Trip to Coorg
Dates: 27th March to 30th March 2008
Places visited: Gonikoppal, Nagarhole, Iruppu, Virajpete, Kakkabe, Chalavara falls, Nalknad palace, Talacauvery, Bhagamandala, Madikeri (Abbi falls, Raja seat), Dubaare Elephant training camp, Cauvery Nisargadhama, Kushalnagara, Bylkuppe (Tibetian Rehab).
Transportation: 5 bikes – 6 people, 1 Tempo Traveller – 10 people.
People on Bikes: Myself (Vivek), Vedavyas, Pradeep, Sachin, Fattah, Sarvesh.
The Group: Myself (Vivek), Vedavyas K P, Sachin M M, Pradeep TV, Oliver Lloyd, Vikram, Desai Shivaprakash, Aravind B R, Sunny Patel, Fattah, Vinod Nagaraju, Vinod Kumar, Shailesh, Arijeeth Bose, Sarvesh, Guruprasad.
Places we stayed:
Gonikoppal – Kamath Navami.
Kolkere (Napoklu road, near Nelji) – Kavery Estate Stay (Homestay)
Kushalnagara – Kaleghat Lodge
Total Distance traveled: 800+
Petrol Consumed: 15Lts
Bike: Pulsar 150, blue
The Plan and Logistics:
Ooof!!! What to say of this splendid trip to coorg… It all started during our project, 2 months back, we (the DBZ team) started the idea of going out for a trip, but the problem was where to go??? Well with all the ideas pouring in, we narrowed down to two options, one was to go to Chickmaglur and spend a night in the resort and be back the next day, while the other was a 3 day tour to Coorg, the amount for both the places was the same and so we zeroed in to go to Coorg. We ended our project on 19th and after many changes we made a solid plan of the route, the mode of transportation etc, etc. Based on the number of people, we booked a TT (at Rs.7.75/- per Km, it had a TV) and 6 of us decided to go on bikes. Each of us spent roughly about Rs.800/- for the bikes that is almost 15 lts. Initially we had plans of taking the usual route normally the people follow, that is from Hunsur reach Bylkuppe, Kushalnagar, Madikeri etc etc – but we had problems in getting accommodation on the first day in Cauvery Nisargadhama, so we did the other way, we reached Hunsur and went to Gonikoppal, covered Nagarhole and Iruppu, moved to Virajpet and covered Kakkabe, Chalavara falls, Nalknad Palace, moved to Madikeri and covered Talacauvery, Bhagamandala, Abbi falls, Raja Seat, moved to Kushalnagar and covered Dubaare, Cauvery Nisargadhama and lastly Bylkuppe and back to Bangalore. And the plan did really click and we had no problem at any place. Though it was summer, our trip dates were so perfect that prior to this there were quite a heavy rains all over Coorg for almost 15 days and the rains had just stopped (2 days earlier). We knew that there would be lot of greenery and it would be a perfect climate. True to that it was more than our expectations and luckily there was no rain when we were there for 3 days. We could cover all the places leisurely in 3 days and still had time to spare. Gods grace none of our bikes had any problem, not even a single puncher or any malfunction. The roads on the highways were excellent and the roads in the country side were good for Bikes, but for 4 wheelers at some places. All said about the plan and logistics, lets me move onto the details.
