Almost Goa !!

My usual 3 day trips from Bangalore have been tightly packed schedules that start on Thursday night and ends on Monday morning with 3 days of full activity. They have been pretty nice as trips but I guess there is a difference between taking a vacation and making a trip. And after this trip to Karwar, I can understand why people go to Goa for vacations and hardly for trips. It just won't be worth the effort I guess.

So our journey started at 6:00 Am on Friday in the brand new Toyota Innova that our company has just bought. This was my first road trip across Karnataka in day light and it was really exciting to observe the landscape all around. All of us, in our childhood, have made those "sceneries" in the art class. Invariably all of them used to have hills in the background, a river coming down from them and a hut by the river. Sun was always just peaking from behind the hills just like the watches always show 10:10 in every ad. For most of us that was the beginning and end of our adventures in drawing. At least for me, it was. Drawing any human figures was beyond imagination.

But as our car raced through the newly laid silky roads (owing to the Mahamastakabhishek happening in Shravanbelgola), every new turn presented us with a scene fit for our drawing books. I belong to planes and there, as far as you can see, you see flat land lined with trees. So it is really exciting to see ever changing topography of the land and green fields and valleys lying all around. Of course, these will look like nothing when compared to exotic scenes and snapshots that our senses have become addicted to by watching Discovery, Nat Geo, Lonely Planet and so on. That is a prize that one pays for having everything at one's fingertips. Fingertips become numb.

So we raced along, passing small towns, stopping for breakfast and finally reaching Jog Falls at around mid day. First look at the falls was disappointing. There was hardly any water there. Out of the 4 falls that are supposed to be there, you could hardly spot 2 and only one was still alive enough to merit the name of a fall.

However, opportunity knocks only on the door of prepared. We knew what we wanted and we decided to trek down to the bottom of the falls. The small pool at the bottom look enchanting ("The enchanted pool" - anyone??). Getting down 300 meters along broken and at times absent steps was not very hard but the real task was to reach that pool we were eyeing. Jumping along the big stones and braving monkeys, when we finally reached the pool, it was a delight. The path back was going to be tough but such is human heart that it can bask in the glory of the moment even when it is the last one. The lines from the yore

इधर ज़िन्दगी झूम के गाये, उधर है मौत खडी,
कोई ना जाने कहां है सीमा, मुश्किल आन पडी।

The nice cold water and the small swimming endeavors there really made up for all the missing waters. However the setting sun and gathering clouds signaled us on our way back up. After that it was a quite journey, first a serpentine one to Hannover and from there, along the Arabian Sea to Karwar. Somewhere along the way, we had tea :)

Next morning, Karwar !