Hoganekkal

It was a cool Saturday morning when we started from home, but promised to be hot and sunny as the day progressed. Our pick up tempo was waiting for us to gather at the BTM Udupi garden spot. By 7 a.m, all of us had come and boarded our tourist vehicle.
We were 14 members in all from our Workplace.
Everyone was very excited at the prospect of the day long trip.
It took us almost 4 hours to reach there.
Hang on! Did I mention the name of the other-worldly place where we were off to?
Read on guys….

Baking Hot Sun, chilling cool waters, the freshwater smell and the river Cauvery
flowing fast, fresh fish being sold here and there, the local body-massage open-air parlour at the ready, The round basket boats (Coracles) waiting for you to get
onboard….

For those who have been to this magnificent place already, hope the delightful
smile is already in place on your face, for, I know how one feels when he is reminded of this scenic location.
For those who are Googling already with the description I have provided, hold your breath guys, you’ll be too tempted to see the place after I am done, for this is
HOGENAKKAL waterfalls, located in the flow of river Cauvery touching both Karnataka and TamilNadu borders.

A three hour adventure on board the coracles, we split up in groups of Seven each and got into the two coracles set for the mind boggling falls ahead of us.
The coracle (‘Parisal’ in local language), Perfectly circular in shape, is made (woven together) of bamboo shoots/sticks. The base is some kinda cloth or hide, topped by (actually bottomed by 🙂 charcoal (I think!).
The guide cum Coracle boatman was very friendly and he knew upto four languages which made our communication easy.

The foremost attraction of the Hogenakkal falls is its vertical drop from the height of 20 meters with the thundering sounds.
We enjoyed the scenic nature and the falls breaking into the Cauvery basin below was worth watching. There are small pathways to walk and river Cauvery seems to be all around you.
Just after alighting, we could hear the roar of the waterfalls and see the first one’s head. The Hogenekkal falls are not a single waterfalls but a series of falls. There are so many waterfalls all over the place that it looks like the Mother earth decided to open her heart to the humanity. The whole spectactle is spread over a kilometer or so, with two sections, half-a-kilometer each, making maybe 110 degree angle to one another. The majority of waterfalls are on the first section and the second section is a gorge which forms the downstream of all the waterfalls.
The first waterfall is probably the mistiest. Standing near it for photo-op, you get little droplets of water atomized by the falls on your hair and clothes. These droplets look like real neat! Near the first waterfalls itself, There is a Viewpoint Tower from where you can see the whole topography.

Lunch was a simple affair with not much of an option for the veggies apart from Lays chips and biscuit packets whereas the non veggies had abundant fresh fried fish in front of them.

After our boating experience, we were left to explore the entire place at our own risk.Though the water current was high enough to prevent us from swimming, We got a safe spot for water sports where we enjoyed till we were drop dead tired.

After a quick round of tea and biscuits, we were on board our Tempo for the return journey. A light dinner on the way back home and then we were dropped to our respective houses.

For those who love trekking and traveling, What’s a better place to start with than a place known as the Niagara of India, the Hoganekkal!
(For those who are scared of Water, TRUST ME, you won’t regret!!)