Mekedatu - A short day trip

We needed to go out somewhere after the Hampi trip was cancelled. The plan to go to Mekedatu was first told to me when I was in office on Thursday evening, but we weren't sure about it. It was confirmed late night on the same day. The plan was to take the car from Kumar house at 8am, come to EGL to pick me up and reach to Kanakapura road via BTM. 

I went there previously but not till Mekedatu place, there is this place called Sangama where Arkavati river merges with Kaveri river, that's why it's called Sangama. Tourists vehicles can go only till this place, from there you need to cross the river by coracles (small circular boats), one can accommodate around 6 people. There will be a bus (now 3 buses) on the other side of the river Arkavati, which takes you to Mekedatu place which is 4 kilometers from there. There will be no other transportation except the bus and jeep, so you can imagine the crowd. So when I went there before, we were managed to go only till Sangama, we didn't cross the river, the water was very less though at that time. This time I was eager to go there and go to the other side of the river, and if possible we could trek those 4 kilometers to reach Mekedatu.

The Friday morning, woke up early and got ready by 8am and waiting for Harish, Sundar and Das. It was almost 9:30am and no trace of them. I finally called them if the plan was up, they told they were starting. I had breakfast by the time Harish called me and told they were almost reached Domlur. It was past 10am when they came with Sundar driving the car, the plan of 8am came to 10am. And to our bad, it looked so sunny day. By the way, it was 15th August, our 68th Independence day of India. We saw few people were carrying our national flags, on the road, people were selling small flags that could fit in car. The traffic doesn't seem less though it was holiday morning and it took long time to cross Bangalore to get into Kanakapura road after Nice road cross.

With Das and Harish

It was quite a relief coming to outskirts, feeling fresh air. The road was nice, which became very familiar to me as I have gone past this road many times that I didn't remember the count. We stopped at a place where there is a big tree beside the road with branches came down to the ground, that we could hold it and jump. We took some pictures and then resumed our journey. It took more than two hours when we reach to the forest entrance of I think it's Ramanagar district. The police asked and checked our bags if we brought any drinks. Then we entered into the forest area. The road was wonderful with dangerous turns, with great hill views. On the way to Sangama, there seemed to be an accident, later we came to know that a person died. It was such a dangerous road.

Sangama

Kaveri River at Sangama

We finally reached Sangama, which was actually the dead end of that road. We parked the vehicle and went inside. The Kaveri river was quite a full of water, Arkavati had less water. The place was neat, the maintenance was good. There were coracle boats waiting for someone to come. There were two people issuing tickets to cross the river. This side, nobody dared to get into water but other side of the river there were many people playing in water, swimming and bathing. I thought it was safer to get into water other side than this side. It was 1pm in the afternoon, we thought of having food and then go to Mekedatu. We went into Mayuri restaurant which was the only hotel available there and it was self service. We had food there, it was okay. 

Coracles

We came out, took the tickets for coracle, it was 50 per person. The weather was still hot, it was a not a good day to come out I thought. But the river water made it bit cool. I was in no interest to get into water, not because I didn't like, but I heard there would be crocodiles and whirlpools in the water. So I kept myself away from water. We got into coracle boat, it was small exactly sufficient and comfortable for 5 including boat rider. In the middle we asked him to rotate the boat, it was good and we shouted as it was rotating very fast. As we reached the other end, there was this but waiting for people. It seemed that but was at least 10 years old. I told Harish and Sundar that we better go on foot than taking this bus. But they didn't listen to me and opted for bus. We took the tickets and got into the bus, the ticket price is 60 per person, two ways. As the bus started, we understood how the 15-20 minutes journey was going to be, the road also was bad. As it moved, It started bouncing, and we were moving side to side. It was kind of fun and laughing loud. 

River flow

Another pic

See the narrow passage for water flow

Another view

It was past 2pm, when we reach the actual Mekedatu place. There were steps to go deep down. The view was fantastic, the Kaveri river was flowing through huge rocks on both the sides. The rocks seemed slippery especially in rainy season. There were many people around everywhere having their good time. We took the steps and reached down, where we took some risk to cross one point where you need to cross the way through the water but we chose a risky way to avoid getting into water (though it was still water and many people were there). We went to center big rock where we can see great view of water flow. It was amazing to see the flow of water, it was so fast. That would be because the channel was so narrow to accommodate that much flow, so it had to flow faster. Then with the thought this place Mekedatu which meant goat's leap in Kannada, meaning,the water channel so narrow that even a goat can cross the river. But I didn't find that much narrow pass, and certainly I saw no goats around that place (:P), even if they were there I see no place where a goat can cross in one leap. And I wondered why any goat would go the other side of the river by taking that risk.

Just beside the river flow

Crack the joke

Smiley Sundar

It was a great place for photography, everyone around the place tried to show their photography. We had walked around the place for sometime, took some pictures. It was nice place to spend a day time. It looked like a complete forest, other side of the river. The trekking along with the river flow would be an awesome adventure to do. But not this time, maybe some other time. We thought of spending some more time, we couldn't  since it was so sunny and hot, and wherever you tried to sit, your butt would feel like burning because everywhere it was hot granite rocks. We made our return way back to top, this time everyone took a way where they had to go through the water. But I had taken a different path but difficult one, to avoid water. As we got to the top, we bought a water bottle, and a biscuit pack (here everything was double the original price). After few minutes wait, the same bus came and there were many people waiting to get into bus. We had somehow got in but only to stand. It took around 20 minutes, to reach Sangama place. Then we immediately took a coracle and crossed the river.

Stare and you feel like floating on the water!

It was almost reaching 4pm and we thought of having fish. We went to a nearest shop, bought 2 fish, the taste wasn't very good. We bought water bottles and returned to our car and started our return journey. 

Tea time at The Kitchen

After an hour journey, we stopped at a restaurant called The Kitchen. We had some snacks and tea. The place looked good, we had taken some pics there. Then we resumed our journey, this time Harish was driving. It took us 2 hours to reach Domlur.