Coorg district

So it’s been a long time since I had been to a pleasure trip. Hectic work pressure and lots of customer calls, I was very tired. We had a thought of going for a small weekend budget trip. I am currently in Bangalore so had a plan to go with in the same radius, i.e. in and around Bangalore and Mysore. After a long discussion with my wife, we concluded either to go to Chickmangalur or Coorg. Heard from the local people that Coorg would be the nice place to go now and rather than Chickmangalur. From August to November it’s a season time in coorg because the great monsoons flourished the river kaveri with lots and lots of water. Most of the south Indians knew that coorg is the origin of river kaveri. So we had started with the itinerary plan, hearing from lot of travel agency we had concluded with trip details of 2 Nights and 3 days plan. The trip was planned to start from Bangalore via Mysore to Madikeri. Every one was very familiar with Coorg, so what is Madikeri?

Madikeri is the district headquarters for Coorg and it is with the elevation of about 1500mts above the sea level. So it the coolest place compared to Bangalore but more temperature compared to Ooty or Kodaikanal. The place is about 260Kms from Bangalore and 122Kms from Mysore. We had booked a tata indiaca from Bangalore to Madikeri. On the way we had a plan to visit Kusal nagar, Tibetians Golden temple and Nisargadhama. Kusal Nagar is on the way to Madikeri, Kusal nagar has lot of Tibeatian settlers and maintains the complete city in a unique way. This place even you can call as Indian Tibet because lots and lots of Tibetian people. I was first surprise to see the people there and later get to know from our cab driver that Tibetian live there in Huge numbers. The entire kushal nagar is so liverly as well as so calm and the wonderful Tibetian architecture is seen around. The Tibetean Golden temple is the place where the Great discover of peace is living, and that is no one else but the Buddha. He is the Great scientist, who had discovered peace and still remains in all our hearts.

Later we had visited to Nisargadhama, a forest resort where you could find only deer’s and lots of bamboo trees around.

Nice place to sit and relax for some time as the Journey was long from Bangalore.

We thought that was enough for the day, so we had reached the Madikeri with lots of tiredness. But once after seeing the place we could able to refresh ourselves with enjoyment. Since we had a little baby with us, we had taken accommodation in a Home stay with a great view of the mountains. The advantage of taking this type of Home stay is to have a home food prepared in a traditional way and been served to us. The place where we stayed was so good and I would thank for the food which was provided for us. The complete hospitality of these people was so extra-ordinary. We had a small nap and then pulled our seat belt in the evening to visit around the city. There is a place called Raja seat in Madikeri, was a very pleasant park with a great scenic 360 degree view of the Nature.

The blowing wind and the small train safari is very nice in this raja seat. We had to missed the opportunity of going in the rain as we were late that day but could able to site and enjoy the great pleasure, we also had some hot Gobi Manjurian on the road side.

Day 2, we had a plan to visit Thala kaveri and Abbey falls. The thala kaveri was around 45Kms from Madikei. This is the great Naadhimula(Origin of River - sanskrit) of kaveri starts almost in 2sqfeet space.

The water stream starts from here and ends in Bay Bengal via Tamil Nadu. This is an implausible thing, how a great river could origin in such a small place like this. This was a wonderful experience; the thala kaveri was a Holy place rather than a tourist spot. There comes lots of people who just workship the river and they call it as kaveri matha(Mother). This river starts from Bramagiri hills of kodagu district. There is a belief that the river was outpoured from the kamadala of the great rishi Aagastiya. So in Thala kaveri you could find the pojas are done for Aagasthiya and Siva. There was a very small temple built there for them and the pujas are happening on daily basis. Above this is a great view of three borders of kerala, tamil nadu and Karnataka, but the sadest thing is that you have to climb a vertial mountain through the flight of steps.

Then we have to return to Abbey falls, which is 7kms from Madikeri. This is a falls which you could view by standing on the bridge. We are done for day.

Day 3, we had a plan to visit Dubare and Harangi dam. This was our return trip from Madikeri to Bangalore. We had visited the Dubara elephant raining camp, the awesome experience to see lots of elephant family.

Here are many elephants, each has different names. Some lives more than 60 years. There is a river which we had to cross with the motor boat to go to this training camp. You could have lot of fun like seeing the Elephant taking bath in the river, Elephant ride and the way they feed the elephants.

Later we have visited Harangi dam and then at last we have reached Bangalore on one fine Sunday evening.

NOTE: You can get some coffee powder and some spices in Madikeri.