Goat’s Leap…

On the New yr eve  ( 2010)..this being the Long weekend.. we decided to visit a near by place for a day trip. . my option was Wonder la… but later we ended up visiting  Mekedatu… on saturday

We were accompanied by Subbu’s Friend and his wife (Sudhi & Divya), who picked us up around 10:45am on Saturday morning  in their Silver Ford Ikon.

Meke datu is about 90km from blore, On the way , we stopped at kanakpura to pack some snacks and water.

Route :  Kanakapura road- Kanakapura – satanoor- take left to sangama

 Sangama: well this is called because this is the place of confluence of two rivers – Arkavathi and Kaveri (Cauvery). It is a nice place to relax and enjoy. We wanted to stay here, but this ‘Goat’s Cross’ enticed us, why a place where Goats crossed would become famous?

 So we crossed the river which separates the two banks. Now we could either take a Bus or walk for 4 Km to reach the spot. We decided the later and went walking. Started our walk at 1:00 pm , The walking part was not as much fun as we had expected as the sun was really belting down on us and the tree cover over the road was really not something to speak about.we were also accompanied by a doggie… it jus followed us for  some distance.. then don knw whr did it go in to the jungle.

Road here runs parallel with the river, we were offered some scenic views. Finally reached the place at 2:20pm,uhfff!!! we met Divya’s expectation 😀 (as per her calculation, for a normal person to walk a km , he takes approx 20min)

 Mekedatu : The meaning is so simple right, the place were Goats used to jump across, If you come here you would agree that the place is so precariously up the slope that at this point I suspect even the goats would fear to venture leave alone jump!!

Enough with the literal meaning, moving ahead this is the point where the Cauvery comes through the Narrow gorge. The scenery is quite pleasing and the rock formations are just breath taking. But one should be very careful not to go to near the edge as the rocks are slippery to say the least. We sat around here for quite a while before heading back.

 From wiki…

“Mekedatu is a location along Kaveri in kanakpura Taluk. Sangama is the place where Arkavati merges with Kaveri. From this point, about 3.5 kilometers downstream, the river Kaveri flows through a deep gorge so narrow that one would think that a goat can leap across it (‘Mekedatu’ means, ‘goat’s leap’ in kannada). Of course, it is not really so narrow and no goat commonly found in that part of India could cross that distance in a single leap. This place is about 90 km from Bangalore via kanakpura. The name comes from an incident which is believed to have witnessed by herdsmen in that area a long time ago. It is said that a goat being chased by a tiger made a desperate attempt to save its life by leaping from one side of the gorge and managed to cross over the raging river below, whereas the tiger did not attempt to replicate this feat, and abandoned the chase. The point where the goat leapt has widened since then from erosion caused by of the river Cauvery.

There is also some mythological significance to this place (both Sangama and Mekedatu.) As per one version, the goat (meke) that is believed to have lept across the Kaveri was Lord Shiva in disguise. On both rocky precipices of the gorge, one can find strange holes, whose shapes resemble goats’ hooves, though several times larger. It was thought that only divine goats could have marked their ‘footprints’ in such hard rocks.

 Narrow Flow Path of Cauvery at Mekedaatu :

At Mekedaatu, the Kaveri runs through a deep, narrow ravine of hard granite rock. The river, which is more than 150 meters wide at the confluence (at Sangama) flows through the hardly 10 meters wide gorge at Mekedatu. One can see the ferocious flow of all that water,  It is said that a goat could leap over it, giving the falls the name Goat’s Leap”

 We were extremely tired, so we hopped onto a Special Bus which would take us back to Sangam, I am mentioning Special Bus since even though the charge is Rs 20 for 4 Kms!We finally reached back to Sangam around 4:30 pm after a 10 horrific minutes on the bus.

We crossed the river again, and headed to see if we could get any veggie ‘Hotel’!!! For lunch. Hardly could get a decent hotel, but it was also Closed.  If you are a Non- vegetarian and u like fish then Everywhere there you get the view of Fishes being fried with masala on the Road side shops

So decided to have it on the way back… didn’t find a good hotel @ satnoor also.. continued our journey.. Finally stopped at some darshini  in kanakpura (don’t remem name 😛 ) . As it was already 5:30pm.. we ordered for tiffins… rava idli, masala dosa, masala vada, Maddur vada etc…. after the hot beverages.. we were on our way back home.

Reached our place around 6:30pm.. it was a good trip.. tiring though but had fun in crossing river, walking in the hot sun, Climbing the Rocks to get the View of Leap, tasty food@ darshini (Hungry kya kare! :)), Playing melodious music in car..