The Waterfalls Road Trip 

Tripoto
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip by Gagan K

This is a story of covering 17 waterfalls in 9 days travelling 2300 KMs. This might be a very long post. So please don't mind it :D

And also, all the photographs were taken by amateur photgraphers in their mobile phones, please don't judge the beauty of the place with its quality.

This all started when we were mesmerized by the beauty of the Sathodi Falls (Do refer to my past my previous post). Trapped by its beauty we wanted to experience and enjoy more and more of it. Therefore we decided to get drained in the beauty of all the waterfalls of the Karnataka.

Then the research started and we made a list of all the waterfalls present in Karnataka. There are so many varieties of Waterfalls in Karnataka :

Some are exorbitant by its beauty while some are average, Some are huge while some are tiny, some are deep inside the forests while some are right on the roadside.Some show themselves after hours of trekking while your bikes can lead you to some . Some exist in restricted areas while some requires entry fee to visit.

Unable to restrict ourselves to delve into its beauty, we prepared a route to cover almost all the majore 50 waterfalls of our state.

But unfortunately it exceeded our leave plan from our respective IT companies (Yes, just like 80% of other ppl we are normal IT guys).

Finally we decided not to stricly stick to our itenarary, learnings from our previous trip (Refer to my previous post.) and decide to cover as much as possible in the 9 days or so. This is how our epic journey turned out to be.

Day 1:

We left Bangalore early in the morning at 6 towards chikmagalur via kunigal and tiptur. As usual the Bangalore traffic jam exist at whatever time you go. Our plan was to cover at least 3 waterfalls in chickmagalur. The first waterfalls that we reached was Hebbe waterfalls, which exist in kemmangundi. This was one of the waterfalls for which we have to take a jeep ride for half an hour to view the waterfalls.

While there are no other vehicles allowed to reach the waterfalls the jeep ride for only the 3 of us was a bit costly. So we decided to share the jeep ride with other travelers. We waited for some time just to find if there's any smaller group arriving for which we could join for. After some futile attempts we decided to visit the kemmangundi view point which was around 3KM from that place and then return back for the waterfalls to try our luck again. We reached the view point in mid afternoon and it was way way too hot. Its suggested to go there for the sunset view. We spent some time there, took some photos and returned from there.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  1/41 by Gagan K
Kemmangundi View Point

On our way back there was a navigational board for Shanthi Falls. Shanthi Falls was on our list but Google Maps was showing a different place. Therefor we decided to take that route and went in some of the adventurous roads (though it was only for a KM or so). From the end of the road, we had to trek for some 10 min to reach the waterfalls. Being the very first waterfalls of our trip, we all were excited to view it. As soon as we reached the destination , our excitement was shot down.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  2/41 by Gagan K
Trek towards Shanti Falls
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  3/41 by Gagan K
Shanti Falls

As there still existed a path forward, we enquired the people who were enjoying the waterfalls and got to know that the path leads to a beautiful view point for which you need to trek a steep hill for around 20 Min. As we were disappointed by the waterfalls we decided to at least check out the view point for the sake of coming so far and then we started trekking the steep hill with 15KG Backpack behind us.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  4/41 by Gagan K
Trek Ahead of Shathi Falls

The view was worth it. One one side, you could see the what looked like a beatiful calm city and on the other side it's filled with greenery and bright blue sky. This is where I discovered a place which looked just like the infamous Windows XP wallpapers.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  5/41 by Gagan K
Windows XP Place :D

After all this, by the time we reached the entrance point of Hebbe Falls, the last jeep ride for the day had left and we had no other choice but to skip it. Being disappointed again for missing a beautiful waterfalls, we headed back down towards Kalhatti falls.

Kalhatti falls is the one located with the a temple and inside and is filled with tourists. Luckily it wasn't closed by the time we reached there. We got to know from a localite that there exists multiple levels of waterfalls , wherein the view gets better from the 3rd Level. So, we started going against the flow direction and trekked till the 4th level of the waterfalls. But the water level was very low and that restricted the beauty of the falls.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  6/41 by Gagan K
Kalhatti temple and falls

After the darkness started to engulf the place, we made our way towards Chikmagalur city where we halted for the day . We had not made any travel arrangements but we got a very good deal hotel in the city center from the goibibo App.

