Hogenakal

Hogenakal: The Smoking Rock

2006 September 23, Saturday

This is a short account of a one day trip on 2006 September 23, Saturday to Hogenakal from Bangalore and the exciting ride in the coracle through the beautiful River Cauvery enjoying the misty falls and the rocky surroundings. This place is one of the favorite shooting locations for movie songs and the famous song scenes in movies ‘Roja’ and ‘Ashoka’ were shot from here.

Hogenakal is a picturesque holiday spot in the Tamil Nadu state in India, situated on Karnataka – Tamil Nadu border, approximately 180 Kms from Bangalore. Here the River Cauvery flows through a wooded valley splitting and merging around rocks forming little islands and plunging into deep but narrow openings (chasms), making lovely misty water falls.

I and my three friends from Bangalore decided on a one-day outing to refresh ourselves, and Hogenakal seemed to be the best destination as it not only offers refreshing waters but also gives a chance for an interesting ride.

We started from Bangalore at 07:30 AM, from near Silk Board junction on Hosur road, in my friend’s Alto car. These days the internet gives whatever information you need, and we were also well informed about the trip and the destination, which helped us avoid unpleasant surprises.

So Hosur was the best place to have breakfast, and within an hour we were there. After Hosur, it was a smooth ride through the four-lane highway and before we knew, we reached Dharmapuri town. It was 10:30 AM, and we took a deviation to right following the sign board pointing to Hogenakal which was just 46 kms far from there. After some stretches of bad road, the ride was again smooth watching the typical Tamil Nadu villages and small towns (where you see sari clad women on bicycles). While entering the Hogenakal forest region, we had to pay Rs.40 as entrance fee. Just after that, there was another check post to collect Rs.20, without any receipts and reasons!

The ride through the Hogenakal forest was amazing with beautiful scenery all around. As we went down the hills, we saw lots of monkeys on the road sides.

We reached Hogenakal town at exactly 11:30 AM, and as soon as we got out of the car, after parking at the reliable pay and park place there, we were approached by a lot of people offering their services ranging from full body massage and fresh fried fish to boat rides. At first, we decided to avoid them to get a feel of the place before taking any services, and wandered around the place. But we were wrong. There were few guys who had settled on us and they started covering us from all around to make sure that we are not approaching any other agents. They convinced us that, there is nothing to see here by roaming around and the only option here is the ride through waters. Because of their covered approach, we couldn’t even do a good bargain, and had to fix the deal for Rs.700 which includes 3 hours ride through the waters in coracle.

Well… what is this so called coracles? Here the best vehicle to cross the turbulent waters is the circular basket boats called coracles. It is believed that the design of these boats has remained unchanged for hundreds of years and the only recent development is the replacement of buffalo hide with tar coated plastic at the bottom of coracle. It can contain seven to eight people and can easily move through the rippled waters.

We started the ride in coracles, at 12 in the noon. A boy named Gandhi (we still don’t know if it was his original name) was our boatman cum tour-guide. It takes a little acrobatics to get into the coracle, and we had to sit properly keeping the balance of the coracle in mind. Another Rs.40 was charged from us in the name of the government fee. The first ride was to cross the river to a nearby island like place. Before we could get a feel of the ride, we were asked to get down on its rocky shore, to get the first glimpse of those lovely falls. The panoramic view of the entire falls area from the small watch tower was breath-taking. The River Cauvery spread all over through tree dotted rocky landscape, falling into a deep and narrow pass (gorge) resulting in numerous stunning falls.

Gandhi was strict on sticking to safety measures and always followed us while we were watching the falls, asking us to remove foot wears or setting limits to till where we can go.

Climbing down those mighty rocks, we reached at another gorge to start our second stretch of coracle ride. Gandhi walked all the way carrying the coracle over his shoulder to reach the water. Like different airports having different airport fees, here was another man with an Rs.10 slip for us, before letting us take off. Though the sun was shining with all glory above our head making us terribly sweat, the beautiful scenes of small falls and rocks all around, kept us active.

The next landing was on a calm place where we had fresh fish fried before us. Here Gandhi assumed a new role of massager. But he was very costly and the bargain started with Rs.450 per person for a special massage and Rs.250 for a normal massage. Finally he settled for Rs.100 and spent about half an hour per person giving a full body massage using the Navarathan oil we had bought earlier. The bath in the clear and refreshing waters after the massage was the most interesting part. Since the waters of the Cauvery flow through a forest of herbs, before reaching Hogenakal, bathing in these waters is considered to be good for health.

Our third stretch of coracle ride was after a long walk through the shores. Here we were taken towards another beautiful fall, and most of the ride was against the flow, where we saw the muscle power of Gandhi in action. Till we approached the fall, all we could see was the cloud of mist and spray emerging from the middle of the broad stream of river. That is how these rocks got the name ‘Hogenakal’ which means ‘Smoking Rock’. We got down from the coracle to see the source of this magical smoke, and were completely impressed by the beauty of this special kind of fall where water plunges into a deep and narrow opening.

After returning from here, we had to walk a lot again to reach another place to start our return trip which was our last ride. This was the longest, and at many places, Gandhi took us through swirling waters where we could feel the force of water through the bottom plastic sheet of the coracle. Another thrilling item was spinning the coracle and Gandhi did it nicely with full speed making us feel like as we are sitting on a top.

We were back on the land exactly after three hours and started the return trip at 03:30 PM after having lunch from Hogenakal town. We were back at Bangalore after four hours, with sweet memories of an unforgettable experience.