A trip to Hogenakkal Falls

Quick Details

Category - Travel
Place - Hogenakkal Falls
Distance from Bangalore - 190 kms
Time required one way - 3 Hrs
Things to carry - Drinking water, cap, fast food is available at the place still i'll prefer to carry it along
What to see - Hogenakkal fallls
I liked - Lovely ride on NH-7 with amazing surroundings, taking a shower under falls while sitting in coracle, playing in calm running shallow water close to small beach nearby.
Total Expense- 600-1000 Rs per head (It was 650 Rs/head for us.)

Bangalore has got good hang out places around. We have visited Nandi Hills, Meekadatu etc earlier. This week the gang planned a trip to Hogenakkal Falls. Most of us, for belonging to north India, could not even pronounce the name of the place and so didn't even have much information about the place just except a little details available from internet.

We booked a qualis and nine of us started quite early in the morning. We left at 6 AM from Bangalore for no particular reason. We weren't even sure of the distance but assumed it to be around 150 kms. Journey to the place was really good. Most part of it was set on beautiful National Highway No 7. Colorful flowers on the dividers and amazing natural scenarios around the highway made the journey outstanding. We reached there by 9 AM. We looked for a place to eat found a small shop offering Dosas nearby. It was the best Dosa (Plain dosa) I ever had in south India. Most of us were really satisfied with that breakfast. Then we went for sightseeing. There were so many boat-riders who encircled us and requested to take a ride to waterfall in their boat. The fare they quoted was very high as per the expectations - 110 rs a head for a round trip to fall and nearby places and double the amount if we stayed there for a while. After some bargaining we settled for 400 Rs a boat (which could carry maximum 6 people). We made an offer to pay extra amount if we wished to stay there.

Ride in the peculiar boat called coracle or puttu was special. It was a round boat which could carry maximum of six passengers. It needed some extra skill to push that boat through the waters in a particular direction. The boat-owner took us close to a smaller fall and made us feel the water. We all were wet and there was quite a lot water in the boat too. But it was a great experience. Then he took us to a small beach close by. After seeing the place we decided to stay for a while in exchange of extra money and enjoy in running water. We played in the running water for almost an hour. It was really fun being in that clean cold water with the group.

We set to depart at 2.30 pm. As we had not taken our lunch, we decided to stop roadside on NH-7. We prepared sandwiches and had cold drinks. Then we went atop a small hill close by. View from the top of it was breathtaking. We enjoyed ourselves throughout the trip and reached to the outskirts of Bangalore around 7 pm. And then it started to rain !! Traffic became really slow and crippled badly. We could barely move our car for an hour. After wasting 2 hours to traffic we could finally reach home at 10 pm. In all, it proved to be an exciting trip- full of fun.

Stupendous run: Cheers Team India

Nobody expected them to do it, not even the firmest believers of unexpected events. Team India, powered by SIX SIXES of Yuvraj Singh set mountain like target for the British. Though they bowled badly, yet the English could not get the target. That was some fantastic batting from Indians. Now they had one more hurdle to cross which seemed even bigger. They had to beat tournament favorites South Africa to get into the semi-finals. Now it almost seemed impossible that they could get past Africa who have so many powerful hitters and a deadly bowling attack. The belief only strengthened when Indians were restricted to just 153 of 20 overs. They seemed on the verge of exit.

But then an amazing display with ball and south africa were 5 down within 6 overs !! Then it seemed like they had done it. Just then Morkel and Boucher reminded of worst of India's problems of not getting the lower order wickets soon enough. Fortunately this time, a bad shot from Boucher saw the ball hitting stumps after taking an inside edge. South Africa were so badly ht by the blow that they suddenly shifted their focus to getting into semis by getting 126 runs. But the destiny was somewhere else. They failed and could not even get 126 in 20 overs. It was the worst ever chase by South Africa which i have witnessed.

Some impeccable bowling saw India reaching into Semis. Now comes the biggie. They have to get past the unbeatable Aussies to get into Finals. But in this shortest form of cricket everything seems a reality. With every Indian player putting his best efforts, beating Australia seems a reality. Australia have a deadly record in the big matches whoever the opponent is. We can only hope that it's different this time. These younger Indians deserve to be their in the Final. Cheers Team India.

I hope you will make it there. Best of Luck :-) !