I must say that planning for trips is some gigantic task in India. Either because of my lack of experience, lack of ample information on the web or some unknown reason. This has been precisely the situation when we started thinking about this 5 day trip. Several questions in mind. Several blogs in hand. Several websites with incomplete information.
How do I reach Jog Falls? How do I reach Gokarna? What is the best way? Where to stay? What places to visit ? And this needed lot of time searching the web. And then there is lack of time to invest in researching. So my dear wife was doing lot of research on this. Finally we could plan a part of the trip and we left the remaining unplanned and decided to plan as we reach the place and accordingly adjust.
Bangalore to Shimoga Town :
After lots of thinking, we took the Bangalore-Shimoga Express that left Bangalore at 23:40 hours. So all you do is get into the train and sleep :-) And in the middle of that I managed to lose my umbrella. Not that it is a comfortable sleep anyways in the train. So I was turning left and right and once in a while waking up thinking if I have fallen down from the upper berth. But I am not sure when I again slept off because soon I found someone shaking me and telling me "Hello this is the last stop. ". :-) Realized that we have reached Shimoga Town (SMET, different stop from Shimoga (SME)).
Shimoga Town to Jog Falls:
It was around 6:00 a.m. We were heartily welcomed by bunch of mosquitoes. These mosquitoes would not leave us for the rest of our journey. So carry Odomas with you all the time. We did by the way. We wanted to take a Toy Train from Shimoga Town to Jog Falls. But on getting down we came to know that the train is not in service now due to some work. Repair works are perennial in India arent they? You always see roads repaired, drains repaired. OK OK. Back to topic. We came out of station and took an auto. Being in a different town, you never know what is a reasonable rate. So you accept what you are told :-) I think the auto guy took Rs. 30 to take us to bus stand. The first difference I notice was people are very friendly. No I mean it. And it was the same observation for the res of our journey. The auto guy talked with me a lot and I continued the conversation with my "Swalpa Swalpa Kannada Gottu (i.e., Little little Kannada)" concept. As we reached the bus stand a bus was leaving. The auto guy stopped the bus and got us in. The bus guys gave us a seat and told us the bus would go to Jog. After we got in and the bus started moving, they said it will go till Sagar and then we have to catch another bus. We could not do much anyways. So we sat and enjoyed the countryside as the bus bumped and jumped and moved over the roads. It was a nice experience. The bus brought us to Sagar in 1.5 hours I think. Soon a bus was there for Jog Falls. The bus was pretty empty. We got in and reached Jog Falls in around 2 hours.
At Jog Falls
It was a bright sunny morning when we reached Jog Falls. We were very hungry too. So before even thinking of visiting the falls, we decided to have our breakfast first. There was this Hotel Mayura run by KSTDC. It was OK. Had some idlis to fill up our stomach. Then asked the guy which way is the falls. The falls were right opposite to Mayura. I couldnt believe it. Not in awe but was thinking what a let down. There was almost no water at all. Then why does the Government blow of the trumpet of largest falls? The falls that is not always in its vigorous form cannot be called falls. I heard most water is diverged to the dam. Karnataka Government should put up notice on the website on when the water will be there and when not. Otherwise I felt it is blatant cheating of the tourists. Imagine the let down when you go all the way and u find nothing. IMagine you go to Niagara Falls and you see a narrow stream falling. I for sure was upset with the way Government did not ensure that it maintains a place where it provides updates on the status of Jog Falls. I did not find it. And this according to me is cheating. After a few photographs of narrow streams, we decided to continue our journey to Gokarna.
So be careful about when to go to Jog Falls. It seems they release water on sundays and mondays. So those are good days to go. Otherwise, you may want to consider going during the months of July-August-September i.e., monsoons. That is when you will feel your visit is worth it.
Summary of Travel
- Train from Bangalore to Shimoga Town (11:40 p.m at Bangalore Central)
- Auto from Shimoga Town Station to Bus Stand (around 6:30 a.m)
- Bus from Shimoga Town to Sagar (Around 6:45 a.m at Shimoga Town)
- Bus from Sagar to Jog Falls (Around 8:45 a.m at Sagar)
- Enjoy Jog Falls if there is water
- Do not go arbitrarily. Call the folks there and ask if there is water
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