Goa, trains and a visit to the hospital

It's been an eventful week! Last weekend a group of us travelled to Goa to visit the Dudhsagar water falls. As we only have Sundays off, this involved some fairly intense travelling to make the 1000km round trip and still be back in work for Monday morning.

Leaving the office on Saturday evening, we caught a bus to Mangalore and then the sleeper train to Magdow, arriving at 5am. On the bus ride I received some over friendly attention from a tipsy elderly lady in a sari, who started blowing me kisses!

We boarded the sleeper train at midnight and walked down the dark aisle to reach our berth, avoiding the pairs of feet sticking out from bunks at different levels. During the journey, tea pedlars came down the corridor chanting “chai, chai, chai” and someone was snoring loudly!

Magdow train station at 6am

In Magdow, we changed to a second train, and rode in the luggage compartment with several “stowaways” (although we had bought tickets!).

In the luggage compartment

Not exactly first class

The rail route from Madgow to Kulem passed over several large rivers and through miles of coconut plantations. We arrived into Kulem at 10am on Sunday morning, and started the 11km walk along train tracks to the water falls.

The walking route to the falls follows a rail track and passes through seven short tunnels

Dutsugar means "milk ocean"

The falls themselves were beautiful, unlike the crowded viewpoint which was scattered with rubbish

 

Boarding the freight train (with the driver's permission)

After an hour at the falls, we jumped on a freight train to Kulem which had stopped for a brake check near to the falls.

The engineers headed straight to the cabin of the train!

From Kulem, we retraced our steps all the way back to Ujire, where we arrived around 4am on Monday morning. This 32 hour adventure cost about £7!

Even at 4am Yashwin and I still couldn't go to bed. During the bus ride back to Ujire, the bus driver hit a bump in the road, and sent everybody in the back of the bus flying out of their seats. I hit my chin on the chair in front, and needed five stitches in Ujire hospital. My stitches were removed this afternoon and the total procedure cost me less than £15.

he brand new hospital is funded by the wealthy Dharmasthala temple, and only opened last week. The hospital serves a large area, so I'm lucky it is so close.

We conducted several more threshing tests this week, and gathered some good data on the rates and lots of feedback from farmers. 

Brining one of the threshing machines to a farm. The white bandage on my chin means I am stared at even more than usual!

Transporting the machines between farms in the back of a Mahindra pick-up truck. Riding three abreast in the front seat with the gear stick between my legs, I sat sweating with my hands over my crotch as the driver speed shifted from 1st to 2nd going up the steep bumpy track from the farm.

I also did some work measuring the yield of some paddy fields which had been transplanted by a transplanting machine.

Other than testing, this week the Nine Nights "Navarathi" Hindu festival has been going on, and Ujire is constantly filled with the sound of dance groups which go from shop to shop asking for money from the owner before moving on.

Helping to make a Rangoli in the college library which was for the Navarathi celebration.