A much awaited and wondrous voyage to the Scotland of India – two days seemed so less.
I am talking about Coorg guys and after a long time, words fail me! Even as I write this travelogue, I am apprehensive that I won’t be able to do justice to the small town nestled in the hills.
For a change, we had made extensive planning of the places we would like to visit and on which days, where to stay (which we inevitably ignore every time), when to start exactly, and when to return – all courtesy my cousin. We were a group of five hence booking a Qualis seemed to turn out cheaper than taking a bus. At a decent rate of 6.5 bucks per km, we were quite happy with the deal.
After a lot of debates, we finally left at 4.30 am on Saturday morning (22nd Aug) with plans to reach the home-stay by 10 am. After reaching Madhekeri, we realized that our abode is another 30+ km towards Talacauvery (I’ll come back to these places again). With the hilly road conditions, it was almost 11 am when we reached Mount Grass – our home-stay – and received a very warm welcome and a hot breakfast by our hostess.
Even before site-seeing, the thing that really excited us was Coorgi food. It is a non-vegetarian’s paradise, and you need to be a complete foodie and a glutton to visit Coorg. Our hostess prepared a breakfast of dosa, a sumptuous lunch of fish and mutton, there was snacks in between and for dinner (hold your breath) pork and chicken!!! Of course the guys hogged to their hearts’ content, I went to bed without dinner after the heavy snacks.
One can comfortably stay and relax in Coorg for a week. An amazing backdrop of mountains with clouds creating a misty hat, the harvest green in front of your eyes, and the constant spring weather with mild drizzles, all you need is a book and your loved one with you. Trust me, you will just not feel like returning. We have already vowed to make a longer trip soon!
For a hastened site-seeing three days is optimal. To list down a few places – Talakavery, Dubare, Abby Falls, Raja’s Seat, Madhikeri Fort, Golden Temple, Nagarahole National Park, and Bhagamandala (Sangam).
I’ll explain each locale in the follow-up of this article. Till then relish the idea of enormous meals, lazy life amongst hills, reaching out to the clouds, a book, mild music in the background, and croaking of frogs and insects’ buzz at nightfall – heavenly combo!
Trip to the land of clouds! – II
A little delay in the follow up to our Coorg trip, but hope you can refresh your memory from the 1st part of the article. Yummy food, wonderful mountainside and cozy town, that’s all I can harp on again and again. So before you get totally pissed, let me take you to the details of the site-seeing that I mentioned last time.
As I said, we were staying in a home-stay which was just 15 km from Talakavery, it was the first place we visited the day we arrived in Coorg. It is the place where Cauvery River originates and every October on a particular day, water gurgles out of a hole in the ground.
Our hostess / aunty asked us to be there around 4 pm so that we can experience cutting through white fog and rain. Well, she was mostly right because the feeling of driving though sheer cloud is something beyond words! What we missed out on was the climb up 380 stairs at Talakavery. It supposedly gives a panoramic view of the valley below, which the cloud had completed shrouded.
I missed out Bhagamandala / Sangam before Talakavery, which is around 8 km before the latter site. Bhagamandala is a temple set amongst cloud covered mountains and overseeing the confluence of three rivers (though one of the rivers is hidden). The temple itself is very peaceful and beautiful.
Next day we went to Abby Falls, a dangerous but picturesque waterfall. It is known to devour quite a few adventurous ones every year if you are not careful enough. There is no direct access to reach the water, though a bridge is made across it and you can actually feel the water spray at you even when you are standing 100 feet away. All these sites have their own history and lore, so it will be quite interesting if you keep a tab on the trivia for each place.
Raja’s Seat or the sunset point is well-known for its expansive view of the mountains and the wide open greenery across the valley. Due to the on-and-off rains and the fog, we couldn’t manage to see the sunset but the columns of clouds over the mountains were a view in itself. It looked as if the fog is streaming down in pillars and trying to touch the ground. Plus the lush green is simply breathtaking!
