We started from Bangalore on Friday night a 3-day weekend. The places we were planning to cover included Jog falls, Karwar and Kadra, Goa if time permits.
Jog is a well-known waterfall, the tallest in India where river Sharavati falls from an unbelievable 300 meters high. While the number looks big by itself, those who have managed to climb down to the base of the waterfall and hiked back know how tall and steep really it is.
On the way to Jog
Jog Information
The Jog waterfall is approximately 400kms from Bangalore. If you start on a Friday night, you can reach here next morning and spend a day. It is well connected by road and train. You can take bus or train to nearest town – Sagar and travel on local buses to Jog. If you are driving, the entire stretch of road is national highway in good condition but you may encounter a few rough patches. It takes 7-8 hours to reach Jog. You need to take Tumkur road(NH 4) from Bangalore and turn left to NH 206 in Tumkur, drive via Shimoga and Sagar towns. Shimoga is a good place to break for some refreshments if you are driving daytime. Continue for another 30kms on the highway from Sagar town. The waterfall is a short 2kms deviation from the highway.
Places to see
You can spend an entire day around the waterfall. If you are fit, climb down to the base of the fall. It takes around 20minutes to walk down, and may take an hour or two to come back depending on your fitness. You can take a dip in the water when you are in the gorge. Drive to the other side of the waterfall and you can get close to the falling water. In summer, you can even bend down from the fall to see it descending all the way down from up close. It is a great experience, but definitely not for the acrophobics. Drive further down the national highway into deep jungles and enjoy the views of the Sharavati valley.
Jog waterfall
We reached there around 9am and strolled around for sometime. It was raining on and off and many times the view of the fall would get completely blocked by fog. It was a good view to see so much water there after many long years. It comes down to a trickle in the summers, primarily owing to the dams built for the power generation that redirect all the water. Incessant rains this year have filled up the dams and hence there is plenty of water. It was fun watching the fall in the rains.
We moved on after staying for around 2 hours and reached Sharavati valley, a few kilometers down where river flows between the hills and offers amazing view from the top. I took a few photographs; none of them seemed to justify the beauty of the place. One of the lucky pals who had descended the valley a few years back described us the adventure and fun involved. They had gone into the jungle and descended the steep valley, and had camped by the river for a night a few years back! Boy! That must have been fun.
The beautiful Sharavati Valley
Further down, we encountered a stream by the road that tempted us to stop. We walked along the stream for a while and soon encountered a series of waterfalls. We were too tempted to take a dip, and did just that! It’s a great feeling to dip into a running stream and lie down against the running water. Even more fun is when you sit under a waterfall and feel the gush of the water. I would love to be doing that everyday!
Our next destination was Karwar, a beach town. We reached there around the time of sunset. The time did not matter because it was cloudy all through the day. It looked the same – dull and cloudy from morning to evening and you could never tell the position of the sun! After a brief stop at the small port, we hit the beach and stayed on till it was dark. Lovely beach it is! It started raining cats and dogs while we were there and we got wet. Thanks to rain gods, its absolute fun getting wet on a hot day. From here, we left the seashore and drove interior towards the village of Kadra where we were to stay with a friend for two days. Kadra hosts one of the 7 dams to Kalinadi and has a powerhouse. We had made plans to see the scenic Kali region the next day and return to Bangalore the day after.
The beauty around Kali river
Our friend, who worked for Karnataka Power Corporation arranged permissions for us to visit the powerhouses. They are enormous machinery with great level of automation. It houses huge turbines and various assemblies that needs no to day-to-day maintenance and management. Just 3 engineers will be working as stand-by in the powerhouse at any given point of time! While the powerhouse looked good, it was the river, hills and greenery that we were more interested in. We drove further into a 30km long private road that leads us to another reservoir and power station. The road crawls right along the banks of Kali and the river is surrounded by thick evergreen rain forests typical of the Sahyadri ranges. Out friend mentioned about people seeing leopards, Black Panthers and even tigers in the area! He had seen leopards himself! The place looked too good to be true. And it was drizzling all along, which gave a poetic romance to the entire atmosphere. I though – “Oh my god! I would like to spend rest of my life here!” My friends echoed my feelings. It all seemed too beautiful to be true!
We spent the entire day walking or driving around this road. Late in the evening, we saw some fishermen having a nice evening, catching a good lot of fish. We stopped, had a chat with them and took some photographs around the place. Every inch of the place was absolute beauty! A lot of people apparently go swimming in the river in summer. I decided to return for a swim myself, and I certainly will. It was evening and we ended the day’s journey in a very content state.
The next morning, we drove to Palolem beach in Goa for a short visit. The weather was good and the sea was calm and nice. After frolicking for a while, we drove back to Bangalore. We had moved so far away from the town, it took us 14 long hours to drive back. We returned to Bangalore around 4am.
Wow ! The jog falls pic is simply superb !
oye! real good pictures, but i don’t think the JOG is in its full glory despite very heavy precipitation
wow great pic’s.
..paul
SO much in just three days time!! Indeed the valley seems so green and full specially in such a season and even the drive through that stretch of road must have been awesome!! I agree with anonymous….Jog isnt fully in josh. The travel guides there say that it almost resembles Niagara during heavy showers….or was he trying to fool me? And where is rani/rocket? One of them is missing! On the other side of the cliff??
i made jogfalls photo as my PC wallpaper.
–Viju
anon, you are right. I have seen the better times too. But that was more than a decade ago. The dams got full after I came back, and hopefully there is more water now.
Arch, It is rocket missing on the right side. I get to see Jog almost every year, and I havent seen it look like Noagara in my short life time.
