Hogenakkal Falls

This was a 3 day weekend for most of us, but all were not so lucky [read: ppl working in Infosys & Wipro]. Considering there was very little time left to plan for the trip and just two days in hand, we had to limit ourselves to a one day trip.
At once we zeroed it on Hogenakkal falls which is at Karnataka - Tamil Nadu border where the river Cauvery falls with a great force. It is also called the Niagara Falls of India [the second one that I know is Athirapally and Vazhachal waterfalls in Kerala].

[One of the falls at Hogenakkal]

There are two ways to reach Hogenakkal from Bangalore. We took Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Hogenakkal route on our way to Hogenakkal which is around 180kms, this stretch has good roads. On our way back we took Bangalore-Hosur-Rayakottai-Hogenakkal route which is shorter by 35-40kms but it had a very bad stretch for about 40-50kms with the road dug up on both sides.

We started at around 7am from Airport Rd and reached the falls at around 11am, way longer than our estimate.
Since there are no good restaurants in Hogenakkal we carried our own food and also the bedsheets to have a complete picnic experience :D
We had ample snacks in our kitty that there was no need to stop for breakfast anywhere, however on the way about 60kms from Bangalore there is a Reliance petrol pump which has a place called A1 plaza and is quite good for a quick bite.

After paying all sorts of tolls & taxes and eating our lunch we divided ourselves in two coracles. Since it was not yet the rainy season, there were not too many waterfalls. The boatmen took us around the various points were there were falls. We disembarked at one of the points and spent sometime in the gushing water. The moss over the rocks made a couple of us loose control but luckily without much damage, though i need to confirm about Smit's spine ;-)

The weather wasn't that bad except for the time we were on the sandy area. This was the bathing place and Mani (one of our boatman) was so bent upon we having a bath and savor the fishes fried in some red masala which didn't look very inviting to anybody :)
It was terribly hot there with no place to hide from the sun and things got worse as we could afford just one bottle of water with all the chillars that we were carrying that point of time.However it was quite pleasant rowing through the rocks over the steady water in our coracles. Finally we started off for Bangalore around 5:30pm after having the much needed snacks in one of the shops around the corner.
The traffic on Hosur road reminded us that the holiday time was now over and it would be back to business after a day once again. We reached home at 8:13pm sharp!


The only sad part of Hogenakkal was the littering done by people who visit the falls. Even though its a "No Plastic" zone there were plastic bottles and polythene bags lying around in the water and shampoo sachets by the side of the falls.

Boatman's contact:
R Mani
+91 9442738049