Travelog – Jog Falls & Karwar (Uttara Kannada)

With the inspiration of Narasimha Parvatha Travelog, I thought of writing travelogs for the remaining group trips and here is an attempt to recall my memories from our Jog Falls & Karwar (Uttara Kannada) trip done in 2007.

We thought of planning a trip for the long weekend of 2007 New Year. Since it was my last trip as a bachelor, I was very keen to make it a memorable trip. All participants have agreed on spending 4 full days and I have started planning the trip.

Starting from our Goa trip in 2005, I have developed special interest on waterfalls. While gathering some information about famous waterfalls in India, I learned about Jog Falls, which is the highest waterfall in India with a height of 829 feet. It is also one of the four best waterfalls in India appeared on special postal stamps released by Indian Govt (other three being Athirapally Falls from Kerala, Kempty Falls from Uttaranchal and Kakolat Falls from Bihar) - http://www.indiapost.gov.in/images/Stamp-Rel112.gif. I immediately started gathering more information on Jog Falls.

While searching the surroundings of Jog falls, I came to know that there are many wonderful waterfalls in Uttara Kannada district and most of them are little close to Jog Falls (which is located in Shimoga district). I thought of proposing a waterfall oriented trip by including all the important waterfalls from Uttara Kannada along with Jog Falls. However, we felt it would be boring to just keep visiting waterfalls for 4 continuous days and decided to mix it with other important places around. We thought including a beach destination would add more spice to the trip as it was New Year weekend. Deepak & others proposed that we should spend Dec 31^st night in a beach destination and visit all waterfalls before that! I started working towards identifying the best beach destinations around Jog Falls and then Karwar came into the picture. Karwar is a beach town and headquarters of Uttara Kannada district. There were two reasons to include Karwar in the trip. First one being the Devbagh Beach, a wonderful beach island near Karwar which also offers Snorkeling. Second reason is the Om Beach near Gokarna (50 Kms from Karwar) which is one of the best beaches in India with breathtaking landscape.

Though Jog Falls is close to the town of Sagar in Shimoga, I preferred Sirsi as our base station for the first two days to visit all waterfalls. Jog Falls is 65 Kms from Sirsi, but all other waterfalls we shortlisted are within the range of 30-50 Kms from Sirsi. Karwar was identified as the base for remaining two days of the trip. Apart from the regular participants (Deepak, Radhani & Chaitu & Rakesh), we also received confirmation from Ravi (our college mate & my close friend) & Ratnakar (Rakesh’s classmate and our close friend as well). Santosh missed this trip.

About Jog Falls

At a distance of 375 Kms from Bangalore, 103 Kms from Shimoga, 28 Kms from Sagar, 65 Kms from Sirsi & 16 Kms from Siddapur, Jog falls is the highest waterfall in India with a height of 253 meters (829 feet) situated in Shimoga district of Karnataka.

Jog falls is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in India and one of the important tourist destinations in Karnataka. Formed by Sharavathi River, it is also called as Gerusoppe falls and Jogada Gundi. The falls are separated into four different parts and called as Raja, Rocket, Rani & Roarer (however, it looks like a single fall during monsoons).

There is a view point near parking area which also has few shops available. A narrow path from view point leads to bottom of the falls. The walk is steep & little difficult and takes about 45 minutes one way. The view is amazing from the bottom and the showering sizzles of the falls at bottom are really worth the effort (water bottles are sold in midway of the trek path). However, the path is mostly inaccessible or dangerous during monsoons and it’s suggested to go down only in winter & summer seasons.

Jog Falls is accessible by Bus from Sagar and Siddapur. Sirsi is also a good base station to visit Jog Falls & other places around.

