[himavanth_m]

This trip was done in the last week of August. Our trip covered around 2000 kms in 3 days.

It is monsoons and we have not traveled anywhere. This calls for a trip to the western Ghats. I have covered many places in Maharashtra and to some extent in Kerala. That left us with going to some new place in Karnataka. We knew just the place to go

Destination - Kakkabe

As usual, we had experienced delay in our journey beginning itself. So we left on Friday at 11 PM from Hyderabad and we had around 900+ kms to reach our destination. Our initial plan was to leave by 5 PM.

The NH 7 is excellent from Hyderabad to Bangalore as usual. We were not new to NH7. This might be the 20th time we are travelling on this highway between Hyderabad and Bangalore in the last 1 year. And we reached Bangalore by 7 AM. It was just raining throughout the drive since we left Hyderabad upto the point of Bangalore

We were surprised to see traffic jams at 7 AM in Bangalore. We had to catch Mysore highway as soon as possible. The reason for unusually high traffic at 7 am might be due to people doing the usual weekend getaways from Bangalore to Mysore/Ooty etc. In Bangalore, rain gods showed some mercy and it was not raining.

Just outside of Bangalore - On the way to Mysore Highway.


Another view


Again the Bangalore - Mysore highway was nothing new to us. Our journey upto Mysore was uneventful. So we continued our journey without stopping anywhere in between. Again the rain started as we moved closer to Mysore

Once we crossed Mysore, we headed towards Madikeri. This was again done by us previously. This is an excellent 2 laned road that goes all the way to Madikeri. It was raining all along once we left from Mysore.

Some pics of the excellent 2 laned road




It was Anna Hazare time. In the middle of this route, somewhere close to Periapatna , there was a rasta roko by Anna's team. We were stuck there for almost 1 hour. It was getting late We had to reach our destination soon. It was 12 noon and we still did not reach Madikeri. We finally reached Madikeri at 1 and then proceeded towards our destination which is Kakkabe. Kakkabe is around 40 kms from Madikeri on the route to Talacauvery (One can see the road signs for Talacauvery but not for Kakkabe)

To reach the final destination, it took as around 1.5 hours. This is a place called palace estate. It is an excellent homestay
HomeStay in Coorg, Palace Estate

I highly recommend this for stay especially for people going with family. We were bachelors and we felt it was more suited for couples. Since we went in offseason, it was pretty empty.

Some pics of the place


My Safari(below) as handsome as ever


The Place



The owner of the homestay had a wonderful Red Safari for family trips as well as a Mahindra Jeep (not sure which one but most probably a commander) for the local trips. This red safari can be seen in the above pics.

This place has a waterfall flowing through its property. The owners of the homestay own a small coffee plantation.

We reached this place at around 3 PM. The person who owns this place had the courtesy to wait for us to join for lunch even though it was pretty late. We had an excellent meal and then immediately went strolling into the coffee plantations as well as the waterfall.

The waterfall is excellent and the the person specified that the downstream water would be drinking water for the villagers. So we did not swim or step into the water. We spent about a couple of hours near the waterfall and the coffee plantations.

On the way to waterfall and in between coffee plantations


I was the unlucky one. I got bitten by a leech 3 times. The rest also got bitten by leeches atleast once. We entered into the leech territory during rainy season. So it is next to impossible to escape a leech bite in this terrain. However leeches are harmless creatures. They do not pass any bacteria or germs into our body.

Firstly, when a leech bites, it is painless. So more often than not we would not know until after the leech has bitten and left. It leaves on its own, once its stomach is full with our blood. However, if one sees a leech on the body, pulling it does not help. So the following 4 techniques can be used to remove it.
1. Bring a fire close to it so that it gets some heat.
2. Rub some salt water on it
3. Pour some dettol on it
4. Rub some turpentine oil on it
5. Rub some tobacco on it

Once it looses grip immediately rub it off, before it catches another part of your skin. At any cost do not panic as it might leave you and catch a friend of yours close by.

