News

Porsche 911 & Merc S-Class on KA back roads to Jog Falls in monsoon

6th August 2024, 17:05 by Kanad Kalasur

Nobody wanted to drive the family van so it was my turn to drive the S class while going and I will get to drive the 911 on our return journey.

BHPian androdev recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We were on our way to Jog falls via Shivamogga.

Here is a quick trip report:

Things are likely to get busy for kids and me from next week onwards, so I decided to do a quick road trip to recharge our batteries. Looked up jungle lodges Sharavathi camp (came across this on @Dr.AD's threads - an incredible source of great road trips for people in Bangalore) and they had just one night availability for Wednesday. My gang was complaining about the rain, long journey for one-day holiday, the sudden decision, lack of democracy, etc. Mentally I was already on the road. Whatever little time I had, I was busy researching the route conditions and XP95 fuel locations.

We were traveling as a group of six, perfect for S Class and 911 combination. Understandably, nobody wanted to drive the family van so it was my turn to drive the S class while going and I will get to drive the 911 on our return journey.

A late morning start to avoid all the traffic and to kickstart the lazy holiday mood:

Fuel stop at Shell near Sira:

Soon after the fuel stop, we stopped for lunch at A2B that is located just after the Shell:

We got off the highway at Chitradurga but I think we made the mistake of entering the town. I think there is a left further ahead that avoids the town traffic. The road to Shimoga was lovely and we reached Hotel Harsha for our overnight stay.

This property is very spacious and has very good parking facilities. Our usual choice is Royal Orchid but their parking is a bit congested so we opted for Harsha. Service, housekeeping and F&B are better in Royal Orchid but Harsha has very good potential if they improve their operations.

Left the hotel and headed towards Sagar. Shimoga - Sagar is a very scenic road. Gentle curves and lovely green canopy. No speed breaker craze on this Chitradurga - Shimoga - Sagar stretch. Hope it stays that way. This is one stretch where I wanted to stop by and take some lovely photos but didn't want to inconvenience the gang too much.

After a short journey of two hours, we reached Jungle Lodges Sharavathi camp. I have been to a few other JLR properties and I'm a big fan of them - just that their availability is always a challenge and I don't like planning so much in advance. The rooms are basic JLR standards - comfortable and functional. Their location and views from the rooms are the highlights. This JLR is great for water related activities (kayak, jetski, etc.) and very family friendly.

We took the early morning bus ride organised by JRL to visit the Jog falls.

They took us two viewpoints. One was inside some sort of govt inspection bungalow campus where regular visitors are not allowed. As I have found out later after visiting the public viewpoint, this, in my very humble opinion, is the only way to visit Jog falls. The falls are spectacular, of course, but more importantly the surroundings are clean and there are no crowds.

As we all know, popular tourist attractions in India are very poorly managed and the lack of hygiene and overcrowding ruins nearly all tourist attractions. We later went to the public viewpoint which is under heavy construction and super filthy. There was a thick cover of fog/clouds so we couldn't see any falls.

We left JLR at around 11AM next day and headed to Bangalore. I got to drive the 911 on the return trip, so I got a bit adventurous and wanted to try a different route hoping for more rural roads. So we took the popular Sagar > Shiralkoppa > Ranebennur. Unfortunately this route has speed breakers, few damaged sections and some animal traffic, etc. My gamble didn't pay off! I would recommend Chitradurga - Shimoga - Sagara route over other options.

Animal friends:

Potholes. Too mild compared to what we have in Bangalore through:

Police. No idea what they were up to - I wasn't speeding and they had no business to stop me. I gave them a dirty look and they let me pass.

We reached Apoorva resorts near Davangere for lunch, even though it's on the other side of the road as this is a place I'm familiar with. I also wanted to have the option of halting there overnight if we are in no mood to face the fury of Bangalore evening peak traffic.

We had lunch there and headed to Indian Oil Swagat within 5-6KM from Apoorva resorts towards Bangalore (used the service road) and tanked up the 911 with XP95.

We probably should have camped there at Apoorva resorts for a day as our subsequent journey saw heavy rains and nightmarish traffic when we reached Bangalore.

I feel really sad about the Bangalore traffic situation - it was no fun driving for 1.5hrs in peak traffic just to cover 18KMs from Taj Yeshwantpur to my home. Left one is when I reached Taj Yeshwantpur and the right is when I got home.