Mesmeric Rishikesh

Tweet

The land of saints and seers, Rishikesh, receives great influx of travelers from every nook and corner of the world. Being the regular visitor to Rishikesh, I found this destination quite pleasing and worth visiting. While on a tour to Rishikesh, travelers could explore the tranquil domains of this spiritual land. It is said that if you will take a bath in the holy river Ganges, then it is assured that all your bad sins, will be washed away forever. But according to various saints, the real meaning, conveyed by the goddess Ganges is that an individual could learn to become pristine and forgiving, for his entire life.India tour, consists of many such places, which leaves the travelers completely spellbound. Bharat Mandir, Neelkanth Mahadev Mela, Trayambakeshwar Temple, Lakshman Jhula, Triveni Ghat, Lakshman Jhula, Gita Bhavan are some of the destinations, which could heal their souls, with positive energies. Believe it or not, when I did meditation with my eyes closed on the bank of river Ganges, I felt that my soul was standing in front of God Shiva and was feeling a kind of peace.

This was completely one of the rarest experience I ever had in my whole life. Apart from my personal experiences, Rishikesh tour was full of fun and entertainment. Being the terrain region, Rishikesh tour is blessed all the natural faculties, which are needed to enjoy adventure sports. White Water Rafting, Rappelling, Rock climbing, Cliff Jumping, Kayaking, Trekking, Mukeshji's Jungle Vibes, are the several types of adventure sports which could add something unique in the list of most cherishable memories of the travelers. But at the end, when it comes to cuisines, Chotiwaala, is the best restaurant which provides lip smacking food and its aroma leaves enduring impressions on the hearts of travelers, which is entirely inexplicable in all aspects.

A Journey to Coorg

Tweet

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.

Coorg: Irpu and Trekking in Brahmagiri

Tweet

When I got into the bus last Friday evening, I was headed towards fulfilling a long-standing plan: to climb up the Brahmagiri hills. Brahmagiri peak, located in Coorg district of Karnataka is a part of Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. The climb goes through leech ridden tropical forests to grasslands and shola(forest high in the hills where grass is the dominant vegetation, and trees are found in small groups where water is available) above the forest line, and offers great vistas of Sanctuary area and the planes below.

Irpu Waterfall

We started our hike a little late on the Saturday morning. By the time we had breakfast, took the necessary permits and changed buses to reach Irpu, it was already 10.30am. Fortunately it was not a sunny day, which made the climbing easy. The climb starts from Irpu falls, a well known landmark in Kodagu(Coorg). Leeches waiting on the forest floor gleefully welcomed us into the National Park once we walked past the waterfall. The initial part of the journey offers easy walk via tropical forest and lot of bamboo, and starts getting steeper slowly. We encountered several streams on the way and water is in plenty. Forest floor all the way is littered with colorful dry leaves and green saplings besides the bridle path.

Rich colors of the forest

It was 2 hours of climb before we left the forest below us and hit the grasslands. Some steep climbing for another 30 minutes and we reached our base camp – the Narimale forest camp.

The Narimale camp inside the forest

A Stream that runs next to the camp

Narimale camp is built to shelter forest guards who are on duty to watch against poaching. It serves as an excellent base camp to visit nearby peaks – Narimale peak and Brahmagiri peak. The presence of the camp also reduces the load of the trekkers by not having to carry any camping material.

Tired and hungry that we were after a good climb, we quickly prepared food and hogged on it. After a short rest, we headed for Narimale Peak, which is 1.5km walk from the camp. As we walked through the grasslands, a Sambar emerged from the shola and ran away after seeing us. Some one in the group sited an elephant too. Narimale Peak offered us beautiful vista of the plains below, the sholas and the Brahmagiri peak at a distance. As the sun moved below the horizon, we made a quick retreat to the camp. It started raining as soon as we reached the camp and we were lucky not to get caught in the rain. We prepared an early dinner at the camp and then went to sleep.

View from Narimale Peak

The next morning was foggy and the visibility was low. We contemplated over breakfast if it makes sense to climb the Brahmagiri peak in this weather. But since we did not have much else to do, we decided to make it anyway. The walk to Brahmagiri takes you through grassland, and occasionally through small patches of shola. Small white and pink flowers dot the green grassy plains.

The peak to the extreme right is Brahmagiri where we were headed.

After an easy walk for almost two hours, we reached the foot of Brahmagiri Peak. As we looked up to it, the peak was completely covered in fog and we could not see what is up for us. The bridle path to the peak suddenly got steep and we were quickly climbing at 45 degrees. It soon got worse – it must have been around 60 degrees slope or even worse. It would have been a climb of may be 150 meters to the top but the quick ascent got us tired quickly. But once we were up there, the vista was beautiful and worth all the effort. Interestingly, while we climbed up in foggy weather, other side was completely clear and offered us nice view of a valley in Kerala.

At the Brahmagiri Peak. Inscription reads that the Peak is 1600 meters above the sea level and is 9kms from Irpu waterfall.

Walking on the ridges of Brahmagiri Peak

We rested here for a while and walked a bit on the beautiful ridges. A bit of walking and we saw a few Sambars and a ma elephant with its baby. Weather had completely cleared up as we headed back and offered good view of the surroundings and the Brahmagiri peak itself. We also got to see Wild Gaurs on the way back. A few of us discovered thorns of porcupines here and there. Elephant dung was littered wherever we went. A pair of Nilgiri Langur were spotted on a tree at a distance. There was life in every part of the sanctuary.

Nothing goes waste in the forest. Even the dung of the elephant supports some form of life

As we returned to the base camp, we packed up quickly and headed back to Irpu. An hour and a half and a lot of leech bites later, we were back at Irpu Waterfall for a refreshing dip in the water. We came down from here for a session of refueling our stomach and returned to the city by the overnight bus.