Shivanasamudra Falls Biking

Shivanasamundra Falls: 14th Sept 2014

“The Gravity of Adventure could only be felt when one does it the way it has to be done”

Well the same thing goes with Bikes and a new destination. Whenever a trekking event comes up at BTC all you want to do is join all and go for all. I wanted to opt for the Saturday Medical Camp on 13^th Sep. Office people didn’t allow. So I registered for a biking event. The Destination: Shivanasamundra Falls.

This was my second biking event. The first event was grand and royal kind and the ride to Shivanasamundra was more of a caravan - gypsy culture of exploration. Yes this was indeed our Day of Thunder.

Deep, I and Swateek started from our meeting point at 4:45 am. The point of meeting was 6:00 am at RajaRajeshwari Medical College at Mysore Road. We reached there at 5:20 am and fifteen minutes later Chaitanya and Sreedevi joined us. For next 20 minutes we had no one else other than 5 of us with our three bikes. It was 6 am and there was no sign of rest of 9 players. Chaitanya hit the hooter saying next five minutes we would wait or else we would leave. “Biking event with 3 bikes” as I thought of these lines I saw one more bike nearing us.  Luckily as we started to go we saw the other 10 bikes in and this happened within 7 minutes. Meanwhile we had our rules and regulation updates by Chaitanya.

To talk about destination Shivanasamundra, is an island town on the banks of Kaveri River and precisely well known for the two water falls Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. Both water falls are around on 8 km from each other. There is a Hydroelectric Power station.

We started at around 6:15 am with altogether, 14 biker and pillion. I remember in the mail from Chaitanya, our event organizer saying “Don’t expect good roads”. The advisory became my experience. My last biking was on tarred, marked and well engineered 4 lane roads. The last time was on national highway this time it was state highway and village streets. We had road sometimes tarred, sometimes muddy and unconstructed and countless lanes as any vehicle would make their own lane. Mysore road is notorious for rash driving, speeding and of course accident and deaths. The journey from RajaRajeshwari Medical College to the destination Gaganachukki fall was one ride to remember.

As we started, tailing one behind another the riding experience became more challenging. There were speeding trucks, state buses who thinks they are the only one should be on roads, private LMV who seems to think they are on F1 circuit. And of course there were the bullock carts, cows, herds of sheep’s and goats and whole lot of animal and husbandry on the streets which the rider had to dodge and risk of making way. I also feel humble to these animals as somehow we too have taken their space of walking.

On the way after around 45 minutes ride we waited to have tea and there we had our round of introduction. Yogesh, Shekar, Sharath, Raghavendra, Swateek, Chaitanya, Shree, Bhaskar, Deep, Upadhi, Gaurav and me were the Biker & Pillion for the day. I remember Chaitanya saying please don’t get disappointed if you don’t see water fall at the destination. My face dropped from 6 feet to zero gravity. He just said enjoy the ride and that’s what biking event is meant for, to boost our moral. Shekhar had an excellent idea that next time we would go with a tanker.

We had breakfast in Kanakapura around 8 am. The breakfast served at small street hotels has its own taste of simplicity. For the first time I had “Set Dosa” and tasted “Thate Idli”.

Around 10 am we reached the peak of Gaganachukki water fall. Since it was Sunday the place was crowded. The first thing, we just rushed to see through the mesh fence is that there is water and enough flow to say we saw the fall. Yes it was in tonnes and roaring. Gaganachukki water fall can be viewed from the Darga Hazrath Mardane Gaib side and other from Shivanasamundra. It’s preferable to watch the fall from Shivanasamundra. There are multiple levels constructed to view. This fall is restricted to people to venture in so we just clicked picture. The falls was awesome and delight to watch. But something that is necessary to say is that the place is completely unmaintained and we could see garbage all over. The other view point to the Darga has to be covered by 25 minutes ride from Gaganachukki. But this view has nothing much to offer. The cleanliness and garbage is also the issue. We spent most of our time at the Shivanasamundra view and then we started for Bharachukki which approximately 8 km from the Shivanasamundra point.

Bharachukki was awesome experience. The ride of 130 km was about to take a new fun. From the mesh barricades I could see the fall at its best and as we were told, here we can venture into the water if given permission by police. From peak to reach the base of the fall we need to take steps. As we walked down the hill I could see many people soaked feet’s and drenched hair and that gave us a hint that we can be in water. As we approached the base of water the view was amazing. The temperature had changed. There was water sprinkles in the atmosphere caused by the fall. And there was this coracle. The crowd was again high here and everyone was in water. We decided to go for coracle first. This was my second coracle ride. But this was my best experience under the fall.  The tiredness just went off with the splash of water and under the open sky surrounded all four side with water was the day that was made for us.

Later me, Upadi, Swateek, Deep, Gaurav and few others went to the other side of the fall and just played inside the water. Struggling our feet’s through the stones and water flow we just had a blast for another 40 minutes. Around 1:30 pm we started to walk up and start our ride back to the Bangalore.

Back on the peak we again had pictures taken and half of the day was just over talking, freaking and enjoying. We had our lunch around 3 pm and I just couldn’t keep myself awake. Somewhere we all were struggling not to sleep. After lunch we started our ride back to Bangalore and had our feedback session at a tea stall.

I had an awesome and charging day with all the other 13 bikers. And I want to thanks Deep to take me his pillion. Thanks Chaitanya to organize yet another memorable day with loads of fun and frolic. Thank you all. 

Written By      : Sunita Nair

Organized By  : Chaitanya Kumar Adusumilli

Date of event : 14th Sept 2014

Place              : Shivanasamudra

Pictures         : BTC FB Page