Dam trip

Southwest monsoon from June to September is a gift to Karnataka. Western ghats play an important role to maintain the rain clouds. Rainfall in Kaveri basin is good in the year 2018 compared to many years. Dams were filled during early July itself.

Had chance to visit some of these filled reservoirs. People were flocking to see & capture these amazing moments.

Harangi dam

 Chiklihole dam

Chiklihole dam

Gorur dam

Hemavathi water cascading through dam gate and rushing to touch KRS

Krishnarajasagara

Kabini

Nugu dam

Taraka dam

Waterfalls around KaLasa-Kudremukha

We planned a trip to capture best views of waterfalls.

Road side falls.
Balur to Kelagur road

After reaching Kalasa, we had breakfast, packed for lunch and started our drive towards Elaneer.

We parked our car 1km before Elaneer as the road was very narrow and we were not aware of directions.

After talking to few villagers, got to know the right path and soon we reached the village.

Mavinasasi falls view was amazing.

I had kept Taranga article which had come in year 2000 regarding Elaneer and to my surprise i met the same villager who was in the article. We exchanged talks regarding hydro electric stoppage and other topics.

Water cascading down

We climbed up to get the upper view of Elaneeru falls. Water splashing towards camera restricted me to click photos but somehow managed.

We thanked villager and returned back to Samse.

Photo session at Elaneeru falls

We drived towards Kudremukh, i came to know there is restriction by forest department. Like earlier we are not allowed to park vehicles, go around and time restriction has been put between two forest gates.

Kadambi falls was gorgeous due to heavy rains.

Another view of Kadambi falls

Another road side waterfalls

 Entry to Hanumangundi falls is restricted now. Just for the sake of documentation, i have attached picture taken during good old days of my roll camera time.

Old picture of Hanumangundi

Clouds were playing in the valley with rains on-off. It was evening and we returned back to Kalasa for our night halt.

Had dinner at Suprabha hotel and rested.

Next day trip was towards Abbigudige. Hired a jeep and soon started our day.
Bhadra river levels were high due to continuous rains.  At the village and near this stream, we met one villager and were asking route to Abbigudige.

Seeing our interest, he told there is another taller waterfall but it would be tough to make as it was raining.

We convinced him to take us to that place.
My wife & children agreed to stay back at the village. I followed the villager through dense forest, walked in heavy rains, managed many leech bites and in about 20min, we reached the stream. Another 10min along the slippery stream, we were there to enjoy the most serene beauty of the waterfalls. When asked, villager said there is no name to this falls.

This remotest place, unpolluted falls is about 100-120ft height. View was really amazing.

Thanked the villager many times, as he had volunteered to such a beautiful place.

Soon we were back to the village and went towards Abbigudige.

Abbigudige is a small waterfall lying inside private estate and is a perfect place to play.
We took permission of the owner and walked in to the estate.
We took many pictures, my 3 year old daughter enjoyed playing in the waters and finally started our journey back.

Another view of Abbigudige

Beauties of MaaLa (MaaLada Bedagiyaru)

It is good opportunity during this monsoon to visit waterfalls as rains are continuous across Karnataka. When i visited Mala last year, i had thought of planning a trip during monsoon.

We reached Mallaru in the afternoon. It was raining heavily and we had baby & child with us, we didnt want to try finding route on our own. We took auto and requested him if he could help us to show the way to Daanegundi. He agreed and accompanied us.

He parked his auto at Bhat`s house and with 15min walk we were at the falls.

First step of the fall

Second step

We came to know there are further steps to this upstream, but it was difficult to go during monsoon.

We returned back to autostand, thanked him and further continued.

I was surprised to see colour of water. It was bluish white.

We proceeded to Parashurama temple, parked our car there and walked towards Joyisaragundi.

Water was splashing all over, I had tough time to clean my camera.

Next visit was to Kera. Though water does not have vertical fall here, there is sloped gradient.

Closer view

I came to know there is one more waterfalls (HG falls) deep in the forest. I hope to see this soon.

Monsoon magic-1 day 3 waterfalls

Monsoon is back and this time it had started early. I was thinking for one-day trip and started off early morning from Mysore on 14-Jul-2018. At dawn, I was at Kushalnagar and river Kaveri was rushing to touch KRS dam. Had a heavy breakfast and started off to Madikeri.

Continuous rains had captured Kodagu district for more than a week and every stream, river was in full flow. A week back earthquake at Madikeri and Somwarpet had alerted people. Soon off, I left Madikeri and took Gaalibeedu road.

Pit stop at Kootu holey dam was beautiful.

With rain on-off, I reached the last village on this road. Deserted place and school welcomed me. I had to go around to find people for getting directions. I happened to meet Red House home stay and gathered information to reach the falls.

Tea plantations welcomed me, crossing couple of streams I was at a gate. Leeches were waiting desperately to attack and I cleared many of them from my toes & hands. There were no signs or any other indications. Sadly, I had to guess, plastic wrappers lying on the trail would be the way to falls and it was true. Insects and frogs were at their fully joy to scream. In about 20min, I could see the falls from distance. Water was gushing and I was searching for safe place to cross the stream and get closer. With many trials, I made up and got to the falls.

I had to put tremendous effort to keep my camera free from water droplets. I clicked photos, took videos and returned back to school.

I had light snacks and got off to Madikeri-Mangalore road. Took tea break at Jodupal (Abbikolli) falls and reached Koynadu around 2pm.

I got a glimpse of Kalyala falls from the main road. Took the village road and ended at stream.

One the way descending

Bottom stage

I had been to this falls in 2006 and the way to falls I remember was along the stream. But now, there were deep trenches by forest department to keep away elephants. I went to village and requesting Sathish’s help, I could reach falls. Climbing down steep with rain pouring and our path along stream posed us biggest challenge. After 30min, I was at the bottom. I took photos-videos with great difficulty and managed to climb up with some more pit stops for photos. Thanked Sathish and started my journey back.

Continuous rain had made river Payaswini in huge flow. Stopped at Koynadu ganapathi temple, offered my prayers and started my journey. Had dinner at Kushalnagar and reached Mysore in the night.

Shivanasamudra

This trip was unplanned. On a relaxing sunday morning (16-Jul-2018), was having coffee and watching news. We understood KRS dam gates were open due to heavy rainfall.
Started off packing camera and rain suits. At T.Narsipura sangama, we could see line demarking Cauvery and Kabini rivers. Cauvery river was bluish while Kabini river was brown. Due to crowd, there were long traffic jam at bridge. After a long wait, we decided to park our vehicle at some distance and we walked to Gaganachukki view point. It was no doubt that people had flocked to see this amazing sight. Water was gushing into the rocks and we were delighted.

 

We had spicy churmuri, tender coconuts and started to see other side of the river. As anticipated, huge traffic block at the other bridge and after half an hour of wait, we were at Bharachukki falls. Never seen such water flow, enjoyed the beauty, clicked lot of photos and returned back to Mysore.