Preparations

We did not need lot of preparations for this trip. As soon as the places were finalized and base stations were identified, we started working on transportation options and hotel bookings. Three participants were traveling from Bangalore (Deepak, Radhani & Chaitu) and remaining five people were based in Hyderabad. There was no direct transportation to Sirsi from Hyderabad and very limited options from Bangalore, so we chose Hubli as the connecting point to reach our destinations (Hubli is well connected with Bangalore & Hyderabad). We have booked the bus tickets between Hubli and our cities. No reservation was required from Hubli - Sirsi (~100 Kms) or Karwar – Hubli (~150 Kms).

As there were limited accommodation options in Sirsi, we wanted to book the hotel in advance. I searched over internet, called few hotels and booked two rooms with Hotel Shivani. We were looking for an economical option yet with features like restaurant & travel desk. Karwar is a big town & good tourist spot and we knew there were many accommodation options. We decided not to book the hotel in Karwar and find something once we reach there (however, we realized later that it was not a good decision!).

Day 1

Reached Hubli at around 7:30 AM. The Bangaloreans had already reached Hubli and were waiting for us. We enquired about the bus frequency to Sirsi and there was a bus at around 8:30 AM. In the meantime, we finished our breakfast. The bus was already waiting in the platform; we boarded the bus and settled down for our journey to Sirsi. I read somewhere that part of the journey between Hubli & Sirsi goes through Ghats and must not be missed. The first 30-45 minutes was not so interesting but the later part of journey was eye catching through forest & Ghats.

We reached Sirsi at around 11 AM. Hotel Shivani is at the entrance of Sirsi and little away from town center. The hotel was good with lots of open space and garden. We enquired about the restaurant timings before checking into the hotel (food is always our first priority and we enquire, research and find the best options wherever we go J). As we were supposed to visit Jog Falls and couple of other places on the same day, we informed the receptionist to book a cab (Tata Sumo) and pick us at 1:30 PM. She told that the cab would cost Rs. 6 per KM. We asked her a couple of times if there were any other charges and she replied that it just costs Rs. 6 per KM including fuel. We didn’t know that her lack of knowledge on car booking was going to cost us some extra money end of the day.

Got ready in next one hour and reached the restaurant by 12:30 PM. Explored the menu, asked the boy about their specials and ordered the food. By the time we finished our lunch, cab has arrived and was waiting for us. It was past 1:30 PM and we started immediately.  Jog Falls is 65 Kms from Sirsi. The road was full of potholes but we enjoyed the journey through thick vegetation. It took almost two hours to reach Jog Falls at around 3:30 PM. There is lot of parking place and many shops here. The view point is just adjacent to the parking area. The first impression of the falls was just AWESOME. There was good amount of water to showcase the features & all four parts of the falls (the view of the falls is breathtaking during monsoons). We took few snaps from the view point. 

Driving towards the falls 

First sight of the falls from view point

The steps/path leading to the bottom of the falls starts from the view point. We immediately started trekking down to the bottom of falls. The path was steep, narrow and was not a well laid track. The trek was tough and tiresome. We carried good amount of water but consumed all of it quickly. Luckily, there were few small shops on the way and water bottles were available. There was a shop offering lemon sodas and all of us consumed at least 2 glasses each. It took us almost 45 minutes to reach the bottom of the falls. The view was splendid from the bottom. We were also welcomed by a rainbow when we reached middle of the trek. The feeling of sizzling breeze from waterfall touching the face is a lifetime experience. There were huge rocks and getting closer to the point where falls drop into a small pool was very tough. We took few snaps and spent some time enjoying the beautiful view.

Spent around 30 minutes at bottom and started trekking back to the parking area. The return journey was more challenging with very steep and rocky track. We took frequent breaks as all of us were very much tired. It took almost one hour to reach the viewpoint & parking area. It was close to 6 PM and there was no way to visit the other two places we actually planned on the same day. We started our journey back to the hotel. It was disappointing to miss the Unchalli & Burude falls planed on that day. We decided to include Unchalli & Burude falls on the next day plan. 

