Kundadka falls near Kukke Subramanya

We planned impromptu stay in most revered kukke Subramanya temple and sought his blessings on less crowded busy temple. The visit has been long due which was finally fulfilled without any hassle. We had tummy full of darshan with stay of nearly 20mins near sanctum which would be impossible during busy days. Thanks to non-holiday season, the darshan was smooth without standing in queue. Also we had tummy full of tasty temple meals (both lunch and dinner) which avoided outside food. Since the darshan concluded surprisingly early, we had plenty of time left for the day to spend in Subramanya. My wife had earmarked couple of waterfalls to visit nearby to make the visit worth the stay. One of them was kundadka falls nearby.

The falls is hardly 30 mins drive towards Kadaba highway. The deviation for couple of kms is located amidst the highway. Since roads were good barring few rugged stretches, it took 30 mins only to reach the location pinned in maps. The final 1.5km deviation was mud road with protruding rock structures. As soon as we reached the pinned location, there wasn't any sign of waterfalls or its gush. We became nervous and skeptical if we had reached right place. We parked the car at wider area and walked forward along muddy trail. There was a sudden shift to concrete road but still no sign of waterfalls. Wife also became anxious and for a moment we thought of returning since loud thunder threatened heavy rains. The people presence was nil and passerby bike riders did not help us.

Not seeing waterfall would demoralize us and we stood firm and walked along concrete road and reached a gate. Perhaps, it was rubber estate gate. The mind was relieved when we saw directions to waterfall pasted on the gate.

Finally some relief! The gate was locked though. A narrow entry would guide us to move along the further trail. We walked through the muddy trail but still no sound of waterfall. We again became skeptical. At once, our thought was that trail would have been blocked by creepers. We kept mind steady and moved forward. After walk of 200m, the sound of waterfall started striking mildly our ears. As we moved further, the sound accentuated and we were sure of spotting it.

Finally, the creeks began showing up and waterfall unleashed behind the bushy trail. What a majestic scene and soul satisfying it was! The forest path was instantly transformed to open playground with waterfall. The rains too helped us by restricting themselves to fleeting mild drizzles. The topography is not risky too! Its flat area where waterfall plunges directly to base. There are no risky rocks unless you try to climb the rocks. Good thing was we were only visitor during that time. It seems like people presence was less due to non-holiday season or less visibility.

The waterfall is plunge type i.e. no intermediate cascade section. Not sure if there are cascade above the plunge outset point. The waterfall plunges through the rocky surface chiseled artistically to create mini cascade pattern. That decelerates the velocity of waterfall as it reaches base.

The base of waterfall is not deep (hardly 1-2 mts) deep and has safe topography to play and bath. Kids whole heartedly played in water pool. Even though the area is safe and free from depth, I recommend to be cautious since the rocks are hard and slippery. Surprisingly, I have never seen safe waterfall topography than this anytime. Looks like waterfall situated amidst playground just to refresh post play fatigue.

Just reach the location pinned in maps. Drive further for 100mts. When you reach concrete road, spot the gate from where walk along trail for 300mts to reach waterfall. The waterfalls seems to be sourced from local hill or stream. Hence not a all-round year visiting place. We visited during September and hence sufficient water could be  found. Avoid during peak monsoon season since the area is desolated. Also watch out for wild elephant movements as per warning boards.

Final Note:

This place is revered by locals as sacred place of serpent gods. Please maintain cleanliness and restrict using soaps. Also maintain silence in this pristine environment. Enjoy the melody of birds, rhythm of waterfall and beauty of nature.

A short to end the blog!

Droplets after rain

It has been lethargic monsoon so far in June. There are hopes of it reviving soon but not exactly when. The dry air from north and el-nino is showing their strength. The subdued rains of June seems to be precursor to deficient rainfall as predicted by MET department. Meanwhile, Bengaluru city is experiencing moderate rains this June intermittently. Nothing scary since city receives most rains during break monsoon or during pre/post monsoon periods. Overall, the figures are quite impressive. 

One fine day, the city was baking in June which was unsual sight. Unusual due to weak monsoon conditions. Weak monsoon conditions generally trigger intense thunderstorms in city and thus hellping the local water bodies to flourish. This day same visuals were seen. The humid weather turned pitch-dark at 3:45PM and huge mass of cloud engulfed city. The energetic rain coupled with strong winds lasted for nearly 30mins. The rain gauge clocked at 30mm. That was huge respite that drought isn't nearby.

