Monsoon trip to uttar Karnataka - day 1 in jog falls and sirsi

June 15 6 am
Bus was on the way to sirsi.I had woken up to mildly growin morning light around when bus came to town sagara.I could see roads covered green trees on both sides.Road were turning zig zag and  uphill at few places.Wet roads were indicative that monsoon have arrived to uttar karnataka district  to make it more beautiful.

7 30 am arrival
The bus reached sirsi. I took a autorickshaw to panchavati hotel which was around 3 km from bus stand.

Sirsi town

I started seeing sirsi while going on auto.Its town radius would be 6 kms at maximum.It reminded me of other few towns I had visited in past few weeks.

The town size was between  small and moderately big towns.
There is marikamba temple in town Centre.There was ganapathi temple at edge of town.whenever bus enters sirsi I had kept ganapathi temple as indicative of entering sirsi.Local people were very helpful through out the trip .I was surprised few of them spoke to me in  English .My learning of spoken Hindi related with travel and food needs came very handy again.

Panchavati hotel room

Panchavati hotel provided me neat and decent rooms .My room was in second floor.
After shower and yoga, I got down to reception.i had long discussion with receptionist on best places around sirsi. Receptionist 

was an soft spoken elderly person with lot of local knowledge.

Magodi falls, sathodi falls went out of my plan due to difficulty to reach .As it was solo backpacking trip and I had other major plans (Yana and jog falls) that needed full day., I restricted myself to best desired and easily reachable places . As jog falls was first reason for travelling here, I decided to prioritize it on first day ,Yana on next day.

I got info on bus route to jog falls from receptionist.

Based on his inputs I created a itenary plan.

Day 1 plan
Visit jog falls in morning .Return to sirsi at evening.

A visit to marikamba temple in sirsi was evening  plan.

Day 2 plan
Visit Yana by local transport .

I wanted plan for vibhoot falls but nobody suggested a way  with public transportation.I thought of exploring a possible way  after reaching Yana.

In the evening , travel to kumta in bus.spend sometime watching sea during sunset in kumta

Return sirsi by night.

Day 3 plan
Visit Unchahalli falls by bus in morning.visit

banasvasi temple or sahasralinga (a river bed full of stone carved lingas) whichever possible.

Day 1 trip to jog falls
11 am 15 June 2018
I took Sagar bus to reach a placs talagappa.i would see a big lotus pond before entering talagappa.From talagappa I took local bus to jog falls.There are regular buses from shimoga, Sagar to jog falls.Bus went on left of jog Cross stop to  enter a hilly road.Then it passed through lingamakki dam.there is also a large hydo electric project near this place.

The jog falls

jog falls is a series of four falls that becomes plunge waterfalls in monsoon.It  is very beautiful and gigantic during monsoon..it is second highest plunge waterfalls in India.it is situated in sagara and  uttar karnataka district border.it has 4 waterfalls and become plunge water falls during season.one among them is raja falls which falls undivided . Another falls is roarer that joins it in halfway through the middle.on the right rocket falls down series of jet .on extreme right  rani water falls moves down thin.

I took pictures from top view point .I walked towards left for around 500 metres taking pictures from different places road.on extreme  left of jog falls there was another waterfalls and a valley which took down water downstream.Around 3:30 pm , I had a simple lunch at kstdc restaurant nearby and then walked again to jog falls..This time I saw people taking steps down to falls.

There  are around 1400 steps leading down to foot of jog falls.you can get down into a water but cant get  closer to waterfalls.As you descend down you start getting closer better views of jog falls.steps are steeper at few zones.As it was 5 pm I couldn't go till end.i went around 95 percent down.capturing waterfalls all the way down and also coming up.

I took bus back to talagappa and back to sirsi by 8 30 pm.

Marikamba temple

From sirsi bus  I walked in road backside of  Bus stand.further I took right that leads to sirsi banavasi road.first to my view , came gopalakrishna 

temple.beyond that is marikamba temple.

It has colorful wall filled with dark red khavi painting depicting mythological stories.

There are few steps in front that lead to entrance guarded by statue of two elephants

.Further you enter a big hall .on the left of hall is stage .There are two rows of chairs on another corner of hall where people sit and relax.After the hall comes the rectangular inner shrine of marikamba.she is known as doda amma the elder sister of all Mariamma Godesses in Karnataka.after darshan on marikamma you can walk around rectangular shrine of marikamba.There are more khavi painting on the walls of inner shrine and outer part of temple.On  backside of inner shrine there is small room where temple's he buffalo is kept.

There were animal sacrifice in past  before independence of India.Its no more in practice now.

During my first research about places of interest in sirsi ,I remember reading about this temple and attracted by it's archieture.Now

I had a chance to see it on my first day evening in sirsi . Photographs came of limited quality since I didn't use flash inside temple and took photos in natural light.  

its very beautiful and colorful temple

Temple timings were
 6 am to 9 pm in other days except Friday and sundays .it is open till 10 pm on those days.

Dusserha festival is celebrated grandly in temple .Temple customs and rituals also have evolved over time

 Temple history

Marikamba temple sirsi a 15 the century built a old temple with rich cultural history.The temple has very special paintings of murals in Kaavi art, an art form which was popular in the coastal Konkan region of Karnataka. In this art form, now extinct, the top plastered layer of the mural was first dyed with a red pigment, which when removed revealed a lower white layer of plaster over which the murals were created.( Reference is Wikipedia.)

After darshan I took auto back to panchavati hotel to rest for the day
First of three days completed..
On first day I was very full filled and was looking forward to see Yana Hill next day.