Hogenakkal Falls

Hogenakkal Falls – 25 June, 2006

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Pennagaram – Hogenakkal – Bangalore

This was my 3rd trip to Hogenakkal Falls after the previous bike trips in Nov2004 and Sept2005 but maiden one on car. It was a sudden decision taken on Saturday to go to Hogenakkal Falls on Sunday.

Sunday, 25th June: We get up early at 4:30AM. Pack up the necessary stuffs, medical kit, extra clothes for bathing, food etc, take a nice warm bath and start at 5:45AM. Weather was cold as usual like Bangalore.

The road was deserted and it’s always enjoying to drive in city in early mornings. Within 30min of driving we were in Shell outlet in Bommanahalli for tank full. We spent another 30min there, filling petrol, checking tire pressures of all 5 tyres, also bought a mineral water bottle from the shell retail shop.

We left petrol station at about 6:55AM and back to NH7. Traffic was ok but we kept 70-80kmph till Electronic City and close to 100kmph till Hosur. Traffic eased out after Hosur and the speed increased when we kept 100-120kmph throughout till the breakfast break in Krishnagiri. Weather played a great role in this trip. Even in TN there was no sun and the drive was more pleasant. We didn’t put on the AC till Dharmapuri.
We had our breakfast break in Hotel Uthyaiah at around 7:45AM where we regularly halt for food. Had delicious masala dosas and hot tea.

We started our journey at 8:30AM and headed towards Krishnagiri. At Krishnagiri we left the GQ stretch and headed to Dharmapuri along NH7. It was amazing to see that the stretch from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri has improved a lot. Lots of patchwork has been done on the graveyard potholes which we encountered in my last trips both by car and bike. Also in 2-3 places reconnaissance work is underway by NHAI engineers means soon we might see that turning into a beautiful 4 laned highway as part of the NS Corridor. Anyway this time in mango season saw lots of mango walas on road side selling mangoes next to the mango garden. Maan, we stopped by to check it. It was damn sweet mangoes again and that too Rs10 / kg. We bought 7kg of mangoes and dumped in the boot.

t Dharmapuri junction, we take a right turn for Hogenakkal (arrow marked). This road was under construction when we visited Hogenakkal last time in Sept2005 but this time it is smooth and also broader. We drove 40km in 35min via Pennagaram (Veerappan’s wife stood for TN election from here) and before entering the jungle paid the toll (Rs40 for car which I felt was very high). One funny thing that I noticed for the first time was that in the second gate and policeman took note of car number and took Rs10 don’t know for what. He gave an explanation in Tamil which we couldn’t understand. Finally we reached the falls in another 15min through the jungle and ghat road.



At Hogennakal, the Cauvery River enters the plains and the river dashing against the rocks is a great sight. Hogenakkal is a riverside spa. The sound of the Cauvery, roaring between rocky banks, is a constant presence in most places in Hogenakkal. The Hogenakkal Falls is not a single waterfall but a series of falls. The mighty river Cauvery flows through a relatively plain land before mother earth suddenly opens up and the whole river falls to a depth of between 50 to 150 feet on a bed of granite rocks. There are so many waterfalls, both big and small, all over the place. The whole spectacle is spread over a kilometer or so. The fine spray that rises as the water hits the rocks below have given these rocks the name Hogenakkal, which means "Smoking Rock" in Kannada. On one side is the gushing, roaring waterfalls spread over as far as your eyes go, and on the other side, there is relatively calm water flowing through a narrow but steep gorge. People cross the current-rippled waters in circular basket boats called coracles. To reach the falls you have to take the coracle (there is no land access). We didn’t take that instead enjoyed the mist and the beauty. I am also told that the shooting of many tamil films takes place here and I also think that some song sequence in Roja took place here too.


After some photoshoot, it was bathing time so we all plunged into the flowing water and spent a nice 2 hours inside it. At 2:30PM, came out of water, took a coracle to our bank.

We started the return journey at around 3:45PM. Weather was very pleasant; it was also drizzling inside the jungle. We stopped by at about 10km before Dharmapuri had our sandwiched and potato chips and drank lots of water. There was no stop after that and we zoomed the Bommanahalli junction by 6:30PM. We did a nice 140km in 1hr 40min.

Overall it was a Nice trip!! Even nice weather!!

Total Trip distance 380km.

Signing Off
Vijay

Weekend Travelogue: Yercaud, Tamil Nadu

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri - Salem – Yercaud – Bangalore (460 km)

With this trip I have completed all the four hill stations of TN (after Ooty, Kodai, Yelagiri).

