My Life On Two Wheels: Ride to Mekadatu

When: 11th Aug 2012.

Destination: Mekadatu, Chunchi waterfalls

How and who all are: Myself(Apachian), Avinash(Apachian), Arun(Apachian), Harsha(Fazer), Vidyasagar(Centro)

Odometer reading: 250Kms.

Route Map: Bangalore - Kanakapura road- Kanakapura - Sangama - Mekadatu - Chunchi falls - Bangalore

Short n Sweet description about trip:

Mekadatu is probably the last tourist destination of the cauvery basin on the Karnataka side. Once the cauvery crosses it enters into TamilNadu at Hogunekkal. Mekedatu is a dangerous, fast flowing, and scenic water spot.One of the must visit place around bangalore and along the Cauvery river. :)

To reach Mekadatu one must cross Sangama.Sangama is the place where river Arkavati merges with Cauvery.

Travelogue:

This trip was very special to me, as three more bikers have joined into our Bikers group and our group size increased to 5 :). Let's welcome Arun(Apachian), Harsha(Yamaha Fazer) and VidyaSagar( Centro).

As per plan we assembled at NICE road- electronics city toll gate around 8'O clock, after a small intro about each other, we have started our journey to Mekadatu.
The route was pretty clear. Bangalore - NICE road(Kanakapura road) - Kanakapura - Sangama - Mekadatu.

There are two routes available from B'lre to reach Mekadatu.

B'lre - Mysore road - Ramnagara - Kanakapura - Sangama(Mekadatu) - 119Kms
Bangalore - Kanakapura road- Kanakapura - Sangama - Mekadatu - 90Kms

Within 10mins we've reached Kanakapura road via NICE road and filled our empty stomach before entering into Kanakapura town. The route was pretty good till Kanakapura. Even though it was State highway, after crossing Kanakapura, roads were single lane and narrow as most of the road goes through villages.

After crossing Kanakapura keep a eye on left side, as you can hardly find a sign board which shows the route to Sangama. After taking left turn Sangama(Mekadatu) is 30Kms far. This stretch was perfect for bikers, Curves makes bikers go crazy... Last 10-15kms road is filled with enough unexpected curves to full-fill bikers requirement ;). While crossing one of such curve, we noticed one guy from other group met with an accident. So bikers be carefull while riding the last 10-15kms.

By 10.30 we've reached Sangama. "Sangama - A temple on banks of Arkavathi river added beauty to the place". As I could see another river merging into Arkavati the background hills near by merging place mesmerized me. Our destination was not Sangama, it's mekadatu. Here we need to cross river by taking coracle ride to reach otherside.

Temple at Sangama on the banks of Arkavathi river

Coracle ride to cross Arkavathi river

Arun and Harsha

Merging of Arkavathi and Cauvery river happens here

As we crossed river, we have noticed a Bus of Malgudi days :) Yess!!! with the cracked windows, teared seats, holes on the roof made me think about Malgudi days :)
but the ride by bus was awesome, as it was mud road, at some places we have to balance ourselves not to fall on others as the road was uneven. After a 40mins of journey, atlast we reached "Mekadatu".

Sagar sitting at Driver position and Avinash @ Cleaner position... :) :)

As we got down form bus, I could see Monkeys welcoming us. Guys be carefull with Monkeys. If they find you holding some eatables, then they will treat you like best buddies and will roam around you till you feed them :)

As we started walking towards spot... Ah yeah there she was eagerly waiting for my arrival !!! It's Cauvery. We took some rest at the sit out and started to descend the rocky steps.

Here are the snaps of Mekadatu

Cauvery river flow

The force of the water was simply terrifying, the thunderous roar of the water hitting the rocks could be heard while walking itself.
We explored entire place and chosen a perfect place to have a best view of Cauvery river. The power of water could notice by looking at natural stone sculptures. After walking further we reached the final tip of Mekedatu where the water splits by hitting a boulder on which we were happily sitting.

Myself

Vidyasagar

As Avinash trying some clicks

Arun- Is it perfect??

We have spent almost 2Hrs there and since we have to cover "Chunchi Falls" which is near by Mekadatu, said good bye to mekadatu and reached Sangama.
had our lunch in one n only restaurent of Sangama and started to Chunchi falls.

Mekadatu to ChunchiFalls:
ChunchiFalls are 15-20kms far from Mekadatu on the way to Kanakapura. By the time we reached Chunchi falls it was almost time for sun to settle down. We suppose to trek for some distance to reach Chunchi falls. As we started trekking, we couldn't find a sight of waterfalls and not even heard the sound of falls. After trekking for 20 mins, we could see a stream of water falling out of Pond .. ;) WTF!!! for namesake we have spent sometime till sun settle down completly to west and started back to Bangalore.