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I along with few friends went on a 3 day trip to Kutta, last weekend, in my XUV, The Mamba.

Kutta is located around 250 kms from Bangalore. The original route is Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta. We decided to visit Kushalnagar and then reach Kutta.

Day 1
We left Bangalore at 7am. I took the Nice road towards Mysore road.

Breakfast :
Stopped for breakfast at Kamath. This is the best highway breakfast you can have. They have an unlimited buffet @ Rs 100, and that can fill you literally.





Post breakfast I drove towards Mysore. The roads are good, but a lot of speed breakers have popped up from no where. Some are pretty nasty.

Made a mistake of taking the KRS road towards Hunsur. The roads ( whatever is left of them) are pathetic. My car took it reasonably well, but it is just not worth saving a few kms through this road. Best way is to drive till mysore, and take a right towards the bypass to Hunsur. ( I did correct it on the way back).

Hunsur to Kushalnagar is a superb road. Well tarred , not potholes. Traffic was also smooth and mannered. We visited the Golden temple.



Lunch : was at the Potala Kitchen family restaurant, at 1st camp. This is a small market you would see on way to golden temple. Authentic tibetan food. Yummy Beef Momos and Thukpa. Pretty cheap too.

Kushal Nagar to Madikeri , winding roads, but well tarred. You can pick up tasty oranges and Chikkus on the way. Did some spice shopping at the madikeri market too.

Madikeri to Kutta . I had done my route map and study on the road. But this was a disaster which was totally unexpected. With no sign boards on the way, we were mis guided 3 times. What should have taken us 2 hours eventually took us 3.5 hrs, through absolutely off road terrains. Roads were being dug up, detours and people positioned to send you the wrong way. For the first time, I felt lost. High time for a good GPS .

Kutta : I had booked us in Tropical Blooms, a home stay.It has just 3 rooms and can accomodate a max of 9-10 people. It also has a 3 acre plus anthurium plantation.We eventually reached the resort by 7pm. The last 2 hrs drive had me at breaking point. A hot shower, some anthakshari , some coolers and a super dinner with pork and akki roti calmed us to a good deep sleep.

Day 2
I woke up early morn, and as i opened my room door, it was a jaw dropping spectacular view of the Brahmagiri range. The valley was fully foggy and a little later I had one of the best sun rises I have seen.










Iruppu Falls :At 2 kms from where i stayed, this was the only thing we had planned for the day. After a good heavy breakfast consisting of dosas and alu parathas, and a relaxing walk through the anthurium plantations , we headed to the falls. The half a km climb is worth every inch of it, as you get the first glance of the falls. We spend a good 3 hrs there.









A Tip : There is a view point just before you climb the final ascend to the falls. You can make your way down through a narrow way aside this view point. You reach few smaller falls and pools, That is the best place to enjoy the falls. No crowds either.



We came back to the resort, had a totally laid back day. Some lazing with sunbathe in the lawn which over looks the valley and another walk through the 3 acre or so anthurium plantation. We had a good camp fire and another super dinner.





Day 3

Wanted to wake up late, but the early morn view was too much to miss. Ended up waking up way too early. Sitting in the lawn and watching the morning break is so relaxing.




A good breakfast and we started packing.Settled the bills and by 10am we left the resort back to bangalore.

Kutta -Nagarhole- Hunsur : Pretty good roads from Kutta to Nagarhole, which is around 15 kms. The drive through Nagarhole national park is too good. If you are lucky , you can spot a good number of wild animals. The roads are open from 5am to 6pm. We spotted some deers and an elephant which refused to look at us. I didnt click any pics of this ride and now realise, i missed some good pics.

Hunsur-Mysore : I didnt make mistake this time, and drove through Mysore. The roads are really well laid and some bit of work is happening. So beware of incoming traffic.

Lunch : Empire has opened a new branch at Maddur. So to avoid any risks, we stopped over and had the usual Bangalorean food. The joint is well done.

Back in Bangalore : Mysore road into Nice road and exited at Hosur road. The huge trucks which move hand in hand on both lanes refusing to leave each others side, are the biggest spoilers. While I understand their issues, why try to over take when you cant overtake and end up blocking the entire road.

Overall it was 3 days well spent. Awesome drive, the car behaved pretty well. I clocked a mileage of 11 for the drive. I think it is low compared to what others are getting. It was a mix of awesome and pathetic roads, but was not tiring.Refreshed for the year end, and looking forward to many more drives.

Thanks for reading.

Nice pictures!

You could have taken Mysore ring road instead of going through Mysore town. Other than few hundred meters of bad stretch it is pretty good.

Next time dont forget to taste Kodava food @ Coorg Cousine - Madikeri

Fantastic shots of Kutta!

Any reason you took such a long route via Madikeri when you had no intention of doing any sightseeing in Madikeri?

Lovely pictures, looks nice and quiet. One question.