A pic of the leech on my leg


After the leech leaves the body, it generally takes a while for the blood to clot. For me it took approximately 15 minutes for the blood to clot. I guess the leech injects some anti coagulant into the body. Another thing to note is that leeches stay in wet areas but not in water.

During this episode of leeches, we finally reached the beautiful waterfall.

A couple of pics of the private waterfall. We were so excited to see the waterfall that everyone wanted a pic with the waterfall. So there are no pics of the waterfall alone.
So I apologize for not taking those pics and posting the pics with the friends.






It was getting late and we were very tired as we did not have sleep for almost 24 hours. So we headed back to the room had lovely dinner with the family (At homestay) and went to bed.

I will continue the next leg tomorrow.

[ukderebail]

Nice Photologue of your trip to Coorg, it must have been raining all the way i suppose. Covering 2000kms in 3 days must have been straining. I generally average 450 kms per day. The water fall in a private estate is lovely. Hope you all enjoyed your trip and looking forward for rest of the photos

[noidea]

So the following 4 techniques can be used to remove it.
1. Bring a fire close to it so that it gets some heat.
2. Rub some salt water on it
3. Pour some dettol on it
4. Rub some turpentine oil on it
5. Rub some tobacco on it

The fifth out of the four technique is the best choice I think!!

Excellent T-logue, great pics.
Thanks

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

I will continue the next leg tomorrow.

This is a nice travelogue with cool pics that brought back our memory when we did the Coorg trip 3yrs ago.

Can you provide me the rates per night for various type of rooms at the homestay if you don't mind?

Looking forward to hear more from you.

Cheers,
Kiran

[himavanth_m]

Originally Posted by ukderebail

Nice Photologue of your trip to Coorg, it must have been raining all the way i suppose. Covering 2000kms in 3 days must have been straining. I generally average 450 kms per day. The water fall in a private estate is lovely. Hope you all enjoyed your trip and looking forward for rest of the photos

2000 kms in 3 days something we do normally. Highest was 2500 kms in 3 days when we went to Karwar and Thirthahalli. We generally travel 900+ kms overnight on the way up and down. And have a leisurely 2 days at the place. Since 2 people in our group drive and none of us have problems sleeping in the car while the other drives, it is not too much strain for us.

And yes the waterfall was lovely and it was very peaceful with no one to disturb us.

Originally Posted by noidea

So the following 4 techniques can be used to remove it.
1. Bring a fire close to it so that it gets some heat.
2. Rub some salt water on it
3. Pour some dettol on it
4. Rub some turpentine oil on it
5. Rub some tobacco on it

The fifth out of the four technique is the best choice I think!!

Excellent T-logue, great pics.
Thanks

Sorry for the mistake. I meant 5 ways .
I found that pouring concentrated dettol is the best among the lot. We have tried all 5. During this trip, all of us included we were bitten almost 20 times. So we got a chance to try all techniques. Due to this experience we no longer have problems with leeches as they do not harm. Our major concern were king cobras. Apparently there are some King Cobras in this region.

Originally Posted by kirantp

This is a nice travelogue with cool pics that brought back our memory when we did the Coorg trip 3yrs ago.

Can you provide me the rates per night for various type of rooms at the homestay if you don't mind?

Looking forward to hear more from you.

Cheers,
Kiran

Gald you liked the pics
I think it costed us around 6000 including food for 5 of us for 2 nights. The following link will help you to get in touch with them for the Tariffs. We went in offseason. So the rates were not so high.
HomeStay in Coorg, Palace Estate

[himavanth_m]

None of us were early risers. So all of us had a wonderful nights sleep and got up the next day at 9 AM. Lovely breakfast was awaiting us and we had a good breakfast. The only thing we wanted to do was the trek to Thadiyandamol peak (Highest peak in Coorg District). This is about 1740 m above sea level and it is adjacent to Makutta forest. On one side of peak is Kerala and on the other side is Karnataka. Some of us even got Kerala signal while trekking to the top.

There are 2 trekking routes for this Peak. The shorter one is from the Nalnad palace side and we took this route. I am not sure about the other one though but the villagers mentioned it is much more scenic than this one. But for that, it is not advisable to do in offseason especially when it rains.

