Monsoon 2N/3D getaway from Bengaluru to Jog/Ikkeri/Keladi/Kuppalli

Monsoon 2N/3D getaway from Bengaluru

It is monsoon season here. Like many Indians, I find being in the rain fascinating and beautiful, especially when you are in a green surrounding. Decided on a short 2N/3D trip (Aug 12-14) to Jog falls(from Sharavathi river), Ikkeri/Keladi & Kuppalli in Shimoga region of Karnataka. The very thought of walking down to the bottom of the 830 ft waterfall in rain was exciting!! Plan was to take a public transport (KSTRC Volvo AC bus) from/to Bangalore to/from Shimoga and from there rent a taxi for the Jog, Ikkeri & Kuppalli visit with Shimoga as our base. I found a nice offer at Royal Orchid (3 star) in Shimoga for 2N@Rs 4999 for double occupancy with breakfast- Thanks to Groupon!!!!! Having seen their hotel at Bangalore thought this was a great deal and bought the offer immediately. Within 48hrs our destination decided, planned, booked & we were on our way.

Day-1 Bus Journey from Bengaluru to Shimoga

We took 10:00AM KSTRC (Govt) Volvo AC bus Airavat to Shimoga which is a 250km/6hr ride. Although I felt bus could have been maintained better :-),  it was still a very comfortable ride all the way with a pit stop at mid point….Here is where one has to face the great Indian challenge in using a public toilet (or should I say, Ah! we have a toilet:-)), but having traveled now quite a bit in India, has taught me to use squat paid (2Rs) toilet that has running water & luckily this one was in OK condition. I remembered what a tour guide in China once told me – “In China we prefer to use squat toilet in public places and use western toilet at home due to hygiene reasons” . I totally agree with her now after my exp with travel in India. Never use public western toilet as most of the population don't know how to use it properly....OK!!! Enough about toilets…..:-) All in all it was a stress free ride (except the pit stop tension :-)), not bad at all for just Rs 460 bus ticket. During the journey, I even finished reading 3 chapters of Avarana (famous Kannada novel by Byrappa that has been in my back burner for last couple of yrs).

Hotel Royal Orchid was just 10min walk from Shimoga bus stop….. Hotel looked good from outside & felt really relieved to see inside being equally nice and it was indeed a true 3 star hotel (If you have traveled in India, you would know why I am saying this) & a very comfortable stay. They even helped us plan our 1.5 days trip by adding few other places in between & said they can book a taxi for Rs 2000 for a full day 250km AC Indica. Later that evening, we took a stroll of the city. We expected the town to have more greenery but it just another place which is neither a village nor a city.  While in town, we also checked taxi at one more place just to compare the rates...they are all between Rs 1900 to 2000/day for 250km. Decided to go with the hotel recommended taxi service. We prepared ourselves for next day & packed some essentials in our backpack – rain gear, slippers( if in case sneakers get soaked in rain) candies and water bottle.

Day-2 - Jog falls, Ikkeri and Keladi 

It was a rainy morning, breakfast spread at the hotel was awesome! Most of the South Indian bfast items + continental. Ate much more than required :-) and headed off at 8:30AM to Jog which is a 107km/2 hr ride . The views up to Sagara (75km) were good but not great… I was expecting more greenery and thicker vegetation. We reached Jog falls around 10:30 & it was raining hard.

