The Waterfalls Trip

Visiting a waterfall is never boring, and no two waterfalls are the same ! In fact, no two visits to the same waterfalls are the same ! I discovered all these things recently when our emuzed trekking gang went on a rare sight seeing trip, as against a rigorous trekking trip. After the rigor of Amedikal trek, we owed it to ourselves to have a nice easy outing, and what better than visiting the beautiful waterfalls just at the end of monsoon ? This was a trip that was planned quite sometime back, when we visited the Magod, Satoddi and Unchalli falls last year at the end of winter. Magod hardly had any water, Satoddi was nice and Unchalli had a decent amount of water, the locals there (Satish included) told us how beautiful the waterfalls are just after monsoon, so it was then that we had decided to visit these waterfalls again.

So, a gang of seven (Satish, Vikas, Mithun, Vinod, Rasool, Praveen and myself) set out to visit as many falls as possible in and around Sirsi over a weekend(11th and 12th august, 2007). Our plan was to visit Gokak falls, Godachinmalki falls, Magod falls, Unchalli falls and the mother of them all, Jog falls. Satoddi falls is impossible to approach during the monsoons, the dirt track is unusable till mid winter. A Rajahamsa executive bus carried us to Gokak from Bangalore, a rather longish 12 hours journey did nothing to dampen our spirits. As we approached Gokak, we could see the floodwaters of river Ghataprabha all around, the muddy flood water seemed to dominate the landscape totally. Infact, the bus crossed a bridge on which water was flowing over. This was a precursor of things to come.

We checked into a hotel opposite the bus-stand for the basic stuff, we negotiated the room rent for just a day, we wanted to deposit our stuff there, we had no plans of spending the night at Gokak. After a quick breakfast, we were off to our first destination, Gokak falls.

On the locals recommendation, we decided to take a KSRTC bus to Gokak falls, buses are aplenty and the falls is just 6km from Gokak. We decided to get down a stop before Gokak falls(or Gokak mills) and walk along the Ghataprabha which was flowing parallel to the road. The scene was very picturesque. We could hear the roar of the waterfalls, we did not realise we were that close to the falls. By luck, the stop we had gotten down at a park or garden that had a nice vantage point.















The horseshoe shaped waterfalls is said to resemble Niagara, Niagara or not, all I can say is that it certainly is an awe inspiring sight. The sheer fury of nature in all its ravaging glory is for all of us to appreciate. The quaint wooden bridge built for the mill workers to cross the river makes the setting complete. Most of us were itching to get on that bridge. After the mandatory "I was there" snaps, we moved on to the town of Gokak Mills. In the picturesque Gokak Mills town, we encountered an interesting bit of info. Sunil Gavaskar's father MK Gavaskar was a mill employee in 1926 and there's a Gavaskar sports park to mark this.















There is another viewpoint before we get to the bridge near the mills.














There is a beautiful temple on the Mills side of the falls and also another small temple on the far side. The entrance of the bridge was rather crowded, a board near the entrance to the rather flimsy wooden bridge warned that no more than a certain modest number of people be allowed on the bridge at a time, of course, one cannot dare remind that to the security there who were happily allowing everybody who dared to venture on the bridge.
As we started walking across, the view on either side is just amazing, words really fail me. I had never been "over" a waterfall, i.e. directly above it. On one side, the water is rushing furiously and on the other side, you can see it disappear with only the white spray visible.














I wish the sound could be captured too...the deafening roar and the savage kind of beauty held all of us in a spell. Nobody talked as we negotiated the crowds on the 200m bridge slowly, all of us were trying to take in what was in front of us. I had never seen anything like this before. The sheer volumes of water made us all awe struck. On reaching the other side, one can get down to the water, I mean, go near the water, any thoughts of actually entering the water are suicidal. We just decided to hang around next to the river, simply admiring the scene. There are several viewpoints if one climbs on. A perennial rainbow created by the waterfall spray is visible. A power station that generates electricity for the mills is nestled right below the waterfalls.

















We spent nearly an hour polishing off the karadantu that we had packed from Gokak and fruits we had taken from Bangalore. After that, we were off to Godchinmalki. One of our colleagues is from Gokak and he had recommended that we hire a jeep to go to Godchinmalki from Gokak falls and have the jeep drop us back to Gokak later. So after haggling with one driver, we agreed for Rs 500. Godchinmalki is 16km from Gokak and the river
Markandeya takes the first fall into a rocky valley and then plunges again. Godchinmalki falls is around 2km from Godchinmalki village and is accessible only by foot. Its appeal is very different from that of Gokak falls, the terrain is such that the river continuously descends over a slope and hence there is no dramatic drop as there was in the case of Gokak falls. Nonetheless, it is still a very beautiful place. The walk to the falls from the village is a very beautiful one, the greenery surrounding us as we walked through wet farm lands was so refreshing.




