Elephants, bison, tigers, wild cats, and variety of birds habitat the thick vegetation. Also this is the land of King Cobras.

The homestay owner mentioned that there were no guides available to take us to the top and so we had to do it on our own. He gave a map and a bottle of dettol, salt, turpentine oil and left us on our own. I am not sure he exaggerated, but he mentioned to be extremely careful about the tigers and King Cobras although the probability of finding one is very less.

Now here we are a bunch of foolish travelers going into unknown areas especially infested with leeches. But we took the plunge to do the trek after repeated assurances from the homestay owner that it was safe.

So we started and it was an unforgettable experience. Let there be no suspense, There were no tigers that we found and there were no king cobras enroute.

The beginning


Steam in the forest. The real trek starts from here




Multiple streams enroute


First view into the open hills


Magnificent views


I should not have added this pic . Did not know how to delete after uploading. . I did not want to rewrite all this again and reattach files.


Yours truly


The gang


This place is called the big rock and people take rest here while doing the trek.


It took us almost 2 hours to reach this place. Ideally it should have taken no more than 1 hour, but we were doing this at a leisurely pace as we had nothing else to do. We ate some stuff that we brought at the big rock and proceeded further.

Some more pics of the majestic views that we encountered on our way up


Another one


The peak was completely covered with fog. This pic does injustice to the height of the peak as it is not visible. We could not capture a clear view of the pic as we forgot our camera at the hotel.


The trek is beginning to get difficult


But what we were about to see was something totally unexpected which halted our trek further.

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

The only thing we wanted to do was the trek to Thadiyandamol peak (Highest peak in Coorg District). This is about 1740 m above sea level and it is adjacent to Makutta forest. On one side of peak is Kerala and on the other side is Karnataka. Some of us even got Kerala signal while trekking to the top.

It is also called the famous "cheluvara peak".

There are 2 trekking routes for this Peak. The shorter one is from the Nalnad palace side and we took this route. I am not sure about the other one though but the villagers mentioned it is much more scenic than this one. But for that, it is not advisable to do in offseason especially when it rains.

Yes, the other route is much more scenic and the way leading to the peak itself is scary with a steep climb (you can imagine how the descent would be ). You need a 4X4 vehicle to scale the peak from this route which we did 3 yrs ago. The view is needless to say breadthtaking once you reach the top. They shoot lot of Kannada movies here as well.

Nice write-up with great pics dude. My few cents are highlighted above.

[Rajesh K R]

Aha !! Thanks Himavanth ! You have made me to remember the excellent 3 days which we spent at Palace Estate in Feb 2010. Nice place with equally nice hosts.

We didn't do the trekking part due to my wife and daughter not being interested. Instead we just lazed around the estate, waterfall and the palace.

[govigov]

excellent hooked onto your travelogue. how is the trek rated? is it more of a vertical climb? what difficult rating would you give for this trek?

[himavanth_m]

Originally Posted by kirantp

Nice write-up with great pics dude. My few cents are highlighted above.

Did not know a car can go to the peak. It seemed pretty impossible and no roads around.

Originally Posted by Rajesh K R

Aha !! Thanks Himavanth ! You have made me to remember the excellent 3 days which we spent at Palace Estate in Feb 2010. Nice place with equally nice hosts.

We didn't do the trekking part due to my wife and daughter not being interested. Instead we just lazed around the estate, waterfall and the palace.

Welcome. It is indeed a wonderful place with wonderful hosts.

Originally Posted by govigov

excellent hooked onto your travelogue. how is the trek rated? is it more of a vertical climb? what difficult rating would you give for this trek?

The initial part of the trek is quite simple. But closer to the peak it becomes more and more difficult especially with the forest in the last part of the trek. But I think the trek will be much more easier in the non-monsoon months. Half the time we were worried about leeches.

Continuing....

We were just about to enter the last leg of the trek into the forest when we saw a bunch of buffaloes. Initially we thought they were the cattle of some villagers around and we proceeded. Once we moved closer to them, they started forming a circle and all of them stared at us. It sent a chill down our spines as we suddenly realized that they were not the tame ones. They were the wild buffaloes and there were calves in the herd. So they were very cautious and they were staring at us as we disturbed their grazing time.

