A Bike Ride from Chennai to Shivanasamudram Falls

My bike rides have taken me to quite a few places. Starting from a trip from Chennai to Kanchipuram, then to Mahabs, a couple of trips from home to places in the western ghats, its been a thrilling and exhilarating experience. Trust me when I say that. Nothing gives you a bigger kick than controlling that tankslapper on your bike when you suddenly brake for something unforeseen. Me along with Raghu(the second biker in the pic below from the front, the first being me of course!) have been planning on a long trip for quite sometime and it took quite sometime to materialize. Cyclones, unpredicted rains, gales et al., have forced us to drop our best laid plans.

But this time it was going to be different. Pleasant weather all over from Chennai to Mysore, coupled with a well executed bunk of work helped us execute our plan. Destination, Mysore and Shivanasamudram falls, a waterfall of pristine beauty 65km away from Mysore. It was Me(on a XCD 125) and Raghu(on a Caliber 115) who were the riders. Our route was simple, the national highway till Bangalore via Krishnagiri, and from there the SH17 from Bangalore to Mysore. You can see the bikers below.

We started from Chennai at 1100 exactly on Friday(18th June, 2010). Halted for a bit at Motel Highway in Chembarambakkam to tank up on our fluids. We kept at a steady pace of 60kmph. We reached Vellore by 1500. We had our lunch there and started riding again by 1530. We reached Vaniyambadi, a town about 60km from Vellore by 1645 and took a break there. We upped our fluids and resumed riding. Parked up at the far outskirts of Krishnagiri for another fluid break at around 1800. We had made good time, covering the 162 km distance from Vellore to Krishnagiri in 3 hours. We resumed riding by 1815 and reached Electronic City by 2000.

The traffic in Bangalore was as horrible as usual, normal services back. It took an hour and a half to reach SH17 and we reached there only by 2130. The road apparently is known to the locals as the "Nice Road" and true to its name, it was real nice to ride on. We covered the 150 km distance in 3.5 hours taking 3-4 breaks to up our caffeine(read coca-cola) levels. :) don't ride without it when fatigue creeps in. Though the ride was super smooth, it was frequently marred by what we termed as backbreakers or lifebreakers at times. These are poorly designed and built speedbreakers and can catch you unawares. This is really a factor that affects your travel times. Be careful, especially at night and watch our for them. We reached Mysore at 0000 on Sat and put up at a Hotel called Abhishek. Decent rooms, pretty decent rent. Both of us switched off instantly to a real sound sleep.

The next morning was the ride to Shivanasamudram Falls and we had our dear sis joining us for the trip to the falls. We had a light breakfast and started off for the falls by 1000. The 'to' ride took 2.5 hours as we did ride pretty cautiously and thanks to the notorious lifebreakers which made ours and our ride's lives pretty miserable. We reached Shivanasamudram by 1230.

Shivanasamudram has two falls separated by a distance of 12km. The first one you'll encounter is the GaganChukki Falls, which is pretty inaccessible and can be viewed only from a safe distance. We spent quite sometime at Gaganchukki taking in the splendour and the scenery there, and chatting of course. A pic of the gaganchukki falls for the record.

We started from gaganchukki by 1430 and took the long and winding roads to the next waterfall, the bharachukki falls. The roads are really good save for the last couple of km. It took about half an hour to negotiate it. The bharachukki falls are much more accessible and we can actually get near it and take a bath in like the other falls. Its a half an hour trek from the top of the hill where we had to park our rides to the base of the falls.

The base of the falls threw up the biggest surprises of it all. We got an opportunity to ride in the coracles!!! The round boats made of bamboo were a real cool thing to ride on. The ride lasts for about half an hour and the boatman will spin the coracle for a couple of minutes in the midst of it, which'll leave your head in a tizzy. We spent sometime there, clicked our pics and made the trek up in 20 mins. A couple of our better clicks at the bharachukki below.

We started back to Mysore from Bharachukki at 1710 and covered the return distance in 1 hour and 25 mins and were back in the oh so serene campus of SDMIMD by 1835. The ride was awesome with the setting sun and the cool breeze.

Next entry would take you guys through our return journey.