Team-BHP - Weekend trip to Mallalli Falls

This is my first travelogue, so please don't bash me if I make any mistakes.

Me and 8 of my friends had planned to go to Mallalli falls this weekend (July 25/26) and this time we went on as planned (unlike most other plans we make) although not according to the planned time.

Out of the nine people 5 of us were from Bangalore and the remaining 4 would join us from Hassan. We were supposed to meet in Somwarpet and then proceed together to a homestay in Kumaralli which is 3 kms before Mallalli. According to the plan we were supposed to leave Bangalore at 2.30 pm and reach Somwarpet by 7 (optimistic?).

I started from my house a cool 1.5 hrs late (got stuck somewhere) and it definitely did not amuse my friends who were waiting for me to pick them up. It did not help that we got stuck again at the Nayandahalli-Ring road junction where there was a huge traffic mess up.

Oh oh! I forgot to mention my ride. I was driving a 2008 Swift VDi Silver colour. My friend who was starting from Hassan was driving a 1998 Zen white colour.

I took the Blr-Mys-Hunsur-Kushalnagar-Somwarpet route. I was initially planning to take the Blr-Kunigal-Channarayapatna-Hole Narsipur-Arkalgud-Somwarpet route, but the existence of wonderful roads upto the last 25 kms of the journey on the route no 1 pushed me to take that route.

The journey started after clearing the mess at the ring road junction. It was uneventful until Ramnagar where suddenly I received a call. It's from office:Frustrati. I had to send an important document asap. This call killed my mood and I started to search for a cyber cafe. I asked one of my colleagues to go to office and give me a call. By the time I got the call I was near Srirangapatna. I went inside Srirangapatna and found only one cyber cafe and to my luck there was no power. So, I was forced to go to Mysore for internet (where I was going, there was no power & no cell phone signals, so had to finish the work here itself). 1 hr later, finished the work and started towards Hunsur. I could have saved around 30 kms if I had taken the road Srirangapatna to Ilavala via KRS, but then I had to find a cyber cafe and could not risk searching for it in small towns.

Mysore-Hunsur road is a wonderful road to drive on. There are a lot of speed breakers here which kills the joy of driving on this road. Add to this, some mud humps created by villagers without any warnings. I jumped off one of these.

By the time I reached Kushalnagar (where the good road ends) it was around 8.45 pm. From there, took a right turn towards Somwarpet (there is a board indicating directions to Veerabhoomi tourist resort, you have to turn there). Kushalnagar-Somwarpet section is pretty rough and you will find potholed stretches often. But it is better compared to Kushalnagar-Madikeri stretch. Finally reached Somwarpet at 9.20 pm.

The friends from Hassan were already in Somwarpet and were bombarding us with phone calls. They were waiting for us since 8.30 pm. Btw, Hassan is around 80 kms from Somwarpet and one has to take the Hassan-Arkalgud-Mallipatna-Shanivarsante-Somwarpet route. The road till Shanivarsante is broken down and rough and after Shanivarsante it becomes better.

We all exchange pleasantries and start towards our homestay which is 25 kms away. We take the road towards Pushpagiri mountain. This road is well posted with signs indicating different locations. But, all of it is in Kannada though. After driving thorough the narrow, twisty and curvy road for 35 mins we finally reach the homestay and were greeted warmly by the hosts. The road was surprisingly smooth conidering the state of other roads in the area. We freshen up quickly and settle down for our party and finish the night on a highhhhhhhh.lol:

For the duration of the whole trip, there was pretty much no rain. According to our hosts the previous week, there was no way we could have got there since a bridge was submerged due to the rains. The rains had let up from the past three days (before saturday) and now there was no rain at all. When it did rain, it used to do so only for a couple of mins (I missed the rains very much)

The next morning we all woke up leisurely, had coffee and breakfast and started for the falls. The road to Mallalli falls was just next to the homestay and it was 3 kms to the falls. We took our cars and started on that road. the asphalt road ends after 0.5 kms. From there on it is just a regular dirt track with rocks protruding in various places and a couple of slush pits (for lack of a better word). We had to be petty careful other wise the rocks would taken off the underbellies. After parking our cars, we had to walk the last kilometer to the falls. A 4X4 would have made it right through to the falls.

But all the pain we took to get there would vanish in an instant when we saw the falls. It was an amazing view from the top. I had heard about Mallalli falls, but never imagined it to be so big. I always thought it was just about the size of Abbi falls (near Madikeri), but I was totally blown off by the view.

