Sigandur, Yana, Unchalli Falls in Bikes

About the Places :

Sigandur is a sacred place known for the Chowdeshwari temple situated over there. People also go there to travel in the launch, which takes the passengers and vehicles from one bank to another in the Sharavati backwaters. 

Yana or Yaana is a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India that is known for the unusual rock formations in its vicinity. It is located in the Sahyadri mountain range of the Western Ghats, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Karwar port, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Sirsi, and 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Kumta. The two unique rock outcrops near the village are a tourist attraction and a place for trekking, easily approachable by a small trek through 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) of thick forests from the nearest road head.

Banavasi is a small village known for the very famous and old Madhukeshwara temple. It is also in Uttara Kannada District.

Lushington Falls, also called Unchalli Falls, is a waterfall created by a 116 metres (381 ft) drop in the Aghanashini river. The falls are located 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Sirsi, a town in the Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka, India. The falls are named for J. D. Lushington, a District Collector for the British Government, who discovered the falls in 1845.

The Journey:

After experiencing the Kodachadri sunrise in our week long bike trip, we went to Sigandur. Sigandur has a small Chowdeshwari temple, but very famous and powerful. This place is nearer to Jog falls as well, near Sagar. Sigandur is just around 25 kms from Sagar. We reach one bank of the Sharavati backwaters. The place is very picturesque and scenic. You wont get tired of capturing photos here. And travelling to the other bank, where the temple is located is much more fun, since we need to go in the launch here. And they charge just 2 Rs per head and 5 Rs per vehicle. There are two launches. They leave every 15 minutes or so. And it is worth it. If you want to go through road only to Sigandur, you need to take a much more longer trip. The last trip of these launches is around 6 pm. So if you need to go after 6, you need to take a different route towards Nittur from Sagar.Sagar is around 70 kms from Shimoga.

 


From Sigandur, we reached Sagar, which is the nearest town. After having lunch at Sagar, we went to Jog falls, even if it wasn't the rainy season. Jog falls was like a huge mountain with very less water. It was totally not worth going during that time. But we still went to the famous Mungaru Male spot, bent down from there to see the 'Jogad Gundi'. Anyone will get scared of that view! And it was all the fun we had at Jog, and then left to Banavasi, which is around 40-50 kms from Jog falls, where we had planned to stay that night.

Banavasi was my roommate's native. So we didn't search for any lodges. Stayed at his home only, and were too pleased with the hospitality there. It felt like our own home. 

The next day(the 3rd day of our bike trip), in the morning, we rode to the famous 'Yana' or 'Yaana' from Banavasi. Yana is around 50 kms from banavasi.For those who don't know much about Uttara Kannada districts, Yana is 187 kms from Shimoga and 450 kms from Bangalore.  Yana is famous for its odd shaped huge rocks, which was made famous from the movie, "Nammura Mandara Hoove". It has a small temple as well. You need to walk half a kilometer from the parking area. You can go inside the huge cave and get amazed my the sun rays entering inside. At the temple, you can know about the history of the temple and how these rocks were formed. We were amazed by this place, since it is so different compared to other normal tourist places.

From Yana, we went to the Unchalli falls, which is very famous among the localites, but unknown to many from other parts of Karnataka. You need to take a right at SH 48 from siddapur, to go to the Unchalli village. Keep on asking the localites for the routes and they will guide you properly. there are many signboards as well. You need to walk half a kilometer from the parking area to reach Unchalli view point. The waterfalls look magnificent from the view point. You can see the falls in the opposite mountain. It starts like a small stream and gets widened as it reaches the foot of the falls. It is also known as 'Keppajoga', since you can't hear each others words when it is in full force, during rainy season. The falls makes such a roaring sound, which is rare. We got excited and decided to go till the base of the falls. There is a small trekking route, around 2 - 3 kms to reach the base of the falls, and it is very steep. It took us around 20-25 mins to reach the base. We spent too much time playing in the water there since many people doesn't come till there and we had the whole place for ourselves there. And the water was chilling, which made it more memorable.

Guidelines :

- There will be leeches on the way down to Unchalli falls. So better take precautions as I have mentioned in the previous posts.

- In Yana, you can also go till the top of the caves, but it is dangerous.

- The nearest places where you can stay, to visit all these places are, Sirsi, Siddapur, Sagar, Banavasi, and if you want a much more comfortable stay, stay in Shimoga.

Routes :

Sigandur :
Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Sagar - Sigandur

Yana :

Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Sagar - Siddapur - Yana

Unchalli Falls :

Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Sagar - Siddapur - Unchalli

Final Review :

Sigandur makes it a worthy weekend trip, since you can also cover many more nearby places like Keladi, Ikkeri, Jog falls, etc in a day.

Yana is a unique place, which has to be visited to see those unique rocks and caves, which can't be found anywhere else.

Uttar Kannada has many remote water falls, unknown to many, and Unchalli falls is a good example. Definitely worth going.