A non-biker's journey to Shivanasamudram Falls

Disclaimer: The following blog post details a long, yet tiring and adventurous journey of 2 non-bikers who made sure to spend a Sunday without sleeping whole day. It is an attempt to help out all the other non-bikers to enjoy this en route. The acts were performed by real oxygen breathing people so it definitely bears a relation to all the living persons. If you are looking for the historical and geographical details of the water falls, then please take a step behind.

Often coming across a lot of success travel stories, I was always envy of the ones that were unplanned, sudden yet highly adventurous.

Suffice it to say, the time was nearing for me to get my hands dirty. 

30th June 2018

I get this massive adrenaline rush, I feel like I am flying or on fire. I reach Ankit with the most convincing statements. "Bhai chal kuch tufani karte hai. Let's go to Shivanasamdura". Ankit replied, "Ok, par kaise Jana hai?" The conversation is followed by a 10 minutes of intense Google search. And we choose to forget things in the 11th leg. Hopes were crushed way before they were to be known as one.

1st July 2018

As the clock strucked 4 am I knew it was a dawn of calling it a day of sudden trip. In no time, it was Ankit who turned into a scapegoat of my dreams. Slept at 1.30 am , forced to wake up at 4.15; Ankit was all ready to take off!!

How are supposed to go?

It began exactly at 4.15 am, when I saw a route described as follows:

Spice Garden bus stop -> Baiyapannahalli Metro Station -> Mysore Road Metro Station -> Mysore Road Satellite Bus Stand -> Kollegala -> Shivanasamudram

In no time, I had booked 2 tickets from Satellite Bus Stand to Kollegala via Abhibus.

https://www.abhibus.com/buses/28463/Bangalore-Kollegala

Without further ado, we boarded a cab to Baiyapannhalli Metro Station at 4:45 am and arrived at the station within 20 minutes. We were amazed to be ahead of time but the amazement lasted only for seconds, because we are known to carry bad luck everywhere. To my bewilderment, we came to know that the Metro services will not hit the rails until 8:30 am (this happens only on Sundays!!).

While I was quarrelling with the guards on this so called rule of 8:30 am, Ankit found another way to reach Satellite Bus Stand. So here is the second draft of the route.

Spice Garden bus stop -> Baiyapannahalli Metro Station (pointless!)-> Bus to Majestic -> Mysore Road Satellite Bus Stand -> Kollegala -> Shivanasamudram

Luckily we managed to board a non AC Bus to Majestic by 5:15 am. I must say what a ride it was. The driver literally had no control of basic driving; all he knew was to “fly” the bus to Majestic Bus stand, taking all sorts of treacherous turns. Crossing a couple of bumps followed by a pinching back pain, I took a deep sigh at Majestic while the clock stroked 5:40 am. Majestic to Satellite Bus Stand journey was completed painlessly within no time thereafter.

Running ahead of time (thanks to the Majestic bus driver), we reached an hour before at Mysore Road Satellite Bus Stand. In no time did I realise, that the typical Karnataka Sarige (transport) buses to Kollegala runs every 15-30 minutes, costing 118-120 bucks per passenger, whereas I booked the same at a total of 280 costing me an unnecessary 50 rupees. However it is advised to the first timers and also to those who are unaware of the inter city travel routes, to go for an online booking.

Surprisingly, the bus started at 7:20 am (10 minutes before) from Platform no. 5, commencing a 2.5 hours journey. It is worth mentioning that the journey thereafter was quite peaceful crossing some famous points such as Bidadi, Ramanagara (yes the one where the movie Sholey was filmed), Channapatna and Malavalli (famous for MTR).

While we were a couple of kilometres away from the Old Stone Bridge (built across the Cauvery river), we realised that it is not necessary to go to Kollegala and then take another transport to Shivanasamudram, instead we can just get down at the Sathegala Hand Post and from there take the Barachukki Fall Road. This decision was contrary to most of the blog posts wherein its always suggested to reach Kollegala first. So here is the final draft of the route!!!

Spice Garden bus stop -> Baiyapannahalli Metro Station (pointless!)-> Bus to Majestic -> Mysore Road Satellite Bus Stand -> Sathegala Hand Post (after the Old Stone Bridge) -> Shivanasamudram

Shivanasamudram falls is approximately 7kms away from Sathegala Hand Post. One may find tempo travellers and even mini travellers charging a whooping 400 bucks for a round trip, not because the distance is a bit too much, but the vehicles are too big to carry a few travellers. I did suggest a shared trip but they seem quite convinced that no other travellers except the two of us are present. Finally we mutually agreed to scale the journey on-foot.

It was a windy day, pleasant enough to walk the road besides the Cauvery River, pleasant enough to enjoy the scenery, but pleasant only till some 3-4kms. I was trying to boost energy into Ankit to walk some more, but nothing worked. Luckily we managed to get a lift from a local auto driver, charging 20 bucks each.

After all the struggles (including money saving tactics), we reached Shivanasamudram. I got to mention that the view was enchanting, mightier than that of what we see in the pictures. However to our disappointment, the road downstairs to the falls is closed owing to a couple of suicide incidents. Hence we had to limit ourselves to enjoying the view from a distance. The cool breeze was soothing than before and amidst the crowd we managed to take a handful of candid pictures and selfies. With this we ended up the trip, following the same route (this time boarding an auto to Hand Post since we were quite exhausted).

The struggles and adventure might not seem to be adventurous to some or many, but then the overall experience of routing the entire trip using local transport, interacting with the local public (which we seldom prefer), trying maddur vada and lots of majgi (butter milk) can only be achieved by this method. Ending this post with the following quote (edited)

“A bad day on a local transport....... is always better than a good day in office!!!”