You said its about 250 Kms from Bangalore and it took you close to 12 hours (Started at 7 and reached at 7) even if we reduce the 3.5 Hrs lost due not knowing direction, it almost took close to 9 hours to reach the place.

250Kms - 9 Hours dont gel well together, unless the roads were bad or you stopped a lot mid way. Kindly enlighten. Would be good if you could post a picture with Map, as the place looks very good to go.

Kindly add contact details of Tropical Blooms, if they were good.

Great photos!

Bangalore - Kutta took 6.5 hours through Nagarhole (inclusive of 45 min lunch break and a couple of wrong turns through Mysore) when I went there in my SX4 3 years back. Should be doable in 5.5-6 hours.

Thank You

I should have. But some instincts made me take the KRS road in the last minute. Lesson well learned. Coorg Cuisine , madikeri is noted. Thanks

Thank You

My co travellers wanted to see golden temple and wanted some bit of shopping at madikeri. Hence the detour. That was the plan.

Thank you.
I did Bangalore- Kushal Nagar in 5 hrs or so. We spend time there visiting golden temple, having lunch at kushalnagar. Also did madikeri and did some bit of spice shopping there.

The madikeri- Kutta route is where I lost way and lot of time. It was a clean 78 kms route which should have been madikeri-Gonikoppa-Kutta. We got wrong directions through the route unfortunately. My mistake that I didnt stick on to the studied route.

Tropical Blooms is good if you are a small group. They have 3 beds in each room , and all rooms over look the brahmagiri mountains.

The owner runs the anthurium plantation, and that is his major business. This looks like a passtime. But food and accommodation is very good.

http://www.tropicalblooms.in/default.aspx

Thank You.
Its a good 6 hrs drive including tea/lunch breaks. Roads all the way from Kutta-Nagarhole-Hunsur-Mysore-Bangalore are superb.

Attached is the route map.

Lovely write-up Munnabhai.

Iruppu falls is very famous for leeches. Did you have any encounters with them???

We had been there a month back and had a horrible time with the leeches.

Regards,
Anant

Yes, I had heard that too, so was expecting to carry some leeches on our trek up and down. But it seems they are not keen on pure blood :D.. No leech bites that way

The only stray one was found on a friends tshirt as we came out of the falls. It was swiftly thrown away.

wow,
takes me back memory lane. this was my first long drive in my honda jazz in sep 2009. i took the krs sagar route onward and drove via nagarhole sanctuary to kutta (guess it's the shortest route) and returned sightseeing via gonigompa, virajpet, madikeri, thalakaveri, kushalnagar (night halt) and then bypassed mysore using the ring road and then used the NICE road.
at kutta, i stayed at a homestay (firefly lounge/grove) run by a family who established the town of kutta in the british raj era. extremely hospitable, spacious and with the right amount of privacy. i have their number too, in case someone is interested, do let me know.
the guy (owners son) took us on an early morning chilly safari wherein we saw a tiger, a few bisons and tuskers in the wild. the very first time that i saw a big cat free in the wild. all in all, it was a great trip. though the roads to madikeri from kutta were horrible.

2009 is not that far back in the memory bank. So let me go really far. During 1979-82, my dad was a bank manager in Gonikoppal. Once in 1980, a planter by name C.B.Muttanna invited the dad's entire branch staff with family to his plantation house in Kutta. Like most traditional Kodava homes, it was maintained like a museum. They had bio-gas driven lighting, fresh strawberries we could pluck and eat off the plant, etc. Then we visited Nagarhole national park, and...um.. my memory is failing. It was far too long back.:) No photos too, none of us had cameras.

Nice writeup and description of beautiful hidden place. I never thought having lunch over there 2 weeks back as tourist place. It took 5.5 hours for me to reach Kutta from Whitefield, Bangalore 2 weeks back while going towards Sultan Bathery, Wayanad. I deliberately chose this route due to its scenic beauty.

One grudge is that, I did not spot any wildlife in Nagarhole during day time apart from couple of spotted deers. Do you happen to see wildlife in Nagarhole?
Roads are decent and I took Mysore ring road to byepass city.

Happy to relive memories :)

KRS road is horrible . Absolutely avoidable .

Blore-Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta is the shortest and the best .

Madikeri- Kutta again is horrible roads.

Thats a long way back Samurai. Good that there are still memories. People forget yesterdays events now a days :P


Thanks Anuj. I spotted lots of deers and an elephant. The timing matters. Im told if you drive early morning, you have the best chances of spotting animals.

Which route did you take to reach Kutta?. Cause I usually travel this route whenever I am in India and it does not take more than 4 hours maximum to reach Irpu, which is another 6 KM from Kutta. The route I take is Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Nagarhole-Kutta route,

Great pics and a very nice write up, have been contemplating this and now have a great guideline. Glad to see the mamba! Any indicative costs of stay?

did u see the elephant just after the Nagarhole check post when entering from hunsur side. Had been to kutta in mid october, spotted the elephant almost in the same place while going and returning from kutta.