Sharavati Beckons

This has been a long pending stuff from my side. Never got around to write about it. This is about a weekend trip to India’s highest waterfalls, The Jog Falls.

Jog Falls is situated at a distance of 100 kms from the city of Shimoga. This is the place where the river Sharavati falls from a height of 292m forming a glorious waterfall.

The river forms four different tracks (as seen in the picture) which are named ‘Raja’, ‘Rani’, ‘Roarer’ and ‘Rocket’. If you are captivated by the beauty and want a closer look, you can walk down a narrow pathway to the bottom of the gorge and take a dip in a pool of water at the foot of the falls. The best time to visit this place is just after the monsoons between when the falls are at their most impressive.

Best Season:
All round the year is a good season to go, except the rainy season. (mid July to September). Post monsoon is a great time to catch a glimpse of the Jog in its full splendor. Here’s one glance of the Jog post monsoon

Jog falls

Getting there:

Jog falls is around 380 kms from Bangalore. The best option to reach is to take a overnight train from Bangalore to Shimoga (6 hrs). From Shimoga , one can hire a taxi to Jog falls (approx 100kms/2 hrs).

The other nearest train station is Talaguppa (around 35 kms), but there is only one train that runs from here to shimoga in the evening at 5.30 PM

Driving down by your car is also an option. Its a 7 hr drive from bangalore to shimoga through good roads (i mean motorable).

There are very few options for staying. KSTDC has hotels near Jog falls. A better option would be to stay in Shimoga. Shimoga offers a variety of options for staying. We stayed at the Jewel Rock hotel. Booking in advance is a good idea:-).

En route to Jog falls , one can find the Linganamakki Dam at Gajanur, which now limits the water to the jog falls. During rainy seasons, the water flows almost to the full capacity of the Dam.

One place that you would probably want to avoid is a Lion and Tiger Safari. Its more of a open environment Zoo, rather than anything close to natural habitat. You get to ride in a bus that takes u into the wilderness (so to say) and you can see the lion or tiger roaming around (inside the cage though). Not my cup of tea :-)

There are other places that are closer to Shimoga that warrant a visit. Some of them worth mentioning are

• Honnemardu (for water sports)
• Agumbe (for lovely sunsets)
• Thirtahalli
• Ambuthirta (the badravati river flows in abundance here)

The roads in this stretch are a treat to drive. Trees lined on both the sides of the road offers a pleasant drive.

Until next time…….

Cheers