Waterfalls of South Goa
I had been to south Goa with the intentions of visiting the waterfalls in 2024, but that year the waterfalls were running dry because of lack of rains.
When I read the travelogue recently it served as reminder to me that this was still part of my bucket list, so decided to pay a visit to south Goa.
Day 1:
We left home by 6:00 AM. Weather was pleasant and road condition was excellent. By the time we reached our regular breakfast spot near Kundapur it was still early, so we decided to continue the journey. We stopped for breakfast bit later around 8:00 AM at hotel Udupi Delux , Bhatkal.
From here weather turned cloudy and rained on and off which made the journey even better. We stopped for another tea break at Karwar.
We took departure from the highway and took a turn towards Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary around 11:15 AM and reached the parking area of Kuskem waterfall at 11:50 AM.
Here you have to walk in a narrow forest trail for about 7 to 10 mins to reach the place where you have to buy the entry tickets to the waterfall.
From here you have steps to climb till you reach the waterfall. It takes roughly 10 mins. It is an easy trek of roughly a kilo meter through the forest and there are no leeches here.
We stayed here for about 30 mins, returned to parking and left from there by 1:00 PM. We had booked out stay near Palolem and reached there in 30 mins. After checking in had our lunch and rested for a while.
In the evening around 4:30 PM, went to visit Mallikarjuna temple at Canacona. A short drive of about 8 KMs and reached in 15 mins.
Some of the wooden carvings in one of the temples in this temple complex were wonderful.
We were back at our accommodation in an hour. Rest of the evening was spent on the beach near by.
Day 2:
We got ready, had breakfast and left the room by 8:30 AM towards our first destination of the day, Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary.
It is about 35 KMs of drive through narrow road surrounded by thick forest.
On the way you come across Bamanbudo waterfall on the roadside. A typical seasonal waterfall which you get to see only during rainy season.
It took us about 90 mins to reach Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary. There are 2 waterfalls inside this wildlife sanctuary, Mainapi waterfall and Netravali/Savri waterfall.
At the gate you have to buy the entry tickets for both the waterfall.
We decided to visit Mainapi waterfall first. You need to trek for 4.5 KMs which includes about 450 + steps to reach this waterfall.
You come across the first of many water crossing as soon you start trekking.
They have placed such boards at every one kilometer distance to let you know the progress.
Also there are benches on the side of the track in multiple places to take rest.
Hiking track is wide enough and surrounded by tall trees. You will walking in the shade most of the time. Most part of this track is steep incline so it is more of a hiking than trekking.
Do carry some energy bar and enough water as it will be needed. There are leeches on this trail, so go prepared. It also rained few times during our hike.
it took about 1.5 hours to cover 4 Kms of hike and we reached the point where the steps begin. There are 460 steps and basically you will be walking down the hill in this last half kilo meter of trek.
At some parts here the forest opens up and you get to see the beautiful valley.
We reached waterfall after trekking for 2 hours. And it rained again as soon as we reached there.
Because of the water current during monsoon going to the bottom section of the waterfall is banned. So there is a very narrow space for people to stand and watch the waterfall here. Since it was getting crowded we left in about 20 minutes from here and started to trek back.
It took us about 1.5 hours to returned to the point where we had parked out car. During the return leg my shoe's sole came off when we had about 500 mts to reach. From here we were suppose to go to Netravali/ Savri waterfall. This involved about 1 Km of trekking and about 350 steps to climb to reach the waterfall. It was not possible for me to trek with a damaged shoe, so we decided to skip the visit.
Here we also learnt that there is a safari jeep available from the main gate which will drop you to both the waterfall till the steps begin if you don't want to do the trekking.
We left from Netravali and drove towards our next destination, Bhuper waterfall. We reached here at around 3:00 PM.
This is a very small waterfall. There were lot of people here playing loud music, playing in water, drinking and spreading trash all around.
We didn't like it much, so we left within 5 minutes.
We stopped for lunch on the way and reached our accommodation by 4:00 PM.
Took a hot water shower and rested for a while to recharge our batteries.
Went for a stroll on the beach later in the evening.
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