Day 2: We woke up early in order to avoid too much of travelling time and to cover more waterfalls. We had our breakfast and left for Manikyadhara falls which was at the top of the Baba Budangiri hills. Drive to the top of the hills was amazing. The roads filled with fog and the view got better and better every time we climbed the top.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  7/41 by Gagan K
Chikmagalur

On the way there is Honnamma Halla falls which very close to the roadside. This waterfalls looks fancy as it flows down the steps making it a tourist attraction.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  8/41 by Gagan K
Honnaamma Halla Falls

After enquiring the direction to the Manikyadhara falls multiple times with the local people(Google maps shows the wrong location of this) and also offroading for some 4KM at the end, we finally reached the falls.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  9/41 by Gagan K
Road towards Baba Budangiri Hills
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  10/41 by Gagan K
View from the top of the hills

We had to climb down couple of step to reach down the falls where we saw many people taking a bath under the waterfalls. The waterfalls and the view looked somewhat good, but it was filled with people as there was a darga exactly next to waterfalls. Spending some very little time around the waterfalls we left for the next destination which was on the way to sringeri.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  11/41 by Gagan K
Manikyadhara Falls

While going we found a sign board for jhari falls. We had thought of skipping this as it was mentioned somewhere that we had to walk for around 2 KM inside the forest. But we did see some bikers take that route and we decided to give it a try too. There literally don't exist any roads for this, its filled with stones and rocks everywhere and has some steep ups and downs . From the final point of parking our bike, we walked down few meters to see the waterfalls. This one was the best one for us till now. It was huge and beautiful. There were many people enjoying playing in the waterfalls, but it did have space for more. We didn't really get down into waterfalls, we enjoyed the view as much as possible and headed back.We had to head back to chickmagalur to goto sringeri.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  12/41 by Gagan K
Jhari Falls

We took the path of chickmagalur, balehonnur , hornadu , kudremukha to Sringeri. The path via balehonnur - hornadu was filled with greenery everywhere and was calm and beautiful. Sunset at Kudremukha was beautiful too.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  13/41 by Gagan K
Greenrary during the drive
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  14/41 by Gagan K
View at kemmangundi

From Kudremukh to Sringer, we can find 2 waterfalls on the way. The first one was Kadambi waterfalls which can be seen from the main road itself. The water was too less in this.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  15/41 by Gagan K
Kadambi Waterfalls

The next one is the hanuman gundi waterfalls which was locked down by the forest authorities for some reason. We could see that we had to get down the steps for some time to actually see the waterfalls. We did have an adventure near this which is difficult to share here but an unforgettable one. We reached Sringeri when it was already dark. We visited the famous sringeri temple and halted very close to the temple itself, as there are many accommodations near it.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  16/41 by Gagan K
Sringeri Temple

Day 3: We again left early in the morning to reach Sirimane waterfalls. Again, the path shown in google maps is not a good one, while there exist a very good,proper road to reach this but a bit of long route. We reached the waterfalls so early that it was not even open that time. The gatekeeper of the waterfalls arrived after sometime and to his bad memory had forgotten to get the gate keys, which he has to travel for another half an hour to reach back. Seeing us waiting for him, he officially gave the permission to climb the gate and go to the waterfalls.We had the entire waterfalls area for ourselves. This was gushing with water and you could feel the water all over you , even if you go nearby it. We literally enjoyed and did everything you can dream of doing when you are alone in the beautiful waterfalls.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  17/41 by Gagan K
Sirimane Falls

After enjoying thoroughly we left for agumbe where there was 2 or 3 waterfalls. We reached the next one - Jogi gudi waterfalls which was again closed down by the waterfalls . This had a long path to walk down the gate and we couldn't actually see any waterfalls from the entrance.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  18/41 by Gagan K
Closed gate of Jogi gudi waterfalls

Disappointedly we went a bit ahead where we met a forest department official who informed us that all the waterfalls in agumbe had been closed down from couple of months due to various bad activities by the local people there. We headed to our next one on our list. Kunchikal falls. On the way we saw that thirthalli was very close by and went there to vist the famous poet Kuvempus Home. The house looks like a palace for those times. We did trek a bit to reach the Kavi Shaili where kuvempu used to meditate.We relaxed a bit, had our lunch and went back to out path.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  19/41 by Gagan K
Kavi Shaila
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  20/41 by Gagan K
Kavi Mane

