2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue

SDP · 28th August 2011, 11:40

Some sound of water running through pipes wakes up my wife multiple times during the night. I anyway have a issue with sleeping at new places. But, its OK. The kids sleep like logs and we get just about enough sleep.

Day 2 -> Let's go to Gokak falls
The excitement of going to another yet unvisited place is too much. We all get up and are ready by 8:30AM. By 8:50AM, we are on the road, after having tea & light snacks and settling the room bill.

9:00 AM -> Bye bye Kolhapur. We rejoin NH4 and head further south.

Getting the horn repaired is yet again on the agenda. Any garages to open that early on a Sunday morning, may be I am expecting too much. We do not find any suitable place and continue with the journey.

9:18 AM -> We cross the toll-naka at the Karnataka state border.
BTW, the 35Rs for to-and-fro that we pay at this toll is the lowest in the entire journey. The other tolls on NH4 are nothing short of daylight robbery.

From this point onwards, a lot of signage is in Kannada. Some boards and milestones are only in Kannada. Not knowing that language brings a feeling of uneasiness. Is there a name for the phobia - fear of getting lost at a new place because you don't know the local language?

9:46AM -> Exited NH4. We take a left at Sankeshwar

The road to Gokak is good. Only problem is that too many villages and so too many speed-breakers.

By around 10:15AM, the 'light' snack that we had in the morning has evaporated. We stop in a small town Ghatprabha for snacks. We see onion-bhajiya at the counter, which do not look like the kanda-bhaji in MH. We order idlis and wadas. Its almost 11AM now. We are carrying bottled water. But the water served at this hotel is so brownish that we begin to wonder: what we ate just now must have been prepared using water very similar to this

Anyways, we move on.

From this major junction (snap below), we took a right for Gokak town. See that hill in the background with some interesting rock formations towards the top. That hill gives you company all the way till the Gokak falls.

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There's that hill in the background again.

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Nice bungalow. Same hill in the background.

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The road is broken at places and the speed comes down significantly. We pass a chemical factory and are greeted with a very strong foul smell. Who plans these weird things at such a otherwise beautiful place?

We stop at a small ghat like section. The view is amazing. Multiple snaps follow.

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SDP · 29th August 2011, 14:58

11:33 AM-> We reach Gokak waterfall. Some amazing views.

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Although I had seen the snaps of this waterfall, what we see with our own eyes is really grand.

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The observation area has a proper railing.

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See that hanging bridge. A walk across that narrow bridge is on the cards.

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No rainbow?

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We meet a couple from Maharashtra who have been here last week also. Apparently a week back, the entire width of the river bed was covered with water.

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From this area, there is no access to the river-bed and the hanging bridge. We get back to the car and find the proper parking lot for the Gokak Falls 2 minutes down the road.

SDP · 29th August 2011, 15:51

We go down a flight of stairs with a whole bunch of school kids.

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A nice temple.

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People, people, everywhere.

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Don't want to be judgemental here, but a lot of people have no regard for their own safety. See that fence at the top of the picture? All those people who have ventured below that point, what were they thinking?

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I think this was the point from where we were watching the waterfall earlier. On second thoughts, may be it was more to the right.

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The calm river carrying on as if nothing has happened.

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Chinni & Shona, whoever you are, wherever you are, defacing beautiful places does not help. Please do something grand so that people remember you forever.

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People were venturing so close to the edge that it was scary even to watch. Remember the Patalpani incidence about a month back?

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A peaceful soul quietly taking it all in.

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What better way to enjoy the breeze than to have some bhutta?

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SDP · 29th August 2011, 16:31

A few more snaps.

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SDP · 29th August 2011, 16:38

We take the bridge.

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It takes about 10 odd minutes to reach the other side. At some point, because of the strong wind, the bridge swayed. A thrilling moment!

SDP · 29th August 2011, 17:15

View from the other side.

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Most likely a old power generation facility.

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This is when you realize that the current waterfall width is about 25% of the entire riverbed.

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A place to sit and enjoy the view.

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See that hill far away? That's probably the same one that gave us company throughout the route.

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That's the Gokak Mills. Apparently its from the British time and the hanging bridge was constructed for the convenience of the mill-workers.

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I wonder how the view would be from down there.

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See that green shirt taking a snap of the blue shirt? Scroll-up one snap above to understand where they are sitting. This is madness!

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SDP · 29th August 2011, 17:36

Final set of snaps.

We cross the hanging bridge again.

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We reach back to the parking lot. Its about 1:30 PM. Its been 2 hours since we reached here. To my horror, I see that I have left the blinkers on. The battery is already more than 3 years old. Would the car start? Is there enough juice left for one crank? I keep my fingers crossed as I get into the car. I turn the key. Nothing.

