Our Shivanasamudra Waterfalls and Somanthpur trip

Shivanasamudra Waterfalls:

Overview:

A huge river passing peacefully through a rocky area filled with coconut and banana plantation. Next thing you will see river falling down from a cliff into a gorge with a beautiful sound and transforming into some scenic waterfalls. Here we are at Shivanasamundra Waterfalls.

Shivanasamudra waterfalls are situated on the river Cauvery. It is actually a series of twin waterfalls. It is also famous for India’s first and Asia’s second Hydro-electric power station. They are also known as Bluff and Shimsa falls.

Here Cauvery got separated into two branches, left segment (Western Branch) forms the Gananachukki fall and right segment (Eastern Branch) form the Bharachukki fall. These falls are around 12KM apart. To reach other bridge over Cauvery need to be crossed. Normally people visit Gaganachukki fall and assume left side of it as Gaganachukki and right as Bharachukki fall.

Some 35KM from Shivanasamudra waterfalls are famous Somnathpur temples.

Route:  

UP:         Bangalore-Maddur-Malavalli-Shivanasamudra-Somnathpur
               Bangalore-Kanakapura-Malavalli-Shivasamudra-Somnathpur

Down:    Somnathpur-Bennur-Maddur-Bangalore

Location:

Shivanasamudra is 135KM from Bangalore.
Somnathpur is 35KM from Shivanasamudra.
Bangalore is Shivanasamudra is 150KM from Bangalore.

View Shivanasamudra in a larger map 

How to reach:

Private Transport:

You can either hire cab or can go by you own vehicle. It will take around 3hr.

Public Transport

By Bus:

Reaching Shivanasamudra by public transport may be a bothersome experience as it’s not directly connected from Mysore or Bangalore.  Buses on Bangalore-Mysore highway will drop you at Kollegal and from Kollegal, you will have to look for other commutation till Shivanasamudra falls.

* There are also KSRTC busses from Bangalore to Malavalli from where you can further chase for transportation to Shivanasamudra falls.

By Train: Maddur is the nearest station but the preferred one is Mysore (60 km). There on again you need to either hire a cab or take bus.

* For Bike enthusiasts, It can be a one day moderately exhausting excursion from Bangalore.

Our Trip:

Planning:

No plan at all. One Friday evening in August when we were sitting after dinner (4 friends cum flatmates) and were discussing what for weekend. Suddenly idea to to visit Shivanasamudra waterfalls came. All agreed and did required preparation. Got up at 5:30AM in the Saturday morning and started by 6:30AM in car.

Start:

Roads were absolutely free, climate was great. We decided to take Mysore road. Due to Metro and other construction work initial patch of Mysore road is not good but once that is over it was good road. After some time our stomach started growling. To satiate that growling, what could be better then Kamat Lokaruchi. By 7:30AM, we reached Kamat Lokaruchi. There we had fresh and filling breakfast. Whenever we go to this side we always have breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi. By 8:00AM we started again. 

We got lunch packed from Maddur Tiffany’s as we read on Net that there is no good eating place nearby falls and almost everybody suggested to get lunch and water. Water anyway we were carrying in a 20 Lt water bottle in my WagorR.

After Maddur, we turned left. From Maddur, it is around 45 KM. Some 25 km stretch of road was not good but it is not bad as this point of time. Finally around 9:30AM we hit Shivanasamudra waterfalls.

Shivanasamudra Waterfalls:

First comes Gaganachukki waterfall among the Shivanasamudra waterfall twins.

Gaganachukki’s magnificent view

Gaganachukki Waterfall:

This is one of twin falls normally people hit first. It is well maintained and has better tourist facilities. Near by is Riversedge Resort which is good in case you want to stay overnight. It is a view point. From this place, you can see the water fall and take good pics but you are not allowed to go down.

Gaganachukki’s Closer view

We stayed there for around 1 hour, enjoyed the nature. However we wish people don’t litter that much. Everywhere lots of garbage. When we’ll learn to preserve our nature :(.

Around 11:00 AM we started to Bharachukki, other among twins. It is around 12KM away from Gaganachukki waterfall. To reach Bharachukki we had to cross Cauvery over bridge.

Bridges on the river Cauvery

Bharachukki Waterfall:

 Bharachukki Falls

Gaganachukki to Bharachukki drive offers you great view. We took almost 1 hour to reached Bharachukki and reached around 12PM. Bharachukki waterfall is slightly wider then Ganagachukkki waterfall. This is more popular and easily accessible also. There is a stairs passage to reach bottom of the fall. Climbing down a little difficult but it is completely worth it. It has some shallow water also where you can enter and have bath.  
A word of caution: Water flow is quite fast, better everybody in group hold hand of each other and form chain. 

