted to be right at the end of the boat, so I get to enjoy the waterfall a little more than the others. As we got close, I could feel the mist on my face and a lot more on my spectacles, blocking the god damn view (all coz I wanted to be right at the tip). I got a little busy cleaning my spectacles and putting my camera inside the cover and before I could realize we were already inside the falls. 

The intensity of the water flow and the mist was exuberant. Every drop was like dew falling from a leaf, so fresh. It was indeed a sprinkle like that of the first rain, just a little more surreal. I felt I was in a cloud of rain, all white and beautiful.

The next moment, through the slightest vision that I could get from my drenched spectacles, I saw the sun shining all over again. The boat took a turn, we saw the Great Niagara Falls from every possible angle and were back in no time. 

Stairs to the top

Happy Mum and Dad after the amazing experience

You could climb up hundreds of stairs or take the elevator to reach to the observation deck. We chose the elevator for we were running short of time. The observation deck gives a magnificent view of the falls. Took some more pictures there and headed out to fill our tummies. 

A while later, our bus headed to Philadelphia and I slept like a baby.

 

The Great Niagara Falls from the observation deck