Bike Trip to Shivanasamudra falls – Gaganachukki and Barachukki Falls
Location: Chamrajanagar district
District Headquarter: Chamrajanagar
Distance: 135 km from Bangalore
Journey time: Around 2.5 hrs
How to reach there: KSTDC tour package, break journey on KSRTC buses and Private vehicle. However, if you want to take bath in the falls and spend more time then you should hire a private vehicle.
Route: 1. Bangalore – Mysore road – Muddur – Malavalli – Shivanasamudra
2. Bangalore – kanakpura road – kanakpura – Malavalli – Shivanasamudra
Where to stay: No place to stay
Where to eat: Restaurant at Gaganachukki (food is decent)
Language spoken: Kannada, Hindi
Best time to visit: July to October
What to See:
Shivanasamudra falls is also known as bluff. Here, the first hydro electric power station of Asia was commissioned in 1902. Electricity from here was first supplied to Kolar Gold Field (KGF) making it the first town in Asia to use electricity. Shivanasamudra falls is formed by two branches of river cauvery. The eastern branch forms the Barachukki falls and the western ranch forms the Gaganachukki falls.
Team members: Deepak, Arvind, Avnesh, Srinivas, Dilip, Hemanth, Rajesh, Jeet
I always emphasis that for any trip, one should leave early. However, on many occasions we miss on that. This time we agreed to leave 6 am but by the time we left Bangalore it was almost 9 am. We lost precious 3 hours for which we could not explore anything apart from the falls. But no disappointemnt though as bath at Barachukki falls was an amazing experience.
We all met at Domlur layout and then went on to have break fast at Shanti Sagar there. As we passed Bidadi, it was time to zip. At Muddur took left for malavalli. I suggest you look for yellow boards which displays the distance of tourist destinations for direction. After riding through winding roads and photo shoots in between, we reached the front gate of Gaganachukki water falls where a hydro electric project is in place. I visited the hydro electric project in 2004 but these days people are not allowed inside. Once you pass the gate, you will have to ride for another 3 km to reach Gaganachukki water falls.
Gaganachukki has ample parking space for both two wheelers and 4 wheelers. Here you can see river Cauvery split into two streams and cascading over the rocks from a height of around 98 meters. As walk near to the falls, your ears will be buzzing with roaring sound of the gushing water and wind. For best view, decent through the steps to the watch tower. On the other side of the falls you can see the powerhouse in the gorge. There is a dargah called Darga Hazrath Mardane Gaib behind the Gaganachukki falls. This dargah can visited while visiting Barachukki falls which located around 10 km from Gaganachukki falls. One word of caution, do not try to climb down from this side towards the falls, it can be fatal. On the way one can see catchment areas of river cauvery.
At Barachukki one has to descend around 150 – 200 steps to reach the falls in the midst of woods. After reaching the base area, one has to be careful as our pre – historic friends will be waiting to pounce on your bag. I suggest you keep your bag on the stones near the falls shore and go for bath. However, be careful as the water bed is full of rocks, so do not try diving and swimming. This falls is more happening than Gaganachukki falls. After playing in the water for sometime, I told Deepak, may be we can explore the falls on the right side. Soon we went little upstream and crossed the stream to the reach the base of the amazing falls. Be careful while crossing stream as stones at places may be slippery. This place is just wonderful with the gushing water, rocks and woods. The water bed here too is rocky, but as you go towards the plunging water you can find some sandy area beneath your feet. Deepak took the lead in climbing the rock to taste the fast moving water. Soon I followed as it was too good to miss. On the cliff, as I sat the high speed gushing water bombarded my back. What a massage it was! Such a nice place, nobody was in a mood to leave. However, we decided to leave so that Hemanth and Dilip can come here and have sometime.
At the base camp, we decided to go for coracle ride. This guy charges Rs 100 for upto 4 people. He took us just besides the falls where we could literally feel the water of the falls. Amazing feelings and view when you could see the falls from right below.
We left Barachukki falls around 5 pm. The ride was little synchronized as night descended and further more my cell phone was out of charge. Riding through dark night and woods was a feeling in itself. Hemanth was switching off head light of the bike to check how dark it was – it was complete dark. At Muddur we took a break at Cafe Coffee Day. After a cup of Cuppachino, we were back on the roads. On the way we again met all the other partners. Reached bangalore by 10.30 pm and went straight to Green Onion at Residency Cross road to have food. Reached home by around midnight.