Trekking down to bottom of the falls 

A warm welcome by rainbow 

At bottom of the falls 

At viewpoint - Chaitu, Deepak, Radhani, Raja, Ravi, Rakesh & Mayya (Ratnakar)

We reached the hotel at around 8 PM and completely exhausted. As we visited only Jog Falls on that day, we covered around 130 Kms and the cab was supposed to cost us below Rs. 800 (with Rs. 6 per KM). But the cab driver told us that we should pay at Rs. 1500! We were surprised to hear that the minimum distance they charge per day was for 250 Kms and minimum charge comes to Rs. 1500 (and Rs 6 extra for every additional KM beyond 250) which was never mentioned when we booked the cab. We insisted that we will pay only Rs 800 as we were not informed about these terms when we booked the cab. The hotel people said that the receptionist was new and she didn’t know very much about these things, which was not our problem at all. But we were not ready to pay beyond Rs 800 and felt we were betrayed. Hotel management told us that the balance amount (Rs 700) would be deducted from the salary of receptionist as it was her mistake, in case we don’t pay. I felt it was not reasonable and we should settle the account with some deduction. Deepak doubted that they were trying to extract more money from us with such statements. Finally, we settled the account with Rs. 1200 after some bargain.

There are lot of places to visit on Day 2 in the list and also need to travel to Karwar. We informed the same cab driver to come on the next day and pick us at 9 AM, as we were comfortable with the driver. He told us that the minimum charge would be Rs. 1500 and we agreed as we were sure to cover more than 250 kms. The dinner was ordered to the room and we had a great night.

Day 2

We woke up at around 7:30 AM, got ready and reached the restaurant at 8:30 AM for breakfast. It was past 9 AM by the time we finished our breakfast and the cab has arrived. We did some research, had discussion on the previous night and decided to visit at least Unchalli Falls, Bennehole Falls, Shivganga Falls and Yana Mountains on Day 2. The driver was instructed accordingly and we have noted down the cab meter reading. We also packed our baggage and checked out the hotel, so that we can directly travel to Karwar after visiting the places. After the terrific 2 hrs trek at Jog Falls on first day, we were hoping to have easy access to the places from nearest motorable road on the second day. Despite of all our prayers, we didn’t know that Day 2 was going to be the toughest day of the trip!

Unchalli Falls

First we decided to visit Unchalli Falls, as the pictures and views are promising. Unchalli Falls is about 35 Kms from Sirsi. The road was very bumpy and progress was very slow. But we enjoyed journey through thick forest. The actual route from Sirsi to Unchalli Falls is supposed to be – Take Sirsi to Kumta road, Take left at Amminalli (12 Kms from Sirsi) and continue to Unchalli on Hegganur road. The driver didn’t know the correct route and we had to come back to original route after taking wrong path a couple of times. After wasting about 30 minutes on wrong route we finally reached the Unchalli Falls entrance by around 11 AM. The driver told us that the falls are about 10 minutes walk from the entrance, but it took us almost 25 minutes to reach the falls. The path laid in the middle of dense forest was full of ups & downs, but was wide and walkable. It was not a steep walk like Jog Falls and was little easy. We reached the Unchalli Falls viewpoint at around 11:30 AM and there were steps leading to another viewpoint that offered closer & complete view of the falls. The height of the waterfall is about 300 feet, cascading through multiple steps and finally dropping into a big pool from a height of over 100 feet. There is no way to reach the bottom of the falls (pool) and it looked like a dangerous attempt as well. We took few snaps, relaxed for a while and started walking back to the entrance point. We enjoyed the walk through forest and reached the cab at around 12:15 PM.

