Serenity in Chaos (2/3)
- 3 mins** Day 1 **
We started off with the famous Marikamba Temple, and no sooner than we’d gotten off the car, it started raining heavily. We managed to make it to the entrance quickly, and we left our slippers and head inside for the darshan of the deity. The temple is nothing extraordinary, except for the 7.1 foot deity idol of goddess Durga and the he-buffalo which used to be sacrificed in earlier times. The rain had stopped by then, and we finished our prayers and took the prasad and headed back to the car. Our next stop was Sahsra Linga, which is a pilgrimage place in the river Shalmala and has a 1000 lingas carved out of stone. Karthik kept warning all of us to not get into the water because it was dangerous. We walked around, took pictures on the hanging bridge (where Aniketh had to again get factual and talk about the natural frequency of the bridge etc). After wandering around for a while, we sat down at the bank where it was safe and some of us were skipping stones and others were just watching the river.
We headed back for what was supposed to be the highlight of the day - Jog Falls.
We stopped for Lunch en-route. The food was good, nothing great. After a quick break, and after making a few phone calls to our parents, we noticed the sun was up and it was more sunny than cloudy now. We reached Jog in a while and no sooner we got down the car, I started cribbing about the sun. I wanted to watch the Falls in the rain, or at least some fog and cold weather. Instead, it was clear and sunny and we had to literally find a shady place to sit for a while.
The Falls: A huge entrance greets you with a hoarding in block letters that says: “Way to the World famous Jog Falls”. Sadly, the water level wasn’t much and hence it didn’t really appear as spectacular as it is in photos. The height is mesmerizing, but I couldn’t get a scale of it because it seemed too far away. We walked around and took some pictures, all the while me cribbing about the rain ‘bailing’ on us.
We managed to go to the other side of the falls, A Circuit House has been constructed by the government, just beside the falls. There are stairs that lead to the falls, but they had been blocked by the authorities. The falls look more dangerous from here, and we could get a closer look of Roarer, and I observed the distinctive pattern in the rocks around the fall.
It was getting close to 5 and a few of us were tired owing to not much sleep in the bus. We headed back and just as we sat in the car, it started raining. Everyone had a hearty laugh looking at my expression when I realized it was raining.
We reached home soon freshened up. Some of us wanted to buy a few dry fruits, some ‘kashaya’ powder and pickles, for which Sirsi is known for. We went shopping and then Karthik took us to a place which made some really good ‘Bajes’ and man, it was good! After eating some chaats, and most of us being full, we got back home, where Karthik’s mom had prepared dinner as well! The girls could barely manage to eat anything, while we guys somehow managed to finish our plates. After some random timepass, and Prithvi’s deep ‘life-discussion’ we slept off at around 2 AM, because it was going to be a long day ahead.