[phamilyman]

So, as luck would have it, I was asked to travel down under for a long business trip on the 31st of October. Hence, we did the next best thing a travel crazy couple does - make a travel plan that same night!

It was simplified because our little monkey was visiting his grandparents!

The route was quite simple (345km, exactly as google said):
Chennai - Bangalore highway -> turn left at Krishnagiri for Dharmapuri, then turn right at dharmapuri for hogenakkal.

Except Google mapping is done by a bunch of nerds who've never visited India. So from my thiruvanmiyur apartment, it sent me down to tambaram and out to sri perumbudur via some state highways that had craters but thankfully little traffic in the morning (5am). Better to stick to the main highway passing near Poonamalle.

One benefit was that some of the shitty surface that troubles one almost till Kanchipuram was not encountered.

Having said that, what we did was two fold:
a. Walked around the TN side (which was free). Didn't bathe even though the facilities are decent by Indian standards.
b. Took a coracle ride till the Karnataka side (800 + 100 tips, 140 lesser for TN side). It was nice and a lot of hard work by the boatman. But if you want to save money, you can simply cover most of the awesome part on foot. Apparently it is motorable enough for a Tata Ace. We saw 3-4 bikes that side as well.

One interesting thing. even when people have safety given to them, they will not use it. People esp in India are stupid. Exhibit 1 (of the countless examples there).


Without further ado, the waterfalls:



Karnataka side



Fancy some shopping while you're sightseeing?


There were lots and lots of day trippers from BLR - was hoping to see some cyclists too, but alas!

Thats it for a short/sweet weekend drive!