My trip to Coorg was eventful. We covered Madikeri, Bhagmandala, Talacauvery, and Bylekuppe. We started early on Saturday (6am) and hit Mysore road. We touched Srirangapatna in under 2.5 hours. We then took a deviation from Srirangapatna near the Ranganthittu bird santuary. To reach Madikeri (which is uphill), we have to pass through these villages: Hunsur, Bylekuppe, Periyapatna, Koppa, Kushal Nagara. There are direction boards in most places, but it is better to confirm with the locals if you are heading in the correct direction. The road from Srirangapatna right up to Madikeri is very bad, and you need to drive very carefully. Also, it is a good idea to carry food and water with you to keep you going until Madikeri.
It is recommended to start early morning from Bangalore so that you reach Madikeri before 1pm. Find yourself a decent hotel to stay. Karnataka tourism website has information on hotels in Madikeri. If you reach Madikeri by 1pm, you can cover the places in and around Madikeri town by evening. We went to the following places: Abbey Falls, Madikeri Fort, Raja's Seat, and Omkareshwara temple. Madikeri is a small town, and reminds you of the small towns and villages that are part of RK Narayan's novels.
The Madikeri Fort houses several Govt offices and the central prison. It also houses a beautiful church and museum.
Raja's seat offers a panoramic view of the whole of Coorg hills. Apparently, erstwhile kings of Mysore would come to this place to rest and view the Coorg hills. Every evening, musical fountain is played to the tunes of popular kannada and hindi numbers.
After visiting Raja's seat, we headed to Omkareshwara temple. We had dinner at a modest hotel near the Madikeri bus stand.
We checked out from the hotel at 6am and started our downward journey to Bhagmandala.
Bhagmandala is a confluence of three rivers and is considered a sacred place. It is at a distance of 38km from Madikeri. I had a tough time driving with heavy fog and extremely low temperatures. We had a dip in Bhagmandala (mind you, the water was extremely cold).
You need to drive 6km uphill from Bhagmandala to reach Talacauvery, the birthplace of the sacred and mighty river Cauvery. We had a dip in Talacauvery too.
We then drove uphill to reach Madikeri by noon. We had our lunch at Raja darshan hotel, and started our downward journey to Bangalore. The roads need a lot of mending. Though it is a downhill drive to Kushal Nagara from Madikeri, the bad roads do not make it a pleasurable journey. From Kushal Nagara through Hunsur (via Periyapatna and Bylekuppe), the roads are really bad. We stopped at Bylekuppe for more than an hour to visit the Tibetal (Namdroling) Monastery. Bylekuppe is a nice little hilly Tibetan settlement. The monastery is maintained very well. There are a lot of handicraft items for shopping here.
Of course, it was a smooth drive back to Bangalore once we touched Mysore road. On the way, we had dinner at Kamat's. The distance from Bangalore to Madikeri is about 250km.
No comments:
Post a Comment