Sangam, Mekedatu & Chunchi Falls

I have to start recording my travels before I start forgetting them…there’s something about travelling…it takes you away from reality, from situations, from circumstances, it’s an escape which humbles you…and that’s why I love to travel especially on road…driving to places unknown…and I don’t like the kind of travel where you have talk or play loud music or get drunk…I just like to be quite…not think about anything at all…travelling where the journey itself is everything…the destination is just incidental…

And so the four of us decided to take a break from the routine, mundane, dreary lives we live and head for this place called “Mekedatu” (means Goat’s Leap in Kannada)…around 95 Kms from Bangalore via Kanakapura…we weren’t as well planned as we are for most of our journey’s…it was mostly impromptu…since Friday night we ended up watching “The Dark Knight” it was almost 2:00 AM by the time we slept…so we decided to take it easy and have a lazy Saturday morning so much so that by the time we left it was almost 11:30 AM…not much traffic on the road and in no time we were out of the city and onto the main NH209 from Bangalore towards Kanakapura…the weather was ideal for the journey…mild sun, lovely breeze and a hint of rain on the horizon…the weather in which trees look greener and the colors more vibrant then usual…

For me the drive is always the best part of the journey…its probably what people call meditating…when you are not thinking of anything…you are your relaxed best…and you just are blissfully unaware of the chaos around…during the journey you have left the world behind you with all its problems and you haven’t yet arrived at the destination where there’s uncertainty…it’s just perfect…in this case the drive was even better…we passed small ponds and fields…picturesque villages with perfect red brick houses where could see people sitting together watching the world go by…kids playing and waving to you as you drive past…you can feel the romanticism in the rustic countryside…the short drive through the ghats is beautiful and if you are careful you can see some beautiful birds along the way…

The road is a fairly straight road with no major turns…it was only past lunch time when we reached “Mekedatu” and realized its right next to “Galibore Fishing Camp”…so the place you reach is called “Sangam” where the rivers Arkavati, Kaveri and a mythical river meet…we parked our car near the bank got down not quite sure what to do next…now, to reach mekedatu we had to cross the sangam… unlike what we had read on the net, there weren’t any corokkals…and I was quite apprehensive…none of us knew how to swim and the water looked quite deep with some small rapids…But J was quite sure that we could cross it…and then it would be a waste not to…so we formed a human chain with J and her stick leading the way followed by D, me and P…the water was the right temperature and you could feel the current…mostly the depth was ok but at some places the water did come up to almost my waist…we managed to cross the river without any eventualities or meeting any stray crocs (yup that’s what the guide says)…now the place we needed to go to was around 4-5 Kms from Sangam…a trek would have been perfect…but we realized that we didn’t have that much time so we decide to hire a jeep…it’s a small path up and the driver was quite skillful…and before I forget we saw a few foxes on the way…I don’t think I have seen a fox before in my life…too bad I didn’t have a camera to take a picture…

when you reach the place nothing quite prepares you for what you see…it’s a beautiful gorge through which Kaveri flows…the stones are so perfectly eroded…beautiful crevices and edges…and its greenery all around…the place is breathtakingly beautiful and serene…you climb down and then climb any of the rocks you can reach…you look at it and think that there has to be something bigger than the world…larger than life…a force we can’t quite comprehend that did this…you almost crawl to the edge of the rocks to get a good look at the river and the rapids and once there you just don’t want to budge… it’s a sublime experience…

we could have sat there forever but the time tied us down and we had to go back…the jeep ride and wading through the sangam…and we were back driving through the ghats…its then we decided to go to the "Chunchi Falls"…a turn from NH 209 and you are in the middle of nowhere…the road is surprisingly good and passes through a few quaint villages…the drive is sheer pleasure…once you reach the falls you aren’t quite sure as to what you are about to see…there was no roar of water so characteristic of a waterfall…I almost thought we should go back…but we decided to trek down having come this far…and it was worth it…the falls themselves are small and not at all majestic…but the whole view was quite scenic so much so that once there you don’t quite want to leave…its straight out of a painting…infact I could imagine the whole landscape in a Van Gogh painting with passionate brush strokes and the vibrant colors…if only I could paint :)

the drive back was almost uneventful except for the last leg…but that’s a story for another day…