A Weekend trip to Coorg

Finally it happened. The most awaited trip with my hubby...May be we can call it a 'honeymoon 'trip. It has been 4 years since we got married. But this is the first time we planned for such a trip, that too a long drive,from Bangalore to Coorg, "the Scotland of India".(The first trip from the list he has promised me..The other places in the list are ...Shhhhh let it be secret till the plan gets implemented... :-) 

One day all of a sudden we decided to plan the trip. The tasks allotted to me were to find out the route and select a decent place to stay. I started to search Google, the one who is believed to know everything under sun. I collected details about Coorg, Places to visit, route map etc. It was difficult to choose a place from the huge list in the Internet to stay. Finally we decided to choose "Honey pot Homes" which is 7 kms before Madikeri.

Since we have only two days for sightseeing we decided to omit many places and visit to the omitted place has been postponed for out next trip hopefully... :-)

This was our plan 

Start by Friday afternoon from Bangalore - reach Coorg- spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday  -Return trip by Sunday afternoon- Reach home before 8pm.

21st September 2012

My hubby headed to office with our luggage for the trip an hour early keeping the half day leave in his mind. Since we were not sure about the route and the condition of the road he decided to finish a meeting in the morning and start from his office by around 11 am.

By that time I purchased some fruits and snacks for the trip, started by 10.45 from home and reached his office by an auto at around 11. We started from there by 11.30. After fueled our car with full tank, some minor work like pressure check, belt change etc, was done at a service station.  By 12 noon we headed to Coorg in our Wagon R.

The drive from Bangalore to Coorg has actually three stretches. 

1) Bangalore-Mysore highway (Which covers Bidadi,    Ramanagaram,Chennapatna,Muddur, Mandya and Srirangapatna)

2) Ring road 

3) Mysore- Madikeri road (covers Hunsur,Kempalapura,Periyapatna,Santikoppa and Madikeri)

(If you get these three stretches properly, there is nothing to worry. When we got some confusion we asked some autorikshaw drivers, which made our route very clear.)

Bangalore Mysore highway is very beautiful; the condition of the road was also very good. There were many food joints like Kamath, Mc Donalds,KFC,Coffee day, Empire, etc. We had our lunch from a vegetarian placeby 2pm, since we know very well that an empty stomach can very much spoil our trip.

After srirangapatna, there is a tall railway line crosses the road. Soon after that there is a junction from there left is towards Mysoore, We need to take right, which leads to the Ring road. (We got slightly confused here, but got it cleared from an autorikshaw driver.) 

The Ring road is not in very good condition eventhough it much wide. There is still some work in progress. 

From ring road Again we need to take a right onto Madikeri road. If we closely watch the traffic green boards, we won’t miss this road.  

The drive through Mysoore-Madikeri road is very scenic and beautiful. This state highway is in very good condition sided by farm lands. We will get such a nice feel when drive in this road. I even wished to enjoy a nice downpour, which did not happen. Better luck next time :-)

This road leads us to KushalNagar. From Kushalnagar the road started to become thinner but in very good condition. This stretch is very beautiful, with all curvy roads, just like a snake..The speed limit on this road is 35 km, due to the unexpected curves on the roads. Both of us enjoyed this. There was a huge name board of our cottage. "Honey pot Homes".

The way to the cottage was lovely. Narrow roads amidst greenery of Coffee and Pepper plantation on both the sides was narrow. We switched off the AC and opened our window. The cottage was inside the plantation estate. We reached there by 6pm. 

When we step out of the car it was awsome to feel the cool breeze inside the plantation with the smell of soil.There was no walls to separate the estates, all sprawling like a green ocean. Green! Green!and again Green everywhere!

There were 4 cottages named after their estate products, "Orange", "Coffee", “Pepper" and "Cardamom". Ours was "Orange". It was a tiny beautiful cottage. Since it is 6 pm we decided not to go for sightseeing on that day. After getting refreshed we had our dinner served in our room. Even though the food was not that tasty, the samiya payasam(desert) was great which was enriched with pure vanilla flavour. After dinner we went for a walk. Very calm place to walk. The estate owner's bungalow and a well maintained garden was also there. 

