Swifted : Coorg

[laluks]

Back from a trip to Coorg. For a change it was the Swift this time. Coorg was at its best after the rains, green everywhere.

This year was tripping and tripping for me.

January - Alleppey and Cochin
February, March - Kodaikanal
April, May - Goa, Mangalore, Udupi
June - Kodai, Munnar
July - Mangalore, Maravanthe, Murdeswar, Jog Falls
August - Coorg

The Goa, Mangalore logs can be found here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...km-8-days.html

The Munnar Kodai logs can be found here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ur-munnar.html

September - Keep guessing

It was the third Club Mahindra holiday this year for us.
28.08.09 to 31.08.09(4 Days)
Places covered - Most of Coorg and Nagarahole.
Total 975kms, FE 16.5kmpl


Watch this space for the log.
Till then a teaser.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by laluks

September - Keep guessing

It was the third Club Mahindra holiday this year for us.
28.08.09 to 31.08.09(4 Days)
Places covered - Most of Coorg and Nagarahole.
Total 975kms, FE 16.5kmpl


Watch this space for the log.
Till then a teaser.
Attachment 183837

I hope you are fully prepared for September. BTW is there a Club Mahindra there?

[mjothi]

Lalu, that was a great teaser. Good photo selected for teaser

[laluks]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

I hope you are fully prepared for September. BTW is there a Club Mahindra there?

For September there are two Club Mahindra resorts in the vicinity. But will not work out because of the deviations.

[lohithrao]

lalu you are on the move man, i envy you

look forward for a good read!

btw that's a good teaser

Also do mention what was the experience driving in your swift etc you see this is a car forum you see hehe

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

I hope you are fully prepared for September. BTW is there a Club Mahindra there?

Originally Posted by laluks

For September there are two Club Mahindra resorts in the vicinity. But will not work out because of the deviations.

Are you sure he asked for the resort availability in spetember

[laluks]

The Trip
Bangalore - Srirangapatna - Hunsur- Bylakuppe - Harangi Dam - Dubare - Sidapur- Chetalli - Madikeri - Bhagamandala - Talacauvery - Madikeri - Chetalli - Sidapur - Pollibetta - Ammathi - Virajpet - Kadanga - Kakabe - Madikeri - Virajpet - Gonikoppal - Ponnampet - Hudikeri - Irpu Falls - Kutta - Nagarahole - Murkal - Hunsur - Srirangapatna - Bangalore
975 km, 4 days
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1, August 28th, 2009
Bangalore - Srirangapatna - Hunsur- Bylakuppe - Harangi Dam - Dubare - Sidapur- Chetalli - Madikeri - Bhagamandala - Talacauvery - Madikeri

We left around 4AM from home. We had a nice drive till we find that outer ring road was blocked for some construction, took the deviations and touched Mysore road took the Srirangapatna shortcut. We reached Krishna Raja Sagar Dam by 7.30Am just to see the flow from the bridge. You need not go to KRS, but take the left and join Hunsur road if you are going direct.



Hunsur Road(SH88) was superb all the way till Bylakuppe.




We reached Bylakuppe by 9AM and went directly to the Golden temple at the Namdroling Monastery.

The way to the golden temple


The golden temple





Swift resting



We then drove to Kagyudpa Monastery to get some wonderful valley views and to take some rest. We finally left from here at 11AM.



We touched Hunsur road again and deviated to Harangi Dam. We are not allowed inside the dam area any more, but you can see the flow from the gates outside. Since the area was a restricted site, we did not take any pictures. The water level in the dam was almost full.

From Harangi dam we took a nice scenic road to SH88 and joined it just at the intersection where the road to SH88B joins. SH88B goes via Madikeri - Sidapur - Virajpet and on. Since we byepassed Kushal Nagar, we have not seen the famous potholed roads.



We saw a horsy there with front legs tied together.


We saw a ghost tree.


In this road before reaching Sidapur you get Dubare Elephant camp. Since we have been there before, we just drove there to see the flowing cauvery. There was decent flow, and unlike last time crossing by feet was not possible. We left Dubare by 12.30PM.

Cauvery at Dubare.


The road to Dubare.


We drove to Sidapur and then took the deviation to Madikeri via Chetalli. We reached Madikeri by 1.30PM. Stopped at Hotel Raj Darshan for Lunch. After lunch we found out the roads to Club Mahindra and reacched the resort by 2.30PM. The resort is located nearly 5Km away from Rajas seat. Nice location, and resort. Checked in and took rest till 4.00PM, before we started to Bhagamandala and Talacauvery.

We reached Talacauvery at 5.30PM. The entire place was engulfed in thick fog. We spent 30 minutes there going up to the peak and in the temple.









We reached Bhagamandala by 6.30PM.




We finally left back to the resort by 7PM and reached at 8.30PM. Had a heavy dinner with some kodava specialities and retired for thee day.

475Km for the day.

[laluks]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

lalu you are on the move man, i envy you

look forward for a good read!

btw that's a good teaser

Also do mention what was the experience driving in your swift etc you see this is a car forum you see hehe

Thanks Lohit.
Swift, I enjoyed every moment of it. The only pet hate I had was the lack of power when I needed it in the low rpms, but soon got adjusted with it. But man, this car takes any roads with fun.

Originally Posted by mjothi

Lalu, that was a great teaser. Good photo selected for teaser

Thanks Mahesh

Originally Posted by mjothi

Are you sure he asked for the resort availability in spetember

Resort availability could be an issue, at such short notice. But may be you get lucky.

[maddy42]

mjothi try the homestays rather. You will get proper coorg delicacies and will get to experience coorg from a first person perspective.

Lohit: Great trip man. You seem to have covered much man. Waiting for more man

[prince_pervez]

Great trip. Nice photographs. Waiting for more. Looks like I have to make one more trip to Coorg, following your route and leads.

[MileCruncher]

Lalu good pictures, which camera do you use BTW?

[addyhemmige]

laluks, you are definitely the envy of the forum right now, with all the tripping you are doing non-stop

Looks like you gave your swift a chance this time. How did it handle the bad roads? The last time I took my swift on the Kushalnagar-Madikeri road, it returned with a lot of rattles.

As always, lots of info in your travelogues. Waiting for more pics

[kannan666]

Nice travelogue and pics to go with it laluks, eagerly wailting to read about Day 2 now !

[fast_elegance]

Nice photos there laluks . That foggy weather is so tempting .

[pulsar56]

Wow.. That Hunsur road & Golden Temple road pictures are so inviting!
Nice pictures and crisp details.
Keep it coming.