Jog- Raja, Rani, Roarer, Rocket

We wore our rain jackets and thought of taking a quick look & take some photos of the fall before trekking down the path to the foot of the fall. It was beautiful!! This 830Ft fall from Sharavathi river is the 2nd highest fall in India. It looked majestic, with all of its 4 falls Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket coming down with force. Thanks to good monsoon!!! We were all set to walk the 1400 steps down & if possible go as close to the fall as possible (Yes, it is not like what it was some 25yrs ago when I visited this place, now there are steps to walk down with railings.) We started walking towards the entry point for climb down….. here is where we encountered our utter disappointment :-(.....There were many policemen there and they had blocked the path, apparently in the last couple of days a total of 5 tourists had slipped & were swept away while walking on a rock … so they had blocked all the paths. We pleaded & begged the policemen to allow us to go down….well, it did not work!!!! There was a big search operation going on for the bodies and we saw Kothi Rama. (This guy who has climbed Jog falls using rope and bare hands and hence the title Kothi/Monkey) He was called-in to help in search operation and he was preparing his climb. We sat in a Gazebo with the view of the fall and Viji was busy sketching the fall.
But after about 10min, thick fog covered the water fall & played the peek-a-boo with an increased intensity of rain.

We decided to walk around to see the view of the fall from a diff angles. While walking we saw 2 accommodations right at Jog falls and thought of checking these out for next time. First we went to the Karnataka tourism accommodation Mayura …. It is 2300 Rs per night and room quality looked OK (it has been renovated) but canteen was very filthy. Best part is the Jog falls view from all rooms as it is right opposite the fall. A good place to stay if you arrive in the evening and leave next day…you can watch the laser show at night and enjoy sun rise if no clouds (definitely not during monsoon with all the clouds & fog ). Next we walked to the PWD bungalow there on top of the hill which looked very nice from outside…..but don’t think of staying  there! What we saw inside was shocking, even the curtains had mildew and stink was so bad – well apparently it is Rs 250 per head per day, so you can imagine!

PWD Bungalow( a big NO NO)

KSTDC Mayura

Me at the fall

Our driver told us he will take us to the back of the fall where the fall begins and may be we can walk down from there (for those of you who have seen the Kannada movie Mungaru Malei, it is that spot) – There too we were stopped from climbing down….. By then it was 12:30, so we decided to proceed towards Ikkeri & Keladi which is 45km from Jog (6km from Sagara).

Ikkeri & Keladi: Here there are very beautiful temples built by Keladi dynasty around 15th century (Keladi Dynasty: 1499–1763). Ikkeri was their first capital….. The Aghoreshwara temple is a huge granite temple & has a unique mix of style from Vijayanagara, the Karnata Dravida style of the Chalukyas and Hoysalas. This is a very well maintained stone carved temple complex. When we reached Ikkeri, it was already 1:15pm.

Ikkeri

We were busy admiring the stone carving outside the temple when the priest called us to have the dharshana first as it was time to close for the afternoon; it was nice of him to have called us. Walk around the temple which was black stone flooring was slippery due to rain, priest kept reminding us to walk only on the old jute bags they had put on the floor. After the dharshana of both Aghoreshara and Parvathi, priest provided us information on temple & he closed just the Garbagudi, we could still walk around the rest of the temple to enjoy the carvings and the beauty of the temple architecture.

We headed from there to Keladi, the later capital of Keladi dynasty to see the Rameshwara temple & the museum.

Keladi

Wood carving on roof

The stone carving in this Rameshwara temple is very much similar to works we see in Hampe/Belur/Halebedu.

Vasthu Raja

What is different is the amazing wood carving on the roof and cornice. This is the only temple that has the Vasthu Raja – A depiction of how a house construction should be!

Wooden Chariot

The Keladi museum which is across from the temple is small but has impressive collections from  Keladi dynasty including wooden chariot, coins, cloths, swords, manuscripts etc., worth the visit!
By the time we were done, it was 2:45pm, we were hungry & headed to Sagara for lunch at a local restaurant. Had a good south Indian meal and proceeded towards Shimoga. 15km before Shimoga is a Lion & Tiger safari, but we decided to skip it as we heard it is more of an open Zoo and more of a place for children. Instead we preferred to see Shivappa Nayaka’s (Keladi ruler) palace in Shimoga.  It is more of a heritage type house than a palace but nice with impressive antique collection. It was a surprise to see some items from 2500BC (Harappa period) and sculptures fron 10 century AD. Here are toys from Harappa period!

toy with movable head

Our Day-1 trip ended! Although it was a long day from 8:30 to 6:00pm and covering overall some 250km by road, it did not feel like it! Paying Rs 2000 for this private full day AC taxi trip was worth it….