Day 1:
As said earlier we were 6 of us who wanted to go on bike and actually 4 of us started as planned, but the other 2 had some work and they started later in the evening. We wanted to avoid night driving and so four of us started from Bangalore at 2PM, you know the Bangalore – Mysore highway is too good and we really enjoyed the drive, though it was hot we did not feel much while driving, but felt the burning sun when we stopped for breaks. Had our lunch at Kamath Lokaruchi, moved to Srirangapatna, after Srirangapatna there is a deviation to Hunsur (You need not go to Mysore and then take Hunsur highway, you will save around 30kms), took that route reached Hunsur and after Hunsur there is a deviation, one road goes to Piriyapatna and then further to Kushalnagar and Madikeri further more to Mangalore. We took our 2nd break at the deviation. Now it was no more a highway, but still the road was excellent, in about 10 kms, the Nagarhole (Rajiv Gandhi national park) starts, so we did not want to loose track of each other so we maintained a constant pace. Entered the National Park and after few kms, the road for about 2 kms is a nightmare lot of big pot holes (some were 2 feet deep) we managed to pass that and then we entered the Coorg side of the same forest, now the roads were excellent, we sighted the first animals, ofcourse the elephants (trained though). Just then it was time for sunset and we had a chance to view the beautiful sun set. Passed through the first few kms of Coffee plantations and there we reached Gonikoppal at around 6.30PM. Checked in to a lodge (Kamath Navami – Just 4th building after the bus stand) booked for us by Snake Satish, (Now people wondering who’s Snake Satish – he was the guy whom we met when the snake bit me on our trek to Brahmagiri). Freshened up and we fixed up an appointment to meet Satish in his school (COPS – COorg Public School). Out of the 4 who reached first, 3 of us went to meet him and he welcomed us by taking us around the school… it was exam time and the students were busy studying. Had a sip of coffee and there was a surprise waiting for us. He took us the school backyard and showed his recent encounters… yep you guessed it right, it was snakes… He picked up a plastic bottle and there was this nice and beautiful snake “Sand Boa” non poisonous, and that’s why you see me holding it in my hand. Then he opens up a bucket and opened the lid, hiiiiisssssing noise were heard, there were two Russel Vipers (KoLaka mandala) posing for my camera… Then comes the queen of snakes out of a black box, wow!!!! Man you should see the aggressiveness of the Cobra, took few nice snaps of that and you wont believe it the snake was just 3-4 feet away from me. Satish was constantly diverting its sight from me so that I could capture the closeups. Next comes in our lazy guy… the Python, it was 12 ft nothing much to say about him and there was a big black scorpion. After all those surprises we bid goodbye to Satish and had our dinner. Meanwhile the other 2 bikers had left Bangalore and they were caught in the rains near Ramnagar, somehow they reached Gonikoppa by 12:30midnight. By then, the other guys in TT had left Bangalore at around 11PM and they would join us directly in Nagarhole.
Note: People who would want to go to Nagarhole directly can follow this plan:
Travelers in 4 wheelers can leave Bangalore in the night and reach Hunsur and take the first deviation at Hunsur and reach the Entrance gate of Nagarhole, (mind this that this is a restricted road and so nobody is allowed to enter between 6PM to next day 6AM. And strictly two wheelers are not allowed to enter this range of forest at any time), take rest/ sleep until early morning and when the gates are opened at 6AM, drive through the 3 ranges out of 7 ranges of Nagarhole and reach the Nagarhole Safari area – its around 35 kms from this gate. The road is excellent and this restricted route is a good area to sight wild animals, people have sighted, Tigers, Panthers, Wild Elephants, Bisons, Sambars etc etc.
So our TT guys did the same, they left Bangalore at 11Pm and reached this gate at 3.00AM, slept in TT till 6AM and then reached safari by 7.00AM. There by they saved lot of time and got the rest too. And again they saved quite a sum on accommodation, bcos they freshened up at Nagarhole, there’s Toilets and Wash rooms.
Total distance traveled that day: 250kms
Day 2
The 6 bikers got up early in the morning and we left Gonikoppa at 5:30AM and I need not mention more that there was heavy mist covered and the road was barely visible. Now from Gonikoppa we reached Ponnampete and from Ponnampete there are two routes. Just after Ponnampete there’s a deviation, both the roads lead to Nagarhole, but one of the routes is good and the other quite ok. The deviation to the right takes you to Nagarhole through Hudigeri, Sirimangala, T Shettigeri, Iruppu, Kutta and then Nagarhole, this road is good. And the deviation to the left takes you through small villages and directly to Nagarhole, this road is quite ok. The difference in distance is just 3 kms, so either of the routes should not make much of a difference. Since we had plans of going to Iruppu after Nagarhole (and one has to come back to Gonikoppa to go to other places) so we took the deviation to the left which goes to Nagarhole directly so that we could see the other route while coming back So our journey through the quite ok road started with a great pace but had to cut down due to bad roads and non-visibility due to mist. We reached a small junction where we had to take a right turn and we just stopped there for a snap, suddenly everything was silent and we hear few kids talking and we searched everywhere to find none… Hudki hudki saakaithu, kanthri nan makLu they were on the tree plucking flowers. We found out the route from them and reached near the gate of Nagarhole, just before the gate there was sand on the road and one of the biker skid and fell, luckily no damage either to bike or to him. Stopped our bikes at the gate since two wheelers are not allowed inside the forest, we waited for a KSRTC bus and went till the safari area to meet the TT guys. Went to the safari to find Deers, Giant Malabar Squirrel, Peacocks, and we missed the Tiger, just saw the pug marks, unlucky we were. After a boring 1 hour safari drive, we reached back the gates, took our bikes and went towards Iruppu via Kutta. The scenes around was too good, the Brahmagiri range need not be explained, have a look at the photos. The water at Iruppu was quite less as you see the photos, but we could go near the falls, we enjoyed a nice bath, rather a nice body massage. Met our guard – Mohan, he still recognized me. Spent some time near the falls and we had lunch, and this time I made it a point to visit the temple at the base which we could not last time. We started towards Gonikoppa, checked out of the lodge and proceeded towards Virajpete.
