Jog Falls & Shimoga
Jog Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in Asia is located in Shimoga District of Karnataka state. And the Sharavathi River, which falls from a height of 292 metre (958 feet) is the cause for the water falls.
Two weeks back 10 of us, well I can refine "us" exactly as 10 Software Engineers went to Jog. Its our friend Arun Prakash Devarajan working with INFOSYS, initiated the idea. And with Arun, 5 more INFOSICIANS and 2 of our friends(Senthil & Ganesh) and of course me started off to Bangalore from Madras on 29th-Sep-2006 night. We reached there at 6am the next day and from there Mithun joined us. So the 10 s/w engg set our sail to Shimoga which was around 300 kilometres from Bangalore. The KSRTC Bus took us in the bumping road. The route was like : Bangalore -> Tumkur -> Kadur -> Shimoga
About Shimoga :
Shimoga is the graphical centre of Karnataka and is surrounded by, Chikmangalur in the South East, Udipi to South West, Uttar Kannad in the North West, Devengere to North East and Haveri to North. And its the Rice Bowl of the State, and so it had many paddy fields. It is powered by Rivers like Tungabadrath, Sharavathi & few others
.
We reached Shimoga the next day(30th Sep) afternoon at 1:30pm. Then we lodged ourselves in a restaurant(HOTEL BRITE) opposite to Shimoga Bus Stand.
Shimoga to Jog Falls is around 100 kilometres, and so we planned it for the next day (Sunday). We arranged a TATA SUMO for Jog Falls, and the other places nearby.
Tunga Anicut Dam :
The same day evening, we went to Tunga Anicut Dam, which was about 15 kilometres from Shimoga on the way to Agumbe.
Tunga Anicut Dam was built across the river Tungabadra. Boat trips around the lake is available, but it was not there when we went! We can stay there for two or three hours. The Dam was long enough to walk for 15 minutes, but some construction work was going side by. Anyway its a good place for a small Picnic.
Sakrebyle Elephant Camp :
Also nearly 4 kms from the Tunga Anicut Dam, there is Sakrebyle, where there is a Elephant Camp. We couldnt see the Elephants, since it is opened between 8:30am to 11am. So we left that place, and back to Shimoga to take rest.
Next day morning we started to Jog Falls, and it was Ayudha Pooja so all the vehicles was garlanded, too much of Garlanding. I have never seen this before!!
May be the Less Garlanded one!!
The route was : Shimoga -> Sagar -> JogFalls
Jog Falls :
We had our brunch @ Sagar, and left to Jog Falls, which is also called as Gerusoppe falls. When we reached the Jog Falls, it was raining, so we found difficult to walk down to the base also we missed to take few good snaps.
It was almost 2 kilometres to the base of the falls. Since it was raining till we reach the base it took us 45 minutes to get down. Also we had few stop over for refreshments.
The climate was damn good. And the breezling wind was welcoming us with a high humidity. It took another 15 minutes to reach the water as you have only rocks with moulds.
After staying 2 hours or so, we climbed up, and reached the top after 50 minutes. It took, 15 minutes more for few of them to come up, and it all depends on one's fitness. We had a small refreshment, like fresh juice, fruits, and even Ice cream!! Then we went to the root of the falls, which was some 15 kilometers from there, where we crossed the Sharavati valley, which was so good. But we couldn't explore more due to time constraint.
View from the root of the waterfalls was also a remarkable experience, all of us had. I took a small video clip from there, and few snaps. I was lying in a rock which was on the top, and was lying all alone for more than 10 minutes,as the view was so good to shoot.
Download the Video Clip of Jog Falls [Jog-Falls.wmv] Size : 4.0 MB, Duration : 33 second
We forgot to take the 1 GB Transcend SD card from the Lodge, which was given by my friend Suresh in Bangalore. So I was lying there in the rock and deleting few unwanted pictures in my 256MB card. It was amazing to see the heights. But it was not advisable for acrophobics, as there was not even a place to hold.
Near to the Jog Falls, you have Linganmakki Dam which was built across the river Sharavathi, which powers the Mahatma Gandhi Hydro-Electric power station.
In the afternoon around 3:30 we drove back to Shimoga planning to visit, Lion - Tiger Reserve, which was near to Shimoga in the same route. As we don't want to rush, we slowed down in the middle.
Lion - Tiger Reserve
The next day morning, we went to the Lion - Tiger Reserve / Safari @ Tyavarekoppa, which is nearly 12 Kilometers from Shimoga towards Sagar/Jog Falls. As it was a holiday, we could see many families with children. After standing in the Queue, we were allowed to get into a mini bus, and it took us inside "caged Safari". We could see few Lions & Tigers also some Hyenas . In 15 minutes, they showed few places, and dropped us outside. But that time I could hear few old people saying that they had only covered 30% of the whole Safari.
And inside the campus there is a small Zoo with Leopards, Snakes, Bears etc. As that 1GB card has corrupted, I couldn't get all the images & movies, thank God my 256MB card was good to get all the Jog Falls Fotos.
And the same day afternoon we managed to come to Bangalore at 10:45pm. After a long disgusting quarrel with a Pre arranged Taxi driver, we came to Madras the next day morning.