I walk to the parking lot attendant and request for help. He does not understand a word I say. I try again "Battery <gesture for gone>. Help <gesture for push>".
He understands. He calls a driver waiting in the parking lot and in another 30 seconds, the car started.

. I thank both of them profusely.

1:45 PM -> We start the long return journey from Gokak Falls to Mumbai.

One final snap.

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SDP · 29th August 2011, 18:22

On the way back, the priority is reaching home at a decent time. There is school tomorrow, the kids should be in bed (at home) before midnight.

So no more stopping for snaps. I tear through Gokak-Ghatprabha and we join back NH4 at 2:53PM.

Late breakfast and the bhuttas, lunch can wait a little longer. One hour break for lunch seems like a waste of time. So we decide to stop at the McD @Kolhapur for lunch(?). We reach McD at 3:40PM. After wolfing down a meal, we are back on the road at 4:15PM.

Kolhapur to Satara, the traffic is OK. We cross Satara at 6:00PM. From there through Pune bypass to Expressway entry, I miss the horn big time

.
A lot of vehicles, trucks blocking both lanes and what not.

The sun has set and there is a irritating light drizzle. Irritating because its too little for the first slow setting of the wiper and too much for the intermittent setting.

I brake hard a couple of times and notice that the hand-brake indicator starts glowing on hard-braking. Ah, the brake fluid level has dropped again, so there is definitely some leakage. Stopped the car, emptied the DOT-3 bottle and we start again. The indicator does not come up after that. Mental note: Besides the horn, I need to get this also fixed tomorrow.

8:24 PM -> We join the Pune-Mumbai expressway.

Would we get crazy traffic after Lonavala because it is Sunday evening/night? We get lucky, the traffic is OK for the entire expressway. The rain starts lashing out and there are puddles on the expressway. I stick to the 2nd lane and maintain a steady speed. Faster moving vehicles are splashing a bucketload of water on our car, blinding us momentarily. Slow and steady, we exit the expressway at 9:40PM. Almost one and half hours, which is not bad given the weather.

After exactly an hour, 10:40PM, we are at Mulund. The trip-meter shows 1025km and the 2 day adventure comes to an end!

Happy!

SDP · 29th August 2011, 23:28

Bumping the thread!

Mods, thanks a lot for the Assembly-Line feature. It sure makes life easier.

ampere · 30th August 2011, 09:29

@SDP, A thoroughly entertaining account.
Adding with Thoseghar and Kaas, how about Bamnoli?
Looks like we need about 2-3 days to visit all these places.
(Maybe 2-3 days at Satara.)

Very nice account indeed.

MX6 · 30th August 2011, 10:58

Some of the pictures made me feel dizzy @SDP.
@ampere. One does require 2 days atleast for Thosegar, Kaas and Bamnoli. Especially Kaas is a place where one can sit for hours together just looking at nature.

Fordmanchau · 30th August 2011, 12:09

@SDP, very thorough travelogue. Those green pictures of the hills make even my computer screen look awesome.

Gokak falls was a delight to look at, only wished the crowd to be less. It looked all choc-a block with people, must be very noisy. But the place just makes it up for itself.

Thanks for sharing the wonderful pic with us.

@MX6: seeing your post here after a very long time

ninjatalli · 30th August 2011, 14:19

@SDP,
A nice crisp travelogue. Glad to see your family shares your enthusiasm of outdoor trips. Especially your better half's point of enjoying the individual stages (breakfast) - really good way to enjoy a trip. Living at Pune for the past 6+ years, never knew such nice picnic spots are close by! Do put up a final post with complete itinerary & time/distance/route details, if possible!

Sanyd1711 · 30th August 2011, 16:24

Hey SDP !!!!

Great write up there. Absolutely loved it. Would you mind telling me what were the exact kms from Express Way start to that right turn to Satara City, which then goes to Thoseghar Fall ??

