Traveller
Experiences:
Sep 04, 2004
Hogenakkal Waterfalls
(aka Hogenekal, Hogenekkal, Hoganakal, Hoganakal, Hogenakal,
Hogennekal, Hogennekal, Hogennakal, Hoggenakal, Hoggenakkal,
Hoggenekal, Hoggenekkal, Hogennakkal, Hogennakal)
Summary
Also known as the Niagara of India, 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 spectacle 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. A trip to Hogenekkal is
usually a combination of boating, bathing/swimming, and massage.
Recommendation:
# For a traveler worth his salt: A must-see.
# For anyone else: A must-see.
:)
An account
A few years back, I had read about Hogenakkal wateralls
as the Smoky Rocks. And since then, Hogenakkal had been on
my must-see list. Finally I went to this super place yesterday.
On the way to Hogenakkal
Me, Anirban, and Chandrasekhar Mohanty decided on Friday
that let's go to the Hogenakkal falls. Initially we were looking
only for bus as a option, but later in the day found out that
there's a morning train to Dharmapuri! Hence, on Saturday
(Sep 04, 2004), we left hostel at 0515 hrs and reached the
railway station to catch 2677 Bangalore-Coimbatore Intercity
Express which according to our research on Net, would depart
from Bangalore at 0630 hrs. When we were in the ticket queue,
we got to know that the departure is actually at 0615 hrs!
Just in time, we got the tickets and boarded the train. 2677
is almost fully Chair Car train, and since we didn't have
any reservations, we stood at the door :) Time passed pretty
quickly with the early-morning, wind-in-the-face idle banter,
as the train covered 150 kms journey swiftly. We reached Dharmapuri
at 0850 hours, some 15 minutes later than scheduled arrival.
Hired an auto (20 Rs) to goto the bus stand. At the bus stand,
we had breakfast. I do not have any problems with eating out
at all, but somehow I really didn't like the small hotels
and restaurants at Dharmapuri, and the food available with
'em. Boarded the bus to Hogenakkal at around 0930 hrs. To
our surprise, it was a DVD coach! And they were playing a
pretty nice Tamil movie. The bus departed Dharampuri at 0945
hrs, and I got busy watching the movie on the two screens
(one in front of each column of seats!) that the bus had.
Of course, I didn't understand the language, but I watched
it keenly nevertheless. I asked a co-passenger and could gather
some info on the movie. (Once back from the trip, did some
searching on the Net with the clues I got from my Tamil co-passenger.
The movie turned out to be Vannathai Pola [aka Vannathapola
, and Vanathaipole]. Starring Prabhudeva, Vijayakanth, and
Meena, the movie has an excellent soundtrack [listen to it
here]. Especially, the theme track Kadhal Vennila was quite
captivating. You see, I am a sucker for song and dance!) A
few kilometers just before the Hogenekkal falls, the hilly
route stretching some 5 kms or so is quite scenic with mountains
all around. Reached Hogenakkal at 1115 hrs.
At Hogenakkal
Headed straight towards the river Cauvery (also = Kavery or
Kaveri). As I am highly scared of water, I was not planning
to even touch water. But very soon we found out that there
is apparently no way to 'just see' the waterfalls without
getting into the boat! Hence, I resigned to the fact that
I'd have to get into the boat. Here we were, at the banks
of river Cauvery totally clueless, trying to figure out what
the heck is the best way to enjoy the place. Language was
especially the problem. Because almost no one understood Hindi
or English. And on top of that the boatman guy who was following
us and sorta heckling us from the bus-stand, was still persistent
in his endeavor of wooing us. In broken English language that
was the bridge between him and us, we were made cognizant
of the asking rate: 400 Rs for 3 of us for the whole boat
trip. 'Modded it down' to Rs 250/- and also hired a masseur
(no masseuse, you see :( Thats why I decided not to go for
a massage. Just kidding. I never planned to go for massage
anyway :-). Actually, ayurvedic/oil massage was a key reason
for my trip partners to go to Hogenekkal. Its a pretty famous
massage, known for its health benefits. Then we boarded the
boat.