Towards waterfall from the entrance 

From the first view point of Unchalli Falls 

Walking down to the second view point 

Complete view from the second viewpoint 

At second viewpoint

Bennehole Falls

Our next destination was Bennehole Falls. It is situated close to Sirsi – Kumta road at a distance of about 30 Kms from Sirsi and almost the same distance from Unchalli Falls. We decided to visit Bennehole Falls before the lunch break and continued our journey. It took about an hour to reach the entrance of Bennehole falls and the time was close to 1:15 PM. Again the driver told us that the falls is about 10 walk from entrance point, and we got prepared for a 30 minute walk. The track was narrow but mostly flat, except a little stretch before the falls. The path was covered by huge trees and it was little dark. We collected few sticks to support us during the walk and it helped us. The walk lasted for 20 minutes and we reached the falls. We have taken an alternate path by mistake and actually reached top of the falls! We didn’t find any immediate route to go to bottom of the falls and decided to settle down at the top for a while. Few small pools were formed by downstream of the falls. We explored few pools and identified one with about 3 feet depth and got prepared for swimming. Chaitu & Rakesh preferred not to swim and others jumped into the pool. We had a great time in the water which lasted for almost an hour! It was 2:30 PM and we hurried back to the cab to proceed with our next destination.

At the entrance of Bennehole Falls 

In the forest towards falls 

View from top of the falls 

Water raised by 1 ft after Deepak jumped in

Rakesh on Rocks

Sorry, nenu aa type kaadu

We initially planned to cover Shivaganga Falls & Yana on Day 2 along with Unchalli & Bennehole. It was already 3 PM and most of the remaining places are on the other side of Sirsi towards Yellapur. Finally we decided to visit Yana and travel to Karwar by skipping Shivaganga Falls & other places. Turned the vehicle towards Yana and finished the lunch on the way.

Yana

Yana is about 55 Kms from Sirsi and 30 Kms from Bennehole Falls. The road was very bad and it took more than 1 hour to reach the entrance point at around 4:30 PM. We learned from the driver that the rock mountains are little away from the entrance but had no idea how long it would take. We started walking towards the mountains. The track was little inclined some times and little tough too. After trekking at Unchalli & Bennehole and playing in the water, we were little tired and were hoping to see the rocks soon. But there was no sight of the rocks after walking for more than 30 minutes and we had no clue how much more time it would take and also thought of going back! We encountered some tourists en route and they told us the rocks are 10 more minutes away. We regained the strength and continued the walk. Though the surroundings of the track were good with small streams & birds, we were not in a mood to enjoy the nature and were desperate to reach the rock mountains. After 15 more minutes, we have seen the rocks from a distance and were very much relieved. It took 10 more minutes to reach the first set of rocks. There are steps to reach the main rocks which are 5 more minutes away. It was very tough to climb those steps after trekking/walking for one continuous hour through a hectic day. We got a sense of achievement after reaching the main rock mountains. The rocks are huge & unique.

On the way to Yana 

 Mayya with strange butterfly

First set of rocks 

Evari face lonoo jeeva kala ledu 

Main rock mountains 

Idi konchem better

It was close to 5:30 PM and slowly getting dark. We took some pictures, had a quick break and started our journey back to the entrance point. It was little easy to come back compared to the onwards journey and we reached the cab before 6:30 PM. Checked the cab meter reading and observed that we covered about 170 Kms so far. The next plan was to go to Karwar which is about 85 Kms from Yana and about 110 Kms from Sirsi. Instead, we decided to take the cab to Ankola which is a town & good connecting point on the way to Karwar, before 35 Kms. Ankola is 50 Kms from Yana and 75 Kms from Sirsi.

It was close to 8 PM by the time we reached Ankola Bus Station. The total distance covered was little above 300 Kms and the charge was around Rs. 1850. We paid Rs. 2000 to the driver including Rs. 150 as tip. We asked few people about the bus frequency to Karwar and learned that there are very few buses after 8 PM! We had no other option apart from waiting for the bus, as the cab had already left. All of us were very keen to reach Karwar soon. We had to wait for more than 45 minutes before a crowded bus reached the bus station. We managed to get into the bus and reached Karwar by around 9:30 PM. Instead of going to the bus station, we got down at a junction where most of the hotels were located. While few of us were holding the baggage, three of us went around to find a hotel. As it was New Year weekend, most of the good hotels were occupied. We spent nearly half an hour, visited more than 10 hotels and finally found a small hotel little away from the junction. After finishing the dinner in a new hotel toward the beach, we went ahead to visit the Karwar beach. The beach was good, though it was crowded as it was Dec 31^st night.

