I had been to hogenakkal in last week of july..logging my experience..
We, a group of 3, hired an indica car with national permit, as we needed
to pay road tax while entering tamilnadu.
It was around 6 in the morning when we finally reached hosur road.
After a series of toll-booths, we reached dharmapuri by 830am.
We had Idly-vada in a hotel in dharmapuri. It was quite a different taste..
On the way from dharmapuri to hogenakkal, Few huge posters of thalaivar..
Lot of huge statues of Village Gods (aiyyanars) welcomed us..
one more toll before we started to descend a hill leading to hogenakkal.
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| Downhill to Hogenakkal |
On reaching hogenakkal, it was filling a money-pot... parking tolls +
development fees (there will be lot of ppl waitng for this..
i think we paid 15, 20 20 at 3 places till we finally parked)
We walked to the waterplace..where lot of coracle boatman were
waiting for their day ...
First rate: 660Rs/ride; max.6ppl/boat. << this rate is all bribe :(
original cost is 70Rs per head...but we cant help
After lot of bargaining in tamil, we got for 450 + (50 which we paid as tips).
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| The Coracle shells |
I would suggest you to get the life-jacket..they dint give us even on asking...
Then we went coracle boat to another place..(here there will be one more
boatman head) ,we got down and walked down the steps to one more place,
where the boatman carried the heavy boat on his shoulders and brought it
down to the place..
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From there they will take us near the waterfalls..and next towards the
karnataka border. (total duration 45-60 mins in boat)
Near the karnataka border, you can get down on the shore and walk around
for a while..You get freshly prepared meen-sapad..Fish food..plus oil massage for few more hundreds..
The boatman took us near the naturally formed cave-formation..Jaganmohini cave..it was a natural AC there..
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| Jaganmohini Cave |
After the boat-ride, he dropped us off to the place (near the steps).
There is another waterfalls here..We had a refreshing time here.
from here, we walked towards the place, where we got down after the first
coracle ride. met the boatman-head. after telling the boat-number which u
took..we got into one more boat (this is free. initial dealing of boat(660 or
watever) would have included this) to the initial place where we bargained for
the boat.
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| End or the Beginning ..? |
We were back in bangalore by 430pm..
