Place: Hogenakkal Fall, Dharmapuri Dist
Background: "Hoge" in kannada is smoke and "kallu" mean rock... So the name indicates smoking rocks... After going there, you will feel that for sure...
What to see there: A beautiful falls.. Some say it as Indian Nayagara. Actually its not one fall, but there are lot of falls. This is a border between Tamilnadu and Karnataka. So people call those falls as Tamilandu falls and Karnataka falls. And main thing to see is Karnataka Falls only. They call it as Main falls.
How many Days: Just a day trip from Bangalore
Total Distance: Depends on route you take. I took NH route and it came total 350KM up and down.
Route: There are mainly 3 routes which people take... I took the First one as I don't know tamil and don't want to take any risk on the way....
Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Pennagaram - Hogenakkal
- Owesome 4 lanes NH road. U can go at 140 speed also
- ~175km
Bangalore - Hosur - Rayakottai - Palakkodu - Pennagaram - Hogenakkal
- 2lane ok kind of roads...
- ~160KM Route-3:
Bangalore - Hosur - Denkanikottai - Anchetti - Hogenakkal
- This is also 2 lane road but here and there road is completely damaged.
- Hilly road and hence u cannot go in super speed but can catch up good views
- ~120km
Bext Time to Visit: Its all depends on what you like... This place is always hot and during summers it reaches 40s. During dry summer, the water will be less but you can enjoy a coracle (in kannada we call it as theppa) ride from bottom of the falls. They will take the coracle near to falls. And also can swim in river anywhere you want. But water fall will be very small and may not look that great. During winter, there will be huge water flow and you can see gigantic flow. It will be really scary to see that flow standing near to falls. I went in winter, so read below story for more details....
Story Begins....
Just few days back we decided and with bit of research on routes and climate on net we planned for trip. Actually from past few weeks we heard from newspapers and from few friends that water is more and falls will look great now.
Finally on Saturday morning woke up early at 5am and prepared our breakfast and lunch and packed it(In fact my mom and wife did it, i was sleeping till 7am). Started our Journey at sharp 7:30am. Many people told that hotels will be very bad in this route and you will never get hygiene food anywhere. So we planned to take our food packed. You can get few good hotels like Kamath, MecD, Anadh Bhavan, Coffee day, and few big hotels between Hosur to Krishnagiri. After Krishnagiri, you don't get any hotels. So full your tummy before you reach Krishnagiri.
Reached Hoganekkal at sharp 11am. Place was bit hot. I can't imagine how hot it can be in summers. From 3km to this places, at-least 4 places they collected toll fee, I just paid everywhere as i don't know Tamil to ask why. We tried reading all boards to find out where to start. This is a big issue with every traveler who reached there as there is no proper guidance and you have to know Tamil to ask some body. Finally we figured out a start point.
First went to Coracle place. They charge 150 each person and min of 6 people in one Coracle. We were of 4 and we didn't want other to come in our Coracle and hence booked full 6 seats and paid 900. Remember you cannot go to Karnataka falls with out Coracle. so to visit main stop you have pay this amount. As per them this amount is just to go near Karnataka falls and come back but they don't wait there. But for swimming the best place is near Karnataka falls. So we gave another 300Rs for extra waiting of 1hour. They charge a lot for everything. There is no proper office room or ticket counter. Each boat fellow charges his own price. So bargain a lot. Some boat drivers come to your parking place itself and starts asking you for ride. Ask everyone for their prices. Some kind of rules and a proper tickets should come to make this place more traveler friendly. And important thing is you should know Tamil to get good price. Note that the drivers know all languages but they don't speak it so be careful while talking near them.
Finally after a lot bargain, we started our journey in Coracle. He took us to some place in a river for just ~300 meters. There is a tower where you can watch entire view of all falls.... Can you a find water falls at the end.. that is where the main attraction lies... During Summer when water is low, they take the Coracle in the river that you see and they take near to all falls.. For now water current is heavy and we have to ride above the falls only.
From there you need to walk for at least 1.5km to reach Karnataka Falls. So keep your bag less for this ride. The Boat guy also lifts his Coracle and walk this distance. That is why they charge more. The money you give is not for efforts of riding. Total ride will be just 1-2KMs.
Finally reaching Karnataka falls, all our pain in walking is gone. That was a beautiful, gigantic view. You cannot take your sight of it... Your jaw will drop... Very scary also... You can walk very near to falls and have a down view of falls which is bit risky. After seeing this falls, my mind calm down as I was thinking, "what is there that great to see here" till that time.
Took few snaps and enjoyed the place for some time. Then boat journey started again where he will take some place in river where the depth is just 2-3 feet and sand base. There you can swim and spend more time. Don't dress-up again as there is one more place to get drenched... After swimming returned to the start point in Coracle. It was a small but a nice ride...
Now comes second spot - Hanging bridge. View from Bridge is very beautiful as you see heavy river flowing under you.... After crossing bridge you get some more beautiful views of other falls...
All this completed by 2pm. Its not complete yet... One more important thing to do in Hoganekkal is pending.... That is "OIL MASSAGE" . Near the Hanging bridge you can see lot of people with blue dress and oil bottle with them. They charge 100 per person. You will enjoy the Massage for sure... It pains but after feel will be great and refreshing....
Once you have massage done, there is a small water falls where you enjoy the gushing water. Water force was very high and it will almost throw you away. They have put some grills so that you can support on it and enjoy the force of water.... Spent another half an hour here and had a great lunch. Note that food is very bad there. If you are a fish lover then you will get lots of shops to eat fresh fishes... But cleanliness is last thing they follow.
By this time was 5pm, we are done with trip and back to Bangalore with nice trip and reached around 8:30pm.
Thanks for reading... Comments please....
