Jog -1 Front

What a disappointment awaited us. There was hardly any water falling, it was little more than what we normally saw in photos. But the setting of Jog is majestic, it is much bigger that the picture I had in mind, the sheer drop of over 900 feet itself is mind blowing. The dark rocks against the greenery made a very nice sight. Kp and me started to go down, well KP backed of at the start itself. Everybody was coming up and nobody going down. KP scared me saying it takes 3 hours to come up. I did not believe him. On the way down I saw 2 other guys also going down. We started to run down the huge steps. Half way through my thighs started shaking with strain. One lady had fallen on the path because of fatigue. People were trying to make her get up. I simply ran down. I felt the hole was bottomless. Even after seeing the foot of the falls, it took quite sometime for me to reach it.

When I reached the bottom, I was the only guy heading down; I had left behind the other 2. I relished the view, It was a wonderful sitting alone, well almost seeing the majestic falls. I saw to other falls apart from Raja, Rani, Rocket, Roarer. It has been quite sometime. I did not know whether they were new or I did not just remember. Took pictures in video and stills, washed my face and checked the time. It was 6:36 and was getting dark, Oops had I made a mistake going down alone? There were few people (including some drunks) and vendors who were going up almost in slow motion. I climbed a bit may be 20-30 feet. I ran out of breath, my legs were on verge of collapse. I pushed a bit, one the vendors saw me urged me not to hurry and take it easy. I drank a Maaza and slowly started off, could not climb much. I was on all fours, it gradient was pretty steep, It helped climbing on all fours. After going further, there were almost no people and was becoming dark by the minute. Made my mind not to stop would go at a steady pace. I was thinking of Tour de France riders for inspiration, soon I reached a family who were climbing slowly and reached a stream. I washed my self and my mouth. The sweetness of cool drink had made very tired. Felt refreshed, made up the remaining distance pretty quickly. I finally could see the view point check the watch, it was only 7:05. Wow I could not believe it. My climb was less than half an hour, wanted to reach the top in next one minute. I went up quickly, saw my friends waiting for me check the time. It was 7:06. I had made it to the top in ½ hour flat.

Drank some water, ate some pineapples which tasted like heaven. Then started for Siddhapura Inspection Banaglow. Siddhapura is about 16 kms. After 3-4 kms the roads are pretty bad.

Stay at Siddhapura

The person at IB Hegdekar took very good care of us. Nice dinner was served. Rooms and toilets were built well, but maintained badly. Didn’t feel sleeping on the bed. All 5 men slept on a single double cot. Well it was warm on cozy…. It was link old times before marriage.

Had breakfast in a hotel treated by Hegdekar, had Sira (Kesari bath) and a dish like puri made of banana, midha, etc. I was good. We left for Unchalli falls.