As we started walking back, we realized we were running behind schedule. The original plan was to reach Sirsi or Yellapur by nightfall. This was just impossible, so we dropped the idea of catching a bus to Belgaum that goes via Hidkal dam and then going on to Sirsi through Dandeli forests. So the goal was just to get as close to Yellapur as possible by night.
We cleared our room at the hotel in Gokak and got on the very same bus we came to Gokak in, our stop was Hubli. The bus seemed to take an eternity to reach Hubli, and finally when it did reach Hubli at around 10pm, the last bus to Yellapur had long gone. So we were stuck in Hubli. It was Renuka lodge that we were destined to spend the night in. This hotel is opposite to the old bus stand and the restaurant is just phenomenal. A jowar roti meal cost us a measly Rs26 !!! We hogged to our hearts content and crashed ! We had to start early if we were to reach Yellapur and cover Magod, Unchalli and Jog with a stopover at Malalganv which is Satish's native place.

We took a bus from Hubli to Yellapur at around 6:30am after a quick breakfast and were there in about an hour and a half ! The ever reliable Gaonkar was to meet us at the bus stand with the Tempo Trax. He had showed us around the last time we went to Yellapur. All of us piled into the Trax and we were off to our first destination for the day, Magod falls. On the way, somebody suggested that we stop at Kavadikere (lake). The lake is simply beautiful, water is very very clean. A temple dedicated to the Goddess Parvati is situated on the banks of this wonderful lake. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. We saw two snakes, the first one disappeared hearing the commotion, the second one posed for a few snaps before slithering away. Both were fresh water snakes which are non venomous and quite harmless.














We headed onward to Magod, the drive was exhilarating, going through the dense forests. It had been raining all week and we were lucky that the rain had given us a breather. As we walked down the steps towards Magod falls, we could hear the deafening roar, however we could see nothing ! It was very misty and the spray arising from river beDTi plunging 650 odd feet made it impossible to see anything. The sun was playing hide and seek behind the clouds. Our only hope was a combination of sun that would clear up the mist and gusts of wind that could clear up the gorge. As we were peeking through the clouds, suddenly the haze cleared up and we had our first spectacular view of the splendid Magod falls. As we strained ourselves to catch whatever we could, somebody told us that there was a better view from further down. As we started walking down, to our right side, we had an absolutely amazing view of the BeNNe hoLe falls at a distance.



















After admiring the BeNNe hoLe falls from a distance and resolving to go there sometime in the near future, we further descended the steps to have a better view of Magod and it did not disappoint us. Words fail me to describe elation of the gang at seeing Magod in all its glory, in full flow. In our last trip, there was almost no water. If one sees Magod as we did before rains and then after the rains, I feel one can appreciate it better. So, we were back at Magod as we had planned back then and seeing it roar menacingly brought up memories of the dry Magod rushing back.




















It looks almost unbelievable that the two photos are of the same waterfalls, if seeing photos makes one marvel at the changes that the monsoons bring in the Ghats, imagine how it must be to view it in person !!! Obviously, it is impossible to even dream of trekking down to the falls. Last time in summer, we did try but we got lost and had to retrace our path. This time, the season we went in ensured that we do not even try, so there is good reason for us to return to Magod again, perhaps later in the winter, maybe Jan 2008 to try and trek down. The trek is supposedly fairly difficult, and ideally we were told by a friend who had been there earlier that one should camp down there, otherwise it becomes a really hectic one full day trek. Maybe we will be third time lucky !

I have never seen a waterfall where the surroundings changes as drastically as it does at Magod. From a personal point of view, there's something about Magod that is very very appealing. I will go there any number of times and can spend any amount of time.

Magod is very close to Malalganv which is a few km from Yellapur. Satish knew of a short cut to reach their home and it turned out to be some adventure ! We had to cross some private property on a dirt track and came to a bridge that appeared too narrow for the Tempo Trax. Thanks to Gaonkar and some of our gang who helped him out, the bridge turned out to be a mere centimeter on either side wider than the Trax, so we just about got on to the other side.