Thank you , paul and Somu
Great Pictures !!
Dear Arun,
Can you tell the route to sharavati valley from Jog
Manju
Manju, its on the way to Honnavar, around 20km from Jog
Thanks
Hi All,
Is there any other route for Goa from Bangalore. I read that route from Mangalore is more picturesque though bit lenghty. Any thoughts about this one?
can u tell me the shortest way to visit jog waterfalls from panaji of goa.
wow, this is amazing.. the first pic is exactly the same which I have taken on my trip to jog.. we went a drive too..
)
I am not sure how Niagara looks.. but could manage to shoot a decent video of Jog falls on our trip…
Arun, as to the idylic beauty of the area near the sea at Karawar I recall reading some place that Rabindranath Tagore visited the place at a young age, and one of his first few writings was as a result of the inspiration he drew from the beauty of that place. I have been there myself in 1997.
I have seen both the Niagara Falls and the Jog Falls. Both are awesome and are beautiful in their own way.
Your picture of the beautiful Sharavati Valley is gorgeous. It reminds me of the lower Himalayas at Bakhim.
hi am anudeep frm hyd
actually dont know about jog falls…
on my way from goa to murudeswar, we found a kilometer marking of jog….
we thought jog it may be a small water fall…
but after going there my two eyes are not enough to seee the beauty falls of JOG…..
how far is karwar from jog falls ?
hi,
wonderful pictures
Hi, Can you tell us some good places to stay near Jog falls. regards Parag
Hi pals,
me and my friends are planning for jog falls, we r staying in bangalore, how many place can we cover for 3 days, how much distance from jog to goa, is it the right time to go there, does it comfortable for ladies.
please mail me ur valuable information to my mail id
rajasekhar.l@gmail.com
thanks in advance
cheers–
raj
Nice review and photographs. I need to give work to my camera too
I am planning (with family) to come from other route. Goa, karwar and Jog falls. How did you go from Jog falls to Karwar? (route?) suggestions please…..
thanks in advance
Chandamama
Please tell me the distance from jog to kadhri? roads are good ?In which route should i take from jog to kadri?
@Kiran, I presume you mean Kadra. The route would be Jog -> Honnavar -> Karwar -> Kadra. Roads are not good as of today. It would be ~125 to 150kms
I am planning to go Jog waterfalls, can anyone let me know how to go there from Hospet…and how should I go? and what is the distance?
supereb!!
Dear Arun,
Can you plz tell me if any accomodation is available in Kadra region?
Regards,
Manju
@Manju, Kadra doesnt have much to offer in terms of acco. There could be KPC guesthouses surely, and it would help if you know anyone in KPC. Just a kilometer from Kadra, there is a place called Kurnipet, where I noticed a small lodge. Haven’t seen inside it, but could probably be a grimy place. Otherwise, you will have to stay in Karwar or Dandeli.
My suggestion is Aug is the best time to visit Jog falls, as I have been there several time. The way water you can see the nature is just fabulous. it just cannot be expressed in words.
[...] Jog Falls. India’s tallest waterfall is best seen in the monsoon. Fog and rains play with the views of the waterfall, making it disappear and re-appear every few minutes. The waterfall is reduced to a trickle for most of the year, but if there are some good rains, return to its glory in the monsoons. Jog Falls travelogue. [...]
[...] Jog Falls is the highest waterfall in India. A series of dams constructed upstream have now rendered this fall to only a trickle of water most of the year. Last year, good rains opened up the gates and the fall was in its full glory after good two decades! [...]
[...] see: More about Jog Falls on India Travel [...]
Hi,
I want to visit jog Waterfalls in last week of June 2009. could any of you please let me know, how are the falls now. How is it raining there and are there any specific days when the dam which leads water to jog waterfalls will be open such that the falls will be more beautiful with water, any other information related to jog falls, Please let me know.
Thanks,
Deepthi.
Hi, We have gone through your blog its really a nice design with lots of interesting travel photographs.
hi……..
its me dadu
i worked for two years at jogfalls in KPTCL power project as a junior system administrator and i would not like to express this place insted i wish u to enjoy it by seeing with your naked eyes really its wonder of the world
but i really spent those two years as two days
till i miss that kind created nature of god
after offices work along me three friends was spending our time in jog fslls sitting top of that hill and having snaks telling each outhers life stories and all but i never forget that preshious time
[...] unusual view of a section of Jog Falls – India’s tallest [...]
How are the roads now?
hi, my name is lohith… can u plz plz tell me how are the roads from mangalore to goa and goa to bangalore… plz mail me, thank u so much…
Am just back from a trip to Jog/Karwar. The roads are horrible and resembles the surface of moon(just like any other in Karnataka), but at the end of the day – Jog rocks!
I vote for Dadu’s comment above. Guys, this is a must see place!
excellent photography
i love this jogfalls i have been there and the road from honavar to jog its nice but the route NH17 so hard to drive its beeter to take train to honavar
Hi.. I want to visit Kadra from Goa… Is Kadra a well known place that any taxi driver would know in Goa? If not, what is a good landmark I can specify for reference?..
Head towards Karwar from Goa. A few kilometers before Karwar you need to turn left and go for another 40km to get to Kadra. It should not be very hard. After you cross into Karnataka border, anyone would be able to direct you properly.
[...] Driving to Coorg 2. Driving in rain: Jog falls, Karwar, Kali and Goa 3. Mullayyanagiri and Charmadi, Chickmagalur, in the monsoon 4. Bandipur National Park 5. Bhadra [...]