This falls is on the Kumaradhara river which circles around Pushpagiri mountain and reaches Kukke Subramanya before joining the Netravathi river. Pushpagiri is called Kumara Parvata by people in Dakshina Kannada district and it is either the 2nd or 3rd highest peak in Karnataka (the other competitor is Tadiandamol, near Virajpet). This mountain is a trekker's paradise, equally tough as it is beautiful. I have had the privilege of climbing it once from Kukke Subramanya.

We trekked down a very steep slope on a trail which led to the bottom of the falls. The spray of water on us was totally amazing as you will see in the pictures. We spent a few mins there and started back up the steep slope. The climb sapped up all the energy we had. After the climb, we took rest for a few minutes and walked back to our cars.

During our return journey on the dirt road, the zen got stuck in the slush and unluckily its gear jammed. It was neither in neutral nor in gear and the gear lever would not move. After a tense 1/2 hour and some pushing and pulling the gear finally came free and a few guys pushed the car out of the slush. The swift did not have any problems negotiating the slush.

We reached the main road and went towards Pushpagiri mountain, about 10 kms from the junction. This road was good until the last few kms. There was a steep incline littered with rocks. The zen had trouble getting up this slope and had to be pushed from behind. The Swift managed it, although it struggled for grip over the loose rocks.

There is a temple at the end of the road and next to the temple a foot trail leads to Pushpagiri peak. There is a proposal to upgrade an existing forest road from here to Kukke Subramanya passing through the Pushpagiri wildlife sanctuary. But this is a restricted road & there has been opposition from environmentalists that this will be detrimental to ecological balance in the region. The Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary has been proposed to be included as a World heritage site. Even a couple of locals who I talked to, were not interested in the road.

We started back to the homestay and had lunch at 3.30 pm. Then it was time to say goodbye. After packing up our luggage, we said good bye to our hosts and left to Somwarpet 4.30 pm. Reached Somwarpet 5 pm, had a round of coffee and waved goodbye to the Hassan gang and started on our jouirney back to Bangalore.

The journey until Srirangapatna was easy with very less traffic (except near KRS). Just when we reached the Mysore - Bangalore road, all hell broke loose. Everywhere you see, there were cars, trucks, buses etc. It was almost like driving in city traffic. It was really depressing driving on this road after such a wonderful trip. Somehow, made it to Bangalore without any events. I did have a hard time avoiding some maniacs. But then, maniacs are found on all roads, so have to be careful.

After Kengeri, I took a right towards Uttarahalli and on to Padmanabhanagar and Banashankari, dropped my friends and finally reached my home in Basaveshwaranagar at 10.30 pm. Final odo reading showed 582 kms to & fro.

Phew!!!! that was one hell of a trip. Thanks for reading. I will post the pictures in the next post

Cheers!!

Aditya

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyWheels (Post 1404116)

Ah, the report is taking the right shape!

Great place!

Beautiful, very beautiful!

Thanks, It is indeed a wonderful place

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalcruiser (Post 1404191)

wow, place looks very scenic! can it be done in a single day?

As Zahed said, it is going to be a pain to cover it in one day. But not at all impossible. Just make sure you leave pretty early.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamdiesel (Post 1404195)

Wow.. Beautiful pictures. Well written travelogue!! How about leeches at this time of the year at this place???

Thanks a lot. We went there expecting lots and lots of leeches during this time of the year, but to our surprise we just found only one, yes, just one leech on the whole trip.lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by princezahed (Post 1404226)

@Aditya : Nice travelogue. Post a few more pics. You stayed for 1 night only? How was the place? Cost?

Thanks Zahed. Yes, we stayed for one night only. The place was like a no frills airline. Not much in terms of facilities or activities, but it was good enough. The hospitality was second to none.

I will post the pics by today evening. Could not take many pics since I was the one who was driving and pics taken by others did not come well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadadhar (Post 1404613)

How about posting some details about the home stay.. food, price, contact etc.

The food was excellent. We had authentic coorgi cuisine. The price I guess should between 600-700 per night (i'm not sure, since my friend handled it all). Contact, again my friend from Hassan had booked it, so I have to get in touch with him. I'll let you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by funda2max (Post 1404626)

Awesome! So greenish, it is the best time to visit those places.

Couldn't agree less!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by akroy (Post 1404400)

Wonderful pics !!
Nice Report as well.

Abhi

Thanks a lot Abhi