TRIP REPORT
TO THE WESTERN GHATS THIS TIME..
PART-1
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The cold breeze was making it very difficult to sleep in peace, I had to get off wobbling away to find something warm. It was...
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the 04th of july 2015, I was onboard the 18047 Amaravati Express enroute to Goa from Vijayawada, by the time I woke up the next morning, the train and me were both at Gadag Junction in karnataka, late by 02 hours and crawled our way into Hubli Junction in an hour.
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Post Hubli is when you find a distinct change in the landscape, the semi-arid deccan plateau transits to a greener and considerably wetter terrain and that’s when you know that you are approaching the western ghats (Or the Sahyadris if you prefer to call them that as called in Maharashtra). My destination for the day was the Kulem, a goan village after Dudhsagar Waterfalls in Goa to board a train back to Bengaluru. The Western ghats together, from Maharashtra to Kerala through Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu form one of the most diverse biodiversity hotspots in the world. Owing to the elevation and continuity of the western ghats range, they block much of the south west monsoon from quickly spreading across the rest of the deccan plateau and as a result are wet most of the time with average rainfall much higher than the rest of the country, except perhaps the north eastern States.
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Needless to say, the difficulty in terrain has always made connectivity to the west coast difficult from the rest of the country. The four major crossings of the Western Ghats by rail are the Bhor and Thull Ghats near Kasara and Khandala in Maharashtra, Braganza ghats near Castle rock in Goa and Shiradi ghats between Sakleshpur and Subhramanya road in Karnataka. The Ghats are very steep for trains to operate with the usual locomotives and evidently require Bankers or breakers (Additional Locomotives at the front or rear of the train consist) to ascend/descend. This might appear interesting only to rail entusiasts or technically inclined people in general but there is something in these ghats which immediately captivates everyone, the melancholy and sheer beauty, perhaps nature at its purest and best.
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Dudhsagar waterfalls, my first pit stop happens to be in the Braganza ghats of Goa, about 12 kms off the Karnataka State border on one of the railway ghat sections mentioned earlier, the ghat begins at Castlerock railway station in Karnataka (the last station in KA) and traverses through Caranzol, Dudhsagar and Sonalium Stations to end at Kulem station in Goa, descending 510 mts in a distance of 26 kms. The waterfalls, a beautiful four tired falls on the mandovi river, in itself is seasonal and is usually at its full glory between August-October.
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The train I was in, amaravathi express, crossed alnavar junction while I was lost in my own thoughts standing at the door, and started turning and twisting its way to Castle rock through the Anshi-Dandeli Tiger reserve. Apart from the train itself, everything else begins to appear green from this point, lush semi-evergreen forest engulfs you from everywhere around, transporting you into a world apart amidst which arrives Castle rock. Castle rock is a station with no apparent reason for existence, this is where breakers are attached for trains going downhill and detached for trains just having climbed uphill.
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Three locomotives (WDG-4 from UBL Shed) were attached at the front, ahead of the existing twin GY WDG-3G’s which hauled my train from Guntur and we slowly began going downhill with a Maximum permissible speed of 30KMPH. The Speed was absolutely no reason to complain though, right after castlerock begins the spectacle of breathtaking views and jaw dropping moments traversing through tunnels amidst nearly incessant rain which keeps you hooked to the windows. The first station in this stretch is Caranzol (trains going downhill in this ghat section either freight or passenger are mandated to stop at all the three stations between Castle rock and Kulem for a brake test) after which the skies were literally pouring down all the way till dudhsagar.
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Final part and pictures to follow..