Dubare forest, more famous for its elephants, is a place where you can feed the mammals, watch them take baths, ride them and play with them. I was really excited about the place since white water rafting is also present here. But tough luck, we reached the place around 3 pm and the elephant camp gets over by 12 noon. We asked around for rafting, it was 700 bucks per person for a 7.5 km distance and 1.5 hours of dashing across the water. But it started pouring and my desire to go for rafting also went unfulfilled.
Golden temple – my, what an architecture that is! Our initial plans were to skip it, thinking it to be just another temple, but we would have really missed out on the trip if we hadn’t visited it. Vibrant and colourful to the core, this Buddhist monastery reminded us of Sikkim or any North Eastern town. In fact the whole area around the temple was Buddhist settlement, which gave a religious and heavenly charm to the place.
We didn’t have time to visit the other two famous places – Madhikeri Fort and Nagarahole National Park – due to time constraint, but went to see the lighting at Mysore Palace on our way back.
We came back with lots of fresh, aromatic spices, tea and homemade chocolates in our bag. Overall, it was an excellent trip. Two days seemed so less! Three long weekends are coming up guys; the small town nestled in the hills is definitely worth a visit.
Link to our Coorg pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sanjula.guha/Coorg2223Aug0903#
As I said, we were staying in a home-stay which was just 15 km from Talakavery, it was the first place we visited the day we arrived in Coorg. It is the place where Cauvery River originates and every October on a particular day, water gurgles out of a hole in the ground.
Our hostess / aunty asked us to be there around 4 pm so that we can experience cutting through white fog and rain. Well, she was mostly right because the feeling of driving though sheer cloud is something beyond words! What we missed out on was the climb up 380 stairs at Talakavery. It supposedly gives a panoramic view of the valley below, which the cloud had completed shrouded.
I missed out Bhagamandala / Sangam before Talakavery, which is around 8 km before the latter site. Bhagamandala is a temple set amongst cloud covered mountains and overseeing the confluence of three rivers (though one of the rivers is hidden). The temple itself is very peaceful and beautiful.
Next day we went to Abby Falls, a dangerous but picturesque waterfall. It is known to devour quite a few adventurous ones every year if you are not careful enough. There is no direct access to reach the water, though a bridge is made across it and you can actually feel the water spray at you even when you are standing 100 feet away. All these sites have their own history and lore, so it will be quite interesting if you keep a tab on the trivia for each place.
Raja’s Seat or the sunset point is well-known for its expansive view of the mountains and the wide open greenery across the valley. Due to the on-and-off rains and the fog, we couldn’t manage to see the sunset but the columns of clouds over the mountains were a view in itself. It looked as if the fog is streaming down in pillars and trying to touch the ground. Plus the lush green is simply breathtaking!
Dubare forest, more famous for its elephants, is a place where you can feed the mammals, watch them take baths, ride them and play with them. I was really excited about the place since white water rafting is also present here. But tough luck, we reached the place around 3 pm and the elephant camp gets over by 12 noon. We asked around for rafting, it was 700 bucks per person for a 7.5 km distance and 1.5 hours of dashing across the water. But it started pouring and my desire to go for rafting also went unfulfilled.
Golden temple – my, what an architecture that is! Our initial plans were to skip it, thinking it to be just another temple, but we would have really missed out on the trip if we hadn’t visited it. Vibrant and colourful to the core, this Buddhist monastery reminded us of Sikkim or any North Eastern town. In fact the whole area around the temple was Buddhist settlement, which gave a religious and heavenly charm to the place.
We didn’t have time to visit the other two famous places – Madhikeri Fort and Nagarahole National Park – due to time constraint, but went to see the lighting at Mysore Palace on our way back.
We came back with lots of fresh, aromatic spices, tea and homemade chocolates in our bag. Overall, it was an excellent trip. Two days seemed so less! Three long weekends are coming up guys; the small town nestled in the hills is definitely worth a visit.
Link to our Coorg pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sanjula.guha/Coorg2223Aug0903#
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