A bit about the boat (Coracle)
Its called coracle ('Parisal' in local language). Perfectly
circular in shape, coracle is made (woven together) of bamboo
shoots/sticks. The base is some kinda cloth or hide, topped
by (actually bottomed by :) charcoal (I think!). For more
gyaan on coracles, surprisingly there's a National Coracle
Centre in UK! Even though there are ancient references to
coracles in other civilizations, I am told Parisal is a totally-Indian,
indigenous product, whose shape and features have not changed
over thousands of years! Also, a formal definition from the
Glossary of Coracle Terms:
Parisal. [Traditional]
A bowl coracle formerly widespread along the rivers Cauverey,
Bhavani and Coleroon of South India and the Tungabhadra and
Kistna (edit: It must be Krishna, I guess).
So, its a very South Indian 'device', not to be seen anywhere
in North India :)
Boating: Part I
Enough about the little boats. Back to the trip account.
Once in boat, we had to pay 10/- Rs. per person to the government
guy sitting at the base of the big tree (banyan, I think)
as the tax/fee to cross the river. There it was: A government
toll tax office at the roots of a tree! Anyhow, we crossed
the river's width and got off the boat. 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.
Boating: Part II
After some photo sessions, we moved to the stairs leading
to the next phase of boating. At the bottom of the stairs,
it was a corner cut out of the main flow. And there was a
lot of foam in there. It looked very very mystical! We got
onto the coracle, and then began our ride into the heavy flow
of the falls downstream. Once out of the corner from where
be boarded the boat, and in the main river, the view was something
which I can not describe really. On one side was the gushing,
roaring waterfalls, and on the other side, there was relatively
calm water flow. First our Boatman, Suresh, and his aide,
Guru Nathan Murthy (Masseur guy) took us a bit upstream so
that we could see Falls from a bit up close. Even those experienced
guys didn't want to get too close to the Falls. After having
a good look at the Falls, we began rather easy trip down the
flow. Easy, because it was downstream. Otherwise it is pretty
deep down there and hence, risky. Suresh told us that it could
be 50-60 ft deep down there.
As we were moving down the river, the view was getting more
and more spectacular. We were actually in a gorge with famed
Karnataka-granite rising high on both the sides. If I remember
correctly, it was like Bedaghat in Madhya Pradesh. The only
difference being that at Bedaghat, its marble stones and not
granite. And also, in Bedaghat, moonlight boating is pretty
famous, but at Hogenakkal, you have to take permission from
(I think) Forest Department to go boating/camping in the night.
As we moved along the river, we were getting more and more
awed by the nature's creation: The granite rocks on both sides
must be 15-20 meters high, and the depth of water maybe 50-60
deep, and we in between the water and rock, admiring 'em.
The different granite rocks had different looks to them. Some
were white, others rather blackish.
On one of the high-rising rocks, we saw a small figure at
the top waving to us. It turned out to be a small kid (maybe
10 yrs old) in his half pants. Suresh the boatman informed
us that the kid will jump into water for 5 or 10 Rs. I was
totally taken aback by the kind of risk-taking, entrepreneurial
spirit these local kids had. Also, it was a sobering realization
of the hardships suffered by the poor people. Of course, I
didn't want to see him jump. But other tourists in other boats
were apparently interested. And jump he did!! All the way
from 20 meter high granite rock to 50 ft deep water! It was
quite a sight: Life playing with death. A little mistake here,
a second of lost concentration there, and that guy was sure
to be dead in that gushing flow. But then, these guys are
sons of soil, porobably grown-up (?) doing just that activity.
So he surfaced, and then headed for collecting his money.
