Ganalu Falls – Experience the nature’s beauty, that has been rarely explored! Just 100Kms from Bengaluru, a bike ride will make it an amazing experience to remember for long!
Sharing a beautiful memory of a wonderful trip binding the way heading towards a wonderful forest ride, where you will come across all the therapies that you need today in your restless busy scheduled life!
- Breathing fresh Air
- Beautiful Sunrise
- Fragrance of the nature
- The Green View
- Much needed Workout
- Fresh Water therapy
- Refreshing Sun Bath
- Fish Spa/Pedicure
You need to understand that you observe and feel the difference while you explore the nature to its best all through the path.
Usually going out for a long trip may be just for a fun and entertainment or may be it could be a romance filled bike ride with your girlfriend. But I personally feel that any such purpose will not be enough when you get into a nature camp like this one. This is simply mind blowing and more than what you could expect!
When I met my friend in Bengaluru, he surprised me with a bike ride towards a falls which I thought would be a usual trip, but believe it or not it was an amazing experience where we could explore something best with our limited resources which is a tremendous art where we have gone through the following:
- A beautiful sunrise which we never expected to witness!
- A morning food that is just yummy to fill your tummy!
- Off-road biking without notice boards, no signals, lights nor traffic cops!
- Rock climbing!
- Peaceful Nature walk!
- A Breathtaking water flow in the form of Canal!
- Animal’s walk-through path!
- Lemongrass fragrance!
- Birds watch!
- The art of wooden design of dead trees!
- Amazing Photography session!
- And, finally a small unknown fear that grips within you!
Just read through further to know more about our wonder travel experience that we had visiting this beauty if nature, that has been rarely explored!
Whenever I visit Bengaluru, it has become a habit of exploring some nice places of nature with Rasamby (Ravi Shankar). Last year in 2017 we had a wonderful Trekking experience at Kunti Betta and then we had a chance to ride through the Nandi Hills in August 2018. So we decided to try something new this time when I had a chance to visit Bangalore for an official trip.
This time around we planned to visit a stunning place called Ganalu Falls, which is almost 100kms away from Bengaluru. So we both decided to go for a bike ride on a Sunday Morning (28th Oct).
We started our trip around 5.15am from our place Hulimavu and the weather was just incredible to start your travel in the early morning. But without a Jerkin or a Sweatshirt you are going to shiver if you are up for a bike ride in that early morning. And Ravi being the bike rider had to face that, as he had forgot to wear one and only he could have managed that ride with just a T-Shirt till 8am when the Sun came out in full!
We had a cup of Tea on the move and on the way to Kanakpura we got a chance to witness a wonderful Sunrise from a small lake area in a place nearby Kagalipura. We stopped our bike and started clicking those beautiful moments and many more by-passers joined us to capture that stunning sunrise.
The mist that comes out of the lake like a pure white smoke, the Sunrise in the background and the reflections that you get out of both the Sunrise and the mist made it a stunning view, the real beauty of nature during an early winter morning that you can’t afford to miss.
At Kagalipura, we had a quick breakfast and another cup of Tea. The breakfast was so yummy, the Thatte Idli (Plate Idli) was so soft and delicious, the one that looked large in size than the normal Idlis you get. The Sambar and Chutney combo was good enough to make it a perfect breakfast for the day, good enough for a long ride!
We are very much aware about our routes till we reached Sathanaru and from there we started using Google Maps for guidance and we also made sure to enquire with few locals on the way to make sure we are on the right path. Infact Google Map was simply amazing that it showed even a small diverting road that comes out of your way to perfection to make your travel easier.
If you follow the actual route from Bengaluru, it is Kanakpura, Sathanaru, Halaguru and then Ganalu Falls, whereas Google Map’s guidance gave us an entirely different route through another village that definitely saved us alteast 8-10kms for sure.
Once you cross Sathanaru, it is all about a pure village life style that you could all the way. The village houses with those big varandas, plants and trees, goats and other cattle’s in front of each home will make you think that you want to go back to that traditional village life which we will never get in a busy city life that we all live in these days, where we breathe toxic air more than Oxygen to survive.
The kids out there playing the real sports outside their home and in streets with Spinning Tops and Wheels, or with any basic things they have there, the way they engage with their cattle’s are a treat to watch as we all live in another world where our kids find only Mobile Phones and Tablets as their sporting activity. These kids living with those goats and cattle’s will surely lead a much healthy life than our kids who just live with machines!
The main place of attraction on the very same route is the Bheemeshwari Adventure and Nature Camp, which is one of a famous tourist spot. But we went past that route to make way for Ganalu Falls, the one that has been least explored, the one that is unique. And within next few kilometers, you feel like you are traveling in a deserted area all alone and the route is a bit hard to ride.
One or few local workers gave guidance for the route further and when Google Maps was showing another 2kms to reach the destination, our mobile signals completely dropped and we could not get a clear idea about the location further.
