13th July 2010, 17:05
| #1 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hyderabad
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| Foggy Jog, sweet pineapples, a few leeches and unkempt ruins! A short trip to the mountains was long pending and my trigger (camera) happy wifey was much too eager to visit the places we didn’t cover in our stint in Bangalore. After much thought, we zeroed in on Jog falls or Mahabaleshwar. Since we had already done Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani for our honeymoon, we decided that Jog it will be. Also, I wanted to club Hampi and Agumbe with the trip. Hampi as it is on the route we took and Agumbe per suggestion of a friend. Post a trip to Kemmannugundi in Sep 2009 with college friends, I was very apprehensive of taking the Bellary route and posted a query on TBHP (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...jog-falls.html). As always, TBHPians were very helpful (Thanks again, silverwood, ampere, gajadonga) in chalking out the following route: Day1: Hyderabad>Jadcherla>Mahboobnagar>Raichur>Hospet Day2: Hospet>Gadag>Hubli>Sirsi>Jog falls Day3: Jogfalls>Sagar>Anandapuram>Thirthahalli>Agumbe Day4: Agumbe>Shimoga>Harihar>Hospet>Hampi Day4: Hampi>Anegondi>Sangapur>Gangawati>Sindhanur>Raichu r>MBNR>Jadcherla>Hyd And this is the route I took. There were only 2 bad stretches of about 34 KM's  of the 1652 KM's clocked on the odo.Day1: Hyderabad>Jadcherla>Mahboobnagar>Raichur>Hospet: After the customary visit to the temple, tank-up, tyre pressure check and packing the essentials, me and wifey set out to pick up my colleague (Prashant) and his wife from Hitech city. By the time we hit the NH7 it was 6PM as against the planned 3PM. The idea was to cover as much distance possible in the day and hit the bed @ hospet. With Prashant at the wheel, the journey upto the diversion (@ Jadcherla) on NH7 towards Mahboobnagar was absolute bliss. There are a few bad patches or road after Mahboobnagar but can be negligible. After asking for directions in Mahboobnagar, I took the wheel and we reached Raichur at around 10PM. Those doing this stretch, there is a bridge on the Krishna river just before Raichur Thermal Power station (Devasugur) that is in a bad shape and a tad bit narrow for comfort. The local lorries and RTC buses keep overtaking eachother on this bridge, caution is the name of the game. Before entering Raichur, we enquired around for a decent family restaurant/dhaba and the locals pointed out to a dhaba by the name Santoshi Utsav where we halted for dinner and they served some decent food. Palate’s satisfied, we hit the highway to Hospet on SH20 & SH23. At Gangawati, we stopped for directions at an intersections and had intentions to take the road via Sangapur but some lorry drivers pointed out that there is a very bad patch before Sangapur and advised us to take SH23 and then join NH13 to Hospet. I took this road and later regretted it as from the point where we hit NH13, it was full of mining lorries and resembled the moon (add rain and late night driving). I did this 25 KM stretch in about 1 hour  . After a few queries, we finally made it to Hospet and to our pit stop – Hotel Priyadarshini @ 2.30AM. The hotel has ample parking lot, is gated and is ok for a night halt (For all others who plan to stay in Hospet and visit Hampi, I would recommend Hotel Malligi). We took only one room with an extra bed and straight away hit the bed. There are not many photos i can share from Day1 as most of the journey was done in the night with sleepy heads (excluding the driver) on board. The route we took  The diversion to Mahboobnagar @ Jadcherla  A view from Hotel Priyadarshini @ Hospet  Coming up - Day2: Foggy Jog, here we come! |
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13th July 2010, 17:12
| #2 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore
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| Thats a nice start. Waiting for Jog pics in all its glory in monsoons. By the way, google thinks you could have got around the entire distance in 25 hrs  |
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13th July 2010, 17:16
| #3 |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Lucknow
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13th July 2010, 18:57
| #4 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 379
Thanked: 20 Times