The payment process is incredible too. When the tourists give
the kid a signal expressing their wish to pay and see him
jump, the kid jumps right away! Note that he doesn't know
for sure that he'd get paid. The whole system is built on
trust. In this case, boatman ensures that the kid gets his
5-10 Rs. After the kid jumps, the boatman takes the boat closer
to rocks, and tells tourists to put the money (coins only?)
in the cracks of the nearest rocks. The boat then keeps moving,
and kid surfaces after the jump and heads toward the rock
to collect the money. Many salutes to the die-hard, never-say-no
spirit of those kids!
After this enlightening experience, as we were moving along
the river, Suresh took the boat near a small waterfall on
the right, and we frolicked a bit there. After a few meters
of that, he stopped the boat at a small rock opening on the
left. It was a beautiful 2 feet by 2 feet opening which looked
very nice. But it turned that was nothing compared to what
was awaiting us inside: Suresh asked us to go inside that!
And we did go in. Inside, It was a magical creation of the
nature. Mother nature had taken time to carve this beautiful
hole solely with water's force. It was a circular hole with
an open top and many layers in it! We took a pic, and even
though a pic is said to convey 1000 words and all that, I
am sure it wouldn't be able to describe 1% of the beauty of
that carving. Also, there was space to stand/sit. So, we spent
some 5-10 minutes admiring that, and then came back to coracle.
Now the river was outta gorge, and it got much wider. Little
ahead was an island dividing the river into two. On the right
side of the river was a mud staircase leading to a small shop,
sitting pretty on the way to the top. One could get beer,
other alcohol, cold drinks, snacks etc in that shop! If you
go to the top, you see some huts etc, which is essentially
the Karnataka side of Hogenekkal. You see, the river Cauvery
at Hogenekkal is the border line between Karnataka and TamilNadu.
Went up to the shop, bought some stuff, came back to the coracle.
After that, we were taken to the island where lot of people
were getting massages. My partners bought some fish which
seems to be the staple diet at Hogenakkal. Then we started
for the final destination: bathing place. For that, we headed
back upstream and then turned left.
Massage and Bath
'Parked' the coracle and then found a place on the rocks
for my partners' massage. I moved straight to the numerous
small falls, rivulets that were perfect for bathing. For almost
an hour that these guys were getting massaged, I tried almost
every spot in that place to take a bath/ sit in the water
:) From water, I could see these guys getting getting massaged,
or in other words, their body parts being stretched, twisted,
thrust, pushed and jolted in every possible direction! Oh,
what people do in the name of health-care (*grin* :-)
Finally, after massage they both joined me, and after a few
photos, we moved to Suresh's designated place :) for bath:
A rather gushing waterfall with a 5 ft-deep some 10x10 meter
pond in front of it. We had a whale of a time under that waterfall.
It was like somebody hitting you with a 10 ton weight! Suresh
told us to remove our gold chains so they wont get eroded
in heavy water fall. We were not very keen on that, so he
told us to clip the chains in our mouth so they wont get outta
neck and flow away! It was a very useful tip actually. After
spending an hour or so there, it was time to head back. Changed
clothes, started moving and then I realized I was missing
my glasses. Went back to the first place where we had put
our clothes initially when these guys were getting massage.
Fortunately, found the glasses there :)
Return To Mainland
It was time to return. Got back into the coracle and headed
back to the origin point. On the way back, it was an upstream
task for the boatmen. The current was strong and the whole
journey was upstream. Wherever there was too strong a flow,
Suresh and Gurumurthy would cross the current to go to the
other side (calmer side) of the river and then again continue
the upstream battle and so on. After a lot of raw power in
action, we reached the foamed staircase. And then after a
bit of walking, again got into the boat, this time just to
cross Cauvery's width and soon we reached the banks and thus,
back to mainland.
Return from Hogenakkal to Bangalore
It was 1615 hrs already, ate a bit on the stalls on the way
to the bus-stand. Once there, the bus was almost ready to
leave. Got onto it, and reached Dharmapuri by 1805 hrs. The
train to Bangalore was to depart from Dharmapuri at 1820 hrs!
