July 10, 2016 Sunday. When I am in a deep sleep I suddenly felt someone waking me up. My brother it is. My eyes automatically went in search of nearest phone to find the watch. Sensing my thoughts my brother told 3:00AM. Now its my turn to wake Mourya. After a little struggle he gets up. Finally at 4:00AM, we are out of the flat for our one day long ride to Hogenakkal.
Three of us, two bikes, one destination : Hogenakkal, 187KM to ride. With very minimal preparation we started. First target is to full the petrol tanks. In Marathahalli on HAL road we filled the tanks and started to our destination. Google maps are all dark as there is no light out. Pleasant ride with the clouds moving opposite in the sky towards the city and we moving away from the city on the land leaving the busy life behind. After around 100 km we stopped seeing the empty roads with just beautiful fields on either sides of the road.
Mourya(left) at his madness level one along with bro.
After a small photo session with highway roads on Hosur-Dharmapuri road, we started ahead with changing turns to ride. Another 40km and we reached to Dharmapuri-Hogenakkal road. Now we are off from NH44 to our local roads. Our tongues wanted the taste of Tamil food so we decided to stop at a place where we can get good local food with tasty sambhar. :P After around 20km we reached somewhere before pennagram. After having a tasty egg dosa, we started to Hogenakkal. We decided to stop only at our destination. By 8:30 I guess we are finally at Hognekkal. Now its time for tricky things around us. Naturally, lot of people around us offering their services for massage and coracle ride. :P :P But at a higher price trying to fool us. Since, we did a little research we decided to find it ourselves. Now that we reached near the falls, our next plan is to go ahead to some more distance. That’s because now we are on lower side of the waterfalls. We are now going to the upper side where the water is falling down. To be realistic far from falls in fact. For the best Coracle ride. Funny part is we went ahead by some 5km missing the place we wished to go. After too many doubts with the clarification of man on moped we took a U turn and reached the destination.
After seeing so many coracles we were excited. But the fishy part is all the coracles are on the bay and not even a single person around. When we are struggling with what to do, appears a man with his friend who came for a wedding over there in the nearby village. After asking them what happened? Here comes a very nice reply which is very bad to hear for us and to tell for them. Due to some accident in the water which lead to death of few tourists made the police put a ban on coracle rides from past 6months.!!
Now what? Never leave things unfinished.
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We talked to those two people found a man who could ride the coracle for us at 700 rupees. with oil massage man for 200 rupees :P Finally all set. He took us to a small island with lot of blue berries on it. No trace of human around just the water and greens. He dropped us there and swam across that flowing water as he got some personal stuff to do. Our massage man came swimming through that water. Now he made his hands work like machine. Finally, after a long hours of lonely time away from city life, we decided to go to beneath the water falls for the view. Now back on coracle, he turned the coracle around and around, such an experience was amazing. We gave them some extra amount instead of said cost for their effort and risk.
Now, back on bike to hogenakkal falls. Yaar, the tourist spot, looked like everything changed in half day. We reached there by 3PM and everything looked quite different from morning what we saw. Too many tourists, lot of street food vendors, so many vehicles etc. We were quite unhappy with scene compared to these two places. We went checked the falls. So amazing. Looked like fog everywhere.No wonder its called Hogenakkal.
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Hog means smoke and kal means rock. When the water rushes onto those rocks it appears like smoke. So its named Hogenakkal Names explains the places the best.
After enjoying the scenic beauty and tourism waste everywhere we started back. Now its time for food. Street food. One of the best things there. We get hot hot Ubbuttu/Bobbattu for just rupees 5. But the taste it has and love its filled from the locals is just amazing. Ragi malt, mango slices with salt and chilli powder on it, fresh sugar cane juice,the taste of jack fruit bulbs/pods, and fresh fried fish with a lime tea at the end. After feeding lot we felt like kings. Everyone does all sorts of things just to fill that small tummy. Luckily, we got lot of tasty food items stuffed in with no gap to breath.
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Now after a lot of struggle we got our bikes out of parking and started back to Bangalore on the Ghat road which is around 150KM. But this took us long time to take us back. How can some one miss ghat roads magic of green. Rest under the tree for a while gave us a small deep nap. Tasty ground water on the way back. Lot of photography sessions. We finally finished with a small coffee on Hosur road.
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When there is fire smoke comes, interestingly here its water which creates illusion of smoke..
Hogenakkal.. !!
A ride to remember…
A trip to experience…
A place to witness..
Signing off..!!
Back to Traffic
Back to Pollution
Back to Bangalore..!!!