Coracle Boat Ride

Water is crystal clear and falls are awesome. We stayed there for 2 hrs. Took the ride in a boat (caorcle boat) and also took the bath in falls. This waterfall is much vibrant and also has many island formed between small streams. Best part is coracle ride that will take you till the mouth of the gigantic waterfall.

After enjoying for 2 hours we started back however climbing stairs back was a like climbing Everest. Some how we managed. Now we were feeling very Hungry also so we had our lunch there only.

After food with nature surrounding, we started for Somanathpur Temple and we reached there around 4.00 pm.

Somnathpur Temple:

Kesava Temple

Somanthpur is famous for its rock cut temple belonging to the Hoysala Dynasty. Other temples of this kind are found in Belur and Halebid.

Closer view

The temple in Somnathpur is about 750 years old (according to the guide). It is a dead-temple, i.e. the deities in here are not worshipped. It is built in the Hoysala dynasty characteristic style on a star-shaped base. Unlike popular belief that it is cut from one rock, it is not so; the work has been done on different pieces of rocks which have been put together. The temple houses 3 incarnations of Vishnu – Janardhan, Keshava and Venugopala.

Back to home:

We started around 6PM from Somnathpur and reach home around 9PM.

Best time to visit:

Though Cauvery has water throughout the year but in monsoon it will have much more and hence Shivanasamudra waterfalls would be at the zenith in monsoon. Monsoon season in Karanataka is between June to September. However in Winter/Summer season you can reach the bottom of the waterfalls and can enjoy delicate natural beauty.

 Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary

Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary:
These waterfalls and surrounding hills fall into Cauvery Wild life sanctuary which provides a wide opportunity of excursion, trekking in the forest, rock climbing, bird watching, fishing and other activities for naturalist. Though we couldn't go there.


Things to remember:
1. Get your lunch and water.
2. Try to visit in monsoon season.
3. Reach early to avoid crowd. Specially in case you are coming on weekend.
4. Somnathpur Temple would be closed at 5:30PM.

Bangalore - Innovative Filmcity Trip

After being in Bangalore for 3+ years and lots of pushing by kids we decided to visit Innovative film city. Not get fooled by name, it is not a film city but an amusement park that has lots of attractions. So on Saturday we started around 9AM and reached at 10:50. It is around 48KM from our home. 

Ticket counter was not that busy that time, only some 6-7 people in queue. We took combo ticket Rs. 500 per head. This was a long ticket having name of all the facilities we can enjoy. Had to buy camera ticket separately for Rs. 100. Ticket for video camera is more.

From outside, it looks like a royal Roman building with lots of sculptures. 

Route

View Larger Map

Location

Innovative Film City is located near Bidadi on Mysore Road.

How to reach
 

Private Transport

You can either hire cab or can go by you own vehicle. It will take around 1.5 Hr.

Public Transport

By Bus

You can take bus from Majestic Bus Stand(Kempe Gowda Bus Station). There are many bus (226 series) on this route. Bus will drop you on highway in front of the Essar Oil Petrol pump. They you will have to take Auto Rickshaw to reach the "Innovative Film City".

Dry Games

Innovative film city has more dry attractions then water attractions.

  

Teddy Museum

First thing you will hit into on entering Innovative film city is Teddy museum. There you will find lots of teddy bears. It is like teddy town where teddy are doing all work like farming, policing, driving, everything you name it. Not is great shape as you can in blow photo. Lighting is not that great here so you will have to use flash to take photos.

 

Bow & Arrow

Who says you can not enjoy ancient sports. Here you will get two arrows per person and 1 bow per group. We had to wait in queue for almost 20 mins though.

Innovative Talkies 

Here you can enjoy movie like you are in some village in 80s. We enjoyed 10 min Mausi scene of super-duper hit Hindi movie Sholey here.

Target Round 

Try your hands on gun. You will get 5 shot per head and have enemies in sight to aim at. This gun has rubber cartridges and gun powder and a set of enemy soldier with their helicopter in sight. It was fun. There also we had to wait around 20 mins for our turn.

Toddlers Den & Kids Play 

The play area has an adorable snakes & ladders floor with a collection of rides straight from the neighborhood park. There they also have a classroom, movie show, a tiger family and another play area. Nearby you will find psychedelic colored balls for the kids to hop, skip and jump! We skipped this area as my kids has crossed toddler age.

