[@400Kph]

Hi everybody.Even as i am penning down my first Travelogue on Team-Bhp , i am wondering when will be my second travellogue coming up.I like to travel a lot by car but since i did not have my very own , i was not able to do so till now.So it was hard for me to choose a place to make my first trip.
after lot of deliberation with my boss (read wife :-) ) we finally decided to go to shivansamudra or gaganchukki , barachukki falls
as it is commonly called.here is a detailed review about our trip along with few pictures.

Route taken --> Vijayanagar - Kanakapura- mavalli - shivanasamudra
car --> 2003 maruti 800 DX
number of people --> 5
Distance --> 140 Kms
Money spent --> 800 Rs (Petrol) + 32 Rs (Toll) + 50 Rs (Fees for the falls)
duration --> 10 hours
Ideal Time --> Middle of rainy season
Ideal for -- > Large groups , Family , Weekend Getaways
My rating of the destination --> 4/5

About the place --> Gaganachukki,Barachukki are 2 waterfalls on river kaveri near mavalli where there is shivansamudra
hydral power generation station.A fun place to visit if you are lokign to make a one day trip from bangalore,Mysore or Mandya.

On the way to Gaganachukki falls-->

We started from vijayanagar at 8:00 AM in the morning.even though i wanted to leave early to avoid the morning heat , i was able to make everybody sit in the car at 8:00 AM.we drove till kengeri , joined the BMIE (NICE) , payed a toll of 16 Rs just for 9 KMs and finally connected to Kanakapura road.I was little bit apprehensive about the kanakpura road conditions.But i gotta say , i was pleasantly surprised to see the road condition.It was very smooth and we sailed till kanakpura at average speed of 80 KPH (My car would start shuddering once it reached 90 KPH ).Even though there were 5 of us crammed into it, i was happy with the feel of the car.The Road was very bad as soon as we entered kankapura (Almost non existent as some repair work was going on) , but only for 2 Kms.Later we hit the NH again and from there it was again smooth sailing.we reached the first falls, gaganachukki at 10:15 with one Pit-Stop in between.

My ride -->




At Gaganchukki -->

Since it was already 10 , there was a big crowd and my wish of being in a such a serene place with as few people as possible dissapeared.
Even though i woudnt say the falls was flowing with full strength , it was breathtaking and very majestic !!.We spent around 1 hour gazing at the beautifull falls (Pics below) , munching at the local churmuri , kadle etc It was little bit cloudy and not sunny as i had expected.There is no way you can go to the bottom of the falls , howeve i did see some adventourous people standing very close to the falls by violating the warning that had
been put up regarding the safety measures.There was one particular board whcih tickled my funny bone to teh core. It displayed a list of people who had died by going to the bottom of the falls and believe it or not all 5 names had " Software Engineer " suffixed to it .I could see a pattern and decided against getting down to the falls.We decided to leave to barachukki since i knew that there was a provision to go the bottom of barachukki falls where you can actually experience the full glory of the falls !!







On the way to Barachukki falls -->

It was 13 Km drive from Gaganachukki falls and in between we encountered a spot where the river kaveri was flowing silently and it was kind of a view point for the river.There were few cars parked and we too decided to stop and take a look at the river.IT was not so much interesting but i guess you can make a 20 minutes stop here to refresh.We continued to barachukki and reached it at 12: 30 PM.



At Barachukki -->

By now all 5 of us were very hungry and we wanted to have lunch.Luckily my wife had preapared nice chapatis, puliyogre and 2 pallyas whcih we finished within no time !! hats off to her cooking .
Even though the falls looks majestic from top , the real thrill lies at the bottom of the falls.We had to climb down around 100 steps (Dont remember exactly). Be very carefull while climbing down ,since it is very steep and slippery due to the loose mud and gravel.On our way down we could see people standing under the falls and few climbinng up completely wet.Luckily i ahd taken extra pair of clothing anticipating this.At the bottom there are few " Theppas " whcih take people near the falls and do some stunts of turning the boat
rapidly.I decided not to go for it since 250 for something like tat was not worth.To reach the bottom of the falls , you need to cross the stream where the water is flowing at rapid speed with lots of big stones underneath.Please decide to cross this at your own risk since there have been instances where people have slipped on the stones and fallen into the stream.even though you would not get washed away in the stream , your head would definitely crack if you hit the stones in the stream !! My wife strongly opposed me crossing the stream but i did so promising her that i wil lbe extra carefull.
After crossing you can sit below the falls and start enjoying the sheer force of the falls falling on your head !. It was amazing.Unfortunately i could not take my camera there since i was afraid of dropping it in the stream.
after enjoying the cold bath , i had to return to the other side since my wife was shouting at me since she was left out of the action :-).
we started to climb up panting and gasping for air.It was a steep climb and not advisable for old people.we stayed there for 1 more hour and finally decided to head back home since it looked like it was going to rain heavily.
The return journey too was smooth with songs playing on my Xplod player and as predicted it started raining heavily.Turned on the AC and contradictory to what i had heard from peoples comment regarding the AC on maruti 800 , i felt that it was not as abad as i had thought.I was able to cruise at 80 KPh with AC on and heavy rain.





We reached bangalore at 6:00 PM and decided to go to a nice restaurant since we were hungry again :-) We had dinner at Basant hotel near majestic and returned home.I was so tired after this journey , i fell asleep immmediately thinking where my next trip would be.

[fast_elegance]

Nice Travelogue there @400kph. Nice photos as well .

[CorsaLove]

Good one buddy! Nicely written.

Both these falls are very heard of but I never believed they were so close by to Bangalore. I think we ought to plan a weekend trip soon.

Thanks for the information and by the way, nice pics.

[snaronikar]

Wow...nice snaps. When we went there, the water falls was like a "thin stream of water flowing from a top of a hill". Of course it was in June'08..You could have clubbed Talkad with this trip as that place is also near and around 25 kms from Bharachukki...

[@400Kph]

Very true snaronikar. It is just 25 Km from the falls. Somehow missed amidst the fun we were having at barachukki . In fact if you leave early to gaganachukki , you will have time to visit mekedatu too which is 35 km to kanakapura. I had already visited it on my pulsar and thought of going to it next time along with chunchi falls.

[sanjaykk]

Wow what a surprise!!

I was there at the same time (circled in the picture!!)

Wish either of us had a tbhp sticker on our rides!
btw mine was an M800 too!

[samish_g]

Nice write up @400Kph. I had been there in June this year and had the same experience like srini. The water flow was only a thin stream.
Sorry, but please correct me if I am wrong, but I feel, it would have been better if you went upto Maddur and took a left deviation from there. Actually at present, the condition of Mysore Road is better than Kanakapura Road though the latter is a National Highway(NH209)!!!

[@400Kph]

@ sanjaykk , Well isnt this a small world . I have placed a order for the team-bhp stickers and i hope they come soon.Then we will be able to identify fellow Bhpian's and meet them. I hope you too enjoyed the falls as much as i did.

[mjothi]

Wow, the falls is really flowing. When I went last time around May, not even a stream was there

And yes, you can club Talakd / somnathpur with this for a ideal one day / weekend travel

[rabnawaz_b]

I visited this falls last month and found the same flow of water. It was 4 friends in my Sparky and we had clubbed Talakkadu also in this trip.