Juggling Jog falls and other places

“Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” 

~ Cesare Pavese

Well it has hardly been a week since I last posted my travelogue about my trip to Hogenekkal falls and yet I am here again sharing my experience in Jog falls and the nearby places I visited this weekend. The plan was posted on facebook and I immediately signed up for the same. I was soon informed that the train tickets have been booked and arrangement for accommodation will also be made by the next day. That was the extent of communication I had with my travel mates till the date of journey. This was a girls only traveller group and my first trip with them hence every face was a new one for me.

We were leaving by train on Friday night till Talguppa and till the last moment, our tickets were stuck in waiting list and we kept our fingers crossed all day hoping our tickets would get confirmed and finally around 7 pm when the chart was prepared, final status of our tickets said RAC and we decided to continue with our journey. My travel mates had already boarded the train at SBC while I joined them at Yeshwantpur station. After a brief round of introduction, we settled down on our seats and realized that the guy with whom my sear was shared was drunk 

Not wanting to get into an argument or share a seat with the guy all night, I decided to spread some newspaper on the train floor and spend the night lying there somewhat uncomfortably. Then came the morning, train entered Talguppa and it was already raining. Luckily I had borrowed a friend's wind cheater but that too couldn't completely help. We ran from the train till the exit, haggled a bit with a taxi driver and finally decided a rate of 4,000/- for taking us around all the nearby places for two days.

DAY 1:

We had already booked our rooms at a Karnataka Govt hotel (Hotel Mayura Gerusoppa Jogfalls) which costed us 2.5K per night for the double bed rooms. Our check-in time was noon but we reached there around 9 am and got to check in to our rooms early as the rooms were available. We decided to take a quick shower and then leave to explore the city. When I entered the room, I couldn't believe how big the rooms were and the view from there was amazing. We could see the jog falls from our windows as we were staying just 3 kms away from the falls.

So we quickly freshened up, grabbed some breakfast at the restaurant (not very tasty but we were not there for food so didn't really care about it) and left around 10 am. 

Gersoppa Temple: We told the driver that the Gersoppa temple would be our first stop and he took us to a spot and told that we could either take a boat till the temple or we could walk till there which would be around 2 kms trek/walk. We being in mood for some fun and exploration decided to walk till the temple and I must say it was worth. The road we took was lush green surrounded with trees on both sides of the road and we were actually walking through a jungle. It is said that there were 108 temples in the jungle and there still are some more small temples but we didn't explore them all.

The temple was still very much unexplored and the place was serene and peaceful. Old architecture, some broken walls, moss on the sides, it gave a very different look to the whole place.

Apsarakonda waterfall and beach: After exploring the Jain temple for sometime, we headed back into the jungle and decided to take a boat back to our taxi as it was alrady 2:30 pm and we were hungry. Post lunch, we headed towards Apsarakonda waterfall which was the next item on our list. We needed to take a series of stairs and walk some more to reach the waterfalls and there we noticed the beach just at a walking distance and we couldn't be more excited about it. 

View of the beach from far off

On reaching the waterfalls, we saw that a big gang of guys were already having fun bathing in the water. Also the roots of a banyan tree had come down till foots of the fall hence a few guys were climbing to the top and taking a plunge down into the water (the height wasn't too much). We decided not to go deep into the water hence stood in the water for sometime with our feet dipped in the cold fresh flowing water, took a few clicks and went back to go explore the beach next.

The beach here was pretty clean with a few people here and there. The place wasn't overly crowded and we stayed there till around 6 pm hoping to catch a glimpse of the sky turning into orange during the sunset but the day being cloudy, we couldn't really witness the sky changing its blazing colours while the sun bid us good bye for the day.

After spending some time at the beach, we decided to head back to the hotel as it was late evening and we would not be able to cover any other place. So we decided to have a quick dinner and take some rest so that the next day, we are in full energy to explore the places some more.

DAY 2

The next day also welcomed us with drizzle in the morning. We had a quick breakfast, packed our bags and checked out from the hotel in the morning itself. Before leaving, we took a walk around the place, took a few clicks and then headed towards Jog falls.

Jog Falls: Not to mention, it was drizzling even when we reached Jog Falls but a shop near the entrance provides umbrellas on rent. As we went there in the peak of monsoon, the water level had already risen above the safe level hence we were not allowed to go down near the water and had to be satisfied with just having a look at the falls from the view-point. Just next to the view point, we saw another Govt hotel which has much cheaper rooms but I cannot comment about the interiors of the rooms or how well maintained they were as we didn't get to peek inside ;)

 The Jog Falls in itself is a group of four nearby falls called Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. As can be seen in the pics, most of the time the falls were covered with mist and we hardly ever got a full view of all the falls together. There were times when the mist was so heavily covered that the mountains or the falls were not visible at all. There was a thick white blanket of mist with a background sound of the water hurtling down which was again a beauty in itself. None of the pics can capture the actual beauty of the serenity that we witnessed.

We stayed there for around an hour enjoying the nature in midst of the ongoing drizzle and then went ahead to visit the Aghoreshwara temple, a Shiva temple around 70 kms away from the falls.

Ikkeri Aghoreshwara Temple: Legend says that this temple used to have Shiva's statue in his avatar with 32 hands but now all that's left are his feet. There is also a huge stone Nandi, vehicle of Lord Shiva opposite to the temple. The original fortress consisted of 3 walls, two of which were made of bamboos and the inner one was built with mud and in the centre was the palace built with mud and timber with intricate carvings , none of which exists now. However excavations are still going on and currently it is being maintained by The Archaeological Survey of India.