22nd September 2012

Next day morning got up to hear the beautiful tweets of birds. There was no other noise other that the birds tweets. It was such a lovely experience to start our day to be in a scenic green atmosphere. Nice cups of cofee were served at the breakfast table arranged at the sit-out of our cottage. From the sitout we could see a tree house in the plantation. Both of us were excited like kids to climb on that with our camera. We took some snaps from there, came out and went for a morning walk. Our breakfast was served along with hot cups of cofee. Out Cottage owner had arranged a guide for sight seeing. 

Without wasting time we got ready for our sightseeing.Since my hubby doesnt like somebody else to drive his car we decided to take their vehicle   Since we have no idea about the places We just agreed with what our guide said. We headed to Talacauvery,which is a holy place where the river cauvery originates. The ride was not so smooth because of the elevated terrain and the road was very curvy with unexpected turns. Since our guide was an expert he could manage the drive very well.   There was a beautiful temple and a pond on top. We stepped into the pond, which was chill like ice water. There was also a wishing pond deep inside,where we can throw coin and make our wish. After visiting the temple we took some snaps outside and headed to Bhagmangala temple. Bhagmangala temple is a beautifull Shiva temple with Kerala style architecture.  This temple s on the banks of the confluence of three rivers cauvery, Kannike, and the sub terrain Sujyoti. This place is known as 'Triveny Sangama" . It was so nice to step into the river. We could enjoy the purity of the place with soothing chill water. 

Since we were so tired we decided not to go to Abbey falls, which again needed to travel by the curvy elevated roads. We drove back to Madikeri. One the way our guide showed us Omkareshwara temple, and the Park. At Madikeri town we had our lunch and drove back to the cottage.After a good nap we got up and went for plantation walk, which was the most attractive activity for both of us. Since we were not satisfied with the dinner they provide, and too lazy to go out for dinner, we decided to satisfy with our stock of fruits and snacks.

23 September 2012

We got up early in the morning, with refreshed mind and body. We really wanted one or two days more days in Coorg. But no other way, we need to start weekly routine, by tomorrow. We both went for our morning walk in the plantation. Since it was September Most of the coffee seeds were in green like emerald, except one or two in coral red. By October everyone become red and ready to pluck. Even though this estate is known as
Sandal caud Estate we could not find even a single Sandal tree there. Our guide told us that all the trees were taken away by the thieves over a period of time. There was pepper plantation along with the coffee trees. Here and there we could see vanilla plants, Lemon trees etc. There was small path way through the plantation. Nice fragrance throughout the plantation, sprawling like it has no end. We were so refreshed after the plantation walk. We returned back to pack up and get ready to start the return journey.

On the way back we visited Dubare Elephant camp, which was again 8 km away from the main road. The condition of the road was very bad but very scenic on both the sides. Dubare is surrounded by river. We had to take a boat to reach there. There were elephants taking bath on the river. The place was mind blowing. We returned back after spending some time over there.

Our next destination wad Cauvery-Nissargadhama,which is a small island formed bu the river Cauvery. There is a wooden bridge over the river to reach there. The place was very silent except the sounds of birds and the flowing river. There was a deer park inside the island. Some tree huts were also seen there. We returned back to our vehicle and drove to Kushalnagar. From there we had food. Many Tibetan people were spotted there. This made us to visit the Tibetan monastery and the Golden temple at Byalikkuppe. It was not very difficult to find the way to the Tibetan monastery. While we entered that place it seemed a mini Tibet.

Golden temple was awesome. It is worth a visit. The golden statue of Lord Buddha, it was very beautiful. The floor was very cool even. There was nice ambiance inside .We spend some time there and came out. There was a hostel kind of place for the monks and some of them were doing some prayer in front of a big bell. There were small shops to sell Tibetan handicrafts outside the temple compound. 

By 2 O’ clock we started our journey back to Bangalore. No confusion about the route at all. We drove back to Bangalore with  refreshed mind and body .  Reached home at 8 pm after got caught  in the city traffic.