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.

Kollam-Thenmala trip

-- to be written soon --

Nandi Hills trip

Nandi Hills was one of the shorter trips which i had. Shorter, in terms of distance and in terms of budget. It's around 60-70 kms north of Bangalore.

We were a group of 5. As is in the case with a few other trips, our office in MG road was the common meeting point. 4:00 am was supposed to be the time when all of them converge at MG road, but it was delayed due to some usual obstacles which an average youngster face early in the morning, like waking up, getting ready and so on. At 4:30 four of us reached in 3 bikes. We departed to Mekri circle to pick up the 5th guy. That took an ample lot of time again. and it was almost 5:30 we started from airport road after mekri circle.

Our plan was to witness sunrise from top of nandi hills, but time was too late. We somehow saw the sunrise somewhere on the way at NH-7. We reached the top of Nandi Hills around 7:30 after a lot of photography session on the way. Spent about 2 hours there and then returned to Bangalore.

About the place and how to reach :
From Bangalore, easy way to reach nandi hills is to get into devanahalli which is at the outskirts of Bangalore(around 40kms from MG road) and follow the road(NH-7) to chikballapura. Watch out for a road on your left side which comes after not more than 10kms from devanahalli. There will be a board showing Nandi Hills is 22kms left. That is almost not visible from the highway but be vigilant to notice all roads going left and the presence of such a board. You have to take this road. We stopped here for a while, for a bit of photography. The sunrise we saw, as i have mentioned previously, was from this place. The sunrise pic is on the left. It was too amazing.

Then carry on through the diversion. That is actually SH-104. Drive slowly and enjoy the beauty of nature on both sides of the road and maybe some more snapshots.
If you are a fast driver, you can enjoy even more cos most of the places this road is very straight with almost no traffic. After traveling around 15Kms you'll reach a junction splitting the road into two. Take the left and continue. Now you'll slowly start climbing the hill. Mercury will start to fall. If it's your lucky day you'll have heavy mist which will make it very scenic.


Take pics on the way till you reach the top. You have parking facility at the top. Now take tickets and enter inside the arc, which is the entry to the main place.

Start exploring the place as much as you can. Cos there are lot of detours where you'll be tempted to take both of them. Even I'm not sure whether I've covered all the places, cos its very confusing. But it was so nice there with lot of mist. Some places were so alluring with wet greenery. Probably these pics can give you a fair idea.


The bottom view is also amazing, but for that you'll have to wait a little bit, till the sun attains some power and erase away the mist.


For more pics, visit my orkut/Facebook account

Suggestions :
- Start early so that you reach there around sunrise. Cos i dont think this place is worth watching any other time of the day.
- Bike/car is better suited.
- Most probably you'll finish the trip within 10:00am. In case you want to get engaged the whole day, pls plan some other places along with this.
- While returning, try a different route to reach back to NH-7. Use google maps and explore a new route.