By the time we were done visiting the temple, it was almost 5 pm and we had to catch our train back to Bangalore at 8 pm hence we took the taxi back to station. On the way to station, we took a halt to buy some fresh pineapples and another halt to pack some bread omelette for dinner as we were not sure if and when the vendors will board the train with food. With that ended our exciting journey of visiting and exploring places. As we were already tired from roaming around for 2 days, we quickly had our dinner and quickly went to sleep as our train arrived Bangalore at 4:30 am which meant we had to wake up early.

As a whole, the trip was a really memorable one with a company of wonderful people who were fun and love to explore. Thank you Yamini, Mini & Karthi for being such wonderful companions to the trip and thank you Yamini for the selfies reminding us of our times together. Looking forward to travelling again and clicking some more.

Hurtling Hogenekkal

"The point is that when I see a sunset or a waterfall or something, for a split second it's so great, because for a little bit I'm out of my brain, and it's got nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to figure it out, you know what I mean? And I wonder if I can somehow find a way to maintain that mind stillness." ~ Chris Evans

Since the travel bug has bitten me, I keep joining for some trip or the other whenever possible. After Pondicherry and Makalidurga, I have also been to Thattekere lake and Chunchi falls but before I got time to document my experience there, I went to Hogenekkal Falls which is a waterfall in the river of Kaveri.

The trip started around 4:15 in the morning and we were all to assemble at the common point by 4:30 but when it is a group of 28 people going on a trip, you always expect some delays and that's what happened. While waiting for everyone to join in till 5 am, we introduced each other as there were some new faces in the group this time.

Finally we started at 5 am ... 5 cars, 28 people and one destination which was around 170 kms away from the city. On the way to the falls, we took 2-3 breaks for tea/kappi and a halt for breakfast where we savoured idli, vada and egg dosa from a roadside shop and of course each time we all got down from the cars, we would take some group photos and selfies as well.

It is truly said that you don't wait for the destination when the path itself is beautiful and as it wasn't very sunny that day, we could actually enjoy the breathtaking view once we had crossed the main city. With mountains and trees on both sides of the road, it brought us all closer to nature and we enjoyed the view which has now become rare in the cities. Talking to our car-mates, we got to know them more. There were some old Hindi melodies playing in the car and were were all having fun.

By the time we were getting near our destination, it was around 10:30 already and we were all getting impatient and hungry so we decided we needed one more break and got down to get some chips, cold drinks and had some fresh coconut water before continuing with the journey. Finally by the time we reached there it was almost 11:15 or so. Some of us changed clothes as we had plans to get into the water and then went to see the waterfall. On reaching there, we found that there is a bridge on which we can stand and see the main falls for 5 mins and get down and that part was not accessible for people to go enjoy.

After paying an entry fee of Rs 5/- per head, we enjoyed the breathtaking view of the main falls, clicked a few pics and got down wondering what to do next. By that time, we were constantly asked by the vendors there for oil massage to which we said no initially (Later a few of us experienced that as well). Next was the haggling for the prices of boat rides (we paid 1500/- per boat) as they quoted pretty high charges compared to what we heard from others but we finally gave up and agreed coz we were not willing to miss the boat ride after coming this far.

Meanwhile two people went to place order for food where some 5 kg of fish was ordered for 21 people (rest were vegetarians) and some egg bhurji and omelettes were ordered for the eggetarians. Then began the main fun when all of us headed for boating with 4-5 person in each boat and we reached a more secluded area where there was hardly anyone apart from us. As soon as the boat ride begin, some of us already started the water fight with others shouting and screaming and trying to escape the water.

So the first thing I did was put my cam back in it's case and joined the fun. Whoever was a little dry after the boat ride also couldn't escape for one guy (he had viral fever already) as we dragged everyone into the water and attacked them with water splashes. By the time it was around 2:30 we were getting hungry but there was no sign of our food so most of us continued playing in water while a few went for oil massage.

The ones who were in water tried to learn floating in the water, a few of them did well. I too tried but was scared so gave up too quickly and continued splashing water on others. Around 4 or so, I decided to finally step out of the water when I saw one of the girls getting head massage and got tempted to try that well (I kinda repented it later though ;) :P )

I went and sat on the ground and the guy giving massage poured what seemed like half a bottle of sesame oil and started tugging and pulling my hairs and massaging my head. I immediately repented my decision coz I knew there was no way I would be able to wash my hairs properly before leaving hence will have to travel all the way back with oily sticky hairs. While I was having all these thoughts, he kept pouring more and more oil and whole of my head and hairs was covered with the oil. Then he said something which I didn't understand but nodded my head anyway so he asked me to close my eyes. and then he poured some oil over my eyes and kinda massaged my eyes and then told I can open my eyes. The moment I opened my eyes, some oil got inside and started burning like hell and the worst part was that as my hands were already covered with oil (due to touching my hair and face) I could not even clean my own eyes.

As soon as the massage was over, I ran back to the water to wash my eyes first. There were already some people in the water trying to get rid of the sticky oil using lifebuoy soap and Meera herbal powder but as expected, they were of no use. By then it was around 5 and we got a call saying that the food was finally ready so we all headed back to the boat and went back to the same spot where we started from.

After playing around so much in the water, we were very tired and the food brought us a sense of relief. We had fish fry and fish curry with rice for the non vegetarians while egg bhurji, sambar and rice for the vegetarians/eggetarians. Although 5 kg fish was ordered for around 21 people, we still somehow fell short of fish (guess too many foodies or we were too hungry). The food was nice and simple and after the lunch at 5:30 pm, we had another photo session and finally headed back to Bangalore.

By the time we reached back, my throat was already sore from screaming and I also caught some cold. I realized that I will probably fall sick so has some coffee immediately after reaching back the city for some relief, had a crocin and slept peacefully. The next day I was too lazy and a little sick to go to office so took 'work from home', took some more rest and was much better by evening. A fun filled trip overall with lots of memories to cherish
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