Hogenakkal falls on Honda Activa

On a cloudy Monday morning,staring outside the window,my mind took me through the images of Hogenakkal falls."I need  to go there once",is all that I said to myself.Picking up the phone to see any late night missed calls or messages,I see that my close friend Ditty had called.Last time having met her only for an hour or so when she arrived at Bangalore,we decided this time we'd get our proper leaves and hang out for some more time.
    When I called her back,we fixed on the dates and this time she told me,"Lets go somewhere".Having known her,I knew exactly what she meant,with a big board smile on my face,I suggested Hogenakkal falls.Having told her its some 100kms away,she jumped right in for this idea and that fixed our location for our one day ride.Now all that Ditty,Edwin and I had to do was wait for the 12th of July. :)
    Hats of to Ditty's spirit of traveling,after having traveled in bus for 16 hrs,she was all excited for the ride the same day.We meet up at 11am had breakfast.It was almost 12 by the time we started.No one was complaining about the weather even though we started by noon,because Bangalore is back to her original weather,cool and cloudy.
    Two bikes to take us to our destination.
Edwin:Pulsar 200NS
Shruthi(me): Activa

The route we took was Bangalore->Hosur->Denkanikottai->Anchetty->Hogenakkal falls
The best part of the route is from Denkanikottai->Anchetty.Scenic route.

We totally enjoyed the ride to the falls with few stops here and there.When your riding through roads like this,you have do it once for the love of riding through this place and the second time to capture as many photos as you want to share with the rest of the world to show how beautiful the route is,or try to do both in one ride by taking a video.

Till Denkanikottai,we faced crosswinds and that slowed down our ride tremendously,sometimes I just had to stop or ride at 15-20km/hr,now you can imagine.In this ride I was expecting maybe a bike breakdown worst case,but you never know until you ride.I have never experienced such strong crosswinds before,another riding skill added to my biking adventure.

  I was a scared about how my bike would perform,after the service guys had scared me saying that the bike is of no good,just to get another customer to buy their new bike.I agree the bike is old and might have some issues,but since they couldn't fix a particular problem with the bike,they termed the bike as totally scrap. I took it to myself to know how bad is what they term as "no good".You'll know by the end of this story.:)

From Hosur to Denkanikottai,the road is good,but when you enter the limits of Denkanikottai the roads get superb! Who ever is in charge of those roads,job well done.From Anchetty to hogenakkal the roads go from good,ok,bad and then to worse.A large section of the road is under construction,the roads should be done by this month.After that comes the worst part,luckily riding through some uneven roads of Bangalore I was able to manoeuvre through the rough patches.At one moment when the back tyre of my bike kicked off a stone,it sounded like a puncture,OMG I am dead,I thought for a moment through those lonely roads,no locals for help,I was just waiting for the back tyre to dance around due to the loss in air pressure. Finally the moment of truth arrived,there was no puncture! phew!

When I was riding from hosur,I was eagerly waiting for the small twisties,once past the twisties,I was looking forward to see the river flow alongside the road.Beautiful site.After the bad patch the road condition again turns good till hogenakkal falls.We stopped to head to the river bank.Group of ladies having fun in water even when the govt have put up boards not to enter the river due to small whirlpools being formed around that area in the river.

It was a sight to behold for me to see the mighty Cauvery river flow by,How I wish we had more time to sit on the river bank and just watch the river flow.I really don't remember when was the last time I came this close to a river.Sitting at the lake shore is very different from standing next to a river.Sandy banks and vegetation spread across the land,I just want to go to that place again. We decided to  skip the crocodile park and head straight to see the falls,as it took us to 4hrs 15 mins to reach the falls.Now where did all that time?

This place has some good parking space for vehicles.Good number of hotels too. The entrance to the falls is quiet confusing.There is an one hour coracle ride to the main waterfalls.Due to lack of time we skipped it. From the hanging bridge is where you get to see the other half of the water falls. Too crowded,litter everywhere.I was expecting a miniature version of the Niagara falls,but nothing of that sort.If your going there with a women companion,be ready to play it cool,as unwanted stares seemed to be the trademark of the people there. Just roamed around here and there and then headed back. I personally liked the place were we stopped before we reached the falls,less people and so much more peaceful.

It was 6 by the time we decided to leave.Asked the security for another route,the one I was aware of was through Dhamapuri that links to the national highway.The sunset looked beautiful,but could only take a mental picture of it.We took a wrong turn at one place and when we asked the locals for directions they suggested a different route:Nagadhasampatti->Palacode->Rayakottai->Hosur. Extra 20kms but the road was good.Even though it was only a two way lane with no divider,it was a comfortable 101kms ride home.

Night ride is not exactly my cup of tea.Usually my anxieties increase,my mind goes in a what if this,what if that moments.But even when your own mind is out there to scare you of the different possibilities,I still enjoyed the pitch black night at times, for a moment I was taken so far away from daily grind of life to experience that its just you and your mind and that's all there is to it. :P Family,office and all that you knew were kms away.Just two of my sweetest buddies who would ride behind me till I apply a sudden brake because of the opposite side traffic,only to see my friend Edwin overtake me,literally telling me,we'll be few kms ahead of you :P
   We stopped only once for a small tea break so that my bike could cool down,not that it was overheated,just precautionary measures.After that reaching Bangalore was my only thought.Never once did my baby let me down on this ride.This was the first time I had pushed her to the limits and she performed flawlessly :) :) I somehow felt my bike liked the highways even though she was only meant to ride the city streets.
 We reached Bangalore in just 3 and a half hours with the added kms. Better timing than the onward journey.
One fantastic ride.A big Thanks to Bangalore Bikers for all the suggestions I got from the forum :) The day started well and ended beautifully :)

Happy Days
Shruthi
     






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