Jeevana dalli omme nodu Joga Gundi !!!

Jeevana dalli omme nodu Joga Gundi !!!

Wow ! The song came years back when I was a small child. Since that day it has been a longing desire to see this amazing wonder of Karnataka. Finally it came as a team outing of our development team.

We left Bangalore on a Thursday night and started to Jog. Since July being a rainy season we were greeted by rain most of the journey. Then finally we reached Sagara a place about 25 km from Jog. We took a small room for freshening up and then started our way to Jog.

My curiousity grew as we approached the falls. The falls is just adjacent to the road. You can infact view the falls right from the road itself.

WOW!!! Simply amazing ............





Then I could not resist going down to the foot of the falls. The path is all not that great...but looked like a small trek. We went down for about an hour and reached the foot. There the rocks are very very slippery and I did fall once badly :( . But the bottom view was also equally good.....

Then we started our journey towards a place called Yellapura. On the way we were supposed to see a falls called 'Unchali Falls' or 'Lushington falls' ...but we reached that place towards the evening and we could not see the falls just hear it :(....so much mist was covered....Then we started our journey towards our major stop - 'Yellapur'....We reached there around 8 pm ...had dinner and took rest...

The next day morning we were to do ' Water Rafting ' . We had to travel a distance about 30 km on the Karwar highway...the drive on the highway was awesome...full of greenery and tall standing hills with the low hanging clouds kissing them.

Then we reached a place called ' RamanGuli'. All my team mates left for rafting except me - I had decided not to jump in to water. The resort ' Sai jungle lodge' was very nice. It is totally immersed admist nature...with coco trees and Gangavali river on the other side....

After Rafting activity we started towards another beautiful falls called "Magod" falls. The drive to Magod falls is awesome - fully green all the way....Initially the falls was fully covered with mist...we got to see the falls only for a few seconds....and again the mist would cover it....But the falls as such is amazing........

Then we moved on to a place called 'Tavadikere Lake' which is very close to Magod falls. It is a unexplored place....a beautiful lake admist the midst of totally enchanting greenery. There was absolutely nobody at the place except a small group of ours. It looked as though we were in some other world. The temple was also beautiful.

Then we started towards Gokarna - a 2 hr drive from yellapura. We reached Gokarna at night and hence did not get a chance to go around the city although we did visit the beach which is right behind the temple.

Next day morning we woke up early and went to Om Beach. It is about 10 km from our hotel and the main Gokarna town. The entire view was simply awesome. The beach, the hill and the calm early morning wind all made the place a really worth praising.

We then went to the Gokarnatheshwara temple ( Lord Shiva) and then visited Lord Ganesha temple - both are very old style temples. After that it was just our way back to the Concret Jungle !!!! :-(

- Sunil
25/July/2007