Nomad's trial: Sangama, Mekedatu & Chunchi Falls

Celebrating Rajyotsava-2015 @ Mekedatu & Chunchi Falls

Don’t you think it’s quite weird that on weekdays we struggle to get off the bed even at 8.30am, but on Sundays you get up at 6.00am?

What the heck, I thought. And rolled back to bed, but hardly got any sleep. I started to surf through my FB, Instagram pages suddenly I realized it not just another Sunday but its Kannada Rajyotsava.

It’s on this day back in 2013 when I had trekked with my gang to deviramma hill, I was bitten by the wanderlust keeda. I still remember how I faced life n death situation when 3 of the fellow trekkers or should I say devotees standing on 4 inch projection of a cliff slipped & fell down into the steep & their body wasn’t visible. I just prayed that they are alive somewhere & at sight of ppl who could take them to the base for medical attention.

As I struggled myself to climb the wet & slippery rock, a man at his 40s offered his hand to pull me up. The memories are still fresh, I could hear my heart pounding & my stupid mind thinking that these are the last few minutes of my life. All my beloved ones & their memories flashed by leaving a tear in my eye & the regret of not owning a KTM.

Yes. Really, that was the biggest regret @ that time. Stupid isn’t it???

I was losing the hold of his arm further, I prayed to god to take care of my mom & dad. And hoping that 2 premium old LIC policy will help them big.

Suddenly I heard the man shouting!!! “Innod kai kodappa, bhaya padbeda nan idini” (Don’t be afraid, give me the other hand). He pulled me up & helped the other 2 guys as well. He offered us candies. It was only me & 3 other strangers who were struck in this situation. We helped our way to the top with each other’s support.

November 1^st 2013, minutes to sunrise I realized one thing. Life is a precious gift as we all know but how much time we’ve in it is unknown. So don’t cling to past, do what you’ve to do.

Love life, live life. Know that you are special.

Damn!! That was so philosophical of me. LOL

So I wanted to celebrate the day. We were in coorg last year but this time I had only a day in hand. So I checked with my gang, MORONS. Sureshji, the old man with young blood was free & Pradeep was anyway coming to my place. I just checked on him & asked to leave ASAP. Reddy was in his dreams romancing Kajal Agrawal, I dragged him to reality. And told him about how we two were always out on all Kannada Rajyotsava & this time it should be no different. He checked on his buddy Anil, whom he invited to hangout.

So it was 5 of us Sureshji, Reddy, Pradeep, Anil & myself. But the destination was yet to decide.

I quickly went through the bucket list in my phone gallery. Whenever I come across a beautiful place or anything interesting I just take a screenshot of it in save it in my gallery. It has to be short ride given the fact that we had less time in hand. So I chose sangama- mekedatu to be our destination.

What’s better way than celebrating Kannada Rajyotsava in lap of river Kaveri, Namma Jeeva Nadi.

Plan was to visit Sangama->Mekedatu-> Chunchi falls->Bengaluru.

We all gathered in my place & Sureshji joined us with his ride. It was around 11.40am when we left. We zoomed ourselves out of Bengaluru without facing much of traffic. It’s always thrilling & fun to go on a drive with Suresh Bhai. Man!! This guy got some crazy driving skills. He scares the shit out of you as well as the jay walkers & passing by vehicles.

Team Morons :P ;)

Like Pradi said he should be the driver of F1 team, Force India. He might have clocked a position on podium.

We had two breaks in an hour interval, one for the snacks & other for the tender coconut. It seemed like the milkshake during the snack break was not mixed well. Cuz Suresh Bhai was mixing the milkshake (which was in our tummy) well with his car skills. Everyone threatened him to be slow else, they would throw up in the car. With cracking jokes on balayya, huccha venkat & grooving we reached Sangama.

Sangama is the confluence of two rivers- Arakvati & Kaveri. This is where Arkavati merges with Kaveri & flows as Kaveri. Few kilometres downstream is where the river flows through a deep gorge which is so narrow that its only 10mtrs wide.

Sangama

Legend has it that a goat chased by a tiger, in desperation leaped across these gorges, which tiger couldn’t repeat & abandoned the chase. Hence the name Mekedatu (Goat’s Leap). Given the fact that the point where goat leaped is eroded & widen by river since then, one might believe that goat did take a leap. And it’s also believed that the goat was lord shiva in disguise. There are marks of hooves on the rock bed which are said to be of mythical goat.

We filled our tummy with veg pulao & yummy fish fries & we were ready to explore. To reach Mekadatu, one has to cross the river Arkavati, either by feet (if water level is less) or by coracle ride. They’ll charge you 50bucks per head (to & fro). Mekedatu is around 5-6kms from the other side of the bank. There are two ways here too, one can either walk the path exploring the forest & river bank or just board a bus, which shuttles between Mekadatu & Sangama frequently. First way involves risk of time & encounter of wild animals. We boarded the bus since we had less time in hand..

Coracle Ride

Crossing River Arkavati

Mekedatu - view point

We reached the view point, which is full of caution & warning signs. We had to descend from view point to reach down to the spot. It is a picturesque spot, with rock beds sculpted by the river. The water gushes out with great force.

Water gushing out in great force

Narrow Gorge

There were many mishaps in the past that has taken many lives in this very spot. The water is ferocious & the rocks are slippery, if one slips it will take a minute or two to drown them. But few people ignore this & carelessly walk on rock beds with high on alcohol inviting the trouble. This place suffers the same fate as any other tourist spots- the garbage,broken liquor bottles & plastics.

I always wondered why people had to be high on alcohol, when the beauty of the nature gets you high. These are the places where you need to be very sensible &cautious of ur every step & actions.

We explored the place for a while & took some selfies, groupies before we heard the honks of the bus which had returned to drop another bunch. We ascended our way back & boarded the bus. We crossed the banks & reached our way to parking. It was 5.50PM. We still had to visit the Chunchi falls. We speeded our way to chunchi falls. There are few hairpin curves which gives you a touch of fun & thrill.

The Hooves :P ;)

River Kaveri- Gorge

One has to take a left diversion while coming from Bengaluru, 10-12Kms before Sangama to reach Chunchi falls. It’s at distance of 5km from that diversion, passing through a village. We reached the place at around 6.10PM. It was getting dark already, the sun was gone. All the snack vendors were packing & leaving the place.

The guard there tried to stop us from going but our young man hardly cared & ran his way to view point. We swiftly followed him, there were nobody except us & 2 others. The falls was beautiful, the water cascading from a height of 100ft & splitting into two. We decided to descend & go near the falls. The falls was all milky but the downstream seemed to be polluted, or maybe it was just the mud. We clicked few shots, ascended & hit back to parking spot since it was all dark. Suresh bhai asked one of the vendor to wait for us to be back.

Chunchi Falls

We ordered omelettes for all, during this the guard joined us for a talk. The Guard blamed us for running down at so late & because of us he had to allow other two guys who were yet to return from falls. He said people die because of such stupidity & recently a zoom car involved in an accident killing one & injuring 5 others. If the guy had only listened to locals the car wouldn’t have toppled & he would have been alive. He also mentioned of another waterfall in the premises, had we reached early he would have taken us to that waterfall. We finished our snack & headed back to Bangalore.