Considering the last weekend was a long one, my friends and me made a plan to travel to Sirsi, Karnataka. This was my first long drive (haven't crossed 200 km in one day before), so was slightly nervous, but decided to take the plunge anyway. I was the only one driving btw.
The machine
Started on Saturday. the plan was to leave at 5 AM so that we could reach Shimoga and Jog soon before the sun went down, but it wasn't to be. Laziness, cold Bangalore weather etc, and we were stuck till 7 30 AM, only after which everyone was ready.
Took the Nice road till Tumkur. The rood is good, but has a lot of undulations. I still claim that the 25-30 km stretch of Old madras road, is the best road near Bangalore. Took the NH immediately after that, and stopped over at Kamat, Nelmangala for breakfast. These damn Kamats are crowded all the time. We need more highway restaurants.
Ended up spending around an hour there.
From Tumkur took the ring road, avoiding Tumkur, and joining the highway to Tiptur. Between Tiptur and Arsikere took a couple of stops for capturing this beautiful scenery.
Had lunch in a roadside dhaba at Arsikere. Searched a lot for a restroom, got frustrated and had to become one with nature. After lunch we start and just about a km later see a big CCD!
Anyway, didnt stop there as we were already full with the dhaba food. Non stop, crossed Shimoga and reached Sagara, at around 4 in the evening. Stopped at a roadside hotel to have coffee, cutlets and mangalore buns
Still contemplating whether to finish Jog visit today itself, or wait till tomorrow. Because it's aleady 5:15 by the time we are done at this hotel, and I absolutely hate taking pics with higher ISO levels even though I have a D90.
Finally decided to go the same day. Roads are awesome all the way upto Jog. Reached Jog Jalapatha(i love this name :P ) at 6 PM sharp. Crossed the bridge to go to the falls, saw that Sharavati was flowing considerably full. Great expectations for the falls themselves.
And for most of the time, expectation met and surpassed!
But I was not satisfied with the quality of picture because of the low light. So we decided to come back when we travel back to Bangalore on Monday.
Just about when we were about to leave Jog falls, it started raining very heavily. We drove out at 7:30 PM to our place of stay at Sirsi. We had booked a room at Hotel Shivani, Sirsi. It's mostly broken down, but all I needed after a 400 km drive was just a good enough bed to sleep on. I got that, and was dozing in minutes.
Day 2
Day 2 started with a heated argument of whether to go to Kumta, or nearby, just to see the sea. I am a person who craves for the sea, and I am not much of a waterfall person. Even though I survived the Tsunami when i was staying in a beach resort in Mahabalipuram, I still go back to the sea whenever I can.
So seeing that after visitng Yana, Kumta is just going to be 20 km away, I was all pumped to go see the sea. I didn't want a beach, just wanted to see the sea. And now that I think of it, I've seen the Arabian sea only once at Goa.
But the other three with me were saying it's illogical and all that. Finally I convinced them that if we are out of Yana by 4 in the afternoon, I would want to go to Kumta for dinner.
We started the day at 9 30, and decided to finish Unchalli falls first. Took the road towards Kumta, and turned off at a diversion for Unchalli. It was an absolute waste of time as the entire place was covered with fog. Couldn't get a single glimpse of the falls even though we could hear it with all it's glory :(
Not even a single photo here.
I don't know how the time passed, but by the time we started back towards Sirsi, the time was around 12. We traveled towards Yana and reached the Yana gate at 12:30 or 1. Parked the car, and took off trekking into the forest. Not anything major, just about a kilometer inside, and we get the first glimpse of one of the rocks.
After walking thro the rocks, decided to wander into another path, and found a beautiful waterfall.
Just about now, the heavens opened up, and it rained like there's no tomorrow. My camera, bag, my clothes everything got drenched beyond any respite. In the heavy rain we completed our tour of Yana, and trudged back to my car. Reached my car at 4 30, and all of us took an hour taking turns and changing into dry clothes in the car. All said and done, it was close to 5 45 pm by the time we started back to the main road from sirsi. Needless to say, no sea sighting for me :( So we decided to go back to sirsi, and call it a day.
A few photos on the way back.
Bought dinner at Shetty Lunch home. Amazing chicken and great food overall. Brought the food back to the hotel, ate like a pig and dozed off. Day 3 is the day we come back. another 400 km driving for me.