Just before the kunchikal falls we found a very beautiful place called a Mani Dam which looked like a paradise from there. To our surprise we found a policeman enquiring about us, and then we got to know that 'trek' to kunchikal falls had been closed down and we would need permission from a local police station to reach there as we had to cross the dam. The dam itself was a restricted area , but we somehow got off from the policeman after he heard us about us entire trip plan and our entire story. I won't be posting the picture of mani dam, as its beauty might call you to commit a crime of entering a restricted area. It was already late in the evening and we decided to take the route which had multiple hair pen bends to reach kollur, which we might have to ride in the dark. We somehow made it to kollur in the late night and we halted there. Again we halted very close to the famous kollur temple as there are lots of accommodation places near by it.

Day 4: We visited the temple early in the morning and headed to hidlumane falls. The route to hidlumane falls also is rocky and bumpy in the last 5-10 KM (Again the google maps shows wrong route). At the end of the road we reach a house where some local people stay there. From there we have to trek for around 45 min to reach the waterfalls. This was again a big one and since it was early in the morning we had the entire waterfalls to ourselves. We couldn't get down and enjoy as the force was too much and also it was slippery everywhere. We did take all sorts of photos and enjoyed the trek too.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  21/41 by Gagan K
Path towards hidlumane falls
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  22/41 by Gagan K
Trek towards the waterfalls
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  23/41 by Gagan K
Hidlumane Falls

We then headed towards Sagara and on the way to visit Achakanya waterfalls. Achakanya waterfalls is somewhat deep inside the village for whcih we had to detour some distance to actually visit that. Its a small and simple waterfalls with not many tourists except for some local nearby village people.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  24/41 by Gagan K
Achakanya Waterfalls

We headed back towards Sagara and we reached a bit early here and we relaxed for a bit and explored the city. Its a very small city and nothing much to actully do in here. We relaxed and had a very good sleep here.

Day 5: Next Morning , we visited the very famous Jog Falls. The water level was also not filled to its capacity but we did manage to get a view from the edge point which is scary af.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  25/41 by Gagan K
Different View of Jog
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  26/41 by Gagan K
Depth of the falls

Our next stop was called Burude Falls. We circled many times in the same route to actually even reach this as the google maps point to very different location and as well as each localites showed very different routes. It lies deep insisde a village. Once reaching there, we need to climb down some 100 steps and again need to trek down on a very steep slope to actaully reach the bottom of the waterfalls. This waterfalls was gushing with water and we loved the view and the sound it made. It actually falls with a great height and falls down twice making it 2 levels. Also there's a lot of places to be explored at the bottom which leads to differnt kinds of view of the waterfalls. We spent a considerable amount of time in here, to enjoy and to relax from the steep trek.(Mind you all these treks, we have done so far is with 15kg backpack on our shoulders). We climbed back up to see one of our bikes punctured !

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  27/41 by Gagan K
Burude Falls

And we somehow managed to ride the bike till a house where a old man in the village had a puncture kit for the tubless tires and he helped us with it. After fixing everything, we headed to the next falls which was actually at the top of the same river which was flowing to the burude falls known as unchalli falls. This is quite a bit far from burude falls and while on the way we literally crossed a broken bride. The broken bridge, had the center pillar broken and made itself a V shape in the center. We were scared to even go near it, but we saw the local people using it and we somehow manage to cross it. The initial road to the falls as per the google maps is a very bad rocky road. After some time we reached a proper road and from there the path is very good. We reached the unchalli falls by evening. We have to walk around a 1.5Km from the entrance to reach the view point of waterfalls. This waterfalls looks absolutely amazing and very difficult to go near it. We were on a view point which is a bit far from it, but still we were able to feel the force with which it was flowing down.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  28/41 by Gagan K
Unchalli Falls

We had one more waterfalls to cover on the way until we reached the next halting point, but since it was already getting started to get dark, we had to skip the Bennehole falls and we reached yellapura for the night stay. We found a cheap and local place and we halted there for the night.