| Day2: Hospet>Gadag>Hubli>Sirsi>Jog falls Destination beckoning, we woke up early the next day. Quickly had tea and checked out from the hotel. Last night’s drive through the rains and potholed NH13 had its effects on my black stallion. Did a quick clean of the WS and set out for Jog falls.  We retraced a slight stretch of last nights road and took a left at Munirabad to join NH63. This road, upto Hubli, is a drivers delight. The tungabhadra dam - on the way to Hubli  Road to Gadag  Prashant (my colleague) could touch 100-110 intermittently until we stopped at Gadag for a quick breakfast (don’t remember the name of the place but the chow-chow bhath and the sambar he servered are worth mentioning).  On the way to Hubli, somewhere we saw some wild horses and stopped to satiate my trigger hungry better half.  My ride  We had to ask for directions in Hubli but it was a fairly simple route. The moment we exited Hubli and joined NH4, we were flagged down by the cops. We first thought they were looking for license, pollution etc but naaah. The SI asked us to step out and take a look at a photo. We then realized that we were over speeding (speed gun+photo combo read 57 KMPH) and the limit was 40 KMPH. We saw a few truckers paying a 100 and getting away, but I didn’t really like the idea of ‘services’ to the cop and requested for a challan. Paying 300, we again hit the NH4 took a diversion after Varur and joined the road to Sirsi. As ampere pointed out this road was definitely picturesque with thick vegetation, animal crossings, rubber plantations and lotus ponds on the way. Initially upto Mundgod it was a bit narrow for comfort but later it started becoming a proper 2 laner. NH4  Jain temple  Animals have the right of way here, welcome to the Jungle  Me posing with wifey  Random lotus pond (sorry all shots had people in them)  Close up of the Kamal  Road to Mundgod  Somewhere we saw a sign board of Attiveri Bird sanctuary but gave it a miss due to the lure of Jog. ‘Next time for sure’ – me and wifey made a mental note. I know the look in her eyes, you know! Attiveri Bird Sanctuary  The approach bridge to Jog was breathtaking and we couldn’t stop shooting away to glory. It was very foggy with slight drizzle but didn’t mind whipping out the cam’s.  Moving on we could hear the loud roar of a waterfall from a distance but since this is the first time, we couldn’t make out where exactly it was though we were standing near the KSTDC mayura hotel. When we asked someone where the Jog is, you should have seen the shock/awe/sarcasm in his eyes (I felt he wanted to convey ‘are you blind?’  ). Then came the shocker. I had initially booked the Tungabhadra block (Recession effects are still working, sadly) but was told by the KSTDC folks on arrival that there is now power in this block and the backup generator was out of diesel. We requested for the Sharavati block but were told that this being a weekend, it was booked out. The attendant came to our rescue and asked us to wait for a few minutes. It was just past lunch time, so we had a quick lunch of the basic (but effective south Indian plate meals). Having some more time to kill, with weary legs and backs, we headed to the point where there is a viewing platform to catch our first glimpse of Jog as the fog seemed to be clearing up. Aha! Here we are at last!  The mighty Raja, Rani, Roarer, Rocket  While wifey and friends were having a gala time, I went back to the hotel and asked the attendant what he was up to. He then told me a family had vacated in advance and there is one room we needed to share. We headed to check out that room and it was pretty spacious. We payed an extra 20 to get an extra bed. The rest of the evening was spend waiting for the occasional clear view of fog, visiting the Rani and Roarer (2 of the 4 falls that jog is made up of) up close with a guide (150 seems to be the standard charge), and the British bunglow. With the guide all set for a close up of Rani and Roarer  Steps to the bottom of the Jog, this was sadly closed (WIP)  This side of the jog offered some breath taking views add some weak kneed steep drops. That sure made my knees wobble  Visitors galore  Another angle  Yet another angle of the mighty Jog  Saw this from our guest house  It was getting dark and we headed back to our guest house. After a quick dinner (Hotel Mayura, the only hotel that seems to be around, apparently serves only south meals and some bread omlette) all that we could see was the bed. But how could you miss a match of a life time (Argentina – Germany)? With sleepy eyes, we tuned in but don’t remember when we tuned out (I think the Blitzkreig hit Prashant pretty hard as Klose Klosed the game for him) and I had to wake up again midnight to wish wifey ‘happy birthday at Jog’. Coming up - Day3: Slurpy pineapples, Creepy Leeches and Ta na na tana nana naaaa Last edited by ExtremeTorque : 13th July 2010 at 19:10. |
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13th July 2010, 19:15
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| Team-BHP Support   | |
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13th July 2010, 19:17
| #6 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
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13th July 2010, 19:38
| #7 | ||||
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 379
Thanked: 20 Times
