Shivasamudram: A photo trip

It was Easter. And a long weekend. This gave me and my friend Alvin a great reason to venture out for our much delayed "photo-trip", agenda being to visit a nearby place with camera in tow so that we could enjoy a short road trip as well as get plenty of stuff to photograph. So after a lot of speculation, we zeroed in on Shivasamudram falls.

The falls are in the Mandya district of Karnataka, and about 130 odd kilometers from Bangalore. We figured it'd take us about 3 hours (one way) to reach the place, giving us ample time to take a lot of photographs.

On the Saturday morning that we were to travel, I broke my 55-200mm lens as you can read here. It left such a bad taste that momentarily I even thought of canceling the trip! Anyway, after getting our directions from Google Maps, we set off. The two of us and my ever faithful Alto.

The route Google advised us to take led us through NH 209, all the way through Bannerghatta Road. Well, tell you what. Avoid this route. Period. We took this route all the way till Bannerghatta, got lost about thrice in that circle, and finally reached the Bannerghatta National Park. It was sweltering, and losing directions wasn't helping. Even with the AC blasting away eating into my stock of expensive premium petrol! The map by Google asked us to go straight on Bannerghatta Road - all the way. Or maybe we read it wrong I don't know. But we were lost because we reached the Bannerghatta National Park unintentionally. Had to pay 15 bucks as entry fee for no reason (well, we didn't wanna be there so it was reason enough!) and that too when we were really short of change (only 500 rupee notes!). Anyway, we left the park and asked for directions again, and were finally shown the right direction: towards Shivasamudram.

The road after leaving the park was fucking horrible! It was so terrible that I had a mind to turn the car around, head back to the Bannerghatta park, shoot some almost-extinct tigers and go home! And the best part, it was a forest where the elephants ruled as was pretty evident from the banners all around us. Except that we had to rely on the images of the elephants because the text was all in Kannada - so much for a "national" park! Both Alvin and I were in agreement that if a car broke down here, even in the daytime, then help and hope would be some things that would be lost rather quickly! After I don't know how long of driving on that pathetic road, we finally reached Kanakpura. From there on, the road was pretty much OK and we reached the Shivasamudram area pretty quickly after that.

Remember that there are two falls that comprise Shivasamudram: Bhara Chukki Falls, and Gagan Chukki Falls. As you near the falls, there is a diversion that comes where you need to take separate roads towards each of them. They are separated by about 10-12 kilometers. We decided to head first for Bhara Chukki as Gagan Chukki looked to fall on our way back. So off we went.

The road towards Bhara Chukki was slightly uphill, and I thought it was very similar to the road to Nandi Hills. The condition of the road wasn't the best, and again there was a dearth of signboards leading to the falls. One would expect adequate pointers to such a favored tourist destination but alas, it was not to be. Anyway, we finally reached the place and parked the car under the burning sun - the parking was an open space and it was void of trees (translates to no shade).

Bhara Chukki falls is like a mini-Hogenakkal. It has a flight of steps which you need to climb down and you reach a small lake sort of thing. It is complete with coracles, which take you on short trips. People then venture out under the falls, play, have fun and all that. But we were too lazy to do that. Especially because of the heat. And because it was so sunny the volume of the falls was not as its peak (like that was rocket science to figure out). Anyway, we took some pictures, stayed a while, and set off towards the next falls: Gagan Chukki.

The road towards Gagan Chukki was much better, thankfully. However, as we entered the colony sort of thing where the falls is located, the guard shamelessly asked for some chaai-paani. What to do, denaa para! The colony was very "colonial", dating back to the Raj days clearly. It was almost 2PM when we reached the falls. And without thinking twice, we headed to the only non-vegetarian restaurant there.

We were lucky. Had we reached the restaurant 10 minutes later then we'd have had to go hungry. Like the group that arrived after us and had nothing but biscuits to eat for lunch. We, thankfully, were in time to order some chicken dishes and some rotis - rice was already over!

After a refreshing lunch, we headed out to check out the fall. Again, because of the summer season the water wasn't as forceful as it is during the monsoons. However, we took our best shot at what was in front of us. In Gagan Chukki, however, the falls are in the opposite hill - there's no coracle ride here. And there are a lot of monkeys around so be careful of what you carry.

It was almost 4PM when we left for Bangalore. This time, we made sure to go via SH 17 - the "normal" route. And did it make a difference! It had taken us about 5 hours to reach Shivasamudram from Bangalore in the morning, and during the return leg it only took us 3 hours. Good roads, or something like it.

We could get a few good photographs so overall, the trip wasn't entirely futile. However, this is not a place I'd recommend to travel all the way from Bangalore and visit. No sir. Sure, if you have nothing to do then please go ahead. But because the place is very near Mysore so if you're headed there, then a detour to view these falls is justified, I feel. But then that's just my two cents.

In the evening, it was beer as usual at BTM. And stuff that I don't wanna share here. Overall, a good ending to a very eventful and also unfortunate (remember my broken lens?) day.