[TheRedPaladin]

In december 2011, my friends and I wanted a break from the routine college stuffs and we wanted to have a refreshing weekend. What other than driving during a weekend can be more refreshing. Madikeri was on cards for a long time now, and this we all agreed to execute the madikeri plan.

I started browsing team-bhp for as much information regarding madikeri and few unexplored places there. I thoroughly enjoyed reading travelogues from various team bhpians who have been here, and done this. I heartfully thank each one of you who have guided me directly or indirectly for this trip to make it a success.

We decided to start off early morning from our campus, and have tea at the KSRTC bus-stop mangalore, as no other hotels will be open. Few biscuits and tea and we were all good to go. We hit the NH via Pumpwell circle and headed off to Kasargod.

Our route:- Mangalore-Kasargod-Kanhangad-Panathur-Bhagamandala

The decision of this route happened in order to avoid the bad roads under construction in the sullia-sampaje stretch. Well, here is a snap of our Ritz all set to go!



Since we were going via Kasargod, we happened to visit the Bekal fort as well, which comes very much on the way, just we need to take a small right-turn en-route Kanhangad and within 2 Kms we have the Bekal fort.

Some pics at the bekal fort:-









Bekal fort is one such kind of a place, which should be visited en-route to a destination. There is nothing much around the fort, that it has to be visited exclusively. There are few beaches along this stretch like the Kappad Beach.

[Additional Info-]
People intending to stay near Bekal fort can opt for a resort named Nirvana, which offers double rooms at around 1600 per person. I haven't stayed there as yet, but I have seen this huge board put up near my house at manipal.

After some refreshing watermelon juices at the bekal fort premises, we head towards Kanhangad, which joins us to Panathur-Bhagamandala road. The roads are decent except for pot-holes here and there. We didnt have much stops as we had to reach bhagamandala soon. We continuously drove till we reached the Bhagamandala junction.

En-route we had many mini waterfalls along the roadside. Here is a snap of one such waterfall where we decided to take a breather.



Cheapest accomodation at madikeri?
At this junction, there is a lodge which offers rooms at INR 150/- per person after establishing a friendly rapport and some decent bargein. Initially they quoted around 300 per person. Since we were students, and not much in pocket, we had to do a friendly bargain. The room was OK-OK, extremely simple, and basic electricity facilities. Decent bed to sleep. We booked one room here.

From here, we left to Talacauvery which was very close by. Some snaps of brahmagiri hills and talacauvery.









After completing talakaveri and brahmagiri climb of a number of steps, we headed to Nalknad palace and from there, we wanted to spend the evening at Chelavara Falls. But, last minute change of plans, we headed to chelavara first, and spent a lot of time in the water-play, and before we realised it was getting dark.

Couple of snaps at the Chelavara falls:-





From here we headed to Nalknad palace and went into it. It was pretty dark by then, and the pics havent come out so well. Hence, I decided not to upload them. By the time we finished Nalknad palace, it was Night-fall. We headed back to Bhagamandala, where we had booked our room, only to realise that, we need to goto Napoklu to get a decent standard restaurant for dinner. We headed to Napoklu where we had our lunch, had a decent dinner with fish fry and rice, returned to room and crashed.

Next day, all of us were up by 6 30 and we checked out of the room, and headed towards madikeri and Raja's seat. We skipped abbey falls, as we have already seen Chelavara falls. We didnt want to waste time on another falls. We saw the madikeri fort, but were not interested to stop by, so moved on to breakfast in the town at a place called swagath.

Then, we moved to Raja's seat. It was quite foggy, to get the full view. Here is a snap of the Raja's seat, and few early morning snaps en-route.







From here, we proceeded to Kushalnagar, tibetian monastery. It was huge and roads were amazingly smooth. There was traffic around. But, we could do decent speeds. By noon we reached Kushalnagar, and then had our lunch in the town and proceeded to Tibetian monastery. I havent uploaded many pics of this place because, there have been many travelogues with brilliant pics of this place. I just didnt want to repeat the same with this post.



After spending time here, we headed towards the nisargadhama. But our car's front-left wheel had air leaking out. So, we were looking out for puncture repair shops, since it was tubeless tyres, there werent many. We finally got it sealed, and changed to the spare tyre, to avoid any complications and delays. We reached Nisargadhama by evening. After spending some time there, in the water games and also some walks, we had to embark on the return journey to Mangalore.



From here, we headed back to Mangalore, and it was night driving, and since we knew the route, it wasnt a problem. We reached safely back to hostel and went to our classes next day morning. Overall, it was an eventful trip with friends. Fun and frolic, and a memorable one.

Thanks and Regards
~TheRedPaladin a.k.a Karthik

[FasterPhene]

Great pics. Liked the mist and fog in the various snaps. However I am sure now the weather will be hot and sultry to venture into Coorg.

[TheRedPaladin]

Originally Posted by FasterPhene

Great pics. Liked the mist and fog in the various snaps. However I am sure now the weather will be hot and sultry to venture into Coorg.

Thanks, Yeah your are right , now its not so apt to goto madikeri. The best time would be during monsoons, or just after monsoons. A weekend would be great to relax with your special one in a place like that in winter/end of rainy season.

Regards
~TheRedPaladin a.k.a Karthik