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13th July 2010, 23:53
| #8 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: thane
Posts: 284
Thanked: 17 Times
| august last week is the correct time Quote:
also can we have a thread where all the latest news especially about waterflow and reservoir overflow can be posted? pg | |
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14th July 2010, 00:01
| #9 |
| BHPian  | I wish there is more water in Jog, I am going tomorrow , but ET you got to nice positions, great snaps. |
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14th July 2010, 02:13
| #10 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: TSTN
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14th July 2010, 06:46
| #11 |
| Team-BHP Support | My experience with "Chow Chow" 5-6 years back we used to stay nearby the Manipal hospital. There was Bandh in the city. That day I realized the hospital had an "excellent" canteen which was for every one but patients. And it was there that Nirvana dawned upon me of the great Chow chow equation: "Suji ka Halwa" (A.K.A Kesri Bath) + Upma (A.K.A Khara Bath) = Chow Chow Bath The guy at the counter kept on asking me why dont you try chow chow bath and I was like, why Chinese in the morning?  Once reality dawned, it was Chow Chow pretty much all the way! Sorry for the OT folks! |
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14th July 2010, 09:54
| #12 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: BANG-A-LURE.
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14th July 2010, 16:15
| #13 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 379
Thanked: 20 Times
| Day3: Jogfalls>Sagar>Anandapuram>Thirthahalli>Agumbe Though I had planned to buy a gift the day before we started for our journey, work kept me from doing this and it got pushed until the last day and my worst fears were realized, I never bought one. I planned to make up for it somewhere in our tour but didn’t know where. Carrying the image of the mighty Jog (and a smirk on my face of finally visiting this place), we woke up early to another foggy day. After a quick wash me and wifey headed for another round of Jog darshan as we were to leave for Agumbe. As expected, we saw a lot of those photographers cum guides start early promising a once in a lifetime instant picture. We quickly bargained for few snaps and got into the act of posing. Luckily the fog started clearing up and we did get our Kodak moments.  Zoom-in  Next on our agenda was peth pooja. Not wanting to have another of the standard plate meals at Hotel Mayura, we headed to the stalls just beside the Tungabhadra block. They seemed to have all the regular fare plus maggi. Wait? What did you say? Maggi? Where there is maggi there is my wife! We quickly ordered one ‘masala-customized with vegetables–maggi’.  This was not so great so we made up our mind to have breakfast @ sagar. While exiting Jog, the bridge was as picturesque as it was the previous day with fog and a slight drizzle. The moment we left Jog, the sight of pineapple stacks started greeting us. Though behind schedule, I couldn’t help stopping at the sight of these yellow things. True to the adage, what you see is what you get, these were the best and sweetest pineapples I ever had in my life. So smitten I was with the pineapples, I did the Job of the pineapple guy for some time (Business Continuity, I call it!).  While we were at it, I suddenly recollected the birthday gift and offered the freshly cut pineapples as a replacement for a birthday cake/gift. (Now that came cheap! Muahahahahahaha!) We spent a few minutes savoring the pineapples with salt and chilli powder, stacked up the boot with a few and hit NH206 to Sagar.  A quick breakfast of set dosa’s and coffee made the rest of the journey rather sleepy for the women folk. Me and Prashant kept zipping across the country side soaking in the dense vegetation, occasional bouts of rains, umpteen culverts with rivulets under them. Rubber plantations  Trying to blend in   A few KM’s from Jog, we saw a temple (we identified it as a temple from the bell hanging outside) that had a different architecture from what we had seen in our life time. It was then that we realized that we were in one of the wettest place in south and had a quick darshan followed by another photo op.  One day honey, one day, i will be sitting there with a newspaper and coffee in another hand!  Another few KM’s we spot a huge culvert and a clean looking rivulet flowing below it. We decide to check the waters and to our surprise, it is freezing cold and a strong current in it.    Never saw this before, looks like from the M&M stable  We make it to Agumbe around noon and quickly make it to Kasturiakka’s place (Doddamane) – of the malgudi days fame. Agumbe  Like most of the houses around, the architecture is pretty basic and effective in keeping out the rain.  