Shivsamudram Trek and waterfalls

It was my 2^nd free weekend in Bangalore and I along with 3 other friends Aditya, Vipul and Satyam, decided to go to Majestic Shivasamudram Waterfalls. While deciding the place I asked many bangalorians about whether it is the right time to go there as it was midsummer. Most of them either said no or said they don’t know. Oh what the heck, finally we decided to go ahead with the plan. We hired a cab and reached there at around 12 in the noon.  It was a sunny day and at the first site the place looked only OK as neither the valley nor the fall was visible.

Trek 

We had to leave the vehicle and walk for around 1 km to reach the end of valley. As none of us was familiar with the place and route we decided to explore. We went on hoping the rocks and started to enjoy our trek downwards to the fall. I took out my camera and started capturing some scenic beauty around the place. I was left behind by my friends as I was busy clicking. Soon they came back I asked “what happened”. They said there is a big snake there and we have to find some other way. I asked them to show me the snake but none of them were ready to go back that side :P

While getting down we crossed many small streams of water which made the trek even more exciting and risky (stones were really slippery). Many times we were at the edge of valley and really cautious while crossing. 

While we almost made our way to fall there was a big problem waiting for us. We hit a dead end – it was a straight steep fall of 10 meter. We were able to see the people on the ground. As asked them as if there is any way to get down there and they said no we have to climb back and go round the valley to get to stairs. We were shocked as in there were stairs too? No one told us..crap.  We were about give up when we saw a tree root going down to the ground. It was a thick root and could be used as a rope. Finally we decided to go down by the root. That was the most thrilling moment of the trip. Thank god we all made it to ground safely.

Waterfalls

The view of waterfall from ground was breathtaking. Later we figured that we trekked down along the ‘Gaganchukki falls’ and finally were near the ‘Barachukki falls’. The fall was hard to resist and soon all 4 of us were dipping in the water. We swam, dived and spent around an hour in water and got out only when hunger struck us. 

While we were getting ready we saw small round bamboo boats called ‘theppas’ in kannada. We decided to give it a try too and it turned out to be a good decision. Boat took us very near to a neighboring fall and when we were just below the fall boatwala started roatating boat like a wheal. Except the initial few seconds of panic it was fun. 

For coming up we took stairs and realized it would not have been that much fun if we have taken the stairs for coming down as well. After reaching up we ate a lot of Mangoes as it was the only thing available for Mango people like us. They were so appetizing that Aditya and Vipul gone mad and ate at least 1kg each. It was then a 3 hr drive back to Bangalore with stop at ‘Punjabi Dhaba’ in between.

Pic: red line: the trek path, blue line: stairs

 Find more photos here

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My Findings:

Overall rating: 4.5/5 (a must visit place)

How to get there: 130 km from Bangalore so better take a cab.

Best time to visit: depends if you only want to see the falls, go after monsoon (july-aug) but if you want to trek and take a dip in waterfalls, I will suggest go b/w nov-feb.