We headed towards Kolakeri (Village where we had booked our Homestay), fter reaching Virajpete, near the watch tower took a right turn towards Napoklu, if you want to taste the country side, you need to take this route. You can get the taste of the actual dense forest, the coffee plantation, hill ranges of coorg in this route, you could meet the tribal coorgies (girijanaru). The roads are excellent everywhere here and so are the scenes around you. “Nodoke eradu kannu saaldu” anthralla… I experienced that here. Naanu yeshte prayathna maadidru, there are no words to explain you the scenic beauty, all that I can say is you need to experience this by traveling on a bike, ashte!!!
As said earlier on the Napoklu road (right deviation near the watch tower at Virajpete), after around 5-6 kms, we reached a village called Kadnur, just after Kadnur, there’s a bridge, immediately after the bridge, we took left and reached another village called Kadanganur, from here we proceeded towards Cheyendane. At the end of this Chayandane, there’s a small road towards left, took a left and if you travel 3.5 kms, you will find the splendid Chalavara falls. There’s a small place for you to park the vehicle, and you need to trek for 3 mins to go near the falls, there are two paths here, one will take you to the base of the falls and the other to the top of the falls, there’s nothing much to enjoy on the top, you can camp there. At the bottom of the falls, you have a good swimming area, and one can go close to the falls but cannot reach the falls. They say it will be difficult during rainy season to go near the falls. This falls is not known to many of them. Out of 10 people I enquired, 8 of them did not know about this place. If you are on a Coorg Trip make it a point to visit this falls. We stayed there for 30 – 45 mins and we started our journey towards Kakkabe – Yavakapadi, we reached the Nalknad Palace, Raja Doddaveerarajendra, 1792, build this palace amidst the dense forest to safe guard himself from British. It’s a small palace surrounded by hills and this place is famous for Cobras itseems and they say they don’t harm them. At the backdrop of the palace is the famous Thadiyandmol, we did not have any plans for a trek. It takes hardly 3 hours to climb up and an hour or so to get down. One can plan to camp on the peak and return the next day. There’s a Homestay at the base and you can get your food packed. Spent some time near the palace and we finally headed towards the home stay we had booked at Kolakeri. We reached the Kaveri Estate Stay (home stay) at around 6Pm. Everybody freshened up and the landlady said that there’s small stream down the house- 10mins walk, and we could go there, but the team had already enjoyed a lot in water from morning and so nobody had interests of going to the stream. Around 7.30pm, they lit the camp fire and these guys started their round of booze, it went on till 11.30, the food was good there. We enjoyed a lot during the camp fire, especially we were 4 of us who do not drink alcohol and we had the greatest enjoyment seeing the drunkards. Morning we got up had break fast (land lady had prepared the Coorgi dish – Paapittu) cleared the bill.
Total distance traveled: 190kms
Day 3
We started towards Talacauvery (birth of Cauvery), its 21 kms from this place, we reached Bhagamandala (again watch out for scenic beauty), from Bhagamandala to Talacauvery its 12 kms, splendid road, nice curves, bombat view. Just for 12 kms we almost took 45 mins, enjoying the view, taking photos, etc etc. By the time we reached Talacauvery it was 11.30am, and at this time the whole of Talacauvery was covered with mist, we could not see people at 10 ft distance. The place is improved a lot now, with all the granite flooring, well maintained. Came down to Bhagamandala, checked out the sangama and we headed towards Madikeri.
