Unchalli falls aka Lushigton falls

After the Jogs disappointment, we planned to see the Unchalli falls. We made Siddapur as our base. Road from Jog to Siddapura is not very good. Siddapura to Unchalli road is pretty good.

Route to falls. Need to take a left after siddhapura town on Siddapura Sirsi road. Need to travel for about 20 Kms till one sees a board at a junction. Unchalli falls is 4.7 Kms from the junction.

One has to park the vehicle were the road ends near a small shop. The trek to view the falls is about ½ kms and is pretty steep at some points.

We came to the view point all we could see is white mist and lot of sound from the falls, felt were in cloud. Met an old school friend who came up from view point at a lower height, he was drenched. He told us to go down for the better view. We started climbing down the steps. It started raining. Soon we realized it wasn’t raining it was the spray from the falls. We were soon drenched from head to toe before we reached the view point. It is about 200 steps. Soon after we reached the second view point, the wind changed direction and the spray cleared for some time. The view was awesome. It was a really huge falls. Narrow at the head and becoming wider as it comes down. There is thick virgin forest on the either side of falls and the valley. In the raining season there was lots of water in river Aghanashini. It was a wonderful sight. It was like a Christian bride dressed in all white with a flowing skirt below the waist, covered in misty veil, who let us have a look at her once in a while when the veil lifted.

We had a look at it for few times. It was wonderful experience, especially after the Jog’s disappointment. The photos Unchalli falls on net were generally taken in summer and from the bottom. They don’t really do justice the Majestic falls.

There were visitors in about 4 cars, where as Jog had 1000 times the visitors. But this hidden beauty just 45 Kms from jog made our trip wonderful. Hope it doesn’t get commercialized too much.

The drive to and from Unchalli Siddapura itself is wonderful. There are lush green paddy fields on the flat land and a thick forest as we climb. There is a view point on the road where the river Aghanashini curves between mountains make a picturesque sight.