Post the rains, I witnessed shiny drops over the pots planted by bestie. The palak leaves and turmeric leaves were adorned with pearls of rain drops. That tempted me to capture few shots in macro mode which turned out pretty well. Here are few of those.

Could not take rain video due to incoming gusty winds.

Jaggery baskets by the road

The Rameshwaram-Ramanathapuram stretch has such baskets placed in frequent intervals stacked neatly by the road. While returning from Rameshwaram to Bangalore, we stopped at one of the vendor and enquired on the item. We initially thought that it was ice apples since there were many palmyra  trees. He mentioned that they were jaggery baskets. These natural baskets produced from palmyra tree leaves are good packaging for jaggery balls. They provide protection from heat and air gaps make sure jaggery doesn't dissolve. The vendor was kind enough to provide us samples.

The vendor had three types of jaggery marketed directly from traditional Sugarcane mill. He said the mill is little interior. 

Plain jaggery costing 250 per KG

Other is jaggery mixed with spices

400 per kg is misri (rock sugar), similar texture as Gondh. Good to have in milk and pepper for throat infection as per vendor. Also good for health since it is unprocessed

Here is picture of plain, spiced and misri respectively in order

Closeup of spiced jaggery and misri

Sugarcane is sourced from sugarcane fields of Ramanathapuram close to Vaigai belt. The district seems to be backward compared to other TN districts and hence people largely depend on tourists for income.

Somehow I trusted the vendor and bought small quantities to home usage.

Prices seem overrated. Not sure if it's real price or inflated for tourists. He informed that jaggery is also exported to other countries. The vendor is also well-versed in Hindi which shows demography change. For business to thrive, you can't bind regional sentiments which most people are aware even in TamilNadu.

Monster rain shafts

Monsoon onset has been declared over Karnataka. Barring few regions, there is no sign of monsoon-ish rains. The coast even though experienced heavy rain during onset for a day now silent with Sun peeping out. The MET department issued red alert for 3 days but hardly any rain fell over the region. Even though the wind speeds are high, the rainfall has been below 40mm over the region. Mostly El-nino is culprit swaying the monsoon moisture somewhere else. This year rainfall would be deficient as per IMD. Hopefully it turns false. Meanwhile after the onset, the monsoon is struggling to raise up. Its lethargic advancement is triggering fears among the crop growing community. The rainfall also hasn't been significant so far. The ghats are yet to experience monsoon like weather.

Meanwhile, the monsoon brings some of best rain shafts over Bengaluru lasting for few minutes during evening hours. I captured them alongside the gusty winds. The rain shaft was tempting to capture for which I climbed the overhead tank terrace. The overall pictures also turned out well. 

The usual sign of no rain along the east direction. The isolated clouds stream sunlight only to limited region which is interesting to watch.

The rain shaft moved to further north-east and visuals of distant rain was visible from our terrace. No rains fell over our region.

Traffic snarl snaps!

Nowadays commuting to office is depressing than ever. The meagre 5km stretch consumes 45 minutes of brutal commute. Perhaps most of fuel wastage results from this standstill traffic which no government wants to solve. We have unfortunate regimes in centre who extort exorbitant taxes from citizens but elude from responsibility. Other hand, we have confusing regime in state who are busy with infights. While centre wash hands stating a different incumbent regime in state, they should be ashamed of looting hard working citizens of high taxes without providing any solution. The state is busy doling out freebies and hence left with none to listen to city's woes. The corrupt politicians don't care about the people's pain. They let them suffer and patient Bengaluru people have been sustaining it.

Meanwhile, the traffic snarls are deteriorating everyday. It is jarring to realize that we spend more time in traffic than ever before, and the trend shows no sign of reversing. Politicans are expanding cities without a plan. The tiny patch from Channasandra bridge to KR Puram railway station easily drains 30min at least. Its becoming difficult to find frequent city buses as well. I waited for nearly 20 mins to catch a bus. Fortunately, I could spot a window seat. Since the bus was ordinary, the windows aren't sealed. As usual, the bus was dead stop over tin factory fly over. Instead of moaning, I captured few glimpses of Benniganahalli lake. The overlooking tall hitech buildings added charm to overall scene. Positive moments while waiting for vehicular movement to resume. Not sure how long this beautiful lake can sustain the pace of awkward development. The tall buildings overpowering the nature is truly concerning which nobody wants to address.

Ironically, the flyover meant to reduce traffic jams has become a shelter for them :-). There are many  things which need a larger reset in this country