[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Good writeup,thank goodness you came out unscathed with the Hyundai episode and the now infamous floods.Waiting to read the Amboli part of your trip

Amazed to see such a well kept pool @ Malligi.I remember Hospet a long time back it was one helluva dusty place.Any pics of the hotel or the rooms?

Thanks ranjitp1. Yeah, we were lucky with the car getting back to normal on its own. I'll see if my pal has taken any snaps of Malligi and post them here in a couple of days.
Hospet is still crowded and dusty, with narrow roads. Our experience shows that even their petrol is dusty

[suren181]

Venu, good travelogue. Kept me glued till this point and will be refreshing often from now on.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by suren181

Venu, good travelogue. Kept me glued till this point and will be refreshing often from now on.

Thanks Suren. I'll post some more stuff in the afternoon after I reach office----normally I don't 'work' at home

[Indian Ranger]

Good photographs. I did visit jog on the weekend during Ramzan and the water was the same. The week earlier to that, the authorities had released water and all the falls were running full. Since we reached late, we could not go near the falls and light started fading. I was not aware about the lingamanakki reservoir being so near by to Jog hence missed it. Wish to do a more leisure trip around Jog some time next year and will try not to miss it.

Waiting to read your experience further and do post more photographs.

[nnandi]

Hi Venu,

very nice travelogue, narrations of each episode so far has been quite gripping and wanting for more. Pictures are well shot (it would have helped more if each had a caption).

I am quite excited about the Goa part of your trip, as I did almost your trip (minus hampi) 2 weeks back and have still not come out of the hang-over of the fun at goa. (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ep-2009-a.html).

Waiting for more, narration and pics!
Br,
Nandi

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by nnandi

Hi Venu,

I am quite excited about the Goa part of your trip, as I did almost your trip (minus hampi) 2 weeks back and have still not come out of the hang-over of the fun at goa. (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ep-2009-a.html).

Waiting for more, narration and pics!
Br,
Nandi

Thanks Nandi
Actually I've already gone through your travelogue with rapt attention---it was very handy becuase I read it just a day before I started my journey, and your updates from Shimoga to Goa were very useful.
Owing to your narration on the rough patch between Jog and Honnavar, we were a bit careful, but later when we reached Honnavar, we had a mild laugh. We said, 'man, if this route is supposed to be bad, then he gotta travel from Chitradurga to Shimoga. Once he does that, he will find this road silky smooth'.

[pulsar56]

Great travelogue Venu sir.
Had me glued and was reading it from LVPEI. I did not even notice the time until I had finished the travelogue and the story after that will be shared in the next meet! LOL.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Great travelogue Venu sir.
Had me glued and was reading it from LVPEI. I did not even notice the time until I had finished the travelogue and the story after that will be shared in the next meet! LOL.

Thanks Nazim, will surely yap about it when we meet next. By the way, may I ask what LVPEI stands for? Blimey, those Yanks have pervaded the whole world with acronyms

[vnabhi]

It was 1300 hours when we left Jog, and we were not that hungry, so we bought some refreshments and started driving towards Honnavar, eagerly looking forward to the great scenery on the ghat section that others had written about.

We were not disappointed--there was thick forest all around us, and huge trees on the roadside made it dark at some places though it was mid afternoon. The outside temperature display also showed 23 degrees, which was about 6 degrees cooler than Shimoga.

The winding ghat road held us in awe---little can be done with a camera to capture the beauty that unfolded---only an imax screen would do justice to the huge mountains and waterfalls that were visible on and off through the gaps in the tall trees in front of us.

We stopped at one place for a pee break and took the pics below (this was around 25 to 30 kms from Jog):-

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Thanks Nazim, will surely yap about it when we meet next. By the way, may I ask what LVPEI stands for? Blimey, those Yanks have pervaded the whole world with acronyms

L.V. Prasad Eye Institute!

[straightdrive]

Very detailed write-up, vnabhi, and catchy title in spite of the length!

Especially liked the pics of the Tungabhadra dam - were they taken from a bridge?

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

L.V. Prasad Eye Institute!

Wow, did you undergo Lasik?

Originally Posted by straightdrive

Very detailed write-up, vnabhi, and catchy title in spite of the length!

Especially liked the pics of the Tungabhadra dam - were they taken from a bridge?

Thanks, they were taken from the viewpoint atop a hill---you need to park your car at the dam gate and take the bus to that place--they charge 20 bucks per head. But really worth it.

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Roads are very bad near Shimoga, worst than expectation when I travelled couple of days back.

Ravi.

@Ravi, this is from which part ? I mean the roads near Shimoga. Isn't the Bhadravathi-Shimoga in good condition except the 4 lane conversion ones.

@vnabhi,
You should have taken the second route
Hospet-Harihar-Malebennur-Honnali-Savalanga-Shimoga.
This road is good, very less potholes, but small humps.
Sometime back I had taken this route.

[vnabhi]

@sushrutha---we regret not taking your advice. But going by the trauma caused by that malfunction light, we made the mistake of taking what was apparently the shortest route.

[vnabhi]

The journey to Honnavar was exciting, as seen from the pics above. There were very few rough patches, but the roads were quite twisty at some places.

The car was running smoothly and we were waiting for the bad fuel of Hospet to get over. When we were still 25 kms away from Honnavar, we overtook a blue petrol Ford Fiesta (did not have the 1.6 tag behind), driven by a middle-aged couple. I dunno if his ego got hurt, but he kept tailing us from then on, and perhaps wanted to prove his car has 'superior' handling.

Just as we emerged out of a steep left turn we found a nitwit bus overtaking a bike and he did not bother even when we flashed our headlights. Though there was space to the left of the road, there was a sharp cut and a pothole that forced us to brake hard to avoid getting into it. The car instantly came to a stop, but he heard a slight sound behind. My pal said 'that idiot has hit us'---perhaps he felt the jerk on the steering wheel. He immediately alighted.
I though the bus had grazed past us, but was wondering why there was no pronounced jerk. I got down and moved to the back, and found the Fiesta behind us---it then dawned on me that he'd rear ended us. Both husband and wife had gotten down and looked worried.

We minutely examined the rear, and to our luck, did not find any scar! Too good to be true! The lady then said ' nothing happened, so let us move on'. I then scrutinized the Fiesta, and could not find anything there too, except that the right fog light holder was slightly bent.

We gave gyaan to the driver about safe distance, and asked him to lead if he wanted. He declined. I also told him that lack of ABS in his car might have been the culprit, but he said "i have it' ---probably he did not know what it was, or was defensive.

We continued the journey, and while we were enjoying the scenery by driving slowly, that guy overtook us and vanished.