1 day trip to Shivasamudra falls

19th July 2009
On a beautiful Sunday morning, Ruchi, Manpreet and I headed out towards BTM to join Raffi, Elango and Sowmya on our way to Shivasamudra falls. Unfortunately, something came up at the last minute, so Sowmya could not join. Environment friendly beings that we are, we decided to take just one car even though it would be a little uncomfortable for 5 of us in one car.
Check out the video below...


We decided that Raffi and I would do all the driving – to prepare us for the GDC drive! Sometimes Raffi does back-seat driving that irritates me and I wanted to make sure he doesn’t do it. But I must say he did not do it and in fact even appreciated my driving!

Raffi was driving in the morning and decided he wanted to prove his friend wrong who said Indica cannot do 140 Km/hr. He jammed the pedal, hit 140 and took a pic of the speedometer at 140! We all cheered him but immediately asked him to slow down. Did not want to get into any mess before the GDC trip. Breakfast was at Kamath. We tried their breakfast buffet. Had heard a lot about it and it lived up to our expectation. You must try it if you get a chance.

On the way, Ruchi taught us a game called “coffee-potting”. One person is the den and the rest of the people decide on one verb that ends in “ing” – present continous tense. The den can then ask several questions to the rest such that the answer can be yes / no / maybe. Based on these he has to guess the word. She also taught us other games called “Psychiatrist” and “Limerick”. They were so much fun that time passed quickly and we reached our destination.

Because of the good monsoons, there was a lot of water, and the Gaganchukki falls were in all their splendour! The water was gushing with so much power, the foam went up several feet. Several monkey were monkeying around and one hung on to its mom’s belly while she was moving around. That was a good camera moment. We then went to Barrachukki falls, which were even more beautiful. Standing there amidst the greenery on one side and waterfalls on the other, was spiritually uplifting. All of a sudden, it started pouring and all of us got drenched in the rain! Crouching behind a bush and sipping tender coconut water while shivering in the rain was our way of having fun!


Our next stop was Talakkad, but I must say that the road to Talakkad is BAD, to say the least. We pay so much tax money and this is what we get – disgusting! Anyways, our games made the journey interesting. We were hungry but didn’t find any decent place and we wanted to get back to good roads before dusk so kept driving. Junk food kept us going – my stomach is still misbehaving! But on reaching the place, we felt it was worth the drive. The place was so beautiful! The river was swollen and one fourth of the trunks of all trees were in water. We took a coracle ride and the boatman took us in between the trees. The water was still, trees all around, birds chirping, and the splash of water when the oar went in – one must be there to feel it. It cant be described in words. We just sat still for a few minutes to enjoy the moment. The coracle ride was so much fun, that at the end of it, we asked the boatman for one more ride! And this time around, we took tea and coffee along with us. Sipping garma garam chai while on a coracle ride with friends – now that’s how we like to live life!

I was at the wheel on our way back, and what we feared happened - we got a flat tyre. Luckily the stepney was in place and Raffi changed the tyre in 6 minutes! We timed him and even captured it as a video on our camera, But the lighting is not proper. After dinner at Maddur Tiffany (reminded me of Audrey Hepburns “Breakfast at Tiffanys” – though this place is nowhere near that!), we headed back. A fun trip that was.

How to reach?
Route 1 - Through Kanakpura Road - 116 Kms
Route 2 - Through Mysore Road - 126Kms
We took Mysore route.

Our next trip – river rafting on the Seetha river at Agumbe on 1st & 2nd August.