It was Karnataka Rajyathsava and an off in the middle of the week Yay !!! A perfect day to hit the road for more exploration and the best place seemed like Hogenakkal falls located in Dharmapuri district , why ?? cause its not a holiday in Tamil Nadu which means less crowd to enjoy the Niagara of India.
Yeah often referred to as Niagara of India - Hogenakkal falls on the Kaveri River is located in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu which is almost 3 hr drive from Bangalore - A comfortable distance for a day trip from Bangalore.
The Drive
As usual we started quite early to avoid the crowds , it was around a 3 hr drive and in between we stopped for a quick breakfast and reached the Falls by 9:30.
We took the Attebelle route when going , the drive was good. It was a pleasant morning with a slight drizzle. Came across lot of bikers on the road probably headed towards Hogenakkal. We had ample parking space as we arrived early. In the parking lot , we picked up conversation with a person who seemed to belong to the locality , thought it would be a good idea to inquire a little bit about what we should know before we head for the falls.
The Coracle
To our surprise he was a coracle owner and he offered to take us around and be our tour guide for the day for 1000 Rs. It of course was pricey considering that we only had to pay few hundreds for the ticket but we thought to give it a try , it did end up as a good idea. Most might see it as a tourist trap but we saw it as a guy trying to make his living out of what he knows. It was around half a kilometer walk to reach the entrance of the Hogenakkal , he took us on his bike till the entrance and skipped the line to get the entrance ticket !!! It was quite a small line but still it did make a difference as we got a chance to enjoy the place before all the crowd got in ;) Wore our safety jackets and jumped into his coracle which was waiting inside.
If you don't know what a coracle is , Its a water proof boat round in shape and made of Bamboo , also called as Parisal (Tamil) and Teppa (Kannada).
Shortly arrived at the view point but the Coracle guy insisted we do not stop there for pictures as he wanted to take us to other places before the crowd gets in and we could come back to click pictures later. So we followed him down the stairs built between the huge rocks as he carried the Coracle on his back down the fleet of stairs leading to the river. It seemed to be such tough task carrying a heavy coracle and even steering the coracle against the force of water seemed to be a difficult errand.
We slowly cruised between the Carbonite Rocks , the river seemed to be flowing cutting through these massive rocks creating a beautiful experience. He stopped by the small falls which were formed along the way , and got the coracle close enough for a drizzle of water to fall on us.
The guy explained to us that there were two falls one on the Tamil Nadu side and another on the Karnataka side. At the present moment the water was less on the Karnataka side but he recommended we come back when the water is full as it is a splendid experience to enjoy the view at the falls. He also filled us in with some interesting information about what Indian Movies were shot in these locations as we passed by and pointed us to the direction in which
Sandalwood Veerappan's Village was. He took so much pride about the place , it made us feel we often are blinded to the beauty close to us and overlook the rich culture and heritage in the place where we live.
The Island
We soon reached to a small island , which is usually under water when the water levels rise but we were in a time when the water levels were not very high.
Yeah you can visit this place at 2 different times to enjoy 2 different experiences at the same place. You can enjoy the splendid waterfall during the water rush season just after monsoons or you can visit during the off season like us and enjoy the coracle ride to the island and have a swim in the shallow waters. We spent around an hour clicking pictures and having a swim in the shallow waters of Kaveri.
The Doctor Fish and the Fried Fish !!!
As we cruised back on the coracle we saw a bunch of women by the gorge selling fried fish made out of fresh catch from the river , the boat men recommend to try these , soon he dropped us at a bathing point. When you get down a couple of stairs there was a small flow of water and a bar to secure , people could come and bath here. People got oil massage and were coming in for a bath here.
There were only 2 to 3 men unlike other days when huge crowd would get a oil massage and get into water !!! This was one review we heard from friends who had recently visited the place on a weekend , that the place was filled with people getting oil massage , the water was dirty and oily. The whole place got slippery.
But looks like we just got lucky it was a weekday and a working day for Tamil Nadu plus we were early so we almost had the place to ourselves.
Anyways we had no interest in bathing but to our surprise there were so many doctor wishes in the water , we just sat there on the steps and let our feet into the water and enjoyed the pedicure from doctor fish for about half an hour !!! Hope these were not the fishes fried and sold !!! Just kidding :) What an experience a free Spa amidst of nature...
The view point
As time passed by we noticed a couple of more men walking into the water for bath after the oil massage so we decided to move on to the next and the last stop for the day ,
The view point - with an entry ticket of 10Rs per person , we can climb up a flock of metal stairs to reach the view point which give a 360 degree view of the place.
The Tamil Nadu side of the fall on one side and the river cutting through the rocks and flowing on one side. What a view to end the trip with.
We had spent a good amount of time clicking pictures and started back to the entrance on the coracle , as we were returning we could see huge crowds of people coming in , we were lucky to have had the beautiful place pretty much to ourselves by just coming early !!!
There is a crocodile park to visit nearby , but it was not of interest to us as we had already visited crocodile parks during our other trips and decided to head back home.
The coracle guy dropped us back in the parking lot. It was around 1:30 P.M we started back on our drive, this time we used the short route suggested by the coracle guy.
It was a bumpy ride until we hit the highways but definetely way more scenic then the route we took in the morning.
Tired yet yearning for more adventure we reached home by late evening !!!
Planning your trip ? Need some help What to know before you go - Road Trip to Hogenakkal falls
Check out our gallery for some eye candy from our trip.
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