09.09.2012..... I plan a trip to Hogenakkal falls to Tamil Nadu and my faithful travel partners Debanjan, Abhisek and the latest addition to our small travel team Joydeep (Joga), an enthusiast in his own terms, choose to go by the plan. And my plans never fail.... They don't .... No matter what, I manage to come out unscratched.... A meticulous planner, you must think..... But I am just as erratic .... On the very day, we reach Majestic at 9.00 am and start haggling over the rate of car.... This time we were joined by Mayuk, Abhisek's friend, and thus the total head-count was five. Hence, an Indica was not enough and consequently we had to scourge for bigger cars and the negotiation was naturally more time-consuming. After commendable hard-work we settled for a Xylo which literally burnt unfathomable crevices in our pockets. Each of us had to part with a luxurious thousand and a hundred (including seven hundred and fifty (750) bucks they take for cars to cross the Karnataka Tamil Nadu border (small cars have to pay around five hundred) and numerous toll taxes and parking fee). After almost four hours ride we reach our destination. And Coracles await us with their seemingly patient facades (A Coracle ride will cost you another grand thousand).
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| Coracles queue up |
Our first destination is Tamil Nadu falls..... An ethereal beauty meets my eyes ..... But I must mention here that the spot has been commercialized to the pinnacle of the word and everything you do will require you to pay.... To get an eagle view of the falls from a nearby watch tower you have shell out three rupees.
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| Tamil Nadu Falls |
And then continues our journey in the coracle. As we are on our way to board the coracle once again, I stop by to shot this exquisite sight where coracles appear like minuscule dots.
On our way we get an overdose of Kollywood facts from our driver Suresh. It seemed every Tamil movie was shot there. And it seemed that Suresh had seen the 21st century God... You-know-who..... Ok no prize for guessing...."Rajnikant"..... Out of all the movie names that he tried to feed us we got only one..."Raavan".....
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Myself enjoying the coracle ride
And we saw the spot from where a ravishing Ash fell oh-so-gracefully in the song "Behne de...." I had direly wanted to visit the place the very first time I saw the movie, and I could not believe my luck. The other story that enthralled us was that of Veerappan (I think you have not forgotten the leanest robber in the history of time with all his muscles in his facial hair) who used to live in the jungles about this place and he had been encountered somewhere there itself . Now the whole Raavan story fell into place....
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From left to right myself, Abhisek and Joga in coracle
We halt at another place where we get hold of Bengali's delight and yeah fish I am talking of. We see fishermen doing their job and the smell of freshly fried fishes come wafting by....
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| Fishermen about their business |
And we could not help but order fish fry.... We had to wait for it and the wait was worth it. Small fishes 10 rupees and big fishes a paltry twenty....
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| Posing while waiting for the fish |
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| Our fish getting processed |
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| Fish being fried |
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Woman of the day award goes to her
After our fish is ready we parcel it and start-off for our next destination. We see Suresh climbing up with the coracle before us.
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My partners in crime
On my way I could not resist capturing some typical Hogenakkal huts. This B/W version is one of my favorite shots.
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And we start for our final destination, "Hogenakkal Falls" which is also called the Niagara falls of India because of its appearance. Suresh prepares for the final go.
And we reach our destination after paying five rupees at the bridge foot. By then we were tired of giving money for anything and everything. The beauty that unfolded soothed our burnt pockets somehow.
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| Hogenakkal falls in all its might |
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| Debanjan and myself |
And once the coracle ride is over we had tea and alighted our car. On our way we bite our way into the M .... M for McDonald's.......And ends another eventful trip with the hope of the next one ....
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