Jog falls trip

JogFallsSep4,5,2004 

JogFallsSep4,5,2004

 

09/05/2004 - 09/11/2004

 

   

 

• Rediff.com

Syndicate this Blog

(RSS/XML feed)

 

Monday, September 06, 2004

A three day weekend immediately after a weekend at home and jog falls at 370 kms , the trip wish materialised with Azad's phone call on Saturday morning.After 

booking return train ticket- waiting list for Sunday , we set out to Shimoga from the KSRTC stand saturday morning.The privatised road stretch to Tumkur was 

amazing.I missed my bike that had to take rest for fear of rain.Well after that , the road was normal with two-way traffic on one side of the median , gutters , a few 

good stretches , curves and all those everyday blues of being a road.The road sights were very green and pleasant almost all through with lovely weather as well.We 

reached Shimoga around 5:30.

Tunga anicut was the venue for the shimoga gamble.There were prospects for some photography in the dam.One hour later , we were on the bus to Jog 

falls.When we were almost there , the Malayalee driver befriended me and suggested the youth hostel for accomodation after dinner at Kargal.Well after dinner , 

there were no rooms in the youth hostel or at Jog falls and we ended up taking a lodge at Kargal spending hundred bucks on auto trips.

Sunrise at jog falls was the plan for Sunday as we slept exhausted at 12 saturday night with the same auto driver arranged to pick us at five.Romantic as it 

sounded , Jog falls does not sport sunrises and sunsets is what the localites had been telling us.When I woke up to the Nokia alarm at 5 , there was bright light 

through the window.Sun rose this early or what and I slept and so did the auto driver.Well the sunrise at falls plan would not have materialised anyway for three 

reasons - one the autodriver did not arrive , two the clouds hid the sun and three , the tube light outside our room.After a bakery breakfast , we were at the jog falls 

once again with the same driver.

Magnificent , porsche , regal , grand , breathtaking were the genre of adjectives to which I associated the jog falls and the amazing terrain.The camera 

came to life and started absorbing compositions in.It was interrupted by the jeep trip to the view points around.The involuntary honking of the jeep added humor to 

the beauty .At the raja falls , the tallest of the four , we lied down on the rocks and looked directly down parallel to the falls.Amazing as the sights were , we were 

allowed very little time for photography.The camera was again let loose like a kid in an icecream parlor.The rolls ammunition was lying cold in my bag at the lodge as 

we decided to bring just one bag to the falls.This was just another of my carelessness-luck sequences with the roll shop seen immediately after in time and place of the 

shock.After a quick for-namesake stops at the viewpoints around , we were back at the Jog Falls Central.

After a bread-omelette breakfast , we started the long trek down to the bottom of the falls through the rock steps.At every turn , there were small 

refreshment stall entrepreneurs who trek the stuff down and up daily for a living.There were a number of new beautiful butterflies around but I had to foresake them 

for possible greater natural beauty prospects.Farsightedness.Even otherwise , you can't expect the butterfly to wait for a lens change.Birds and dragonflies were also 

quite high in number.Startling ones included a violet mormon and a dragonfly with bright teal spread-out wings.I seriously contemplated staying another day.Soon we 

were at the falls base and I tried more photography.This was a more deliberate session where I was trying to capture beauty objectively.I could sense my 

inexperience.The cam was back in the bag and we decided to feel the falls waterwise.Through the chilled water , we waded and reached even closer to the falls.I 

wanted to take some more snaps from where I was , the closest that I had been to the falls.I requested Azad to bring the camera in his waterproof bag as I was a bad 

swimmer.He was good enough to go back and bring the camera.More snaps a few with Azad.We had had our fill.Around 3 , we trekked back.This was hard and I 

should say I did well climbing up.Azad who had done more swimming was more tired and came in after me.

We had our lunch , relaxed , left for Kargal , left for Shimoga , left for Bangalore.The return tickets had not got confirmed.However , as we were early at 

the station , we got upper births in the general compartment and slept peacefully tired......( The train did present a few jerks to the trip.The reservation ticket needed 

to be cancelled by the TT as the computerised cancellation time was over.So I got the ticket cancelled by the TT and ended up boarding the train at the general bogie 

section at the opposite end.I found myself a good looking seat next to the window female, sent an SMS to Azad that 'I am in the train'.After sometime , I got a 

message from him 'Where are you'.I replied saying that 'I might doze off inside another bogie before the next station.'After some more time , he called me and asked 

me 'Where I was' in a very concerned tone and also that he could not hear me as his cell battery was low.I concluded that he had not received my SMSs , probably 

thinks that I might be stuck in Shimoga and may start working things out.I had to reach him.At the next crossing stop , I got down , ran and got to the next general 

compartment , checked for him , panted.I did this again four times.The guard showed the green torch.The next stop was Marikere.I ran through the platform to the 

next bogie which was a reservation compartment.I had planned to walk through to the other end.The doors were locked one after the other and I kept running bogie 

by bogie risking the train.Ten bogies hence was the right one.Azad was sleeping peacefully having received the SMSs late.Is it always better late than never?There was a man on my berth.We had to eat a little of his brain to get him out after which we slept peacefully tired. )

Posted by cinish narayanan on 12:12 AM