Joyisaragundi waterfalls is located in the middle of western ghats at a village called Mala near Karkala. It takes a small trek to reach this falls. Monsoon is the best time to visit this falls, but beware of heavy rain and blood thirsty leaches during this time.
Date – 1st September, 2019
Location – Mala village
This was a sudden trip planned since all of us were already in Udupi/Mangalore for Chauthi. We decided on Saturday over WhatsApp that we will go for Mala near Karkala the next day. We had nothing else planned other than this.
Next day at 6:15 am I started from my home. It was peak monsoon season and it was already pouring at 6:15 in the morning. I picked up Kiran and Darshan in Udupi. Then we went to Padubidri to pick up Chandresh. We then drove to Karkala and had breakfast at a hotel near the bus stand. Then we left for Mala.
We reached Mala early and enquired around for the waterfalls that we wanted to visit. Our target for the day was Joyisaragundi and Danagundi falls. We got to know that Joyisaragundi is next to Parashuram temple. We drove to the temple and parked our car. From here we wandered around for nearly 3 kms figuring out the route to the falls. We visited some old houses on the way and crossed over some small streams and got bit by a lot of leaches. Western ghats is full of leaches during the peak monsoon season. Finally we found some workers who told us that we were on the wrong path and to go back to where we parked the car and start again. By now we were fully drenched due to the continuous rain.
This time we found the path to the falls. It was hardly 1 km stretch. We initially went to the top of the falls. The view here was amazing and it was foggy all around. We crossed over a makeshift bridge and went to the other side and spent sometime there. Next we came down to the base of the falls. The water was in full force. The falls was amazing with heavy current. The water was spraying all over us due to the force. We clicked few pics here and decided to turn back. Soon we reached back to our car near the temple. We roamed around near the temple and decided to continue to the Danagundi waterfalls.
Then we drove back to Mala and asked around for the route to Danagundi falls. When we reached the spot, there was already a patrol van parked. We walked till we reached the Hebbar house. He told us that the falls is inside the reserve forest and it was a risk to go to the falls. So we decided to skip the falls and changed our plans. We decided to visit Varanga next to see the Jain Basadi. I will be writing about Varanga in the next post soon.
Photos and videos – Joyisaragundi Falls
