I do amateur photography and i am seriously in to it since the last 4 years. I wanted to be in Bluff for the sunrise. So we left Bangalore at around 5 in the morning. I have a canon 300D with me plus a moderate collection of accessories. We drove along Mysore Highway till Maddur and took a diversion from there towards Malavalli. The journey was excellent till Maddur as it is a highway and the road was relatively empty. But from then onwards the road is very bad, sometimes only a katcha road full of pot holes. So, we got delayed and the sun wouldn't want to wait till we are in Bluff. I had to stop and remove all the photography gear and shoot the sunrise on the way, 10 kms short of Bluff.
Shivanasamudra is the first large scale hydroelectric project in asia, planned and executed by Sir M vishveshwaraiah, perhaps the greatest of Indian Engineers. It is built across river cauvery and has two big waterfalls called Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. The fall itself is very thin now, since the monsoon is behind us by well over 4 months. I did manage to get some decent pictures of the waterfall.
We proceeded to Bharachukki nearby and came across a kannada movie shoot taking place on the banks of the river.Bharachukki attracts lots of visitors as they climb down a hillock and get down close to the water cascade and enjoy a swim and boat ride, even though swimming is not officially allowed. We could go very close to the fall in the boat and it was time for some closeup shots of the fall.
Since we had half a day left when we finished both, we decided to visit Talakad, a temple town on the banks of river cauvery. There are 3 or 4 roads leading to Talakad from Bluff and mind you all of them are in terrible state. A half an hour journey will take 2 hours, even more. I was driving a Aveo U-VA, which has got very good ground clearance. But the road had so many pot holes and bumps that it had to take few brushing on the bottom.
We reached Talakad well before sunset, visited all the ruined temples and managed to be on the river banks for sunset, for few sunset snaps.
The road connecting Talakad and Mysore highway is again a hell and will put off visitors.It would be a great help to visitors if 'Karnataka Tourism' improves roadways and other infrastructure here and other places of tourist interest.