Hence, hurriedly took auto and rushed to the railway station.
Bought the train ticket. Fortunately, train was a bit late.
As we waited for the train, we felt tired and debated if it
would be a good idea to go standing all the way for 2.5 hours
to Bangalore (We didn't have reservations). The alternative
was to take a bus. Even as were were unable to decide, the
train reached at 1840 hrs. We saw the crowd, the TTE's (Train
Ticket Examiner) attitude towards non-reserved passengers,
and decided on the spot to chuck the train! Came outta station,
canceled the ticket (10 Rs/- person cancellation charges).
Now we were very hungry too. So took an auto to the best hotel
(I think) in town. If I remember correctly it was Hotel Rama
(or some such), just after the left turn from the railway
station road. Filled ourselves up there (good food!), and
moved to bus station. Got a bus to Bangalore at 1930 hrs that
departed Dharmapuri at 1945 hrs. Reached Silk Board/wipro
intersection at Bangalore at 2230 hrs, and headed back to
hostel, thus ending our fantabulous experience.
Note: Pics will be added soon!
Crash Course
Bangalore - Hogenakkal: 170 kms from Tamilnadu route. (A
board on Hogenakkal bus stand says 140 kms. My guess is that
must be from Karnataka route)
Route: Bangalore - (Hosur) - Dharmapuri - Hogenakkal
Train: Bangalore - Dharmapuri (150 kms, 59.00/- Rs.)
Bus: Dharmapuri - Hogenakkal (47 Kms, 13.50/- Rs.)
Bus: Dharmapuri - Bangalore (140 kms or so Kms, 43.00/- Rs.)
Government fee to cross river Cauvery: Rs 10.00/-
Asking price for full Boat ride (includes time for bathing):
500 Rs for 5 people, 400 Rs for 3 people. Negotiable.
Massage: 50/- Rs. for semi-massage (10 minutes, maybe), 100/-
Rs. for Full massage (30 minutes to 45 minutes)
Massage oil: 25/- Rs.
Viewpoint Tower: 1/- Rs.
Railway ticket cancellation charges: 10 Rs/- person :)
To contact Suresh, our boatman guy:
Mr. A. Subramaniyan of V.T.S. Lodge
Opp Hogenakkal Bus Stand
Phone : 04342- 256444 Or 9443053047
Ask for Suresh or Guru Nathan the boatmen, masseur
Anirban's travelogue
Having finally got my leg back in a single piece (which not
long back had happily divided itself into two halves!!) and
having fully recovered from the assorted associated interesting
stuffs like ligament tear and tendon rupture (!!), I was itching
to once again embrace my first love i.e. trekking and traveling.
What's a better place to start with than a place known as
the Niagara of India, the Hogenakkal Falls that is about 170kms
from Bangalore and 50 kms from Dharmapuri (Tamil Nadu) and
apart from being one of the loveliest waterfalls of the country,
also known for therapeutic properties of its waters.
The Hogenekkal Falls are not a single waterfalls but a series
of falls. The mighty river Cauvery flows through a relatively
plain land before mother earth suddenly opens up and the whole
river falls to a depth of between 50 to 150 feet on a bed
of granite rocks. There are so many waterfalls, both big and
small, all over the place. The whole spectacle 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 that forms the downstream of all the waterfalls.
The fine spray that rises as the water hits the rocks below
have given these rocks the name Hogenakkal, which means "Smoking
Rock" in the Kannada language. On one side is the gushing,
roaring waterfalls spread over as far as your eyes go, and
on the other side, there is relatively calm water flowing
through a narrow but steep gorge. It is quite an impressive
sight as water cascades down the lush green walls of the rocks.
