Shivanasamudra is a small city in the Mandya district of Karnataka and is around 120 KMs away from Bengaluru, making it an ideal one-day getaway. This place is famous for the twin waterfalls (of Kaveri River), the Gaganachukki and the Bharachukki falls. Gaganchukki cascades down from a height of 98M. Asia’s first hydroelectric power plant was set up for this fall in the year 1905. Both the falls are a distance of 2KM apart.
Best time to visit: June to January.
Pro tips: It is advisable to carry food items as there are no good restaurants available near Shivanasamudra and Talacadu.
Carry a set of extra clothes if you are getting into the water in Bharachukki. Changing rooms are available near the entrance.
Weekends are super crowded. If possible plan this trip on a weekend. You will enjoy the serenity of the place.
Talakadu is 30 KM away from Shivanasamudra and is situated on the banks of the river Kaveri. Talakadu had 30 temples, out of which many are still buried under the sand today. Few of them have been excavated now. There are 5 Shiva temples here namely Pathaleshwara, Maruleshwara, Arkeshwara, Vaideeshwara and Mallikarjuneshwara Temple. The Keerthinarayana temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu has wonderful carvings.
The entire place is covered in Sand, unlike the surrounding places around Talakadu, that has soil.Legend has it that the entire town was buried under the sand owing to a curse by their queen Alamelu, who drowned herself and her jewels in the river Kaveri when the army of Mysore Kingdom attacked her for her jewels.
We started our journey from Kormangala on Sunday morning at around 7 AM. We were four of us and we hired a taxi for a hassle free journey. We had our breakfast in one of the restaurants in Kanakpura road and set off for our trip.
The roads were in good condition and we were enthralled by the greenery on the way. We reached Shivansamudra at around 10 AM and our first stop was the Gaganachukki.
The driver stopped us near the Dargah. The view was good, but the place was very untidy. We couldn’t stay there for long and left for Bharachukki.
Bharachukki is well maintained. Little did we know that there were so many steps to take before we reached the base. However, once we reached there, it was too awesome to be expressed in words. The view of the waterfalls is simply breathtaking. The coracle ride was too good. We spent around 3 hours there enjoying the water. We were dripping wet with all the playing in the water. But by the time we climbed all the steps and reached the top, there was no need to change to new clothes!!.
Our next stop was the Kaveri river bank in Talakadu. Here too we took a coracle ride. It was a soul awakening ride I must say.:) we had a great time. It was already 3:30 PM and there were no good restaurants around and we had not carried any food with us. We were exhausted to the core. Luckily there was a stall near the Kaveri bank selling pineapples. We had several pieces of that and went on to visit the 5 Shiva temples.
After we visited all the 5 temples there and we were heading to the 6th one (the Vishnu temple), it started pouring heavily. The petrichor was divine, like the God himself has landed on the earth :) Finally once the rain stopped, we bid adieu to this wonderful place and got back to the hustle bustle of Bangalore city.