We had a terrific day and it was very productive. There was some learning as well about trip planning. We prepared an unrealistic itinerary for first two days with so many places that actually need 3 days time.

Day 3

We got up late after a long night. Finished breakfast and got ready to visit Devbagh beach.

Devbagh Beach

Devbagh is around 5 Kms from Karwar. The water sports & snorkeling are offered from Devbagh Beach Resort. However, it is supposed to be reached by boat from the boat jetty which is accessible only to those staying in Devbagh Beach Resort. The alternate option we had was to go to the nearest fishing village and walk to the beach resort along the shore.

We had some hard time to explain the auto driver about the place we wanted to go as we were also not sure what that place is called. Finally we reached the village adjacent to Devbagh and started walking along the beach. The fishing village is adjacent to the beach and the residents made the beach dirty. We thought we should have requested a boat at the jetty to take us to the resort instead of taking this off route. The resort was about 20 minutes walk from here. Past the fishing village, the beach was clean and lovely. We enjoyed walking on the beach and finally reached the beach resort at around 12 PM. We directly approached the water sports person and enquired about snorkeling and other water sports. He told us that snorkeling should be done early in the morning before 10 AM as water gets dirty after that and would not be possible to view the fishes. He asked us to come back on the next day. It was disappointing news as we were mentally prepared to do snorkeling (though Santosh was not with us J). We asked about the prices and decided to go for snorkeling on the next day though it was little expensive (I think it was around Rs. 600 per person). The other water sports like Banana Boating and Kayaking were also expensive and we had no interest to pursue those activities.

Devbagh Beach 

Towards the resort from fishing village 

The beach was nice 

Bridge across the river near Devbagh

All of us sat for a while and discussed about the plan for rest of the day. As we were supposed to visit Gokarna & Om Beach on Day 4, we decided to visit those places on that afternoon, so we can come back to Devbagh for snorkeling on the following day. We had to leave immediately to visit Gokarna & Om Beach. Since walking along the beach & reach Karwar by auto takes almost an hour, we spoke to the boat guy and paid him around Rs 200 to drop us at the jetty. We took an auto from the jetty to Karwar Bus Station. We finished lunch before heading towards Gokarna at 2:30 PM.

Gokarna & Om Beach

Gokarna is about 50 Kms from Karwar and 15 Kms from Ankola. As there was no direct bus between Karwar & Gokarna, we had to go to Ankola and catch another bus to Gokarna. It was past 4 PM by the time we reached Gokarna. We directly went to the Mahabaleshvara Temple, but it was closed for some reason. The temple is very ancient and the deity is considered very powerful. We proceeded towards Gokarna beach little ahead of the temple. There was some political meeting going on in the beach and it was crowded. After spending little time on the beach, we headed back to the temple and it was open. The temple was little crowded but we managed to visit the inner shrine and came out. Few priests surrounded us and told us that the temple is very powerful and by conducting poojas here one can get rid of the sins (not sure what sins!) and it would also bring fortunes to one’s life. They could convince Ravi to perform some poojas and they charged Rs 1500! Since we didn’t have enough time, Ravi gave all the details and asked them to send Prasadam to his address (not sure whether he received it J). After visiting the temple, we bargained a cab (Maruti Omni) to take us to the Om Beach which is about 10 Kms away.