Day 6:

Next morning we headed to our favorite waterfalls Sathodi Falls from which this journey had begun. Just like before, there doesn't exist good roads till the entrance of the waterfalls. We did reach early and we were the only people in the waterfalls, but what was different now is, this time there had been a landslide and partly the beauty of the waterfalls had been compromised and also the water level was not completely filled. Nevertheless, its a simple beautiful waterfalls.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  29/41 by Gagan K
Sathodi Falls

Later we headed to the next big waterfalls in yellapura - Magod falls. The same story of the road goes for this as well. From the view point of the magod falls, the falls is very far and we can actually see a very tiny view of the falls. Not really an exciting view for all, but still looks good.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  30/41 by Gagan K
Magod Falls

Next we decided to head to karwar and relax in a beach. On the way we found the signboard to vibhoothi falls which was around 20km deviation. We decided to take it and reached the entrance. By that time it was already closing time and the gatekeeper allowed us only after we promised him that we'll be back in 15 min. But to actually reach the waterfalls, there's a long 2KM walk. And at the end point lies a beautiful waterfalls falling into multi levels.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  31/41 by Gagan K
Vibhoothi Falls
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  32/41 by Gagan K
Path towards falls

This was a pleasant waterfalls to view, alas we weren't allowed to get into waterfalls and also the time was running low. By the time we headed back to our bikes, it started to get dark. Therefore we decided to goto gokarna for the night as it was very close to that point. We reached gokarna by the nightfall and we stayed there for the night. We also did visit the gokarna beach in the night, but the temperature was very humid and we went back to the rooms and settled there.

Day 7:

We also visited Om beach and kudle beach in the morning and enjoyed the calm and peaceful nature of the beach.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  33/41 by Gagan K
Om beach
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  34/41 by Gagan K
Kudle Beach

Later we headed to Apsarakonda falls. Apsarakonda falls is located at around 3-4 Km deviation from the highway. It is a small waterfall, which also has a small area where people can swim. Usually very few people will be here and we can enjoy the waterfalls to ourselves. At the top of the waterfalls there also exist a large garden which overlooks a beach view.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  35/41 by Gagan K
Apsarakonda Falls
Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  36/41 by Gagan K
View from the top of the falls

Next we headed to the famous Murudeshwara temple as it was on our way.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  37/41 by Gagan K
View from the top of the tower at Murudeshwara Temple

And then we decided to reach Malpe beach to view the sunset, but unfortunately we reached minutes after the sunset.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  38/41 by Gagan K
Malpe Beach

Since it was already dark we stayed in Udupi and also visited the Udupi Temple.

Day 8:

We left for Joomlu Theertha Falls in the morning. After circling for many times we did find the sign board of the falls abut we couldn't find the waterfalls anywhere. After enquiring with the localities, we came to know that the path was locked down by the forest department and also there wasn't any water in there. There was one last waterfalls on our list before we headed back to home - Kudlu theertha falls. But before that , we deviated a bit to reach Varanga Jain temple. This temple is secluded by tourists and lies at the center of a huge pond which and the only way to reach it is through the boat which is run by the temple authorities. The scene looks beautiful.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  39/41 by Gagan K
Varanga Jain temple

After getting back on the roads again, being very doubtful of seeing this waterfalls, we headed towards Kudlu Theertha Falls. The road takes a deviation from the highway around 20KM from the waterfalls, and there literally doesn't exist any path towards it. Some bits of cement roads were being constructed when we were visiting but overall the road is in very bad condition. We took around 45 Min to reach the waterfalls from the highway and fortunately, it was open. We had to walk for about 2KM from the entrance to actully see the waterfalls, but once you see the waterfalls the whole walk would be worth it. Kudlu falls was amazing to see. It was a bit crowded but it was absolutely amazing. Knowing that, this will be the last waterfalls in our trip, we enjoyed to our fullest and headed back to chickmagalur.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  40/41 by Gagan K
Kudlu Theertha Falls

The sun had already set and we had to drive in dark. We finally reached chikamagalur safe and sound and we stayed in the same place where we had stayed at the beginning of our trip.

Day 9 :

This was the last day to reach our homes and we deviated a bit to shetty halli church and spent some time there and we headed back to Bangalore.

Photo of The Waterfalls Road Trip  41/41 by Gagan K
ShettyHalli Church

After a very long and tiresome bike ride, we somehow made it to our home .

This was one hell of a journey covering 17 waterfalls, 2300 KMs in 9 Days.