My trip to Gaganachukki and Barachukki Falls

Well..let me show the beauty of the magnificient Shivanasamudra falls where we planned to visit.

Anand,his friend Arun and myself planned to go for Cauvery falls in arun's car..also referred as shivasamudram falls....also referred as Barachukki and Gaganachukki falls. Initially we thought to go on a bike..later on due to mine and arun's dis-interest, we ditched that idea. Actually we estimated it wud be around 100 kms from banglore..later in the course of journey we came to know its around 120kms for Gaganachukki and 15kms more for Barachukki falls.

Shivanasamudra can be approached either via Bangalore – Mysore road or Kanakapura road. If you are taking Mysore road, you need to turn left at Maddur and drive some distance. On Kanakapura road, keep driving for around 120 kms on the highway. Shivanasamudra is very close to the highway. Kanakapura road is usually devoid of much traffic and is preferred way for driving. The roads are not very good and it may require 3 hours to cover the distance, so plan to leave early.

We left bangalore at around 8:00 AM, I guess. We took Kanakapura road on the way to shivanasamudra falls. Anand and Arun were sitting front and me in backseat of car. Ofcourse, Arun was driving since anand was still amateur in car driving :) . On the way after crossing Kanakapura , we came across greenery everywhere giving a pleasant view to our eyes. As we were reaching near shivanasamudra falls, car was stopped by arun. On both sides, we could see banana plantation at a far stretch. He just entered left side of plantation fields and went deep inside, surprisingly with his camera. I was just wondering why did we stop. Later anand told me that arun got nature call and went to attend. I just searched the fields for any ripe bananas. Nothing was ripe there. I was able to hear a faint radio voice at a distant on the right side of the fields. May be some farmer is listening to some songs we thought. Then Arun returned back to his car after some 10 mins and he had taken some snaps inside the fields i guess.

We reached Gaganachukki falls at around 11:00 AM ..almost 3 hrs journey. As it was getting hot, we agreed to have coconut water which was sold by local person there. We then started to tread down to falls. Initially there are few steps down until certain place where wired fences are laid around not to allow visitors below the falls. There is a board also stating that visitors are restricted to cross the fence. But who cares when everyone wants to go near the falls which is so mesmerizing. We also crossed the fence through small opening where rest of visitors were also crossing. Down the way, it was rough rocky path with lots of big stones on the way. The water flowng after the falls separates 2 mountains. On the other side, we could see meadows and bushes spread across the mountains. Most of the visitors were couples who were engaged or just married. There was big rock which we had to jump down or carefully climb down holding cracks and protruding stones. We removed slippers and shoes and climbed down carefully. Finally we came as near to the falls as possible.
It was quite hot down below. So i immediately removed my T-shirt. It had cooling effect ..thanda thanda cool cool..:) We were standing on one single big rock surface. We went to end of rock as near as possible where it had deadly end. There it was, fresh breeze, kissing our cheeks and moving towards other visitors. Arun , anand and myself took each of us one turn to have a peek down below at the dead end of the rock. We just laid down our stomach on the rock and just jerked little front until we were able to see down below water flowing after falling from the falls.

Then we climbed still up on the right side where we could go near falls very close. We dipped our legs in flowing water and kept playing. Arun started to take some tricky photograhy of nature as he is very much interested in the same. The view towards to top of falls was absolutely amazing. You will really feel that at that moment.."Life is indeed beautiful", believe me.
We were able to see lot of mist gathering infront of falls trying to mask the greenness on the opposite rocks.

The sparkling blue waters of the Cauvery River wind through rocks and ravines and fall 75m off the Deccan Plateau to form the twin falls of Barachukki and Gaganachukki. Monsoon season makes this waterfall swell to enormous proportion, creating a waterfall perhaps a thousand feet wide. When the Cauvery is in madness, watching the river crash into a cloud of foaming spray can be an awesome and unforgetful experience. Gaganachukki especially is a steep fall where water gushes down with great velocity. Actually, it is believed to host first hydroelectric project in India. It is said that during the 16th Century, Nanjaraja, the ruler of the region committed suicide along with his wife by jumping down the Gaganachukki.

Let me declare right now..this is the most beautiful falls i have ever seen in my life. Later we climbed up the mountain back to our car. We started towards Barachukki falls at around 1:00 PM which was 15KM from that spot. We have to take left turn on the way back where we have to travel on small bridge. We travelled for an half hour i guess and reached the final destination, Barachukki falls. I, for one , never knew these falls were so beautiful, so totally unpublicized and without any crowd or shops. Only few localites were selling some food stuff.

Was happy that it was still untouched by the all polluting tourism. In its full splendor, the mist rising from the water as it fell on the rocks and the sound which can be heard from almost a km, gives it a mesmerizing touch. Our eyes just refused to leave the magnificent sight.

AS we dint had any lunch, we started to feel hungry. So we bought packet of behl puri each to satisfy our stomach. We started to climb down again to have view of this falls, eating bhel on our way. When both falls are compared, Gaganchukki falls from very high height than Barachukki while Barachukki falls is quite wider than Ganganachukki. This Barachukki falls has stone steps in the entire way to climb down. Once i got down, i wanted to have bath in the falls. I was not one who is going to miss this chance of my life time. After climbing down, we just moved towards rightside of falls , where nobody was coming on that side. While I took bath in the cauvery waters while other 2 were just watching. There was rock im middle of pool created by the falls. Arun took snap of Anand and myself as if anand is trying to save me. hehehehe....
It was bit slippery in that area and i had to be careful. We took some snaps with our CGI umbrella also .hahahahah...

i guess we can give it to our office to use for brand building.

Then i got tired of having bath, dressed up , spent some time watching the falls again..and climbed up back. We started at around 4 back to bangalore. There was aged woman who had been brought there wrongly by local buses. She asked for lift until some temple (dont remember which one) .No autos were also there. So we gave lift until that place which came after some 45 minutes. We dropped her and continued our journey to Maddur. We planned to go on Mysore road as we thought road would be better than kanakapura road. It started raining heavily on the way and water level started to rise on the road. It almost covered the silencer of bikes standing beside the roads.
We had Maddur Vada at Maddur and started again journey to bangalore and we reached at 7:00 PM at Jayanagar 4th Block.


We will certainly cherish this day whenever we see any water falls in our future.

More Details

There are no hotels close by and no accommodation or restaurants available on location. Nearby places to visit include Talkad, which has nice sandy shores by the river and a few historical monuments.

Total Height : 320 feet
Waterfall Type: Segmented
Water Course: Cauvery River
Seasons of Best Flow : Monsoon (July to October)