Pic of the buffaloes staring at us.



We waited almost for 1 hour for them to leave and move into a different direction. We stayed at a distance as we were very afraid of them. Hoping that they would leave, we waited on and on and on. But the buffaloes had a different Idea. They were slowly grazing and coming towards us.

While waiting we took some of these pics



Trying to plan for a different route. But none existed. The only way was through the thick grass which we did not want to take as we did not know what lay beneath the ground. Especially King Cobras (2nd most poisonous snake in the world) as mentioned by our host.

Yours truly trying to look for other options


After a 2 hour long wait, we realized that there was no point continuing as it was almost 3 30 by that time. Even if we had continued, it would have gotten pretty late by the time we returned to our homestay. And it would have been much more dangerous coming back in the night. All the while it was raining and had we waited longer, we would have to trek back in the rain and at night. So we returned back thinking we will do this trek the next time we visit this place.

The return back


On our way back we also found wild boar. It was hiding from us and we did not dare to disturb it.


Customary Group pic after returning to safe land


We finally reached our homestay at 5 pm and had some great snacks

Some more pics of homestay(Just for Rajesh K R)



I slipped here on the moss filled ground and it was a fall with full force


Rooms




It was time to check for leeches which were in the socks and we did not ever realize. After removing the shoes we found this


A piece of advice: While trekking into leech infected areas, refrain from wearing full pants jeans and covering whole of your body. The leech generally catches the first part of skin that it gets. So if we wear full jeans, it does not find a place for it attack. So unknowingly, it will crawl up and may catch you on your neck or some places like arms. It would be more difficult to notice a leech at these places and much more difficult to remove them.
As can be seen from above pic, it is advisable not to wear shoes as well. Once it gets inside the shoe, one will not notice and it will get chance to suck more blood. However, with slippers, there is greater probability to find it and remove it immediately.

It was time for us to enjoy the rest of day after a long day and sleep. But a bat had other ideas. It somehow came inside our room. We had a lot of difficulty to get it out of the room. We eventually gave up. Opened all our windows and doors, covered ourselves fully with a blanket and slept (with the bat )

The next day we had to plan our return trip.

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

Did not know a car can go to the peak. It seemed pretty impossible and no roads around.

Hey, not sure from which side you guys did the trek. We went in a 4X4 forest Jeep that the resort had organized for us. I will post the pic sometime tonight.
I am already feeling like making it there again after looking at those wonderful pics and write-up dude.

[Rajesh K R]

Himavanth, Many thanks for the photos !!

Hope u don't mind me adding some photos taken during our trip.

Waterfall

Just before Sunrise

Sunrise

Coffee drying yard

Garden in front of the Homestay


Thanks !!

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

Did not know a car can go to the peak. It seemed pretty impossible and no roads around.

As promised, here are few pics of the 4X4 in which we made it to the top.

On the way to the top 01:


On the way to the top 02:


After reaching the top with the 4X4 Jeep in the vicinity.

[kirantp]

Originally Posted by Rajesh K R

Himavanth, Many thanks for the photos !!

Hope u don't mind me adding some photos taken during our trip.

Waterfall
Attachment 817640
Just before Sunrise
Attachment 817641
Sunrise
Attachment 817642
Coffee drying yard
Attachment 817643
Garden in front of the Homestay
Attachment 817644

Thanks !!

Good collection Rajesh. Hope you have some more to share. Thanks for sharing them over here.

[Rajesh K R]

Originally Posted by kirantp

Good collection Rajesh. Hope you have some more to share. Thanks for sharing them over here.

I will dig into my archives and try to post some more photos. The snaps which you have posted also are superb.

Didn't know such a 4 x 4 track existed to the top, else we also could have explored the opportunity to do the climb by a Jeep. From where does this track originate? Did u also stay in the same homestay ?

The homestay hosts didn't have either the safari or the Jeep when we went. They had an old 4x4 Gypsy (strictly for the plantation related activities) and a Maruthi Van (for daily passenger use).