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Hogenakkal Waterfalls
Sep 04, 2004
Hogenakkal Waterfalls
(aka
Hogenekal, Hogenekkal, Hoganakal, Hoganakal, Hogenakal, Hogennekal, Hogennekal,
Hogennakal, Hoggenakal, Hoggenakkal, Hoggenekal, Hoggenekkal, Hogennakkal,
Hogennakal)
(Photos/pics
for this travelogue might be available on My
Tourism Photo Album)
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
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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)
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Route: Bangalore -
(Hosur) - Dharmapuri - Hogenakkal
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Train: Bangalore - Dharmapuri (150 kms, 59.00/- Rs.)
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Bus: Dharmapuri - Hogenakkal (47 Kms, 13.50/- Rs.)
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Bus: Dharmapuri - Bangalore (140 kms or so Kms, 43.00/- Rs.)
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Government fee to cross river Cauvery: Rs
10.00/-
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Asking price
for full Boat ride (includes time for bathing): 500 Rs for 5 people, 400 Rs for 3 people. Negotiable.
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Massage: 50/- Rs. for semi-massage (10 minutes, maybe), 100/- Rs. for Full massage (30 minutes to 45 minutes)
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Massage oil: 25/- Rs.
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Viewpoint Tower: 1/- Rs.
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Railway ticket cancellation charges: 10 Rs/- person
:)
-
To
contact Suresh, our boatman guy:
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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.
Links
to other people's travelogues/pics
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"Hogenakkal, the ' Niagara' falls of India, offers a promising holiday destination for nature lovers in the country.
See this ANI Network's 1:12 minutes documentary on Niagra Falls (taken from
Tribune
India): Low Bandwidth
version, High Bandwidth version
(Needs Real Player)
-
Photoalbum.
Amazingly clear pics!
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Snep's
Photoalbum
. Especially look at the picture titled "Nice view into one of the
canyons.." which gives a bird's eyeview of the waterfalls
downstream side. (try clicking here
to see the pic directly. It might not work because direct hit to an image
is usually not allowed.)
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