Mekedaatu

After the Thailand-Laos trip, it was time to get back to 1day road trips where we explore the places at a driving distance from Bengaluru (yes, not Bangalore). In September we visited Madhugiri on Tumkur road and Heritage Winery on Mysore road, so this time we decided to visit Mekedaatu on Kanakapura road.

We had our breakfast and took the Nice Road to reach Kanakapura road. Mekedaatu is around 90kms from Bengaluru.

 My brother had visited this place the previous week and he advised us to visit Chunchi water falls enroute Mekedaatu. To reach Chunci water falls you need to take a deviation about 10kms before Sangama. Chunchi has a series of tiny water falls and you can trek along the way to reach a view point to see the actual water fall from a distance. Alternatively if you are the boring and lazy types then you can also walk to the view point on a kacha road. It is best to visit soon after the rainy season because that is the only time you would find water. This is not that crowded as there are no amenities for tourists and the road to here is narrow and through villages. 

We forgot to carry water with us and we were out of breath when we finished the trek. But then you have enough shops for buying water/cold drinks once you are back on the road. It was around noon when we left chunchi and we headed to our actual destination, Mekedaatu. The route is very scenic and to our luck it was cloudy making the drive even awesome (I was backseat driving :P ). To add effects to the drive, imagine the song "der lagi lekin" song from zindigi na milegi dobara. After the 10kms of good roads and a small ghat section.You will finally reach Sangama.

If you love fish then you get fresh fish fry here. From Sangama you should take a teppa (round boat) to cross the river and from there you have an old buses that ply you to Mekedaatu. The downside here is that the buses will start only if there are a minimum of 15 people, so if there is less crowd then you can end up waiting for a long time. Crossing the river on the teppa costs Rs. 50 and the bus costs Rs 60 (to and fro included).

Mekedaatu is the point where a Meke (Goat) jumped over the river (daatu means cross) to escape from a tiger. Recognizing the goats heroic stunt, the villagers named this place Mekedaatu.The river Kaveri flows in full force and has cause massive erosion, widening the rocks. It was raining when we visited so getting drenched made this place more enjoyable.

That is all I have from this trip which I went on 18th October. On a concluding note, do visit both places to get the complete experience of Mekedaatu. And if you start your day early you can also cover the pyramid valley or/and art of living on your way back.

On a funny note check the below picture - Mekedaatinalli meke na daatodu tumba kasta (crossing the goats is really tough at Mekedaatu) 

You can read my other travel posts here