Goa: God's Country - II

We were up bright and early for breakfast before setting back out into the jungle for our trek of about seven miles to Dudhsagar Falls.

Before taking off, there were the obligatory group shots and general craziness. But to my surprise, I discovered that cricket can be played at any time and any where in India.

But I digress. We walked through all sorts of scenery, from dense jungle and forest, to open flatlands and small villages. It was during the jungle part that our guide was MOST VALUABLE.

Fearless Fivesome: Om, Me, Kalie, Jon and Danny

 

We trekked up and down a variety of steep hills and even had to cross several rivers on our way to the waterfall. At about lunch time, we could hear the loud sounds of rushing water and knew that we were getting close!

 

No trails here. That's me crossing the river in the red.

As we descended a steep hill (we had to hang on to tree trunks until we were sure of our footing), we arrived at the top of the waterfall. Although it would have been incredible, I’m sure, to see the waterfall from its base, it was amazing to be at the top. Water was rushing all around us and the view was breathtaking.

 

 

We lounged around on the rocks and ate lunch before spending the afternoon climbing up to the higher parts of the falls, over slippery wet rocks. Some went swimming in the falls, but I was happy enough to just stick my feet in. Fortunately, there were no leeches this time around!

After packing up our things, we walked back towards one of the villages that we had passed. Three buses picked us up there and took us back to our campsite to retrieve our bags. Once we were all packed and ready to go, we had a three hour ride before we reached the overnight bus that would take us back to Hyderabad. It was very similar to the Kraft charter busses that are common in the US, and after a day of trekking it didn’t take me long to fall asleep for the night.

We reached Hyderabad at eight o’clock in the morning on Monday, giving us Immersioners plenty of time to shower and grab breakfast before heading into work!

 

It was another grand excursion on our last weekend in India. Many, MANY thanks to JIA coordinators:

Satej Shinde

Santosh Iyer

Venkata Kalaga

Vamsi Parepalli

Gurupreet Chabda

and all the new friends we made over the weekend.