Finally it was again the usual, me and <
This was the first two day trip which materialized in one day. The instigator being a set of Jog Falls pics taken in its full glory after a span of 12 years. Initially there was a suggestion of going by car, which was dropped since i offered to catch up with him in Shimoga (on the bike of course). We tried booking a room in Jog which did not happen given the short notice of just one day! Shimoga being my grandparent's place, we decided to halt for the night there.
Leaving Bangalore at 6:30 would obviously give us enough time to get to jog and back on the same day. But we wanted to take a call as our journey proceeds.
Our first halt was for breakfast after nelamangla. We had quack quack idlis and quack quack bondas! Do you get that in kamath?
FYI. You dont get to eat the ducks ok?
Hit the roads at a comfortable 70 - 80 when we spotted a small stone structure at the top of a hill. It seemed inviting and upon enquiring, got to know that it was a temple and there was a road to it! The path to the place went through two very small hills, one completely green and the other brown (the adjacent hills were cut in half due to mining). The elevation was simply superb and scary due to the absence of a road and abundance of pebble sized lumps of mud waiting to make the bike dance either ways. This i did not realize until i stopped the bike on the top and looked down the path that would take us back to the highway. Absorb nature, or get absorbed in it.... call it what you want. Enjoyed the greenery, some pics and we were back on the highway.
All absorbed.
After some distance, there was another temple calling us, except that it did not tell us that there was one route to reach and it and it was through a stone quarry. We started to ascend towards the temple, and god save the truck drivers! This was the first time i've seen a quarry closeup, and i can understand why most of the trucks carrying slabs of granite look like they are ready to fall apart. We reached a point where the bikes would go no further and trekked up half way and were satisfied with the effort involved and the silence offered, with a view thats only yours and not the asset of a 'crowd' ready to litter the place with plastic and call it a picnic.
Spot the men and the machines (clue... one is taking the photo :D )
A rough picture
The way down this time was much tougher and it required a lot of maneuvering the front of the bike. The power at the rear wheel will take you up, and you get the taste of the power exerted while you come down. Tired arms were pleading for a butt break after the 'brekking' (bike trekking - and its copyrighted to nononsense4857.... ahem... me, me, me) My RSI made things worse. Hands shivering and stinging pain in the wrist... now up go the gloves to take care of that.
Resumed the journey until a sunflower farm stopped us from going any further. We rode into it and after some pics started to head back. Saint gets ahead and disappears, when i misjudge the space available and the front wheel is down from the elevated mud road into the sunflower farm..... it was a precarious position, you either stay that way by holding on to the brakes for eternity or, you take a call and explore what fertilizer they use in the farm...no body to help and scared to be embarassed, i decide to let go of the breaks and wham... i'm down with my bike, which fell side ways on the sunflowers. I had to exert each and every ounce of energy to get the bike to stand in that slithery surface and by the time i was back on the road, my thigs and back started to cramp big time.
This made me work my body n soul
Couldnt help it and kept on riding until we discovered another 'abandoned' temple. Stopped, crunched on noodles without water and were back on the highway looking for a place to have lunch.
One of the best pics of the trip!
We stop by a board reading 'belur halebedu'. We still kept the Jog option open for the day, and took the detour to halebedu.... had lunch. Explored for 'exotic' carvings (or you could say cravings). The only exotic thighs we saw were picture booklets shoved into our hands by people at the bike stand. We were dejected and i was not interested to explore further avenues for porn in belur (no offense.... this is just a straight guy's opinion).
I'm soooo lonely....
We were in Shimoga by 4:30. No trace of rain till then, and all of a sudden it was dark and started to pour. We then junked the Jog plan for the day, since it would be totally dark by the time we reach there. That night we see that the news channels are spoiling our next day by asking the entire world not to miss the glory of jog (guess the pics and video were shot from a helicopter, since we could not manage to get the same view the next day).
We strategize to leave early and be at Jog to enjoy some quality nature before there are people every where (of course with lots of plastic..... AND they will call it a picnic). Left at 5:30 in the morning and after crossing the town limits, we are invited by nature that we never expected to see. It was no different to ooty or munnar!! The only other colour apart from green (and its magical shades) was black, due to the road, the silhouettes of towers carrying the power lines and the clouds above ready to give us what we want...... a monsoon trip.
Reminded me of ooty munnar.... etc... pic doesn't do justice though
Having fun with the camera, bike, the environ...... and what not?
Some more...
The previous day, we saw a board read Kemmangundi (approx 35 Km from Birur) and hoped to be there on our way back to Bangalore. But the surprise that the route to Sagar gave us made us cancel the plans and just cruise to Jog instead of ripping to Jog so that we have sufficient time left for Kemmangundi.
The green was godly, which my camera definitely could not capture given the low light of the early morning. Enjoyed every bit of both the straight and the twisty turvy stretch to jog. We park our bikes, and after checking out the mist covered tops, decide to get a lucky view of its resplendence by trekking down. I still had my camera out to take a snap or two though it started to drizzle (or was it the 'mist'???)
A ok view of Jog was the last photo for the trip because, it started to rain cats and dogs when we were on our way down. I put the camera in a cover, roll it tight and put it in the bag, to later find out that both our mobiles and the camera included was swimming in a pool of water inside the cover. My attachment to the camera and the special care i've taken till date almost made me faint once i was back on top accessing the damage done. I black out once and am back to my senses accepting the facts and not thinking about it on the way back.
Lets get back to Jog then :)
Yes... coming back to the happy part
Half way through to the foot of the falls, the gushing water on the steps was so strong and the rain was so heavy that we could not go any further. Visibility was only a meter. We just sit down and wait for a view of jog. Every time you look up, somebody is waiting to command an army of bowmen to shoot their arrows at your face. We could manage to get a very good view in intervals. The mist starts accumulating at the foot of the falls and it then raises and falls. So, you get to see the raw nature in all its power when the mist falls and before it rises again. It reminded me of the movie The Mummy, where the high priest in all his anger commands the desert sand into an all engulfing storm by raising his arms and swinging it forwards. It was similar here, as though some body is standing at the top of the falls and building up force and directing it towards you in intervals.
Getting back to the post black out scenario, well.... damage is damage. We just dump all our stuff in carefully, zip up and head towards Shimoga. The only event that drew my attention was a good fight b/w a snake and a mongoose.... couldn't watch the end because the mongoose decided to settle scores inside the forest rather than on the road. Guess it won cos the snake's head was in its mouth and the mongoose seemed to enjoy the advantage.
For some reason i was lagging behind my friend no matter how much i throttled. It resulted in the engine over heating (could tell it from the tappet sound, and the vibration, rpm etc..) Once back, i see that the chain had tightened and the rear wheel was not freely rotating.
Left Shimoga at 2. Reached Tumkur at 6:30, had dinner at Kamat (no quack quack entertainment this time) and back home by 9.
Trip Details:
Total Distance - 926.1 KM
Readying the hair dryer to see if i can get back my camera to life and at the same time putting thoughts into words before the hang over wanes. You could comment on our experience while i think about ways to resurrect my camera.