The surroundings are an architectural beauty carved out of
the granite rock-faces by the sheer elegance of the misty
but mighty waterfalls. The river, here flows through a wooded
valley, splitting and merging and splitting again around rocks,
and little islands with towering trees, and boulder-strewn
out crops My literary skill [or rather the abysmal lack of
it!! ;o) ] miserably fails me to properly describe the beauty
of the place.
To reach the waterfalls one needs to take a boat-ride (there
is no land access). Those local boats are peculiar in its
design. Happily defying the somber wisdom of school-textbook
Physics and cocking a snook at fluid dynamics and all those
stuffs about streamline design, these boats are circular (or
rather hemispherical, to be geometrically correct!!) in shape
and are called coracle ('Parisal' in local language). Its
basic structure is made (woven together) of thin bamboo sticks
and the structure is covered with goat-skin (in earlier times)
or plastic coated with tar. It is a totally indigenous stuff,
whose shape and features have not changed over thousands of
years!!! The boats are so light that one wonders if it is
capable of taking the load of even one adult Homo Sapiens.....but
in reality each one can comfortably accommodate five of the
species!!!
Another attraction of Hogenakkal is the oil-massage service
provided by the local masseurs. Life is not fair at all......Unfortunately
there are only masseurs and not a single one of the fairer
sex [masseuse or whatever they are called in French, who cares!!]
and hence ladies [normally!! ;o)] don't have an option but
to let go the pleasure of having their body parts being stretched,
twisted, thrust, pushed and jolted in every possible direction!!!
Having inflicted that corporal punishment on myself I can
vouch that it is quite an invigorating experience to be missed!!!
It is a pity that the photographs that we took didn't come
out very well and they don't do an iota of a justice to the
beauty of the place. Though I am attaching some of those herewith,
don't be put-off by those and make sure to visit the place
at the first opportunity. Trust me, you would be enchanted
and enthralled.
================
Wet weekend 1 - Hogenakkal...:)
By nithya at Tue, 2005-06-28 04:08 | Footloose | nithya's
blog | email this blog | printer friendly version | 353 reads
I know I’ve said this a million times before, but I
have absolutely no problems in telling it again… that
I love water… and I don’t mind spending hours
together getting wet wet wet… be it the warm beaches
in Madras or the crazy rains in Bangalore, I am fascinated
by them all the same… and over the last couple of weeks,
I have hit a jackpot I should say… we had back to back
weekend outings, the first one at the Hogenakkal falls and
then this weekend at the Honnemaradu lake… and so, two
travelogues are in the pipeline!
Hogenakkal was planned all of a sudden, in fact there was
no planning… we jus had a lot of time in our hands,
and took off jus like that… parents and sis were here
last week for a family function at my Athai’s place…
and we had the weekend for ourselves, since the function was
over on Friday itself… Neeju desperately wanted a break,
and didn’t want to stay at home, coz it would invariably
end up in mom doing some cleaning work and me getting yelled
at for my house maintenance…
We were looking at some options and zeroed in on Hogenakkal…
Mom and both of us are equally water-crazy, and Chander had
never bathed in a waterfall… so that was more than enough
reason for us to pack up and leave… we left early in
the morning as always, to avoid the traffic… the route
that we got to know from our colleagues was Bangalore->Hosur->Krishnagiri
etc… but then, after Hosur, we were jus going on and
on and didn’t find Krishnagiri at all…
I should pause to say that the highway from Hosur was awesome!
The TN PWD has done a great job there… we didn’t
feel the fatigue of driving at all… and then, noticing
that we were nowhere close to reaching the falls, Dad started
questioning where from we collected such inaccurate info…
and well, he was furious at my answer… and was yelling
at me for relying on google for the info! I mean, how on earth
can I explain to him that Google is where I turn to, say even
if Chander is lost.. And after some heated arguments we found
out that our driver didn’t know the route at all…
and kept going as his intuition was telling him to! So G wasn’t
wrong after all!
