There is a famous kannada song sung by the legend Dr Rajakumar. Song starts with
Manavanagi huttida mele en en kandi
Saayotanaka samsaradolage gandaa gundi…
Herikondu hogodilla sattaag bandi
Irodrolage omme nodu Jogad gundi…
Another one is my all time favourite "Nityotsava" by Dr Nisar Ahmed. Starts with "Jogad siri Belakinalli"
I have seen it several times as my parents were in Sirsi for 3 years. This trip was initially planned for Mundgod and Jog was not included.Planwas to go to Mundgod and comeback the next day. When I called Pooja, she suggested we could go to Jog, stay at sirsi, visit Mundgod and comeback. Archana had not seen Jog and this is a good time to visit.
We left Bangalore early in the morning at about 6:30, took nice road to join NH4. Planned to have breakfast at Dobaspet Kamat upchar. Kamat Upchar is on the other side of the road and they have now closed the opening on the road for the turn. There was a kamat on the left side of the road and we stopped there for breakfast. This kamat was pretty OK, I would not recommend this.
Took a left just before Tumkur towards Tiptur/Arasikere/Shimoga. This is the first time we were going on this Road and were not sure of the road conditions. Although it is two laned the roads were pretty good.
This was towards the end of rainy season and the nature had painted green everywhere. The paddy fields, trees on the road were all lush green. The little ponds and lakes were all full with water.
The traffic was less and drive was nice. We stopped at a couple os places including this sunflower field to take some photographs.
They grow pineapples here and were selling fresh pineapples on the roadside and we bought some.
Photosession at the sunflower field, there were lot of bees.
Another stop for light snacks.
Mohan mama trying to get the kids to pose for a snap, look at Ishaans face
As were nearing the jog falls, we could hear the falls. We took couple of snaps from the bridge and proceeded towards falls.
The Halmurkees having fun on the bridge.
Behind the Falls. We can see the mist coming from the falls.
Viewing the falls from a high point.
Majestic Jog Falls. Water level was good. When Pooja had visited last time the water level was so high that all the 4 falls (Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket) had merged together. I like to see them separately :).
Say Cheese everybody.
It was drizzling in between so the colourfull umbrellas were out.
We enjoyed the view and spent some time taking snaps and had lunch at a nearby hotel(pretty basic). It started to rain cats and dogs.
We proceeded towards sirsi. Again encountered beautiful fields and views, stopped couple of times to soak in the beauty.
Green everywhere.
Ishaan enjoyed running barefooted on a road cleaned by rains. I was going to sirsi after gap of 11 years. In these 11 years the cities like Belgaum, Dharwad, Bijapur have grown so much and some have lost their original identities. But Sirsi was as it is peaceful,beautiful and unaffected. We stayed at Hotel Madhuvan.
We went to Marikamba temple in the evening, Ishaan played with other kids in the temple. We had dinner at panchavati, once a good restaurant, now it has lost it. Next day we went to Mundgod.
In Mundgod I decided to show our ancestoral fields to Archana, after the road ended there was slush, somehow I thought I could take the car till the gate. As I started I lost control of the car it was floating on the wet mud and I could not stop, If I had stopped I would have got stuck, so I continued in the slush for another 100 meters where I stopped.
That was a very bad decision. After spending 30 mins and with the help of another person who put sticks below my wheels I could finally comeout. If it was not for power of cruze, I would not have come out os that this easily. Car was completely covered with mud.
There are lots of other places that we could not visit around sirsi as this was a quick trip. We will have to come back for Yana, Sahasralinga, Banavasi etc. I have decided to make a rainy season trip to this area (Malnad) every year. It is just so beautiful everywhere.
