Chunchanakatte falls - where Cauvery roars and deity quiets

I was longing for a dreamy weekend visit towards Coorg to experience the waterfalls of rainforest and blend with nature for few days. I guess my mind was too much in dreamy mood than being doer :P. I barely found any accommodation & bus tickets towards coorg when my mind flung into action just 3 days before long Dasara holidays. Once again settled for few local visit due to my ignorance.

22-Oct-2015

Indecisiveness & sloth means denial of amenities at popular tourist destinations. It led to missing out travel to my favorite destination i.e. western ghats. The only thought arose out of mind was Shravanabelagola which my better half had not visited. The previous day on the fly, Chunchanakatte flashed on to my mind and we rapidly swerved our plan to Chunchanakatte. While my aspirations shattered last year, this was right moment to visit and circumvent the shatters :).


Chunchanakatte is hamlet located in KR Sagara Taluk of Mysore district. Our plan was to start early and enjoy maximum time in falls. The morning glitch always hampers the plan and we launched around 8AM. At first, I had hunch that we would be battered by loathing traffic diverging from Bangalore. Fortunately, being festive day, we did not face any traffic snarls and could cut through the city in an hour. We could have chosen Mysore route but likely Dasara crowd along the path steered us towards Channarayapattana. It was winding drive till Channarayapattana and later on uplifting rural beauty. Just splendid scenes of swaying palms, green meadows, meandering canals, grazing cattle with fragrance of sugarcane. Each and every mile past Channarayapattana is an exhilarating experience. And why not! The smooth highways topped up our joy.

After a winding drive, we finally reached the deviation leading to Chunchanakatte. This road is typical rural path with umpteen pot-holes and bumps. This abrupt transition to dilapidated path is psychologically unwelcome. However, to reach the target one has to bear such obstacles. Despite the eyesore path, the eyecatching landscape is simply ineffable and one will be tempted to get down from the vehicle to enjoy the scenery frequently! The signboards towards the Chunchanakatte is difficult to spot and GPS is only rescuer here. After hobbling for 16kms we reached Chunchanakatte and its time to explore.

Beuatiful rural landscape

The falls is located beside the temple and can be viewed from temple view point. The Kodandarama temple has historical importance of Lord Rama's stay during exile. Sita is standing to the right side of Sri Rama instead of left. Due to valid reasons, we could not visit the temple and headed straight towards falls. Authorities have built steps to reach the falls and one can view the beauty approximal to falls. We could hear intensifying murmurs of galloping water as we started to descend towards falls.

Temple viewed from Falls

The rugged rocky trails propels the stream of Cauvery water to thundering waterfalls. Despite the lack of healthy monsoon, we could witness the true glory of the waterfall. This is due to the fact that no reservoir precedes the falls. The KR Sagar dam is located past the falls. The river before reaching the brink of plunge forks in two directions and finally merges after the plunge. The energetic plunge is located at proximity of temple.The height of waterfall is approximately 20mts while width may be around 150mts. The roar of waterfall is obviously highest during peak monsoon season when it rains cats & dogs at Bhagamandala. The swollen Cauvery river submerges the boulders which are visible now and creates rapid torrents gushing with tremendous kinetic energy.

Falls from view point of temple

The Rainbow

The deity quiets while Cauvery roars

During monsoon, despite the swarming rapids of cauvery not even a pinch of sound can be heard from sanctum sanctorum. This is attributed to mythology event which wikipedia article quotes as " it seems Lord Rama was tired of Sita Devi’s constant complaining so he cursed that women should not talk unnecessarily and add to the noise pollution. Even though women till now do not seem to have been touched by the curse, river Cauvery’s (who is considered a woman) roar at least is not heard in the garbhagudi of the temple." And hence cauvery's deafening noise, deaf out at garbhagudi :)

Lord Rama temple

Monkey menace:


While we were seated under shadow of one of the boulder, grumpy growling monkey approached us. At the behest of our ancestor, I allowed it to scan my bag for a while. Monkeys if found food, can devour within moments. The saddest part is that they spoil non-food items as well. This monkey was carefully rummaging each and every compartment and could not find anything. As mark of protest at the end, he pulled out few cables and started chewing in front of me. Fortunately, he did not fling additional lens or any other dear items. I silently walked away from the spot after custom's investigation and the officer was gracious enough to let me go :D.

No food.. Then take that!

See I am chewing your accessories!

After brief stay, we started towards Bangalore at 3:00PM. It was 4:30PM, we were feeling ravenous after a long appetite break. Hitherto early morning breakfast, nothing nutrition was consumed. We reached Mayura hotel near Yediyur and replenished the energy.

Busy Fishermen

 
One can lament the need of tedious journey for just tiny waterfall visit having nothing much significance. But travelers do believe, road trips are to blend with nature not with social media.


How to reach:

Buses are feeble and private vehicles are the best source of transportation to this remote village.Despite lot of deviations, the GPS made sure we were on right track even on crumbled village road.

Food:

Channarayapattana is ideal location


Season to visit:

It is worth visiting the spot with cauvery river plummeting from short height (of-course with extreme energy).

Note: Some information is taken from wikipedia

Finally enjoy video of Cauvery dancing in Chunchanakatte