We reached the falls by noon, a couple of hours later than
we expected to… at the entrance, even before you see
the falls, the sound of the splashing waters welcomes you…
and the place is so full of trees all over, that you hardly
feel the scorching heat that you would, if you stood outside…
welcoming you into the falls is the smell of fish, dried,
fried, in the form of bajjis etc… and also fish bones
lying all over… how I wish they maintained the place
a little better!
Near the entrance, you have a place where the men and women
bathe separately… there are separate enclosures, and
the water is redirected from the flowing river, not from the
falls… so even though it was extremely forceful and
exciting, it didn’t satisfy our senses… so we
took it to be a prelude… standing below the falling
waters was so damn rejuvenating for my senses!
Chander was too tempted by all the body massagers wooing
that he got a massage done for himself… with oil all
over, he looked like quite a scare crow, and unfortunately
I don’t have a picture of that!
The beauty of Hogenakkal lies in the fact that the water
is very much accessible… be it the thundering falls
or the flowing waters, you could jus take the plunge…
there doesn’t exist the concept of ‘sight seeing’
the water from a distance, you jus get to experience it! The
chill water falling right in the middle of your head feels
like being hit by a thousand hammers at once… it jus
gets into your ears, deafens them for a while, blinds your
sight for some moments and gives you a superb massage overall…
Neeju and I were worried that our hair would jus get off our
head in that force! So much that we actually came out, applied
some oil and then went in… in an attempt to retain as
much hair as possible!
After bathing in that enclosure for a while, we came out
and went to play in the flowing waters… dad was there
to take care of our dresses and stuff, since he wasn’t
too keen on getting in… there were a lot of rocks on
which we could perch ourselves on… slippery they were,
but manageable… since none of us knew swimming, all
that we could do was wade in the waters for as long as possible…
turning a deaf ear to all the calls from mom, asking us to
get back..
And then came the best part of Hogenakkal, a trip in the
‘vatta parisal’ (those round boats:D)… we
had a two hour trip through the imposing rocks and the green
waters… most of the rocks were barren and there wasn’t
any water on them, since it wasn’t the season…
apparently in August, the water level would be so high that
boating would become difficult… we had befriended the
boat man Govindaraj quickly, that he took us right under the
place where the water was falling, and gave us a feel of the
‘saaral’… that was so freshening!
And to entertain us during the rather long boat ride, Govindaraj
was giving us trivia about which films were shot in the falls…
right from some very old MGR movie, he named a lot of them,
I remember only Roja… remember the bit in the ‘chinna
china aasai’ song? That was shot here… One sad
thing was some little kids, who would stand on the high rocks
and dive into the water if you paid them meager amounts, say
even 5 bucks… they would jus should from above, literally
begging us to pay them and even if you gave a slight nod,
they would jus plunge into the water… it was quite disturbing
to see that!
All along the waters, fishing was such a common sight…
fishermen were perched atop the rocks with glum faces, waiting
for their fish… and while we were boating, we caught
some live action on a big fish being baited… and even
more interesting was this mobile shop in a boat, that was
following us… it had a very colorfully dressed shopkeeper,
selling stuff like chips and biscuits, wonder how innovative
people could get!
The banks of the river too had all types of fish delicacies
being served… it looked like one of these village fests,
where they were catching fish right in font of your eyes,
frying and serving them fresh! By the time our boat trip was
done, we were almost dry and so it was time to get wet again!
There is this falls called the cine falls, guess its coz of
a lot of films shot there… its an absolutely awesome
place to have a bath… its hardly 10 feet tall, but the
force of the water is unimaginable… added to the force
of the water from above, you have fish biting your feet below!
We were almost literally dancing in the water to avoid the
fish, and it was quite a funny sight I should say! The cine
falls is certainly THE place to bathe, in Hogenakkal…
By then it was time for us to leave, and the only consolation
was that we would be in water the following weekend too…
So putting the Hogenakkal memories behind, and looking forward
to Honnemaradu, we left the place with great reluctance…
completely forgetting the fact that we had one week of office
to go too!!
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