Background - Kiran calls and asks me to come along when he is taking his bike to Mysore. What he actually meant was that I ride his bike to his college (and then take a bus back!!) whereas my interpretation was that I would tag along on my bike. And it goes without saying that it what I eventually did!! :-)
The Blah - Left Bangalore at 9 am and I could soon see that Kiran had little to no experience in riding on highways. So we started riding at 40 kmph...... then 50 ...... then 60 and finally (after more than an hour and a half, beyond Ramnagar) settled to a speed at around 70 kmph. So it would be around 1300 hrs when we finally reached Mysore!
Considering that I was at Mysore anyway and that I had my dear bike with me, I decided to take off by myself .... But where to??? A cpla minutes and I would finalize on Chunchunkatte - No idea where it was ..... no idea what was there ..... No idea how far ..... All I remembered was a fleeting mention of its name .......
So what is there - Considering that I have been there now, I can break the suspense and reveal that there is actually a waterfall there ..... Not a spectacular one by any standard ... but it was worth travelling considering that it had rained heavily this monsoon and the river was in full flow ..... And for the devout, there is also a temple of SriRama on the banks of the river.
How to get there - Chunchunkatte is around 55 kms from Mysore. The access is through Bilikere and K.R. Nagara. From Mysore, head out on Hunsur road till Bilikere (around 20 kms away). After Bilikere, you would see an awesome road to the right which is proclaimed as the Bilikere - Belur road. 15-20 kms on this road takes you to KR Nagara and 17 kms from there is Chunchunkatte.
The blah continues - Now that I had decided, I plugged in my earphones, started my mp3 player and vroomed on the bike!! And before I knew it, I was at Chunchunkatte!! The second best experience at a waterfall is parking yourself close enough so that you can feel the water spray on you after it bounces off the rocks at the bottom .... The first of course is to get under the falls :0)
After spending an hour or so there, I returned to Mysore and stopped at Balmuri. Balmuri is a few kms off the Mysore - KRS Road and the contrast between Chunchunkatte and here is just tooo glaring!! While there were just a handful of people at the former waterfall, this place was as bad as the malls of Bangalore!! Probably the timing was bad, as the typical itenary of ppl is to visit Balmuri just before they can head off to see the light and water show at KRS at dusk .....
I actually do not know what the big deal abt the place is either ..... This is a small weir on the cauvery, where the excess water (obviously) flows over it. This is heraled as a 'waterfall' and junta crowd around to get under the 'waterfall' .... Apparently I aint the only one who likes getting under 'waterfalls'!!! :-D
The ride back was as if I was driving in RoadRash!! Ripped on the 4 lane highway, stopped for a coffee at Coffee Day ..... and ripped all the way back home!!! What a ride!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaawesome!!! :-)
The Blah - Left Bangalore at 9 am and I could soon see that Kiran had little to no experience in riding on highways. So we started riding at 40 kmph...... then 50 ...... then 60 and finally (after more than an hour and a half, beyond Ramnagar) settled to a speed at around 70 kmph. So it would be around 1300 hrs when we finally reached Mysore!
Considering that I was at Mysore anyway and that I had my dear bike with me, I decided to take off by myself .... But where to??? A cpla minutes and I would finalize on Chunchunkatte - No idea where it was ..... no idea what was there ..... No idea how far ..... All I remembered was a fleeting mention of its name .......
So what is there - Considering that I have been there now, I can break the suspense and reveal that there is actually a waterfall there ..... Not a spectacular one by any standard ... but it was worth travelling considering that it had rained heavily this monsoon and the river was in full flow ..... And for the devout, there is also a temple of SriRama on the banks of the river.
How to get there - Chunchunkatte is around 55 kms from Mysore. The access is through Bilikere and K.R. Nagara. From Mysore, head out on Hunsur road till Bilikere (around 20 kms away). After Bilikere, you would see an awesome road to the right which is proclaimed as the Bilikere - Belur road. 15-20 kms on this road takes you to KR Nagara and 17 kms from there is Chunchunkatte.
The blah continues - Now that I had decided, I plugged in my earphones, started my mp3 player and vroomed on the bike!! And before I knew it, I was at Chunchunkatte!! The second best experience at a waterfall is parking yourself close enough so that you can feel the water spray on you after it bounces off the rocks at the bottom .... The first of course is to get under the falls :0)
After spending an hour or so there, I returned to Mysore and stopped at Balmuri. Balmuri is a few kms off the Mysore - KRS Road and the contrast between Chunchunkatte and here is just tooo glaring!! While there were just a handful of people at the former waterfall, this place was as bad as the malls of Bangalore!! Probably the timing was bad, as the typical itenary of ppl is to visit Balmuri just before they can head off to see the light and water show at KRS at dusk .....
I actually do not know what the big deal abt the place is either ..... This is a small weir on the cauvery, where the excess water (obviously) flows over it. This is heraled as a 'waterfall' and junta crowd around to get under the 'waterfall' .... Apparently I aint the only one who likes getting under 'waterfalls'!!! :-D
The ride back was as if I was driving in RoadRash!! Ripped on the 4 lane highway, stopped for a coffee at Coffee Day ..... and ripped all the way back home!!! What a ride!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaawesome!!! :-)