As we approached Madikeri, the last 4 – 5 kms, the road was spoiled, they are improving this road actually. We knew there’s nothing much to see here, we had lunch at East End hotel and one funny thing here is that the hotel guy refused to give only Veg items without ordering Non-Veg items. We went towards Abbi falls, they did not allow us near the falls, had to take snaps from the bridge, but I really feel that the falls is contaminated, it smells odd, and so the colour of the water. Anyways, we took snaps and headed towards Raja Seat, spent some time taking photos, and we moved towards Kushalnagara. The road to Kushalnagar was worst, they were widening the roads, cutting down the trees, so we had tough time driving. On the way we went to Dubaare Elephant training camp, watched the elephants taking bath, you have a elephant ride, spent some time by the river side. There’s a Jungle lodges at Dubaare and one needs to book it in advance (don’t ask me the details). Everyone was trying to pitch stones on the river and I was trying to capture it in my camera, spent a couple of hours and finally we reached Kushalnagar, booked a lodge (Kaleghat lodge). Did a small shopping, bought a Swiss knife (14 functions) for Rs.65/- (Sixty Five), a compass with thermometer for Rs 70/-. Had dinner and it was rest time… ZZZZZ.
Note: The timings of Dubaare is between 9.30 – 5.30 , but the elephant ride timings is between 10.30 – 12.30, so if you are on a weekend try to be early and stand in the que.
Total distance traveled: 125kms.
Day 4.
Gotup at 6.30am, we knew there was nothing much to cover that day. Had breakfast, and then we went to Nisargadhama (2kms from Kushalnagar). It’s a small park kind of, full of Bamboo, there’s a deer park, tree houses, elephant ride (starts at 10.45am), river side to spend some time- nice location to while away time. We spent some time there and then headed towards Bylkuppe – Tibetian Rehab. On the way we were caught by the district border police for the vehicle documents, one of our bikes’ documents were in the TT and one of the guy had to get that and until we showed the documents were could not move on. Finally we reached the Rehab, saw the Tibetian Monastry, the Golden Temple, the shopping complex. The golden temple is really superb and splendid, the paintings on the walls, the silence inside the temple, etc etc… We spent around two hours inside the Monastry and finally we started our journey back to Bangalore.
We left Bylkuppe at around 1.00pm, stopped on the way near Srirangapatna for Lunch, while we were having lunch we came to know that it was raining hail stones in some parts of Bangalore, and we left Srirangapatna at 4.30pm, on the way stopped at Maddur at MRPL petrol station to fill the tank (We had filled the tank here while going to coorg – you get good mileage and the petrol quality is good – no adultration.). Moved further and stopped at Coffee Day, had ice cream and we continued our journey, reached Bangalore by 5.50pm and I reached home by 6.00pm. L there ended our memorable trip to Coorg.
Total distance traveled: 250kms
Notes:
1. You can fill your tank at Maddur (80kms from Bangalore) in MRPL filling station. Good petrol (no adulteration), we got good mileage on all bikes.
2. You will be traveling in ghat sections, so have your bikes in good conditions, there are not many service stations or even puncture shops on the country side, one has to travel quite a distance.
3. I will add some more info if I have forgotten to mention any.
Important Links from which we took some information:
http://www.coorgtourisminfo.com/;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kodagu.svg#file; for the road map
http://www.coorgtourisminfo.com/Nisarga.asp; for booking cottages/ dormitory
http://mapmyindia.com/online/ select Directions tab and type-in the from and to place, it will give the directions.
http://www.coorgyatra.com/index.php;
Details of the Homestay we stayed: Kavery Estate Stay
Charges at this Homestay is as follows:
Morning break fast to next day Breakfast – Rs. 800/- per person.
Just for a night stay without food – Rs 300/- per person.
One lunch or dinner – Rs100/- pp for veg, non veg extra.
One breakfast – Rs50/- pp.
http://www.kaveryestatestay.com/ (Some of the links in the website is still under construction. However here’s the contact details: Ramy Nanaiah and Reena: 08272-237270, 09448721360)
Important Places we did not see:
1. Mallalli Falls near Somwarpet. (http://www.coorgyatra.com/hothomeplace/mallalli.php)
2. Omkareshwar Temple in Madikeri, other small museums and palaces.
I have treid to give the smallest information possible in this writeup, but if i have still more to share, i will add it later.
This is my first Blog, I have written it as it came out of my mind, so if you people would like to give healthy comments on improvement, you are most welcome.
