This is for the first time I am writing about the Incredible India, hope I do justice to the beauty our beloved nation.For Those who don't know me, currently I lives in India's IT capital Bangalore, place that I gone describe in this blog is also situated near to the city of Bangalore.
Well it was the time of dussehra festival, it happens to be the long weekend for us, and as the modern day Bangalore trend suggest you have to step out of the city, if it is a long weekend. So we friends also decided to visit some where nearby to the city. We looked out for lots of options that include jungle safari, a trip to the hill station , visit to the local water park, and finally we decide to give a shot at Shivasamundram fall.
Well when I think about water falls the first thought that come to my mind is of Raj Kapoor's Movies of Early 90s, a beautiful actress taking a bath in even more beautiful water fall, well with this perception about the water fall we started our journey toward these falls.
Shivasamundrum is Nearly 140 KM from Bangalore, we hired a cab for this trip as we are a very small group we booked a tata indica for the trip. With all the excitement that I have, I got up early in the morning. I already had asked cab driver to come around 6 in the morning as some of my friends who visited this place before suggested me to start early. So three of us finally started around 7 O' clock
Shivasamundrum is situated in Mandya District of Karnatka,we started our journey on Bangalore-Mysore Highway, road was good and once you cross the city of Bangalore the country side of Karnataka is beautiful, lush green with lots of coconut trees, well after some time we have to leave the highway to take a turn towards the fall, this part of road was not as smooth as the highway but it was still manageable as i already told you some of my friends had already visited the place and i also researched about the place on net, so the first of the many advise that I want to give you is that you should always carry your food with you as shivasamundrum doesn't have any restaurants at all, so all who plans to travel to these falls make sure you carry adequate amount of food otherwise you end up starving.
Well when we are talking about advise that one more that i got from all the reviews that I read in order to prepare for the trip that never wear shoes or the slippers best thing to opt for floaters as you can't use shoes in water and slipper are too dangerous for the slippery stones that are there.
OK no more piece of advise as you can find lots of advise on net if you decide to visit the place well I am sure that once after reading this you will surely visit this amazing place .
So lets talk about Shivasamundram,its got twin waterfalls Bharachukki and Gaganachukki. we reached Bharachukki first it was around 10 AM, For our Bad luck sun was shining on its peek, but that sun acctually showed us the best rainbow that i have witnessed ever.
Bharachuki were the taller among the two falls and you can only see the falls form far distance but site was mesmerizing and we even tried to go down to the bottom of the fall actually there is no proper way or the steps were there still we managed to reach the bottom of the fall , but that was far away form the actual fall. Still we reached the place where there was some water and small fall and you can see the bigger fall at far.I would say that going down is not worth it, as the really action for us was stored in the next falls. Still Bharachuki was nice place where you can click some great pictures with beautiful natural back ground , after clicking some pictures we asked our driver to take us to the next fall which is not far away. We reached there in about 10 mins drive, there starts the real action view was breathtaking and fall was huge almost 3 times in size that Bharachuki and this one called Gaganachukki.
So before I move further lets come back to the advise section, see in these falls you can go near the falls and actually take bath standing under the falls, so keep extra pair of clothes, for clothes you need a changing room that is not there we some how managed in our cab as windows were fully tainted.
At Gaganchukki falls we are actually allowed to go down to the bottom of the fall, for that you have to step down around 400 stairs. Stepping down was total worth it and as soon as i reached the bottom my first site landed on these round bambo boats. I always wanted ride them since I have seen them in one of the reality TV show, OK I didn't get the chance to row the boat but still ride was amazing .Rower took us near to the bigger fall in these boats , it was amazing to go so near the fall, but soon the boat ride ended.It was fun but i feel like little over charged at 50 per person as the ride ends in less then 10 mins but we suppose to pay extra at tourist destinations.After finishing the boat ride the real action started, we have to cross small water canal to go to actual falls ,mind it crossing this water was a tough taks as it was full of slippery stone, one of my friends actually felt in the water and that was the funny scene thankfully he didn't got hurt in this.After crossing that part none us have patients to get into the falls.Let me tell you one thing that to see falls from a distance and actually experience it, doesn't have any comparison.I have no words to explain that part of trip but I must assure you that ,it was the most enjoyable part of this entire trip, standing under those fall will let you realize the power and the beauty of mother nature, when you feel the force of the water coming down form the fall, it makes you fell in love with the place. we enjoyed that open air bath a lot. We almost spent more than 4 hours enjoying the beauty of Gaganchukki falls.
After this so much of fun we all were tired and hungry, but believe me we still want to spent some more time there enjoying the incredible falls, but we all were starving as the food that we packed is up there in the cab only. So finally we decided to give up the fun and started the climb back. We all were already tired due to so much playing in falls and climbing back 400 stairs took a toll on us, Sun was also there to laugh of on us. But still we managed to climb back.
Clock was showing 3'o clock and I was still admiring the Beauty of Shivasamundram ,just then our driver told us that there is one more place nearby that we can also visit, Talakad. It is a small town on bank of river kaveri , with some ancient temple.There was not much in Talakad except that on the river bank we again found the Round bambo boats. Here ride was not thrilling as it was as falls but still it was fun and at much chipper price of Rs 20 per passenger .
With this we come to the end of wonderful one day trip. Shivasamundram was beautiful place where you can have lots of fun with your friends and family.
Signing off
Vijay
