Coorg - Madikeri

[avindu]

This is my first visit to the district of Coorg and it tops the list of places I have visited. Lush green forest, breathtaking scenaries, water falls, misty hills will leave you with a hangover for a few days

I love hill stations, not just for the climate but gives you the perfect stage to test your photography skills So, suggested my wife about coorg and she was game. I wanted to go on Friday and return on Saturday, as I would get a days rest. Luckily both of us got offs on Friday. We left Bangalore at 4:30 AM.

Route :

1. Bangalore -> Mysore Road
2. Take a Right near Young Island Resort, after Srirangapatna
3. This is the road that leads to Ranganathitu Bird Sanctuary and KRS. The stretch is about 10Kms or so and its not in a good shape.
4. It takes you to straight to the road that joins the Mysore Madikeri highway.
5. Take a right and head straight.

Places on the way to Madikeri - Hunsur, Suntikopa, Kushalnagar.

We reached our homestay exactly at 9 AM and the distance was 256Kms. After a quick shower we set out for sight seeing. Following are the list of places we visited on Friday.

1. Raja's seat and Omkareshwara temple are both in the heart of the city
2. Bhagamandla and Talacauvery - the initial stretch is in pathetic condition and its about 38 and 48 Kms respectively
3. Abhi falls

Pics :

Abbi falls





The following day, we visited :

1. Nisargadama
2. Golden temple
3. Nagarhole and Irupu falls

We left Madikeri around 8AM. Nisargadama is on the way to Kushalnagar. Spent atleast a couple of hours and then visited the Golden temple.


Nisargadama









Golden temple







Nagarhole

Its about a 32km stretch inside the forest. Was not lucky enough to spot any animals other than a peacock and deer.







Some elephants tied up



Irupu falls





Casual pics













Finally, keeping the best for the last . 812kms in two days, sunny day on friday and it rained cats & dogs, on the way back to b'lore, pathetic roads, well he took it with ease - My sweetheart





Cheers,

Avinash

 

[avindu]

Here is a link to the set of pics - Flickr: avindu's Photostream

 

[350Z]

Some breathtaking snaps there, Avinash! I'm enjoying reading your travelogues, keep them coming. The initial few attachments seems to have auto-expired due to expiration of upload time limit, thus I've cleared the invalid links from your first post.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[*Arkin_Young*]

Avi, you are one awesome photographer. The last pic is wallpaper material.

 

[mukeshus]

Hi Avinash, its good that you are enjoying the hawk.
Madikeri is a transit for me while going to Mangalore.
I think you missed Dubare elephant camp, which was worth visiting.
Nisargadhama has improved a lot a few bamboo houses which i can see.
The main entrance "Kaveri Nisargadhama" board earlier was not there.
Instead a long bridge with fish used to welcome us.

The steps in talacauvery didn't had greens earlier when i visited in summer.
The weather looks simply amazing.

I think you would have visited Madikeri's East-end, which serves best food in that region.

 

[avindu]

Some breathtaking snaps there, Avinash! I'm enjoying reading your travelogues, keep them coming. The initial few attachments seems to have auto-expired due to expiration of upload time limit, thus I've cleared the invalid links from your first post.

Drive Safe,
350Z

Thanks 350Z, its a pleasure to share the travelogues on TAI.

Yeah, I realized the attachments expired, so sharing this link - Flickr: avindu's Photostream

 

[avindu]

Avi, you are one awesome photographer. The last pic is wallpaper material.

Thanks bro!

 

[avindu]

Hi Avinash, its good that you are enjoying the hawk.
Madikeri is a transit for me while going to Mangalore.
I think you missed Dubare elephant camp, which was worth visiting.
Nisargadhama has improved a lot a few bamboo houses which i can see.
The main entrance "Kaveri Nisargadhama" board earlier was not there.
Instead a long bridge with fish used to welcome us.

The steps in talacauvery didn't had greens earlier when i visited in summer.
The weather looks simply amazing.

I think you would have visited Madikeri's East-end, which serves best food in that region.

You bet, I'm loving everybit of it ... Nope could not make it to dubare due to time constraint and I wanted to visit Nagarhole.

Nope did not visit the east-end, either. Also missed a couple of places like Tadiandamol and a place near abhi falls, dont remember the name.

One other little thing I wanted to mention was the sign boards, not worth mentioning, but for a beautiful place like this, it deserves to be a lot more better. Nisargadama is about 2kms from kushalnagar and it is on the way to madikeri. However, there was not a single sign board pointing directions to Nisargadama or even the golden temple. Around Madikeri too, not many sign boards and gets confusing a bit. I hope the tourism ministry takes some action about the roads as well and make this place a real 'Scotland of India'.

Btw, I love the way Kannada is spoken here.. the accent is unique and sounds like a mixture of tamil and kannada.

 

[mukeshus]

I hope you had read my travelogue , which i had mentioned where exactly to take deviations to these places.
For golden temple in Bayalukuppe you should have taken left near Koppa as it was the nearest route to the temple.

 

[RSM]

Excellent pictures.
This is one of the place in my wish list.

 

[cooldhaya]

Excellent snaps Avindu. I have been to Coorg before and the climate is amazing there!


And yes an SUV is always comfortable for long trips!

 

[avindu]

I hope you had read my travelogue , which i had mentioned where exactly to take deviations to these places.
For golden temple in Bayalukuppe you should have taken left near Koppa as it was the nearest route to the temple.

Oh yes, I did. Once you're on the road, it is a different story though. You need either slow down and ask someone for the routes or you have a GPS to maneuver around unknown places. I like to see sign boards, with number of Kms written on it. Not that its a big concern but its easier for tourists.

 

[javabrown]

the snaps are amazing, which camera do you use?

 

[avindu]

the snaps are amazing, which camera do you use?

Thanks Javabrown... its a Nikon Coolpix P80

 

[TOPGEAR2010]

trip to koorg/yercaud

Hi Guys,
Planning a trip to Koorg/Yercaud next to next weekend(13 dec). Any suggestions on the road conditions and other tips for safe journey will be helpful for me. One good tip I already found for destination Koorg to take road to bird sanctuary and hence avoid going to Mysore.
Also if you can tell a comparison between Yercaud/Koorg that will be great. Though eventually I will visit both the places but there is a guest at home and hence want her to see a more impressive place of the two.