It became more than a month since 3 of us went for a trip together. This time, all of us were determined that we need to go out somewhere for a day trip. So on
Friday night 11 pm we decided to go to
Mekedatu. This is the place, where the Mighty
Kaveri River flows through a narrow ravine. This time we decided to leave early because we wanted to avert the scorching heat and also because we were depending on public transport and had no idea how it will work out after
Kanapura. Anyways this time we decided to meet at Majestic bus-stand at 7:30 am. in the morning and we all made it at 8 am! As we don't have the reputation on being punctual on a weekend morning, this even surprised us! Guess we really needed a break.
There is no direct bus from Bangalore to
Sangam, from where one has to cross
Kaveri and head for
Mekedatu which is 4 km. from
Sangam. So our first phase of journey was from Bangalore to
Kanakpur. It is around 60 km from Bangalore and buses leave pretty frequently from Bangalore. We reached at
Kanakpur by 9:30 and decided to have some heavy breakfast and also bought some liquid and fruits for road. The bus we boarded for
Sangam was supposed to start at 11:30 am. But at about 11 am. the conductor came up and told something in Kannada with a face that told "You guys are going to be unlucky today". Needless to say that we did not understand a single alphabet and he repeated it again, probably thinking that if he tells the riddle again and again these people will be able to decode. At last, after he tried 3rd time to make us understand, another passenger told us in broken
hinglish that the bus is going to go only half of the 36km between
Kanapur and
Sangam. So we disembarked from the bus and started looking for other options. Luckily we got another team of 4 who were also depending on public transport like us. Together we hired a SUV and started for
Sangam at around 12 noon.
After about 20 km we came to know, the hard way, what the conductor was trying to convey. A big tree was resting in peace on the road. There was a diversion though and it turned out to be just enough for the car. We reached at the
Sangam after another half an hour.
Sangam is actually not a confluence of two rivers, but the confluence of
Kaveri and a small stream that the locals call Return
kaveri. The best thing about the place is that the
water is crystal clear. I have never seen river water so clear. The rivers have good current but is not much deep at this place. At places the river is only 6 inches deep. There was no mud at the bottom of the river. It was flowing on stones and sand.
We were really enjoying standing on the water when the next bus to
Mekedatu was leaving. It's only 4 km from this place and one can walk to that place. But the bus was straight from ancient ages. So we decided to experience it. The journey can be described by only one query that came in
Anirban's mind when we were about half of the total distance. He asked "Have you ever heard of somebody dying due to jerking in a bus?"
But the troublesome journey was completely worth it when we reached
Mekedatu. Here
Kaveri flows under the rocks that we
stand. The surroundings are awesome, much more than the photos we took. Standing on the Age old rocks one easily understands that once
Kaveri used to flow above these rocks. The smoothness of the rocks let us understand that once the river used to flow above these. It was a hot afternoon and standing on the rocks was not helping because almost all of the heat was again reflecting back from the rocks. But there were lots of cave like structures where one can find shadows. Walking on these rocks is not an easy task because they are really slippery. We could see
Kaveri flowing down under with such a force that it was creating white froth by hitting on smallest of rocks. But it was hard to imagine what that narrow stream has done to these large rocks. Sure it has taken thousands of years but the sheer vastness of the work done and energy produced is enough to make anybody wonder.
Despite of the fact that the rocks were not suitable for even walking (some portions were more slippery than granite flooring) we did some pretty risky hiking and tried to reach closer to the water. After having some water and fruits we decided to go back to
Sangam. There was only a lone vendor at
Mekedatu with some mineral water and cold drinks bottle. The monkeys were having a feast with our banana remains when the return bus arrived. We went back to
Sangam, Spent an hour more there and then started back for Bangalore.
Ohh and the dinner was
biriyani and grilled chicken from
Mughal darbar. Check out that pic too.
