Hoggenakal

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Its been a long time since I ventured out and also my swift was waiting for a road trip. With my parents arrival I planned a quick trip to Hoggenakal.

With different routes available, my colleague advised me to take Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri route to reach hoggenakal. Indeed it was a fabulous route. We started, albeit delayed, at 9am, through the slow Saturday Bangalore traffic. But from Bommanahalli we got pace through, elevated road, Hosur road and the not stop toll road till Dharmapuri. @Dharmapuri, we avoided entering city, instead proceeded further and took the next deviation, which is the exit for Hoggenakal. From here the falls is 45km. It is indeed worth mentioning, class roads of Tamilnadu, even the interior roads are wider and well maintained. After a drive of 196km, we reached Hoggenakal to a scorching sunny day. Everywhere you have to pay for parking, entry fee. We parked the car in Govt. parking and went on to see the falls at 12 noon!

Hoggenakal is famous for three things: oil massage, fresh fish fry and booze. And we had to forgo all three things because of unique combination of people in the trip :(

We walked till the main falls, passing through the Hanging Bridge, small water fall. Snacks, fruits and cool drinks are available every where. The fall is Majestic to the core, Kaveri at its splendor best. The water flow was full stream because of the monsoon, because of which we missed the boat ride in the lower stream. When we returned back to have the lunch it was almost 4. Mom’s delicious lunch with fine packing was, as usual, the highlight.

After finishing lunch we were off to have coracle ride. The entire package includes rickshaw drop, ride to other side of river (Karnataka side), watch tower, time to get into water and ride back, with close view of main falls comes to Rs.950, for six people for an hour and half. Muthu was our savior for the next one hour. It was great to see the falls from Karnataka side, and getting close to water fall was just electrifying. Got few boating lesson from Muthu during ride.

It was 6 o'clock when we got down from coracle. We started our journey back in the evening sunlight. The next 5 hours of night driving filled with heavy rain fall added to the party. We finally reached home at 11:30pm.

A day well spent with my second love, Swift, and the loved ones!

    Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal 
    rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum
    Nazar mein khwaabon ki bijliyan leke chal 
    rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum

    Hawa ke jhokon ke jaise aazad rehna seekho
    Tum ek dariya ke jaise lehron mein behna seekho
    Har ek lamhe se tum milo khole apni baahein
    Har ek pal ek naya samaa dekhiye

    Jo apni aankhon mein hayraniyan leke chal 
     rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum
    Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal 
     rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum

                            -Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

We            : Dad, Mom, Pachchu, Sudee and Me.

Transport : Maruthi Swift VXi.

Distance   : 392km