Day-2: Sakrebailu Elephant camp, Mandagadde Bird Santucary and Kuppalli (Kuvempu’s house)

Started the day once again with great breakfast & of course the rain…. Left hotel at 8:00AM in our taxi and proceeded to the Elephant Camp which is15km from Shimoga. Perfect timing! the elephants had come for their bath.

Elephant camp

There were about 8 elephants happily enjoying their bathing ritual…..we were lucky to see the cute little new arrival Kiran who was just 10 days old, very playful in the water with his mother Lakshmi. If you have time, you can also bathe elephants with the Mavutha. This is a cool place for just Rs 30 entrance fee.

Bird sanctuary

After spending about 30min there, we headed towards Mandagadde Bird Sanctuary (20km from this camp). Though very small compared to Ranganathitu (Mysore), it is a nice place with quite a lot of birds. The water level was very high due to heavy rain. There was no signs of any boat. We saw birds from shore.
From here to Kuppalli is 45km via Thirthalli, the views in this stretch were breathtaking with diff shades of green terrain, backwaters of Tunga and mountains/hills.

Tunga backwaters

Road quality was also very good. Another cool sight was that of school children in these remote areas walking their way thro’ the fields to school. It almost looked like “No child left behind”. 

School children

Kavimane

Ancestral Home of the renowned Kannada playwright and poet Kuvempu's house (kavimane) is in Kuppalli, one of our prime destination. This kavimane is now a museum. Although,this house was rebuilt in late 1990(s), it still has the original woodwork including many carved wooden pillars. It is a beautiful house and contains numerous antique kitchen vessels and many of Kuvempu’s personal belongings and pictures. It also has a room full of various awards he has received in his lifetime.
Although he spent only 15yrs in this house, apparently it was always his wish to convert this into a museum.

Kavishaila

5min drive (or 20 min walk via a walkway) from this place is his Samadhi and a rock monument called kavishaila made of megalithic rocks dedicated to Kuvempu. It is on the top of a small hill with 360 degree view of the mountains and greenery. Understand Kuvempu used to spend time on these rocks discussing literature with his friends.

Kavi samadhi

One of the rock has the etched signatures of Kuvempu, BM Sri, TSV and Poornachandra. It is a picture perfect view from here! You will also see kuvempu's quotes & poems etched around the complex. Across from here is his Son Poornachandra Tejaswi Samadhi.

Another must see in Kuppalli is Poornachandra Tejaswi''s Photo Gallery of birds. What he has been able to capture behind those lens is amazing – from extremely colorful birds feeding its babies to capturing prey.
We realized the time was already 12:00 and we wanted to head back to Shimoga to catch 3PM bus back to Bengaluru as the ride from here to Shimoga can take 2hrs in rain. WOW! what a day it had been! another worthy fantastic day trip for Rs 2000/150km by pvt taxi. We reached Shimoga around 2:00pm, freshened up and left for Bangalore once again by KSRTC Airavat Volvo bus.

One tip (also hilarious moment) is that do not wear slippers or any shoes that do not have good traction in monsoon when you walk around kuvempu monument….The rocks are very slippery! Here, one moment I was busy taking pictures and the next moment I had landed hard on the rock in the shesha shayana (Vishnu) position (unknowingly I had taken one step forward for a better view). Luckily no bones broken just some minor fender benders! I think this was also one of the most entertaining moments of the trip for Viji :-) & to an extent to me as well.  

If you have not seen any of these places in recent years….I strongly recommend this 2N/3D getaway from Bangalore during or immediately after monsoon. so many interesting and exciting places you can visit in just 1.5 days! It costed us only Rs 6K/head. As women travelers, found the above places to be safe.