It was close to 5:30 PM by the time we reached Om Beach. The road ends at a resort on a hillock (which is also the parking area) from where one needs to walk down to reach the beach. The view of the beach from hillock is breathtaking and we understood why it is called OM beach. There are steps leading to the beach from parking area. The walk was little easy and lasted for less than 5 minutes.  The beach was beautiful and not much crowded. We roamed around the beach. There were few restaurants/shops available on the beach. No water sports were offered on the beach but few boats were available. We also learned that Halfmoon and Paradise beaches are on the other side of a hill at southern end of the beach and have to be visited by a boat. Though we saw some tourists trekking the hill to reach the other side, we wanted to take a boat ride as it was getting dark. The ride was cool and the Halfmoon and Paradise beaches were small but cute. It looked like there were few accommodation options & food courts on those beaches. It was close to dusk and we cam e back to the parking area. The sunset was also impressive from the hillock. We headed back to Gokarna and it was close to 7 PM. Unfortunately, there were no buses to Ankola after 6:30 PM from Gokarna. We spoke to many cab drivers but they demanded a lot for that 15 Kms stretch. We checked the options to hire cab till Karwar but the drivers were very greedy. Finally, we managed to reach Ankola by a cab and reached Karwar by Bus at around 9:30 PM after another long wait in Ankola.

Om Beach, from the hill  

Walking down to the beach 

Boating that evening was good

Sunset from the beach 

Om Deepak 

Driving towards Gokarna

Finished the dinner quickly and prepared to sleep early as we needed to get up early on the next day.

Day 4

Desperate to visit Devbagh, all of us woke up early and reached Devbagh Beach Resort before 9:30 AM. I think we took the same fishing village route again. But the water sports guy took someone else to the snorkeling and we had to wait for more than an hour. We didn’t want to go for any other water sport, so paid for snorkeling and were waiting for our turn. We roamed around the resort, enjoyed the views, beach & occasional sight of dolphins.

The boat has arrived and we started our journey towards the island where snorkeling is organized. The boat ride was wonderful and it took about 20 minutes from the resort to reach the island. We saw few dolphins from a distance during the ride. The boat was stopped few meters before the shore and we wore the equipment. Few instructions were given by the guide before we jumped into the water. The water was clean and we could see few corals & different types of fishes. The guide told us not to disturb the fishes and maintain distance from the shore as there were huge sharp rocks. After spending some time watching the corals, came back to the surrounding of boat and started swimming for a while. The first experience of snorkeling was awesome, though we could not get the glimpse of many fishes. We spent nearly an hour and came back to the boat. Climbing on to the boat was little difficult, most of us needed helping hands to get on to the boat (and few more hands to pull Deepak J). Started our journey back to the resort.

Boating area in the resort

Mayya enjoying the view 

Waiting for the boat 

Devbagh beach from the boat 

Snorkeling was good 

The water was clear and we enjoyed swimming here 

Ravi, the Bond

By 12:30 PM, we were back to the resort. We took an alternate path this time to reach the fishing village and it saved us some time. Found an auto to take us to the hotel. Before going to the hotel, we enquired about the bus frequency between Karwar and Hubli. The frequency was good and we had more than a couple of hours before starting our journey to Hubli. We finished lunch, went back to the hotel, took some rest, packed and got ready for the journey to Hubli and our destination city from there.

This trip was most productive with so many places covered in just 4 days. Except missing few waterfalls on first two days, the whole trip went on very well and we enjoyed every moment. I always enjoyed the trips with friends. The saddest part was that it would be probably my last trip with the group. I headed back to Hyderabad with the hope that we would get a chance to plan few more trips, before all of us are married and settled down in different places.

Distance Chart

Hubli to Sirsi – 100 Kms

Sirsi to Jog Falls – 65 Kms

Sirsi to Unchalli Falls – 35 Kms

Sirsi to Bennehole Falls – 30 Kms

Sirsi to Yana – 55 Kms

Sirsi to Karwar – 110 Kms

Yana to Ankola – 50 Kms

Yana to Karwar – 85 Kms

Ankola to Karwar – 35 Kms

Ankola to Sirsi – 75 Kms

Karwar to Gokarna – 50 Kms

Ankola to Gokarna – 15 Kms

Karwar to Hubli – 150 Kms

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