Day 1(1st April, 2006): We get up at 4:15AM, take a nice bath and pack the necessary stuffs and start at 5:15AM.The road was empty and within no time the car was zooming at 100kmph. This is the first time that my car is running in this beautiful stretch and we were enjoying the drive. Also the beautiful Kishore numbers adding more aura. We reached Hosur in no time and once past the Ashok Leyland plant, the speedo started to increase. Hosur – Krishnagiri stretch is a beauty as always and also there was almost no traffic in the morning. The speedometer already touched 120kmph. A blast to 130kmph and left the pedal, maintained 100 – 120 kmph thereafter.

By 7:15AM, we took our first break at Hotel Uthaiyah about 10km before Krishnagiri toll gate, the same place where we always take our first break. Had 2 rounds of hot tea and the always-amazing masala dosas. I have a special liking of food of Tamil Nadu specially dosas. It has a special taste and I make sure I don’t miss the masala dosas in Tamil Nadu.

We started our journey after breakfast at around 8AM, reached the toll gate in 10 min. This time I had to pay the toll-fee and proceeded towards Dharmapuri. I knew from my previous experiences that the road from Krishnagiri to Dharmapuri had lot of sudden potholes and I was very careful this time and never increased the speed past 50-60kmph even though the road appeared smooth fearing a sudden graveyard. But this time the road has improved a lot compared to my last visit although there were some potholes. Work on the North-South corridor has started on this stretch.

We reached Dharmapuri at around 9AM. Roads improved after that. The 4 laning work is in progress in the stretch from Dharmapuri – Salem. Also the existing 2 lane roads are also good. We were held up for 15min due to a jam on the rail-gate. After that the traffic slowly eased out and we entered the ghat section. Here the 4 laning has been done and the drive was an absolute beauty.

We reached Salem at 10:30AM and took a small break under a tree just before starting the hill climb. Thanks to boudi, we relished some home made dal-puri and paneer-sabji alongwith lots of water, as Salem was really hot that time.

We started the hill climb around 11AM. The roads were decent and the stretch was about 30km with lots of hairpin bends. It is bit on the narrow side too. It took us about 45min to climb. The weather was improving with altitude and surroundings picturesque. There were lots of monkeys on the road too.

In the evening went to visit the Lady’s seat about 3 km from hotel to see the sunset. It was great place where we can see the entire Salem town. You can also see the roads winding up to Yercaud from Salem. One strange thing that I noticed from that viewpoint is that once it gets dark, and Salem town illuminates, if you carefully watch the boundary it resembles like an India-map. I tried to confirm the same with the bhajji wala there and he too told the same thing.

Spent a nice 3 hours there, enjoying the valley and eating hot mirchi-bhajis and chips. There was a nice breeze blowing across. We drove back to the hotel at 7:30PM.

At 8PM, we went walking past the lakeside to Hotel Shevaroys for dinner. Before entering the restaurant we checked into the super-market of the shevaroy group and did some shopping. We had a decent dinner with malabar fish curry, rice, basket of rotis etc. and strolled back to hotel by 11PM.

Day 2(2nd April, 2006): We got up at 6AM and decided to do some trekking. We decided to trek up towards hotel grand palace at the topmost point of Yercaud. This is the only hotel on this hill totally owned by grand palace. It was a great atmosphere, nice breeze, and little misty environment. We went into the hotel checked the tariff and visited the other side of the hill which opens up on the valley. Next time I will surely try this hotel, little expensive but nice place to experience valley on all sides.

We return to hotel at 8AM did some photography and time for breakfast. We all were very hungry after the trek. We had delicious masala dosas and idlis alongwith tea for breakfast in the cottage’s restaurant.

Then we started towards lady seat to visit the Rose garden and Carmel Ashram. On the way visited the beautiful nursery near the lake. Both the ladies bought some plants from there. I really liked the nursery and the kind of drip technique they use to water the plants.

Checked into carmel ashram first, saw the church and met with one sister who took us to a room where they sell some stuffs like candles, kali-mirch, tej-patta at throw away prices. We bought some stuffs and did some photo shoot in the kali-mirch-cum-coffee jungle inside ashram campus.

We moved to rose garden just opposite to the ashram and spent some time there. It is a huge garden. It was already past 11 when we decided to move back so that we don’t get late returning to Bangalore before night. On our return to the hotel we checked into Bhavani Singh’s perfume factory where hari singh, his son explained all the funda of various lotions and oils and their remedies. We did buy a couple of stuffs for my dad.

We reached back to hotel by 12:45PM. Packed our stuffs, had a nice bath and an even nice and hot lunch from the hotel’s restaurant. It was a delicious south Indian thali. We checked out hotel at 1:30PM and went into the lake for some photography and started our return journey at 2:30PM.

We had a brief 20min break after Dharmapuri for soft drinks and biscuits. I thought of taking a break at Uthaiyah but the empty roads on golden quadrilateral was so tempting that I just couldn’t slow down and zoomed past. Reached silk board by 7PM and reached home after dropping Sukanta by 7:45PM.

