Hogenakkal ...smoke that thunders!

Last month I went to Dharmapuri to visit my friend Sasi...and it is by now a tradition for Dharmapuriites to take their guests to Hogenakkal , a riverside spa some 25kms away. So off we rode to Hogenakkal.
The main Falls is a sight for sore eyes...

Coracles - small circular basket boats covered in buffalo hide- ... a must ride

the rocky gorges sculpted by the water...

line of boatmen waiting to take their customers for a 'ride'...Their charges are day time robbery ! Another common sight here is untrained 'masseurs' giving crude body massages to boozed pot bellyed customers . Tourists are crazed about eating the fishes freshly caught and cooked along the waters - but beware if you have a weak tummy- they are cooked in re re reused oil...

meandering waters...

my boatman...

maddening crowds...May is the worst month to visit this place I guess ... mad rush of tourists dirty the waters... the water thats supposed to heal is actually a potential threat to your health...with dead fishes , plastic bags and bottles floating and garbage and beer bottles tossed around...

beating the summer heat...Sasi and his wife somehow convinced me and my wife to enter the murky waters - It was great fun and ofcourse both of us were down with viral infection for the next 3 days :(



The place is great and has greater potential to become a classy tourist spot if only the tourism department is run by people with atleast average

brains.