Shivanasamudram falls is one of the largest water
falls in south india and is located across cauvery located near Mandya district
in Karnataka. The town of shivasamudram is a small island that splits the
cauvery river into two and creates two spectacular waterfalls called
Gaganachukki and Barachukki both accessible by road. The falls cut flow through
rocky gorges and cut across as many segments fall down as multiple streams of
waterfalls. The place is best during/after monsoon, other times of the seasons,
the place is very dry and water almost trickling down.
Bangaloreè
Kanakpura roadè Malavalli
è Shivasamudram
While the first route (1) goes through the 4 lane road for
about 100 km till Maddur and turns left to Malavalli road, is a bit longer but
is more reliable route. The second route is two lane throughout and is a
country side road, yet very good for the most part. We took the second route
while coming and left back to Bangalore by the first route so that we can
travel safe by the Mysore road after getting dark.
Accessibility: Though its possible to take bus till Maddur
and then towards Malavalli, the dispersed nature of the two falls require own
vehicle to explore all the places, as there won’t be any transport that can
take you to all the viewpoints of both the falls, which are a must during a
visit to Shivanasamudram.
Best time to visit: Post monsoon è July to November. All other months
are a ‘strict no’, as there would be very little water.
Time spent:
1.Explore the viewpoints of both the falls,
photographs
2.Take a Dip along the river banks
3.Enjoy a coracle ride in Barachukki
4.Take a bath at Barachuckki
Spot 1:
Gaganachukki falls: On reaching shivanasamudram from
Malavalli there would be plenty of signboards pointing towards Gaganachukki. On
entering the main road there would be a big arch for the hydel power project of
Shivanasamudram. Entering through this road will take you to the first view
point of Gaganachukki. The place gives a complete glimpse of the falls.
Gaganachukki is bigger of the two falls and this Hydel power station end only
gives a view point and you cannot go down to the falls. The place also has a
resort and a decent restaurant. This place is only for clicking pictures, and
if you are not that type you can skip this
place.
The four must see spots in Shivanasamudram
Spot 2:
Bridge: Driving towards the Barachukki would need you to
cross the bridge. This crossing itself is a great place and you can go down the
river to take a dip or have a home packed lunch nearby the river bank.
Spot 3: Crossing the bridge can take you to the other side of Gaganachukki
where you can actually climb down the rocks and go the falls and witness
Gaganachukki in close quarters with waters gushing down closeby. It is not
advised to take bath here as the current is very strong, with slippery rocks
all over the place. Morever Barachukki has ideal place to take bath. There is
also a Dargah (Hazrath Mardane Gaib) closeby. The place also has small local eateries where you can
get Fresh fried fish, Parottas, rice and fish curry.
Spot 4: Riding further towards Barachukki can take you to
the falls which is more spread out and ideal for taking bath. This place also has shops nearby where you
can eat fresh fried fish. Coracle ride here is a must and would take you close
to the falls where you will get almost drenched.
Second spot of ganaganachukki as seen from the first spot view point
Another view of Gaganachukki on full flow
Shot taken from the view point taken from Gaganachukki - Spot 1
Enroute to barachukku
The river valley seen from Gaganachukki spot 2 - near Dargah, (see the smaller dargah in the right corner above)
Picture as taken from Gaganachukki spot 2
Picture as taken from Gaganachukki spot 2
Gaganachukki view point spot 1 as seen from Gaganchukki Dargah spot 2
Another picture from Gaganachukki spot 2
Another picture encompassing both entire Gaganachukki
River flow take from Dargah view point
Picture of the Dargah close by
A field en-route
Spot 3 -the bridge crossing to reach Barachukki
Spot 3 - Bridge crossing to go to Barachukki
Barachukki falls
Barachukki - complete view
Coracle ride at Barachukki
Though exploring all the above places can take one full day,
if there is time one can also go to Somnathpur,
Mudukuthore, Talakad – great
temples known for Hoysala architechture and ancient temple submerged in the
banks of Cauvery. This is a further 35 Km from Shivasamudram. Unless you start
very early from Bangalore covering this with in a day is difficult.
Suggested: An ideal trip would be to travel in car or a cab,
as the peak season would almost always see rain that might happen during the
day. But riding a bike down these roads is always special and one shouldn’t
hesitate going by bike if you can start early enough in the day.
Eateries: Maddur Tiffanys at Maddur is a good place to have
breakfast, with idly and Maddur vada which Maddur is very famous for. There is a decent hotel at the view point of
Gaganachukki (spot 1) mentioned above. However if you are okay with local food,
there are local eateries at the Dargah side of Gaganachukki and some small
eateries at Barachukki that provide rice, fish curry and fried fish.