Not very happy to see people taking undue risk at Gokkak Falls.

vivek_vt · 30th August 2011, 16:53

Nice pictures. Never knew about the Gokak waterfalls. Leaving for Kaas, Mahabaleshwar tonight. Too few days to make it to gokak :(

28th August 2011, 11:40	#16
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Some sound of water running through pipes wakes up my wife multiple times during the night. I anyway have a issue with sleeping at new places. But, its OK. The kids sleep like logs and we get just about enough sleep. Day 2 -> Let's go to Gokak falls The excitement of going to another yet unvisited place is too much. We all get up and are ready by 8:30AM. By 8:50AM, we are on the road, after having tea & light snacks and settling the room bill. 9:00 AM -> Bye bye Kolhapur. We rejoin NH4 and head further south. Getting the horn repaired is yet again on the agenda. Any garages to open that early on a Sunday morning, may be I am expecting too much. We do not find any suitable place and continue with the journey. 9:18 AM -> We cross the toll-naka at the Karnataka state border. BTW, the 35Rs for to-and-fro that we pay at this toll is the lowest in the entire journey. The other tolls on NH4 are nothing short of daylight robbery. From this point onwards, a lot of signage is in Kannada. Some boards and milestones are only in Kannada. Not knowing that language brings a feeling of uneasiness. Is there a name for the phobia - fear of getting lost at a new place because you don't know the local language? 9:46AM -> Exited NH4. We take a left at Sankeshwar The road to Gokak is good. Only problem is that too many villages and so too many speed-breakers. By around 10:15AM, the 'light' snack that we had in the morning has evaporated. We stop in a small town Ghatprabha for snacks. We see onion-bhajiya at the counter, which do not look like the kanda-bhaji in MH. We order idlis and wadas. Its almost 11AM now. We are carrying bottled water. But the water served at this hotel is so brownish that we begin to wonder: what we ate just now must have been prepared using water very similar to this Anyways, we move on. From this major junction (snap below), we took a right for Gokak town. See that hill in the background with some interesting rock formations towards the top. That hill gives you company all the way till the Gokak falls. There's that hill in the background again. Nice bungalow. Same hill in the background. The road is broken at places and the speed comes down significantly. We pass a chemical factory and are greeted with a very strong foul smell. Who plans these weird things at such a otherwise beautiful place? We stop at a small ghat like section. The view is amazing. Multiple snaps follow. Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 19:20.
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29th August 2011, 14:58	#17
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue 11:33 AM-> We reach Gokak waterfall. Some amazing views. Although I had seen the snaps of this waterfall, what we see with our own eyes is really grand. The observation area has a proper railing. See that hanging bridge. A walk across that narrow bridge is on the cards. No rainbow? We meet a couple from Maharashtra who have been here last week also. Apparently a week back, the entire width of the river bed was covered with water. From this area, there is no access to the river-bed and the hanging bridge. We get back to the car and find the proper parking lot for the Gokak Falls 2 minutes down the road. Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 15:21.
	(1) Thanks

29th August 2011, 15:51	#18
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue We go down a flight of stairs with a whole bunch of school kids. A nice temple. People, people, everywhere. Don't want to be judgemental here, but a lot of people have no regard for their own safety. See that fence at the top of the picture? All those people who have ventured below that point, what were they thinking? I think this was the point from where we were watching the waterfall earlier. On second thoughts, may be it was more to the right. The calm river carrying on as if nothing has happened. Chinni & Shona, whoever you are, wherever you are, defacing beautiful places does not help. Please do something grand so that people remember you forever. People were venturing so close to the edge that it was scary even to watch. Remember the Patalpani incidence about a month back? A peaceful soul quietly taking it all in. What better way to enjoy the breeze than to have some bhutta? Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 16:22.
	(1) Thanks

29th August 2011, 16:31	#19
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue A few more snaps.
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29th August 2011, 16:38	#20
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue We take the bridge. It takes about 10 odd minutes to reach the other side. At some point, because of the strong wind, the bridge swayed. A thrilling moment! Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 19:27.
	(1) Thanks

29th August 2011, 17:15	#21
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue View from the other side. Most likely a old power generation facility. This is when you realize that the current waterfall width is about 25% of the entire riverbed. A place to sit and enjoy the view. See that hill far away? That's probably the same one that gave us company throughout the route. That's the Gokak Mills. Apparently its from the British time and the hanging bridge was constructed for the convenience of the mill-workers. I wonder how the view would be from down there. See that green shirt taking a snap of the blue shirt? Scroll-up one snap above to understand where they are sitting. This is madness! Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 17:30.
	(1) Thanks

