Jog Falls
253 meters is really high! Especially when you look at
is straight up. Yesterday, we drove over five hours outside of Bangalore
to go to Jog Falls. The highest untiered waterfalls in
India, and the 7th highest in the world! All I can say is WOW. It
was really great to get out of the city (especially with the recent bombings)
and into the what was a rain forest due to the monsoon rains.
I was really surprised at first, mainly because I forgot
that we were on the Deccan Plateau. So, as we neared the falls, we
started to take these winding roads down the Western Ghats on our way to the
river valley. I was expecting to come to the waterfalls at the bottom,
not the top. So, when we got there we all rolled out of the car quite
stiff and sore. After a brief walk around, and wondering where the falls
were, we walked over to the observation deck and with perfect timing, the mist
cleared. Straight ahead of us we saw Jog Falls. There was a slight rain
on and off, and a constant mist coming up from the falls too, so visibility was
not the best. Still, it was simply amazing! What a beautiful place.
After a few minutes, when there was a long clear patch, we were able to see
down to the bottom of the falls. At first, I didn’t think too much of it other
than my initial curiosity of “I want to go down there”. After watching
the area near the base, I saw very small bits of color down below, I realized
they were people! They looked about the size of a grain of sand! I mean,
we were standing almost 1000 feet above them! Now I really wanted to go
down there! We heard there was a path down to it, but we hadn’t found
anything yet…
We found a concrete pathway that was still under
construction, but when we saw people on it, we decided to take it down the side
of the mountain with them. Jokingly, Eric said to me, “What if this just
stops halfway down the mountain?” Sure enough, halfway down the mountain, the
path under construction, stopped. It was following the old trail that we
heard about. The old trail was a handmade stone staircase that was
basically carved into the side of the slope and severely washed out. Now
it got interesting, but I loved the adventure! I just wish I had better shoes
to climb with. Overall, the path down the side of the mountain was almost
2km of steep descending. Once we got to the bottom, we stood in awe
looking up to the top of the falls and then behind us to where we came
from. It was out of sight, no really, you couldn’t see it because of the
mist and rain.
Well, the trek back up was a climb! The lonely planet
guide said that the trek down the mountain should take an hour, and then about
2 hours to get up. We took about thirty minutes to get down, and a little
over an hour and fifteen minutes to get back up the trail. We made good
time, in part to the half done pathway. We also really lucked out with the rain
fall. It rained, and my clothes were soaked and shoes were wet.
Actually, I did not have one dry part on my body. But, after spending
that much time in the rain and climbing in the river, I was still very happy;
and then even happier to put dry clothes on.
Pictures!
I am currently waiting on seeing how the recent events
unfold and what impact that has on our last two weeks and our last weekend
travelling in India. I hope everything can still go on as planned.
As for now, I am tired from this weekend.
