Ages ago, the earth was a violent ball that kept spewing fire and lava
at its will. Research shows that it was due to a series of many such volcanic activities
in India that the Deccan Plateau was formed centuries ago even before the great
Himalayas came into being. With time, the lava solidified into igneous rocks and
stayed back permanently like a burn mark on the body of the earth…What looks
like any other part of the earth’s landscape to the untrained eye is an
evidence of what the Earth has subjected itself to, to create a geographically
diverse India…!
On the morning of the 19th
of august, we started our 10 km long trek to the visit the underground volcanic
caves near the Sada village on the outskirts of Goa near the Karnataka border.
The rain, which was our constant companion from the day we departed from
Mangalore, had intensified that day. After walking on a kutcha road along the border of Maharashtra for a couple of
kilometers, we turned left got into the grasses. The vegetation started getting
thicker and thicker. Before we realized, we were into dense forests. A steep
ascend began on an obscure path. Actually, there was never a path, we had to
make our own…It seemed as if no one had come that way for ages! This was the
time when Geetika got hit hard by a thorny shrub on her face. She had to walk
with swollen lips for the next couple of hours!Ouch!!
What we encountered a few
minutes later caught us unawares. On that slippery way covered with dried
leaves wet by the ever-pouring rain and enveloped all around with dense
vegetation, we stepped on something mossy and stony. And then again the next
step was something similar… It was only a few minutes later that we realized
that we were climbing up stony stairs!!
Let me tell you more
about these mysterious stairs in the middle of the forest on the slopes of a
mountain…
Flashback: “After walking on a kutcha road along the
border of Maharashtra for a couple of kilometers, we turned left got into the
grasses.”
When we turned left, we
had taken the way to a fort – the Sada Fort – a strategic fort on the point
where Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra meet in the Chorla Ghat. Shivaji, once
upon a time, ruled the Sada fort. The slope of the mountain itself forms the
fort. The stairs lead to a tabletop on the fort, which may have been home to the
Maratha warriors. The tabletop is vast grassland formed of a certain type ofigneous
rocks. The view of the outskirts of all the three states from the top of the fort
was breath taking. It was only then that we realized how high we had climbed. I
was suddenly filled with respect for Shivaji…! How could someone hide, what may
have been a city in those days, so cleverly!! How could any one find such a
place and think it to be suitable to build a home there hardly bringing about
any modifications in the surroundings! Brilliant!
Due to the incessant
rains, the tabletop had been transformed into a mash up of muddy puddles, grass
and rocks. We half walked and half jumped through these puddles for the next
hour. Very soon we encountered an opening in the ground that went a couple of
feet across. Creepers dropped in from the ground above. Droplets of water hung
along the edge of the ground and dropped into the world beneath the ground
continuously – a cave – we were standing on top of a cave – in fact, a group of
underground caves formed by volcanic activity!
It was a drop of about 15
feet into the cave. We could have easily jumped in guided by the strong roots
of the trees that could be seen lining the edge of the opening… :P But we
decided against this daredevilry for obvious reasons!!
As we explored the
surroundings of the opening, we found that a large part of the ground around
the huge opening was perforated with many small ones. We also found a freshly
shed cobra skin (the cobra may have been nearly 10 feet long judging from the
length of the skin shed!).
Through one of these
opening, we descended into the cave, cautiously one after the other following
the age-old rule of “ladies first”. ;)An underground path through dense
vegetation unfolded itself before us . The problem with this dense vegetation
was that they were those plants whose touch can make you want “Itchguard”
urgently. Moreover the highly slippery descend made it impossible not to touch
them… We, the Gypsies, are used to such things though, none of us needed
“Itchguard”.
More surprises followed.
There is a Shiv Ling in the interiors of this cave and a small temple.
According to our guide, the priest comes there once a fortnight to perform puja
taking a less treacherous path through the village! Shivaji always built a
Shiva temple in the vicinity of his forts…! This was for Sada fort!
To add to this, wild
bears that inhabit the slopes of the mountains regularly visit the cave. (We
almost missed seeing one that day!)
Descending down again
after exploring the caves, we took another kutcha
road to the Sada village. The Sada village is one of the many examples of
regional conflicts. The people here don’t get land to farm because they are
domiciles of Karnataka residing under the jurisdiction of Goa! Talking of Independence!
We passed the village and
had to go via a very steep and slippery descend through thick forests for
another hour to reach the Sada waterfall. It was on this way that my sandals,
unable to survive the rough terrain, broke down and I had to walk the entire
leechy, muddy and slippery stretch with bare feet… I managed to fix it only
after reaching the waterfall so that the way back was much comfortable!
The Sada waterfall
reminded me so much of the Shimbola albeit, a somewhat toned down version. We
had seen another hidden wonder of nature!
The way back seemed
longer. We were walking all throughout the day on rough terrain and it was
nearly three in the afternoon by then. We were all tired and refreshed at the
same time! All along this way we encountered milestones, which announced the
border of Maharashtra and Karnataka. And all along the way huge iron gates were
built, apparently to keep out wild elephants from the small village of Sada. On
our way back we went to a point in Goa to see the spectacular and mighty Sural
Falls. The Sural falls are 350 feet in height and a trek there is impossible in
monsoons. I do not remember the name of the point in Goa where we went to watch
the Sural Falls. But it is from here, they say, that a human face like form is
visible in the rocks of the valleys from where the Sural falls drop down. We
were not lucky enough to witness this due to the misty atmosphere.
It was 4 p.m when we
started back to Delta where we were waiting for the three days, We had our
second meal of the day slightly earlier at 5p.m that day…
…to be continued
P.S:
We saw the effects of cheap
liquor in Goa when we went to the point to watch the Sural Falls. The entire
area in inhabited ONLY by drunkards. WE were exceptions there…(They say that it
was not like this a year ago… Ill-effects of promoting tourism in Goa maybe!) One
of the drunkards, with an intention to drive us away from the viewpoint,
started showing off his English oratory skills by speaking about “The Great
Karnataka” which was visible from there. You can imagine the comedy!
Felt funny and sad at the
same time!
The underground caves
(Photographs courtesy Arun Mysore)
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