The scenery around the bridge was amazing (I think I have used the word amazing a zillion times, but then it really was amazing :-)). Much as we wanted to hang out around the bridge and soak in the greenery, we were again getting late as we had Unchalli and Jog to cover. It was already close to 10:30am. We had to get to Malalganv, have a bath and breakfast, spend sometime there and move on. A word about the breakfast, expectations were running high given the royal welcome we had had last time at Satish's place, the sumptuous dosas of different types (neer, plain, made of sugar cane juice etc) with fresh chutney, home made ghee, home made jaggery , home made curds was fresh on our minds. And it was just as good as last time, if not better. I got to taste dosas thats made from the local cucumber along with the normal dosa and it was just as heavenly. One reason our gang loves this part of the state am sure is because of the sheer hospitality at Satish's place, we have been made to feel amazingly welcome at their place and we'll remember visits to their place for eons to come.














For someone like me who's a pucca Bangalorean, to get a taste of the life in Uttara Kannada, I could have not hoped for a better chance. After a tour of the farm and picking up some guavas etc fresh from the trees, we all posed for a quick photo with our hosts and we were off to Unchalli and Jog. From Jog, the plan was to go to Sagar and catch a Volvo to Bangalore.

Unchalli falls is close to Heggarini (near Aminalli), around 25km from Sirsi. The dirt track to Unchalli was in a very bad shape after the rains, walking on that dirt track was very difficult given the slippery conditions. Last time, we had climbed down the steep steps which later becomes just a trail to reach the river Aghanashini. But this time, as expected, there was not even the remotest of chance of doing that. This trip was meant to savor the beauty of the waterfalls from afar, not go near them. It simply is too dangerous. I am reminded of the Seagrams punchline, "Those who appreciate quality enjoy it responsibly", I think this applies to trekking as much as it does to liquor. Unchalli waterfalls never really dries up the way Magod does, even in summer, there was a fair amount of water. But what we saw after monsoon was beyond our wildest imagination. The entire Aghanashini river is squeezed through a gorge few tens of feet wide before it falls spectacularly several hundreds of feet down. Again, as with Magod, the change was amazing. Unchalli in summer was impressive alright but Unchalli after monsoon seems very scary, very menacing, the sheer volume of water being squeezed down the narrow gorge and hurtling down several hundred feet, imagining the power of nature, one feels very humbled, one feels minute, small, insignificant etc.


























As at Magod, the weather and the conditions there made it impossible for us to have a clear view of the entire falls, only the upper third was visible. We waited for quite sometime hoping it would clear up, but it was not to be. I had remarked to Praveen that the order in which we were visiting the falls was in increasing order of their splendor, starting with Magod, then Unchalli and now Jog remained., he told me that after he saw Magod, he thought I might be exaggerating about how impressive Unchalli is, but having seen Unchalli himself, he was waiting to see Jog at its peak !
As we headed to Jog, we had passed the ghats and were in the plains. The scenery shifted from dense forests to beautiful paddy fields. We finally reached Jog pretty late in the evening around 5pm or so near the guesthouse, i.e., at the top of Jog falls. There are two views at Jog, one is the frontal view and one is from the inspection bungalow. We reached the former first. It was a sunday and all the sluice gates at the dam upstream had been opened and Jog was in its full glory. The flip side was the crowds, which I think easily was over a lakh. It was impossible to get a clear view without getting jostled. It resembled Kumbh Mela more than Jog, whats more, our gang got split and we thought some guys (Mithun, Vinod andRasool) were missing (the Kumbh Mela story :D), we waited and waited for them, it started pouring, we got drenched. We had to get to the other side to take in the other view and it was getting late. Our guys had apparently chosen to perch themselves perilously next to the Roarer falls so that they could have a good view. Needless to say, they did get some amazing snaps, much better than the ones am posting here. Will try and post those snaps soon.















By the time we got to the place where we could see the Jog from front, it was nearly dark. We could not have as good a view as we had hoped for. Last year we came to see Jog after the rains, we returned disappointed as the dam had stopped releasing water a day or two before we went there. This time, it was much better. Though it was dark and the cameras failed to capture the falls properly, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

We went to Sagar (traffic jams from Jog to Sagar, preparing us for Monday in Bangalore) and had some time to kill before we could board our bus. We changed into fresh clothes and had dinner at a hotel near the bus stand. Our Volvo from Sirsi arrived late, we gratefully got in and crashed only to wake up in Bangalore.

We covered some of the most beautiful waterfalls of North Karnataka. We did miss Satoddi falls, given how much we enjoyed it last time around, it was a pity we could not go there, but apparently its impossible to go there in the monsoon season.
The trip was a success beyond our wildest dreams. Some had warned us that it was stupid to hope to see so many waterfalls at one go, that it was simply impossible to cover so much distance etc etc. Thanks to some meticulous planning by Satish (and Maruti) and the rain Gods who obliged us with some fine weather, our trip was a run away success.

I will post details of how much it cost us exactly and all other nitty gritty details. Meanwhile, feel free to contact me if you need any details.