Hogenakal Falls

When i heard about the name "Hogenakal" i recalled the news about it for the wrong reasons. The border and water issues, the almost death of kannada film "Krishnan Love Story" hero and many others. One of my friend who had read the reviews about it also said that the place is not nice, costly, filled with voilent people, no proper food blaw blaw blaw.. But after i had been there , i really felt bad for hearing those news about such a marvellous place. We would have missed a relly wonderful day if we hadn't been there. Ok, let me come back to the original content about Hogenakal falls

Infront of "Cini Falls" in Hogenakal

Hogenakal Falls is located at around 180 Km frm Bangalore. You have KSRTC buses also to hogenakal. But they are rare .we saw only one bus during our travel to hogenakal. So its better to go in a Tata Sumo or Cab or Tempo Traveller. It not only saves your time and convienient but also helps to see the places on the way like Crocodile Park..(more on that a bit later)

View from the top-near the watch tower

It would be better if you leave for the place early. We planned to leave from Marathhalli(Bangalore) by 7:00. But we managed to leave by 7:30. Thanks to Bangalore traffice. The reason being,if you get late at the Tamil Nadu checkpost (after 8am), there will be huge queue of trucks and you may have to wait for more than 1 hr at check post.Meanwhile, u have to pay 1500 Rupees for the Traveller at the checkpost.For Tata Sumo it may be a bit less , but more or less the same. Its better have breakfast or carry it for the journey as you don't get good food one the way. If you start from Marathalli, it is Marathalli>SilkBoard>Elecronic City> Hosur. Then from Hosur, its 67 km to Hogenakal. Here is the road map.

When we reached hogenakal, it was almost afternoon. On the entrance to the falls, we found many policemen guarding the entrance. we found plenty of hotels also. But thought to feast the eyes first, then treat our stomach. If you like fish, its said to be at its best taste in Hogenakal. Don't worry veggies, it wont bore you too. Mangoes, churumuris, bhel puri and many others to pass time   throught ur journey to the foot of the falls and also in river !! :-) :-)

First, you have to get a boat to go to the foot of the falls. They charge you 150-160 per head or 900 per boat(In a boat 6 ppl). They also provide 2 life jackets per boat and the boats called "Teppa" in kannada are in good condition and no need to worry. They may  say more initially, but agree to this aound this rate.
From the place where you start, you have to get down at one place, from there the boatman takes you to the steep steps, from where real fun begins :-)

Initially you see the shooting spot of Film Roza. Then a big water fall. He takes you under the waterfall. That is really thrilling. (If you go in rainy season, all these things wil be covered by water. And they will show you some new wonders in another route). After that he showed us the making spot of Chandramouli(Chandramouli falls) and 2 more films, of that of hindi film Ashoka and an upcoming film "kashta pattu ishta patte" being released in 3 south indian languages. To learn the names of other films and see the spots, you have to be there only ! :-) :-)

moving to the foot of hogenakal falls

• The more facinating thing about hogenakal is you can go to almost  foot of the falls in boat and enjoy the water splashing on you.
• There will be vendors selling cocunts, biscuits, lays in their seperate boats!!
• There is one photo studio "Shabari" just near the water falls

Last one might be less fascinating although :P . Sometimes boatmen asks you whether he can swirl the boat. The swirling experience is also really good.Sometime he may give you the row to run the boat also(on request). You can enjoy like anything, but be a bit careful as always :) He also shows you the caves created by running waters in rainy season.

In a burrow created by running waters

  After you see the initial falls, you will be taken near karnataka Tamil Nadu border. From there we got to know that u can come to this from the side of mysore also. If you go that side, u can enjoy the places like Male Mahadeshwara betta (at 45 km) and others. You have buses also that way. Near that place only there is a sand shore. At that shore, fish food will be prepared. If you want to enjoy, you can go there and enjoy that too

After that we returned back to the place of steep steps. Near that only there is one more waterfall. U can enjoy that well. you have to cross the waters of waist length to get to that. There are crabs in the water!! But they are of no harm. You will feel like something is biting you if you stand at a place for a while. But no harm from them. And you wont find this also if you keep moving:-)

After that the boat journey almost takes you back to the place you came from. On the way , you can see people getting oil massage. People believe that water here has medicinal values. So Oil, massage is in great demand. But, be careful anyways. After returning to the bank where we started, we thought to see the remaining falls. so we went ahead. Initially you get the seperate bath sections for men and wome. They too are like falls only. But we didnt go there. Went to the left of it. There you have a hanging Bridge. 5/head is the entry fee to cross that. From the top of the bridge you can see the running river at hundreads of feet down.

View from Hanging Bridge of Hongenakal Falls

After you cross the hanging bridge, you can see the Cini falls and then the mini falls. Both are good. You can enjoy many snaks and masla mango and other things on the way here. To bath in mini water falls, again entry fee of 5. We didn't go there and and rested on the rocks there itself. After resting for a while, we returned back to the place where we started. After seeing the falls, you can also enjoy shopping dolls and other things in the street. Ice creams, juices and others need not be mentioned !! As we ate many things near the falls, we were in no hurry to rush to nay hotel. So we came near our tempo.Then went to crocodile park

Mini Falls-Hogenakal

Crocodile Park

It is located around 1.5 Km from Hogenakal falls. Its good. Entry fee is 1 Rs !! You can enjoy the views of many sleeping, walking crocodiles of different ages and sizes. When we entered, a goat was just fed into a cage of crocodiles.. The scene of crocodiles dissucting it and sharing among themselves.. caused nausea in some and interest in many. Then , after that we headed back to bangalore with nice memories of Hogenakal

 Note:One warning to the people with vomitting sensation in ghats. Hogenakal route has lot of curvings and many people get vomitting sensation. So you can rely on Arecanut, lemon or  moreover will power to overcome it :-) :-)