Once you step in to the 2-3Kms path before the exact location, you can see footpaths of Elephants that has passed by and at both ends you can see that there is a protection valley laid on both ends to avoid any Animal entries in your path. But still you are going to be scared if you will be hit by any animal on the way as you have many open spaces all the way in your path.
And you could hear some unique sounds of birds and insects, some amazing species of insects and birds flying all around and the one that amazed us was some small size doves that were colorful and are so exciting to watch. We were not able to capture them as they never gave a chance to click one!
There were some workers out there who too did not have a clear idea about the location and after roaming in for few minutes to a certain distance we returned back to a place where there was a beautiful canal with full of fresh water passing through the path and we spent some time there with few men who were also some outside workers who have come for a work in some private area in that same location. Later we came to know that they work for the Power House that is located at the end of the same path!
Only then we noted that another biker and a Car with a family passed by to the same place where we got stuck earlier and we followed them to find the right place to stop our bike and then walk down through the Hills which leads to the Ganalu falls. The moment you step a bit closer the views are stunning all around and few waterfalls in small size, pure water that flows on the path is just amazing to experience in real.
When one of the groups from the car started having some food, there was huge number of monkeys all around in no time, so you should make sure to stay safe, may be have a stick or something if you are going to eat something. Even your small luggage could be taken away if you are bit careless, so make sure to stay safe!
As we entered to the main waterfalls area, few more groups joined the place, but all of them disappeared in next 30-45 minutes where as we stayed there for almost 1 and 1/2 hours and done our best to explore every part of the location wherever we know we are safe to keep our footstep and move ahead.
The design and cut in the rocks which were formed by the flow of water are quiet amazing and they allow us to hold balance and walk up or down where ever needed. But some with even a bit of water are so slippery and you could understand that you can’t step down much here during the rainy days as it could be so much of risk to take on your own!
Don’t Leave Your Footprints Please!
While we walked and climbed through all the possible places, we could see man made wastage like Plastic Bottles, Wine Bottles and Plastic Cups here and there. Wondering why people chose such a beautiful place for drinking and just throw their wine bottles like garbage!
If you want the nature to exist, you must respect it or else you could never come back to the same place to get the real value anymore and as humans we all have the responsibility to make sure we don’t throw our wastage and garbage in such places where nature preserves itself on its own. Though we can’t protect the nature, at least we should not destroy them!
We went close to 2 to 3 small waterfalls that were quiet amazing to watch with sounds of water, insects and birds all coming together to make it so mesmerizing. We drank water from one of them and the water was so much clean and tasteful.
There was another waterfall that was much higher and we tried our best to get close to it, but could not find proper path at all as the area looked so slippery. So we had to watch it from a certain distance and then found a deep Cave like place between the rocks. The cave view was just stunning from both top and bottom and we spent some valuable time there.
We could have captured the best of those caves if we had carried our Digital Camera with us, but unfortunately we forgot to take it with us. So make sure you carry your Digital Camera if you have one, to capture such best spots!
Finally we started climbing back to our parking place and we felt like we are all alone in an Island until we reached back to the Canal where we found 2 more new bikers coming in. We had lunch sitting near the canal, the one we packed during our trip and we were all set to start our return journey right away.
Video:
On the way we had a peak at the Bheemeshwari Adventure and Nature Camp where you could enjoy some amazing activities using Jungle Lodges for a big adventure to remember for long. Then we passed through the forest area to reach Muthathi, a place with a famous temple which is situated on the banks of the Kaveri River near Malavalli.
From there we started back our journey through another route that could save you at least 15-20kms as you can go to Sathanaru without crossing Halaguru. But only thing is you are going to travel through a forest for at least some 15kms, where the road condition is so worse and you feel like you are travelling all alone though many other vehicles too pass on the way at both the ends! Once we reached Sathanaru, it is all normal all through Bengaluru.
We reached back to Hulimavu around 6pm after going through one of the best unique journey in recent times.
Important Notes:
- In our experience it is better to travel in groups as 4 or 6 or more. When you are just 2, it could be high risk as you never know what sort of threat could come on your way.
- Not the right place to take your wife or girlfriend alone and not for children too. Yes if you a big group or a big family traveling together!
- Having said that, our trip was bit earlier in the morning, so may be reaching a bit late after noon could help as you could find many more visitors to join!
- Make sure to download the Location in Google Maps in advance as you will lose complete network connection at least before 2-3Kms from the original destination.
- Carry Water and Food as you won’t find any shops once you step in to the real location at least before 8Kms.
OUR ROUTE:
- Bengaluru
- Kagalipura
- Kanakpura
- Sathanaru
Halaguru- Gundapura
- Ganalu Falls
RETURNING ROUTE:
- Muthathi
- Basavana Betta Forest
- Sathanaru
- Kanakpura
- Kagalipura
- Bengaluru
Photography: Moto G5S Plus and Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1. Check more of my pictures at Instagram!
Reference: Thanks to Zakaria KM, as during our initial search for a unique place to visit, a post from him gave us a better idea about Ganalu Falls and its beauty through some of his stunning pictures.