Before entering the house we saw a guy exiting who looked like he knew in and around Agumbe. Upon enquiry, the first thing he showed us were his 20 odd leech bites and told us that this was the worst time of the year and it had been raining for the past few days – non stop. Further enquiry revealed that he had come from Mysore and was an amateur butterfly photographer (but I didn’t think it was an SLR around his neck, but a super zoom P & S, considering the climate, I would say smart, eh!). Our host Kasturiakka was expecting us and has a spread ready for us. With Kasturiakka  About the spread – though Prashant and others did not quite enjoy this style of food, I rated this as the best meal of the journey. It consisted of boiled rice with some ‘Kadhi’, jackfruit seed curry cooked in palak, onion & jackfruit pakora’s, sambar and curd. Me and wifey gulped it down like a hungry pack in the savanna! Kastriakka was not very particular about the amount we pay for the lunch and asked us to pay whatever we feel like. As per city standards we payed hear and did a quick tour of the house. We were told that the house is 115 yrs old and not much of it has changed since the time it was build (except for the windows and electrical fittings). The house used to be leased out for shooting but now is used as a transit point for the king cobra/butterfly researchers. The upper floors has 6-7 beds (very basic looking, again) and another room has about 3 beds. This pretty much serves the purpose for a short stay, I felt.  2 Generations of hospitality  Sleeping area/dorm kind of a set up on the top floor  The host was also kind enough to call a guide who was to take us around to Onakabbe and Jogigundi falls and then to sunset point and the rainfall research center. Being forewarned by both the butterfly guy and Kasturiakka we skipped Onakabbe, which apparently is a 3.5KM walk through leech territory. We headed first to Jogigundi and stopped on the way for another of our umpteen photo sessions. On the way to Jogigundi  Posing in Leech paradise  A few minutes later, me and Prashant stepped away for a quick leak and suddenly we hear shrieks “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh” reverberate throughout the forest. It was Prashant’s wife and the poor guy froze in his act! Now, I have prior experience of leech bites and the moment I heard the shrieks, I knew what it was. I opened the boot and pulled out the eucalyptus oil bottle and sprinkled some on. The leech let go but not the shrieks. From then on, Prashant’s wife was mostly confined to the car until we crossed the Agumbe sign board. Further ahead, near the track to Jogigundi fall’s we were told that the track is now closed due to fallen trees and we need to head back. Boy! I think you can guess who was the gladdest of all! Quickly did a U turn and headed to the (world famous?) Agumbe sunset point. This is again standard viewing point (like those in ooty, kodai). The only thing worth seeing from here is the origin point of the Onakabbe falls. It looked like a milky white streak in a sea of thick green forests and mountains.   Road to Udipi - SH65  World famous?  Heading back, we dropped our guide at Doddamane and since the Rainfall research center was supposed to be on the way back to Shimoga, we planned to visit it ourselves (alas, we could never find it as no one around seemed to know about its existence). Heeding advice of the guide we then headed to the Kundadri mountain. On the way to Kundadri  We found lots of these  The drive up Kundadri was a bit scary with some parts of the road inclined at more than 45 degrees. It was 1st gear most of the way up.  Jain temple @ Kundadri  Atop Kundadri, the first thing that greeted us was litter and countless beer bottles. Come on people, you are entitled to fun but not at the cost of environment. Spending a few minutes at Kundadri we headed back on our road to Shimoga. The drive through Thirthahalli to Shimoga was pleasant as it passes through the Bhadra WLS. But it was incessantly raining and I had to strain my eyes most of the time to beat the unrelenting oncoming high beamers (despite request for dipping). Arriving at Shimoga, we were recommended, Ashoka hotel and Samrat Ashoka hotel a few KM’s from the bus stand. Inspection of Ashoka hotel revealed cockroaches and Samrat was pretty decent with ample car park and attached restaurant. We quick completed the formalities of check in, let the women folk rest and went out to grab a few spirits to end the birthday on a ‘high’. |
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14th July 2010, 16:38
| #14 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
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14th July 2010, 17:17
| #15 |
| Team-BHP Support | |
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