When we thought of taking a day off and plan a long weekend getaway around the Independence Day holiday this year, we had no clarity on where exactly to go, how to go, and who all would join. Thomas had expressed his idea of going to Jog Falls about a fortnight back. I too had not visited Jog, so was thinking on the same lines. Of course, this would be the ideal time of the year to visit Jog, and we had received good rains this year too. Anurag had his eyes set on Pondicherry, Jog, Alleppey boat race and what not. I had complicated matters by calling up my long time friend Karthik to check if he could join an unplanned trip just two days before we had to set off. He had to choose between this "adventure" and a well planned trek, and he chose the latter. But as luck would have it, the trek got cancelled and he said he could join our trip. Anurag and Thomas could not convince any of their other friends to join, and there, with less than 24 hours to go, we could book a bus trip to Shivamogga, an overnight journey starting Wednesday night and reaching there early morning on Thursday, 15th of August, 2013.
We had our options well and truly open, with so many places around Shivamogga in the list, and we thought of taking "run-time decisions" in true software professionals' approach. The whole of Wednesday it was raining heavily in Bangalore, even till we boarded the bus in heavy traffic jams. And we were travelling without any plans to the rainiest parts of Karnataka. Good start to the adventure.
Just before the bus started, we all came to a conclusion that we would get down at Shivamogga the next morning and head towards Agumbe - the "Cherrapunji of the South" - the place that receives highest amount of rainfall in Karnataka, in Western Ghats and in Southern India. This decision was driven by the fact that many people would have started towards the more attractive Jog Falls directly from Bangalore the same day, and we wanted to avoid that crowd and go there a day later.
We got a bus to Agumbe as soon as we got down in Shivamogga at 5:30 am the next day, and we were off on a picturesque trip that took us there by 8 in the morning. We stood there, in the small town of Agumbe, getting drenched in the rain that followed us every step of the way for the next two and a half days, with no information on how to proceed, although we knew we had to trek to a couple of waterfalls nearby. First thing to do was to inquire among locals about those places, and we set off to do exactly the same.
Up next: The Visit to "Dodda Mane" and meeting "Kasturi Akka"
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