Some pics:


Nice weekend journey from Bangalore. It was a nice place to just do nothing and simply enjoy the atmosphere.

Tripmeter reading 503kms

Signing off
Vijay

Weekend Travelogue: Bangalore - Lepakshi - Bangalore

Pics in and around the temple

Bangalore – Yelahanka – Devanahalli – Chikaballapur – Bagepalli – Lepakshi (125km)

This is probably the first time we went off for a short trip entirely without any prior plan. Till 8AM of a lethargic Sunday morning (11th March) we had no plans for any outings forget about long drive. My wife was discussing about what to have in lunch. We were debating about veg-nonveg. Finally she told me lets walk down to the Sunday fish stall and check out whether they got any prawns. I was discussing all this while reading newspaper.

While I was thinking all this my wife was getting ready to go to the fish stall. Now I told my wife lets dump some fuel in terms of some kms. She told where can we go in a day? Nandi Hills is too near and we have done it twice. Krishnagiri dam already done, I wanted to drive to an unknown road (preferably 2laner) not on NH7 GQ. Ialready read about Rahul Dubey (of indiahighways) riding to Lepakshi on Saturday. Chalo, lets go to Lepakshi. She told OK lets go, I had no food so lets go and perform some puja, Fine lets go but I will have something on the way as I am feeling hungry…

We had a nice bath and off we started at 9:15AM from home. ODO reads 13705km. immediately took the KR puram ring road to Hebbal flyover and onto NH7 also known as Bangalore-Hyderabad road. Immediately after a km there is a nice restaurant (Swati garden) near my office, I stopped and had a masala dosa.By 10:15AM, we started again and zoomed away. Within no time we passed Yelahanka, IAF Station and ITC cigarette factory. It was a nice 6 lane highway till Devanahalli. There was only one diversion where there some flyover construction. The 4/6 laning work was completed even about 8km after Devanahalli till the Nandi Hills turn as part of North-South corridor of NHAI.After that it was 2 lane road throughout. The road was OK and traffic was moderate till Chikaballapur. I was easily doing 100-110kmph. We were enjoying the nice dwindling roads. At Chikaballapur there is a right turn for Mulbagal (86km) on NH4. People going to Tirupati / Chennai from North can take this road bypassing Bangalore.After Chikaballapur, traffic eased out more and speed increased. It was hard to keep the car at 120kmph. The speed was increasing to 130kmph at down slopes. As we approached AP the roads became up and down (steep ascend and descent). It was a nice drive. Soon we reached Bagepalli, the last town/village of Karnataka. After that we entered AP where you can see a huge board “Eenadu Pradesh welcomes you”. I saw the same in Ichchapuram during the Kolkata trip.

At the RTO check post in AP there is a left turn for Lepakshi. You cannot miss it as you can see lots of trucks parked and at the corner there are models of 2 huge swans. We left NH7 from there and entered this state road. This was an excellent narrow road with nice vegetation all around. There were neem trees, tamarind trees, sunflower plantations and those typical thorny bushy trees which we can only see in AP. Lepakshi is about 15km from NH7. This SH takes you to Hindupur via Lepakshi. Initially I thought to take Hindupur – Dodaballapur – Yelahanka route while return but dropped it as I have heard that the road was bad between Gouribadinur and Dodaballapur.

At about 12:15PM, We were welcomed by a huge bull / nandi statue (but with his back side facing us) in Lepakshi. Immediately within 0.5km we reached the Veerabhadra Swamy temple (Veerabhadra is a form of Shiva). Veerabhadra swamy and goddess durga are worshipped at the same place. Total distance traveled was 125km. The temple architecture and paintings were one of the excellent things that I have seen so far. It has really much more than I expected. Its paintings / carvings reflected the Vijaynagar dynasty aka Hampi style. Inside the temple it had lots of carved monolithic pillars probably made of sandstone. Another major attraction was a huge shiva linga well guarded by a king cobra all marvelously carved by sandstone.

We offered puja and spent about an hour inside the temple and also sometime in a small park outside it. After the visit in the temple, we took a photo break at the Nandi statue and proceeded to our return journey by 2PM. I was feeling damn hungry and wanted to stop at some dhaba on NH7.By 2:45PM we stopped in a decent dhaba just 2 km before Chikballapur. We had nice rotis, egg bhurji, dal, channa-masala. The food was amazingly tasty which I was really surprised looking at the dhaba from outside. The bill came out to be just Rs 74. You can also find a Shanti Sagar in Chikaballapur and it looked a nice joint for food (atleast by the amount of cars parked outside).We started after lunch at 3:15PM stopped to buy grapes immediately after Chikaballapur and entered home by 4:40PM.

Total distance: 254km.

Signing off

Vijay