Yellapur - Magod falls - Jenukal gudda - Sirsi

Read the Part II here...

5th Oct 2009 - After a lovely stay @ Ganeshgudi JLR camp for 2 nights, and after a heavy breakfast, we left by 11:30 am towards Yellapur. No signs of rains so far!!! We went through a different route (will specify later) driving slowly through the narrow winding roads. In between at around 2 pm while passing by vineyards we noticed a small mammal coming out of the bushes and onto the road - took some seconds to realize that was a jackal there!!! He hardly stared at us for a few seconds and vanished back behind the vines. Moving vehicle and sudden chaos resulted in blurred pictures. Whan an oppurtunity we missed! We trailed him for a few minutes and lost track of him as he moved deeper inside. With the hope of him coming back we halted there for some more time while birding in the meantime.

Bay backed shrike; Red whiskered bulbul; Raquet tailed drongo; Orange Minivets; Velvet fronted nuthatch; Asian brown flycatcher were some that we spotted along the roadside.

Reached Yellapur and after a heavy lunch and filling up petrol we moved towards Magod falls. Last time it was pretty dark when we were here and this time we ensured we would be there when there is still light. On the way we saw a deviation board saying "Jenukal gudda" view point - 12kms and that made us think why not deviate as we had enough time for the light to go down and why miss it when being so close! The 12kms road was a mix of tar, mud, stones, potholes and what not! At some places I wondered is this a road as it looked sandwiched b/w shrubs and hardly one vehicle could pass at a time. Passing through all this, we reached a dead end and just alighting a few steps down from there, we were surprised at what we saw!

---> its Jenukal and not Karikal gudda as mentioned on the picture above <---

A huge gorge stretching miles everywhere you see sandwiched between two hillocks and the Magod river flowing in between. The sun in the lower horizon made it all the more beautiful with shadows cast on the surroundings. We misread the direction board as Jenukal falls and were literally searching for the falls and the same was recorded in our video too. The valley view setting looked straigt out from the Amazon valley itself. It was indeed a good spot we chose to deviate and the complete sunset view from here would be nothing less than magical for sure!

From there, via the shortcut route we reached Magod falls (this time the tar from the roads were peeling off.. atleast we were happy the tar stood still for 1 whole year!). The ambience, settings, surroundings, weather - nothing had changed compared to our previous visit and we got a chance to view this magnificient falls in all might and glory. Due to incessant rains over the last week, the falls was in its full glory and the beauty cannot be written down here but only seen and enjoyed! All through I was busy with my camera trying different perspectives and settings (I still have a long way to go...), the slow shutter speed snaps have gone for a toss, courtesy my shaking hands.. but still managed few good shots of the Magod! Another wish fulfilled finally There is an IB here, and accommodation was available, but due to lack of time we had to reach sirsi as per schedule to ease our plans for the next day. The sunset view from here was too amazing watching the sun go down over the hillock through the thick forest growth at Magod!

From here our destination was Sirsi (via the same shortcut road that we took last time); and my goodness the roads are still bad (thankfully not worse) and stopping over at the Fridge bonda hotel (unluckily no fridge bonda this time) we reached Sirsi by 8pm and checked in to the same hotel "Samrat Guest House" (08384 - 236278 / 236479 / 234898) as the previous year. Light drizzle started off making us wonder what would be the conditions tomorrow as Yana was our next target?

Well, Yana and Agumbe in Part IV... Read on...

Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!