29th August 2011, 17:36	#22
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Final set of snaps. We cross the hanging bridge again. We reach back to the parking lot. Its about 1:30 PM. Its been 2 hours since we reached here. To my horror, I see that I have left the blinkers on. The battery is already more than 3 years old. Would the car start? Is there enough juice left for one crank? I keep my fingers crossed as I get into the car. I turn the key. Nothing. I walk to the parking lot attendant and request for help. He does not understand a word I say. I try again "Battery <gesture for gone>. Help <gesture for push>". He understands. He calls a driver waiting in the parking lot and in another 30 seconds, the car started. . I thank both of them profusely. 1:45 PM -> We start the long return journey from Gokak Falls to Mumbai. One final snap. Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 18:00.
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29th August 2011, 18:22	#23
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue On the way back, the priority is reaching home at a decent time. There is school tomorrow, the kids should be in bed (at home) before midnight. So no more stopping for snaps. I tear through Gokak-Ghatprabha and we join back NH4 at 2:53PM. Late breakfast and the bhuttas, lunch can wait a little longer. One hour break for lunch seems like a waste of time. So we decide to stop at the McD @Kolhapur for lunch(?). We reach McD at 3:40PM. After wolfing down a meal, we are back on the road at 4:15PM. Kolhapur to Satara, the traffic is OK. We cross Satara at 6:00PM. From there through Pune bypass to Expressway entry, I miss the horn big time . A lot of vehicles, trucks blocking both lanes and what not. The sun has set and there is a irritating light drizzle. Irritating because its too little for the first slow setting of the wiper and too much for the intermittent setting. I brake hard a couple of times and notice that the hand-brake indicator starts glowing on hard-braking. Ah, the brake fluid level has dropped again, so there is definitely some leakage. Stopped the car, emptied the DOT-3 bottle and we start again. The indicator does not come up after that. Mental note: Besides the horn, I need to get this also fixed tomorrow. 8:24 PM -> We join the Pune-Mumbai expressway. Would we get crazy traffic after Lonavala because it is Sunday evening/night? We get lucky, the traffic is OK for the entire expressway. The rain starts lashing out and there are puddles on the expressway. I stick to the 2nd lane and maintain a steady speed. Faster moving vehicles are splashing a bucketload of water on our car, blinding us momentarily. Slow and steady, we exit the expressway at 9:40PM. Almost one and half hours, which is not bad given the weather. After exactly an hour, 10:40PM, we are at Mulund. The trip-meter shows 1025km and the 2 day adventure comes to an end! Happy! Last edited by SDP : 29th August 2011 at 19:33.
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29th August 2011, 23:28	#24
SDP Team-BHP Support Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,737 Thanked: 11,279 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Bumping the thread! Mods, thanks a lot for the Assembly-Line feature. It sure makes life easier.
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30th August 2011, 09:29	#25
ampere Team-BHP Support Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 17,951 Thanked: 12,939 Times View My Garage	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue @SDP, A thoroughly entertaining account. Adding with Thoseghar and Kaas, how about Bamnoli? Looks like we need about 2-3 days to visit all these places. (Maybe 2-3 days at Satara.) Very nice account indeed.
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30th August 2011, 10:58	#26
MX6 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands. Posts: 2,877 Thanked: 231 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Some of the pictures made me feel dizzy @SDP. @ampere. One does require 2 days atleast for Thosegar, Kaas and Bamnoli. Especially Kaas is a place where one can sit for hours together just looking at nature.
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30th August 2011, 12:09	#27
Fordmanchau Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 1,666 Thanked: 340 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue @SDP, very thorough travelogue. Those green pictures of the hills make even my computer screen look awesome. Gokak falls was a delight to look at, only wished the crowd to be less. It looked all choc-a block with people, must be very noisy. But the place just makes it up for itself. Thanks for sharing the wonderful pic with us. @MX6: seeing your post here after a very long time
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30th August 2011, 14:19	#28
ninjatalli Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Bangalore Posts: 3,803 Thanked: 15,589 Times View My Garage	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue @SDP, A nice crisp travelogue. Glad to see your family shares your enthusiasm of outdoor trips. Especially your better half's point of enjoying the individual stages (breakfast) - really good way to enjoy a trip. Living at Pune for the past 6+ years, never knew such nice picnic spots are close by! Do put up a final post with complete itinerary & time/distance/route details, if possible!
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30th August 2011, 16:24	#29
Sanyd1711 BHPian Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Thane (Dombivili) Posts: 37 Thanked: 3 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Hey SDP !!!! Great write up there. Absolutely loved it. Would you mind telling me what were the exact kms from Express Way start to that right turn to Satara City, which then goes to Thoseghar Fall ?? Not very happy to see people taking undue risk at Gokkak Falls. Last edited by Sanyd1711 : 30th August 2011 at 16:30. Reason: spelling mistake
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30th August 2011, 16:53	#30
vivek_vt BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 62 Thanked: 33 Times	Re: 2 days, 2 states, 2 waterfalls and 1025 kms without a horn: A travelogue Nice pictures. Never knew about the Gokak waterfalls. Leaving for Kaas, Mahabaleshwar tonight. Too few days to make it to gokak :(
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