Jog Falls: Jump-starting the NITK final year
Keeping this brief. This guide might help you if you’re
looking to spend less than a day visiting Jog Falls from NITK / anywhere around
Mangalore.
So on the first weekend after returning to college for our
final year (July 26, 2014), 5 of my friends and I were in the middle of yet another silly late
night discussion when at 3 am, we had a sudden impulse to just “go somewhere”. Felt
that a visit to Jog Falls would be a good choice considering the heavy July
rains. Continued gossiping until 5 am after which we telephoned our auto driver
friend and asked him to pick us up from NITK.
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| Jog Falls Image Courtesy: www.karnataka.com (Why weren't the falls this great when we visited them?!) |
Our itinerary
0530: Train from Surathkal to Honavar
Reached the station when the train was about to depart and rushed into it without having purchased tickets. Paid for our mistake when the TTE entered our bogey (probably in the first time in the history of the Indian Railways’ general compartment!), caught us all red-handed and fined us.
Reached the station when the train was about to depart and rushed into it without having purchased tickets. Paid for our mistake when the TTE entered our bogey (probably in the first time in the history of the Indian Railways’ general compartment!), caught us all red-handed and fined us.
0915: Arrival at Honavar
Bus
from the Railway Station in Honavar to its Bus Stand. Crammed ourselves in one
of the smallest buses I've ever seen! Breakfast at the Bus Stand.
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1100: Bus from Honavar to Jog
1230: Arrival at Jog
Situated on the river Sharavathi at a drop of 253 m, India’s second highest waterfall, Jog comprises four distinct falls: The Raja, Roarer, Rocket and Rani.
The driver, a Goan by the name Fernandez, took
us to the Mahatma Gandhi Dam, a park, the British bungalow and a few other points from
where we had wonderful views of the falls.
1230: Arrival at Jog
Situated on the river Sharavathi at a drop of 253 m, India’s second highest waterfall, Jog comprises four distinct falls: The Raja, Roarer, Rocket and Rani.
A van driver came to us the moment we got down from our bus
and offered to take the 6 of us around the four falls. He told us that there was a 1430 bus to Honavar and that he would drop us at the bus stop just in time for us to catch it. Seemed like a good idea. Bargained and ended up paying him
Rs 100 each.
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1430: Return
Bus back to Honavar followed by an auto to the station. Spent
some time at the station as the 1640 train to Mangalore was delayed by more than an hour.
2100: Arrival at Surathkal
One of my friends, Prashanth, called us up informing us that
he had just landed at Mangalore after returning from his summer internship at
Madrid. Now that called for a celebration! Put our exhaustion behind us and decided to go on a long drive in his car where he was to narrate
exactly what had happened in Ibiza and all the other party destinations he had
been to in Spain. 2 consecutive sleepless nights, haha. Final year had just begun! :D
Expenses incurred
Dirt cheap again: Less than Rs 500 (excluding the fine :P)
Best time to visit
During the monsoon if you’re interested in seeing the falls at their majestic best.
After the monsoon if you’re keen on trekking to the base of the falls.
There isn't much that you could do at Jog Falls. You could
follow this itinerary if you aren't too keen on spending more than 2-3 hours at
the place. May not be worth the time you take to get there but since when was
travel all about the destination? SoSpeakUpNow! and let people know that!