Mining 

This is miniature version of Kolar Gold mines. Not much of fun though. My sons tried their hand on mining

Mirrors Maze

A passage full of mirrors. There we found a long queue waiting to enter but we were inside in no time. This is not very long but very enjoyable. You think here is way but you hit into dead end. Some time you will be going in a circle. Also we all went into different directions however at the end we again met. It was a good experience. 

Tip: You want to have fun then don’t ask or follow park person on duty inside.

Haunted Mansion 

Not as scary as name sounds. There are very narrow alleys, stairs and again the whole area is dimly lit. Here one interesting event happen. We just entered the mansion, it is all dark and our group was alone. All sudden something charged towards us make strange sound. We all were surprised and scared a bit. It turn out to be a dwarf work here to entertain people. We all laughed loudly and tipped him.

Dinosaurs World 

A good collection of dinosaurs, mixture of different size and species. They move their body parts and roars. Walking between dinosaurs and capturing them in camera was good experience. However maintenance is required here as dinosaurs were not in very good shape.

Fossil Museum 

Next to Dino park is fossil museum. There you will find collection of remains and relics of dinosaurs from prehistoric era. They have good collection but you will have to read the description. However we finished it quickly as kids were not much interested. Here you can do excavation also to find fossils however it is very small and didn’t excite us much.

Ripley – Believe it or not Museum 

A great place to improve you GK however very time consuming. We simply enjoyed videos and artifacts depicting facts and most skipped reading.

At entrance some gigantic robots(dummy) made-up of completely nut and bolts will greet you. Those seems like some characters from Star wars. Entering inside first thing you will see is Mr. Robert Ripley’s ghost, a 3d video. There are only 9 locations outside of North America which exhibits Ripley’s collection and Innovative Film City is one of them – the only one in India!

Some of freakiest things we saw here like ancient torture chamber, premature burial to name a few. 

Go-Karting (Velocity) 

This is one of the activity you have to pay extra. This will cost Rs. 250. Kids enjoy it. Track is 380m.

Star Wars 

This is not even 1% of what we expected after seeing the name. Here you will get small cars where two person can sit. Speed of ship is almost as slow as of carousel. No thrill at all. Good for small kids and old people.

Carousel 

We all know carousel. Right? It is a European origin word meaning little battle. They have beautiful horses here. We enjoyed rid here and taking photographs.  

Mini 4D Theater

One of the best thing Innovative film city has. There they run 10 mins show of 4D movies. That is 3D movies plus sheet movement with other effects like water spray and wind. We enjoyed it most.

Wax Museum 

There you will find wax idols of so many internationally famous personalities. Took some good snaps here.

Roller Skates 

They have a good arena where you can do skating. My kids tried it there. Skates are available at nearby counter. Find you size put them on and start zooming. Be careful not to fall down and get hurt.

Mini Golf 

One more good place to have fun. Though we never played golf before we enjoyed here. They have an 18 hole mini gold course. You want to buy some golf related stuff then this is the place.

Funplex 

There you can play video games. They have a good collection. However we skipped it as were running out of time.

Roller Coaster 

The only adventures dry game in Innovative film city. Though ride is very small so we had to do it twice :). It is good maintained area. Sharp curves will scared you and only way to beat the fear is screaming as loud as possible.

Wannado City 

This has miniature version of Bangalore city. Here they have TV studio, hospital, police station, bank, airport etc. We played different roles there. Not that great though.

Lunch 

By now we had finished almost all the dry attractions. It was around 2PM and water sports had already been opened and kids were getting restless to jump into them. Also we were feeling hungry. So we decided to break for lunch. There are so many food outlets in food court. We roam around for some time. Me and wife wanted to try something there however kids choice prevailed and finally we decided on McDonald.

Aqua City 

After lunch it all about water. Aqua city has many attractions.

Lazy River 

We started our water sports with this. Here you can lie down on water tube and can roam around in pool. This also has a huge bucket that keep getting filled, once filled bucket will be upside down and a load of water will be poured on people waiting under this. This was really a fun.

Artificial Beach 

There you can relax. We spent almost 2 hours in this. This is a wave pool where waves are generated artificially every after every 30 mins for 30 mins.  They also play music. People were dancing.

Water slides 

There are 2 types of water slides. Both are of good height. It is quite adventures.

Things to remember:
1. Washrooms are not very clean and crowded also.
2. Carry swim wear or an extra pair of cloths.
3. Reach early to avoid crowd. Specially in case you are coming on weekend.
4. Food is little bit costly especially if you thinking of buying cold drinks and water then you end up feeling like they robbed you.
5. Finish dry rides in morning and save good enough time for water sports.
6. Don't have great expectations else you won't be able to enjoy it. It definitely worth a day but not more then that. Good luck :)