Jog falls
chennai to jog falls
blackberry 8900
google maps
ninad and me
thursday midnight, ninad wants to have a dosa
the only place i could find open in chennai was in koyambedu bus stand area...
started friday morning 0700 hrs
decided to follow the google maps' instructions to the T
detoured midway at ranipet between chennai and bangalore en-route NH 4, skipped bangalore altogether.
reached tumkur via devanhalli and "god only knows" roads, lanes, by-lanes, walkways, and what nots. All thanks to google maps.
Carried on NH 206 to reach shimoga at 1900 hrs the same evening. Decided to take a pit stop. Ninad arranged for the hotel, thanks to his regional chaps. Ordered food in the room, slept like pigs.
Woke up next morning, a sunday, got the car cleaned, had a good south indian breakfast and started for the jog falls. En-route took another detour to a small lake, we don't know the names, what i do know is the co-ordinates 14.095086 N, 75.149708 E.
Stayed there for some time, let the serene place set into our souls, started back for jog falls but again took a detour around sagar to reach a lake called Linganamakki reservoir. took a break there, ninad all the while having a phobia of encountering a snake, we never did, although.
But ninad managed a couple of tokyo driftish maneuvers on slippery patch of green grass. he was happy and sad both. Happy coz he maanged a 180 degree maneuvering in my fabia. and sad coz i didn't video him doing that.
We finally reached jog falls around 1400 hrs and to our huge disappointment, it wasn't worth the journey. We decided to walk all the 1400 odd steps down. I took a bath, while ninad sat on a rock cursing me for having made him walk down all the way to nothing and the larger fear of him having to climb those 1400 odd steps again in hot sun... wow.
Nothing short of a hot bath could rejuvenate us and we did manage one.
It was then that the idea of touching the west coast stuck me... but i needed ninad's buy-in. What i sold him was a chance to see the sunset on the west coast almost the same day we saw a sunrise on the east coast.
The drive in those last 100 KM from jog falls to Honavar along NH 206 and NH 17 was the best drive i ever had.
I take full pride in mentioning the exact co-ods of the place on wast coast we touched to manage catching the last lights of that day fading into the sea. 14.263588 N, 74.431831 E.
Had dinner in Honavar, got the tank filled, came back to shimoga, struggled to get a hotel at 0000 hrs in the night. finally managed a dirty room in a dirty hotel. different from the last night's stay.
managed to grab a couple of hours sleep. Woke up, freshened up for the new day. determined to drive all the way to chennai and get ninad to the airport in time for his flight.
We drove and drove and drove. The only part of the drive back to chennai worth mentioning is the fight we had over whether or not to take a bypass and the other was the beautiful road around bangalore city by the name NICE road.
reached chennai well in time. dropped ninad to the airport, taking god forsaken roads through south of the airport. At one point i thought we will never be able to get out of those streets.
Anyways at the airport the trip meter read, 1666 KM. done in 3 days and 2 nights. by the 2 mighties. Ninad and Pranay
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