Info: Hogenakkal Falls is a waterfalls across the River Cauvery in TamilNadu. The place has numerous waterfalls as the river cuts the river rough a rocky terrain. The falls and river can be best seen along a coracle ride. Freshly caught and fried fish is a must have at hogenakkal. The place is around 120 km from Hosur and is very much frequented by tourists. Hogenakkal falls/river was shown beautifully in the movie Roja in the Chotisi Asha song.
Distance: 160 from Bangalore. 120 Km from Hosur, Accessibility: A one day trip would be sufficient, either by car or bike. There is not much to do at hogenakkal - stay is not recommended. Buses will be crowded and takes a longer route: You should change 3 buses in case you are going by bus: Bangalore (Kalasipalayam/Madiwala water tank stop/Silkboard) to Dharmapuri/Hosur, Dharmapuri to Pennagaram, Pennagaram to Hogenakkal. Sometimes you may be lucky to get a direct bus from Hosur itself.
Best time: Post Monsoon (Aug to Feb)
Route from Bangalore: There are 3 routes that go to Hogenakkal from Bangalore. The first 2 routes are usually known and the 3rd route below is not heard of much.
1. Main Route (165 Km): Bangalore => Hosur => Rayakottai => Palakkodu => Pennagaram => Hogenakkal -> 2 lane road, roads are very good as on date.
3. Hilly route (123 Km): Bangalore => Hosur => Denkanikottai => Anchetti =>Hogenakkal -> 2 lane and good condition till Anchetti, Almost single lane from Anchetti. Road is pretty bad for a stretch of 15 Km.
Time spent at spot:
Unlike many other falls hogenakkal is a place where we can actually spend more time than just taking bath. The following are must at Hogenakkal.
A ride in coracle along the gorge, underneath the falls
A swim and a dip in the river
Full fledged bath in one of the falls
Exploring the falls along the rocks
Having freshly fried fish
Travelogue: Right when we started planning our trip, only concern was the distance from Bangalore was around 170 Km one way and 3+3 = 6 hrs biking on a single day would indeed be difficult. Six hard hearted brave souls turned up for the trip and we started at 6.30 am from Bangalore. The idea was a leisurely onward bike trip along the hilly country side road (Bangalore => Hosur => Denkanikottai => Anchetti =>Hogenakkal) with lots of stoppages and photo snaps. And return from Hogenakkal via the main route. Winter morning was extremely cold and misty in the morning till we reached Denkanikottai. A Right turn from Hosur at a signal just before the main over bridge of Hosur was the diversion towards Denkanikottai. Roads were very good from Hosur till denkanikottai, will lots of green beautiful grasslands along the waysides. We reached Denkanikottai at 8.15 am and had quite a satisfying breakfast at a small hotel in Denkanikottai - a plate of idli, vadai, dosa and pongal.
The road from Denkanikottai till Anchetti was even better for a biker: Nicely laid tarmac without any patches with highest level of traffic being an odd bus, going past and stretches of farmlands, grasslands , rocky mounts, and country side houses along the route. Just a few Km before Anchetti was a brief hilly stretch with a 3 or 4 hairpin bends with nice views along side. After Anchetti the roads turned a bit patchy but the route was quite good and greenish with a lot of villages crossing by along the route.We stopped quite a few times for some pictures of roads, a wayside pond with lotus blossoms, a south Indian Temple etc., After riding for an hour we reached close to Hogenakkal and were able to hear the roaring Cauvery towards our right side. The road was parallel to the river for around a 4 Km stretch till Hogenakkal.
At Hogenakkal we headed straight to the Coracle (or 'Parisal -in Tamil') ride, Being a holiday , boats were in big demand, we managed to bargain a rate of around Rs 140 per head with 6 of us on board. The guy took us to underneath few of falls and a ride along the free flowing river. An amazing aspect of the ride was that the land at one side of the river was Karnataka and the other side was Tamil Nadu. He took us to a nice easy diving spot in the river where we had a good swim for sometime. He also went along the other side of the bank - the Karnataka side where he stopped so that we can have some rice with Fish curry right from inside the boat. After a 2 hour stretch he dropped us off near one of the falls where we went and sat under the hard hitting water for sometime for a nice bath. We also savoured good eatables from wayside women vendors selling butter milk, boli (sweet chapthi like dish), fried fish etc., Dried, tanned and tired we weren't sure if we can cover another 170 km in bike back towards bangalore. We started at 4.30 pm along the main route (1st one in the list above). The road was a very good 2 lane but as we passed Rayakottai, things started getting dark and it was a night mare to drive a two wheeler at night. I would recommend this route only if you start early enough to reach Hosur before night fall. The highway route would have been better as we could have helped to a CCD or kamat or Adyar Ananda Bhavan which are located along the highway. After a 3.5 hour drive, reached Bangalore at 8.30 pm.
