When I had asked suggestions from a couple of friends for options to stay in Karwar, they suggested that I should halt the night at either Ankola or Shivamoga. The Amrut Aura Hotel in Karwar, therefore, turned out to be a pleasant surprise and I had found it on booking.com. The stay had been comfortable and the staff polite. I settled the bill and left at 5 am.
The first 90 km of the day was NH66. I was happy to note that it was a different animal on the Karwar-Honnavar stretch. Four-laning has been completed over a substantial part, yet lot of work is left over. Tolling without getting all the facilities done is not acceptable; it is definitely cheating the users, who have to navigate extremely carefully as there are numerous diversions and safety features like guard rails have not been fixed. To even collect partial toll under these circumstances is not fair. The construction company/toll operator may claim 50 to 75% completion but the inconvenience, and even peril, the road user is put to is immeasurable.
Just short of Honnavar I turned to NH69 to go to Jog Falls. It started raining in a while with thick blankets of mist reducing visibility. This had to be expected when traveling through the Western Ghats at this time of the year. I also did not hasten as I wanted to experience that misty morning as much as I could. I reached the arch that announced Jog Falls after being on NH69 for slightly over 90 minutes. When I parked at the designated parking lot there was light rain and it was misty. Visitors were not many. Close to the entrance is government accommodation which, I guessed, could be booked in advance for overnight stay. That would be a lovely option for those who wished the peaceful surroundings for a longer stay.
When I reached the viewing platform my heart sank. I could see nothing. I could hear the roar of the waterfalls, though. Visitors were, no doubt, disappointed. But many could not be stopped from taking selfies with the mist in the background! I stuck around and moved from one end of the viewing platform to another hoping that the mist would mysteriously disappear. After some time I could see veils of mist moving to reveal slivers of the waterfalls. Yet, not enough to enjoy the might of the four falls, Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket. The wind picked up a little speed and that removed the ‘bridal veil’, as it were. Even in the light mist the falls looked impressive. Though it did not clear up fully, the falls came into better view in a few minutes. However, the mists continuously placed hide and seek with the falls.
Opposite the parking lot are a few eateries. I chose the busiest one to have breakfast of bread and eggs. It was super tasty and I had a cup of tea too. Before leaving one of the shop hands told me that the major viewing platform is accessed from a road a couple of km down the road. That was indeed a revelation, otherwise I would have rued it for the rest of my life. The entrance ticket is Rs. 50 for a car, which is basically a parking ticket. There were more visitors at this viewing gallery. The numbers were still low due to the drizzle and possibility of rain.
The Jog Falls is the second highest waterfall in South India, with Dudhsagar waterfall topping the Jog Falls. It is a segmented waterfall, with each of the four Falls being 830 feet, and it plunges into the Saravati River. Naturally, monsoon is the season to visit the Falls. A guide near the viewing platform reeled off figures of power generation, the area of the Falls, etc. I missed them in the roar of the Falls and the drizzle. He told me that the four Falls become one when excess water is released from the dam in August and that is when the Falls are most impressive. The green vegetation surrounding the Falls makes it more beautiful. I loved the circular mist created by the Raja Fall when it crashed into the River below. The Karnataka Tourism department has built steps that can take one behind the Falls. I was not keen to take the 1400 steps. In any case, that was closed due to the pandemic.
I was keen to stay on at the Falls till I got better views of them. However, I had a meeting in Bangalore and over 400 km to drive. Driving past the turn off to Talaguppa railway station brought back fond memories of my posting in Mysore Division as a railway officer on first posting. I had done a motor trolley inspection of the Shimoga-Talaguppa section and I was quite hungry when I reached Talaguppa. I asked the Station Master, a jovial Malayali, if I could go to any dhaba or restaurant close by. The SM told me that there were no options in the village, which it was then in 1984. He had prepared a meal of rabbit curry and rice with veggies. I did not say no to that feast!
I used to visit Bhadravati quite often because that was one of the few loading points in the Division. Bhadravati Paper Mills offered us shipments of high quality paper to various parts of the country. However, they were slowly shifting to road as transhipment from Metre to Broad Gauge en route caused a lot of damages to the consignment. Later, under the unigauge policy initiated by Jaffer Sheriff, the then Railway Minister, Mysore Division became a BG division. Now it has double lines and electric traction, a far cry from the single line, steam locomotive days.
After Shivamoga I was guided by Google Maps through some of the narrowest and congested routes via Hosadurga to reach the highway near Hiriyur. I have to learn how to change the settings on Google Maps so as to avoid such narrow roads in the future. By the time I reached an old haunt, the Kamat restaurant in Sira, I was ready to wolf. Had a few
idlis with strong South Indian filter coffee and I was ready for the last stretch of the penultimate day of the Spiti Valley Exploration Drive. The traffic was maddening as I neared Bangalore and it became cloudy too. I was booked to stay at the Grand Mercure in Koramangala. Once the official meeting was done I took refuge in a KFC bucket and a couple of pegs of rum and coke.
Every passing day made me realise how lucky I was. This day news was streaming of landslides in Pandoh, Himachal Pradesh, with tourists stranded. I had escaped it all. I too had a minor detention at Pandoh when the road widening contractor was blasting a portion of the hill. I am sure that such works in monsoons, without proper protection, lead to untowards that could be avoided. I had experienced such an event in Ramban in J&K in 2017, when the contractor’s mistake had led to road closure for two days!
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