Hogenakkal Trip

About the place and How to reach
Its 150Kms south of Bangalore. Go till Hosur. From there, actually two routes you can take. One diverts right from Hosur. Other is to go till Dharmapuri, from there to Pennagram and then to Hogenakkal. The first route will be most suitable if you are going by bike/car. The later is most suitable if you plan your journey by train/bus. But this is also very good if you are a fast driver. NH is so good till Dharmapuri. Don't know the condition of the former road. In case you are coming by own vehicle try a different route to hosur while going back, other that the one you took for coming

Try reaching there by afternoon so that you can cover most of the places and come back peacefully unlike we did. Hire a boat. Bargain as much as you can with the boat people. Most probably they'll charge you 200 per head. But bring it down to 100. There are 2-3 waterfalls, cover all of them. Witness the sunset. Photos taken during the sunset time will definitely be good. Be careful with the boat ride. The river is a bit on the swifter side. If possible carry some spare clothes so that you can bath in the water.

Moreover you get some delicious fish which is fried and given to you on the spot. Try out that also.

My Experience
Hogenakkal is a place on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. I have already went to this place with my classmates once, when i was in college. I revisited it again after settling in Bangalore. Actually this was the first trip from Bangalore. And moreover one of my most unplanned and hence one of the most enjoyable and adventurous trips.

We went last year in October. That time we had no bikes since we just moved into Bangalore. All we had was a map which connects Bangalore and Hogenakkal. I was an amateur in organizing trips at that time. We left at 10am hoping we can cover 150 kms within afternoon. We, a group of 7, caught a bus from majestic stand to Salem and took tickets to Dharmapuri. It was a bit sunny day and due to the usual bangalore traffic, it took more than one hour to get away from the city. The bus was so slow, it reached hosur, stopped for a long time, it continued again slowly, reached krishnagiri, and again stopped for a long time. In the mean time we had a small nap.

After Krishnagiri, dont know what happened, the bus suddenly stopped. People were off their seats cursing the bus people. We woke up from our sleep only to find that our bus hit a lorry's back which was going in the same direction. The impact however was very less, but the front glass completely collapsed.

We had to catch a new bus to dharmapuri, but this one didn't go through the highway. But the route was very good which was filled with rural beauty except for the fact that temperature was too high and we barely got some seat in the bus. Finally it reached dharmapuri. We had lunch from there and took the bus to pennagaram after lot of enquiries with the locals as of how to reach hogenakkal. We reached pennagaram only to realise there was direct bus from dharmapuri to hogenakkal. But somehow after all frustrating and unfortunate incidents, a bus from pennagaram took us to hogenakkal. It was around 6pm when we reached there most of the tourist were departing while we were just starting our adventure.

We hired a rower and told him to hurry things so that we can cover as much as possible before sunset. But we had time only to see one water fall, then it was dark and he told he cannot take us anymore.






The return journey was even more hectic. There was only one bus to dharmapuri which was the last one that day and there was an army of men women and children squeezing through the two doors. First time i knew those villagers were more stronger than us. But somehow we got the seat and god knows how we reached dharmapuri in that tightly packed cabin. We had dinner and at around 10pm we got the bus to bangalore. There also the seats were of high demand b'cos of which most of us has to stand till hosur. At last we reached bangalore at 2am.