Onward route - before Anchetti
Onward route - near Anchetti
Anchetti to Hogenakkal road
Village Past Anchetti
A pond along side
South Indian Village deities - Protection guard at Village entry
Info: Chuchi falls is a lesser known and a medium sized waterfalls, more known for the rocks and gorges around the falls. The ride down the kanakapura road is a bikers treat. Sangama is the joining place of river Cauvery and Arkavathi and the spot is frequented by tourists. Sangama has a vast stretch of Cauvery river where we can take a dip in the shallow free flowing river. Mekedatu which literally means a deep gorge as narrow as a goat’s leap is at a distance of 3.5 Km from Sangama and can be reached after crossing the river Sangama by a Coracle/boat.
Distance: 95 Km from Bangalore
Best time: Post Monsoon (Aug to Feb)
Ride: The roads are decent, right till the Sangama. The chuchi falls stretch is a bit narrow and along the village roads.
Ideal trip: Start by 7 am after packing breakfast and lunch. Spend time to relax and explore the places. Start back at 6.30 pm and reach Bangalore by 8 pm.
Summary:
Chunchi falls, I would say is meant for those looking for a more of a laid back road trip down the country side. The route from Bangalore was simple, down Bannerghatta road/Kanakapura road till Kanakpura and then towards the Sangama and would not exceed more than 95 kms one way. Neverthless the plan was to cover Chunchi falls, Sangama as well as Mekedatu with in the day. 10 enthusiasts turned up for the trip and we started off at 8 am in 3 bikes and a car after a light breakfast.
The road down the Kanakapura road covered beautiful greeneries, paddy fields and the country side. To our luck the rain had gotten over just before we started and the whole way was accentuated by the just ended drizzles. We stopped by Kanakapura in search of a decent hotel and after some local help managed to find a decent ‘Sagar’ near a circle in Kanakapura before the turn towards Sangama road. We realized that we could have packed food for the entire day as there were no good eateries at all, all along the trip. After a round of Masala dosas, rava idlies and puris we also packed puliogare for the lunch.
Kanakapura road
Road to Chunchi falls
Chunchi falls initial stretch
The falls that appears after the trek
Sangama coracle crossing
Mekedatu view
Mekedatu gorge
Nice Road on return during Sunset
Trek down to the falls and up to the watch tower:
The trip down Sangama road was even more fresh and along the village roads. We had to take a left towards Chunchi falls after about 15 Km from Kanakapura. At 11.30 am, after a 6 Km stretch we reached a completely deserted Chunchi falls, a place that looked devoid of any sign of water. After a brief trek down, we reached the rocks and could hear the sounds and see the falls flowing down the rocks. We saw some locals diving down to the waters from the rocks but the place looked quite treacherous for bathing. We spotted another stretch of big water falls at about a Km from this place and an old guy around that place guided us to the route to reach the bigger falls. Most of the foot path towards the falls was non existing and had to climb across rocks. Halfway 4 of us got to split in the middle of the trek and realized that the one group was going down to the falls and the other to a watch tower at the peak of the hills. The views from both the places were amazing though we didn’t get enough time to spend near the water falls. The adventure lasted about 2 hours and we were desperately short of drinking water. Going down to these places is not recommended unless there are locals to guide along. We regrouped at the place where we parked our bikes and took a long rest after starting towards Sangama at 2.15 pm.
Road route till Sangama:
View Larger Map The place Sangama was dotted with tourists and the big river offered a great place for bathing and picnic near the banks. We had to take a coracle ride to cross the river. We spent some time in the water struggling to have our foot in the strong current. And then had a fulfilling lunch - Puliogare and fresh fried fish.
From this side of the river there were public vans ferrying people to the Mekedatu. By 3.15 pm, we managed to rush into the heavily crowded van and reached Mekedatu after a 40 min ride. At this place the river Cauvery flows through a very narrow gorge and offered stunning views. After spending some time and a round of pictures we started back in the van. It was quite crowded that some of us even had a chance to ride the beautiful stretch on the roof of the bus. At 5.15 pm, we started back towards Bangalore from Sangama without any other stops.
