Abbey Falls

This past weekend, I travelled to Mysore, about 150 kms from Bangalore. As an aside, if you had told me a year ago, that I would be thinking and calculating distances in kms and not miles, I would have thought “that is absolute nonsense”. However, here I am, calculating distances for weekend trips in kms, and figuring out how long this will take by car/bus/or train. Mysore is one of the closest cultural delights to Bangalore, and so I decided to travel there first. It is considered “The City of Palaces” with Mysore Palace being a main attraction. They light this palace up for only 1 hour every week, on a Sunday evening, and it is supposedly “gold” in hues, and breathtaking. I was due back in Bangalore by this time, but planning to visit Mysore again in the future, and include a Sunday night visit in my plans. For this trip....Colleagues at work had given me lists of places to visit, and so I was able to have a pre-planned agenda. I will write several blogs about places I visited, as it was a very full weekend, with about 7 different destinations. The one that I will share first, is my visit to Abbey Falls, about an hour’s drive from Mysore. I had a very…ahhhh…efficient (!)…driver, so I think we made it in about 30. He was my own personal Mario Andretti, and we overtook every car on the way to the top of the fall. This is a bit of a joke of course, as if you read this blog for any period, you will know I have a sarcastic sense of humor, and I can “turn the mirror” on myself and laugh just as much, as often. The driver was amazing, a referral from a colleague, and I hope he will take me more places during my stay. So, the info on Abbey falls from the literature is much like every other “falls” that you read about……that you can “hear it” when you arrive, and a short walk down the steps and Voila, you are there. That was (mostly) true. It was raining, and luckily my driver had an umbrella for me to use. So did everyone else on the path to this fall. Mine was super big. I found myself lifting my umbrella to try not to poke people in head, while handling my Nikon (WHY did I not get this neck strap in place before this trek?? Am I just a chronically unprepared person?), and keeping from slipping on the wet steps down. I would keep “hearing the falls” and thinking “I am almost there” and then turn a corner and see “25 more steps”. I wondered at one point, “Will I make it back up all of these steps if there are 300 more?” Luckily, it was not that bad, and the falls appeared before I knew it. They were very picturesque and worth the climb. These falls are only 70 feet from boulders to below, yet very WIDE with a neat head current into the “fall” that photographed well. I really enjoyed my time down at the base of the falls taking pictures. Oh, and watching out for LEECHES. Yes, they are there, and my colleague warned me about them. Ascending, I took lots of little breaks heading up the stairs/path to the car and SWORE that I will become more conditioned! If you have ever been to Highlands, NC, you see many beautiful waterfalls that are comparable to Abbey falls. The thing that made this trip different, was….it was me and about 1K Indians on this wet march (here, as an American, you are always in the minority, and therefore have a chance to engage with complete strangers. You get lots of neat attention and friendly smiles). Oh, and there was a cow tied to the bathroom facility. A very lovely weekend, and more to come about Mysore…