[rjstyles69]

Hola folks

Was jobless last weekend and yippiee monday was a holiday for me. As for the weekend plan, it was only mysore on the list and drive back to bangy.

But plans changed and we headed to Coorg this time around with plans of visiting a few places(historic).

Left bangalore at 7am on saturday and reached mysore at 9am. Pretty sober driving and the weather complimented it all with mild drizzles along the way.
Stopped at mysore for breakfast and met up with my cousin.Spent some time with him and headed to Coorg.

Route taken to reach coorg : Bangalore--Mysore--Hunsur--Gonikoppa--Virajpet-- Madikeri.

Dint do much on saturday, we reached coorg by 2pm.Headed to Hotel West End and picked up lunch. Freshened up, had lunch and sat in the balcony of the estate house looking at the valley. BTW the house is pearched atop a mountain and has a beautiful view of the valley.

Sunday we set out quite early in the morning. This time around we charted a few places, other than the regular Abbey falls, Iruppu falls, Harangi dam and thalacauvery.

But then the fairer sex wanted thalacauvery to be visited no matter what and had to drive 40 odd kms to get there.

Let me not banter much,will let the pics do the talking.

Thalacauvery( Lot of renovation work is on at this place. Appreciate the effort by the gov' to restore this place.).







Next stop was at Kakkabe village at the base of Thadiyandamol mountain(supposed to be the highest peak in the western ghats).

We were looking for directions to reach the The Nalknad Palace.
Locals helped us get there and mind you the roads are pretty narrow from Kakkabe.So you might need to make way for any vehicles coming in the opp' direction or vice versa.

The palace, built nearly 250 years ago was a retreat of then king of Kodagu Doddaveera Rajendra.

Nalknad Palace



For our bad luck the palace was closed since it was under dispute :(.

A school built ages ago is bang opposite the palace.



As for the thadiyandamol peak , it needs to be experienced than said.

I have no pictures as of now since it was drizzling when we did the climb and dint use the DSLR. Pics taken are on the digicam. Will post them soon.

For the drive part, its a narrow road once again and is awesome.You can drive about a km or more uphill and from there on its better to do the trek through the coffee estate.Lot of streams and small waterfalls.

By now it was noon and our stomachs were grumbling.Never let our spirits down, did the climb as much as we can coz it started to rain and had to return.
Well therez always a 2nd time .

There is a home stay called Poovanna's Estate Home Stay in Kakkabe.So if you wanna stay around Kakkabe this is the best place.

On our way back we stopped at the Padi Igguthappa temple which bears resemblance to the temples in Kerala.





Once again, the temple was under renovation and tourists are a rare sight at this temple.
Spent sometime at the temple and headed to Madikeri. By now it was 4pm and we were dead tired.
My mind says lets go home and take rest , but the heart says dont stop.

Dont stop is only coz we wanted to spend time at Raja Seat and visit the old monument(Madikeri Fort) converted to government offices.



Next stop was at Gaddige .

Gaddige is where King Dodda Vira Raja, his wife and son Lingarajendra(not too sure) have been laid to rest. The tombs built are in the Islamic style.





Took a few pics here and headed straight to Raja Seat. Had that much wanted coffee at Madikeri town and there we go, our spirits are up again.

Spent time at Raja Seat and what took me there was this shot



Now they say this(paddy fields) resembles South India if we were to compare it with the map.

By the time we left Raja seat it was about 7pm and the last place was the Omkareshwara temple.

This temple has its own history.

Omkareshwara temple was built by Lingarajendra in 1820. The temple has both Islamic and Gothic style of architecture. It is said Lingarajendra killed an honest and pious Brahmin to fulfill his political ambitions. That Brahmin became a “Brahmarakshasa” and started troubling the king. The king got rid of the so called “Brahmarakshasa” only when he brought a “Shivalinga” from Kashi and installed it after building a temple. The shivalinga was named as “Omkareshwara” and regular rituals were performed.
(I got this from the temple .LOL)





By now we were craving for some rest and damn my legs were aching real bad.
Simply wanted to crash, but then Hotel Westend kept echoing" Akki roti ,chicken masala and pork fry" . LOL that was for dinner. Had dinner and crashed was a real long day.

Monday moring we headed back to bangalore and stopped at Bylekuppe for some shopping.
Yeah the same old Wind Chimes , actually you find some real good stuff here.

Posting up some random pics of the Western Ghats and KushalNagar.








Was a nice trip and a zillion thanks to my lady who accompanied me and never cribbed once all through the trip.

I think the best time to travel to Coorg is before the monsoons when the pre-monsoon showers are on..

Must do in Coorg :

Savour on the Kadambuttu(noodles made from rice flour) , akki roti (rice roti) and pork masala/fry.

Make sure that you find home stays or estate houses for stay rather than the regular City hotels.
I dont know how many of you guys have made it to a coorgi wedding ? Never miss a chance because in the coorgi culture its all night drinking and dancing before the wedding.

thanks for your time folks.

[artofzen]

Very Very intresting and informative post dude.Way to Go.

[theMAG]

Riju,

As always, your pics and words transport the reader into the places themselves. Great everything.

[HKP]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Route taken to reach coorg : Bangalore--Mysore--Hunsur--Gonikoppa--Virajpet-- Madikeri.

Hi

Just wanted to know the road condition after HUNSUR. Last time I had a tough time managing the potholes. Please let us know.
Another doubt is, do we need to go to Virajpet to go to Madikeri?


take care.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

best pic of the lot and very nice write up sir.....and other pics are also nice...

[rjstyles69]

hey people thanks.Its only team-bhp which gives me that urge to travel even more and write about the places .

Just wanted to know the road condition after HUNSUR. Last time I had a tough time managing the potholes. Please let us know.
Another doubt is, do we need to go to Virajpet to go to Madikeri?

Well its a choice you can make once you cross Hunsur.
You either can drive via Virajpet to Madikeri or choose the KushalNagar route.

KushalNagar route is manageable,but with traffic it simply worsens. I chose to do the KushalNagar route on my drive back which was early in the morning.

Guess the difference in distance is abt 20kms or so via Virajpet. The road via Virajpet is a lot more picturesque and not much traffic.

[TSEA]

Very Nice pics RJ.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Next stop was at Kakkabe village at the base of Thadiyandamol mountain(supposed to be the highest peak in the western ghats).

Thadiyandamol is the highest peak in Kodagu, 1745 metres (5724 ft) but Mullayanagiri (Kannada: ಮುಳ್ಳಯ್ಯನಗಿರಿ ) (also spelt Mullayangiri or Mullainagiri), is the highest peak in Karnataka. Mullayanagiri is located in the Baba Budan Giri Range of the Western Ghats. With a height of 1930 m (6317 ft.). Ana Mudi 2,695 metres (8,842 ft) is the highest peak in the Western Ghats.

[rjstyles69]

Thadiyandamol is the highest peak in Kodagu, 1745 metres (5724 ft) but Mullayanagiri (Kannada: ಮುಳ್ಳಯ್ಯನಗಿರಿ ) (also spelt Mullayangiri or Mullainagiri), is the highest peak in Karnataka. Mullayanagiri is located in the Baba Budan Giri Range of the Western Ghats. With a height of 1930 m (6317 ft.). Ana Mudi 2,695 metres (8,842 ft) is the highest peak in the Western Ghats.

ooops my bad with the mountain stuff. Sorry folks , should've cross checked but then the locals told me this.

[romyeo4u]

YEP rj ....Akki Roti and pork are famous in coorg , been there 4 times I simply love the place, saving money to have my guesthouse over there

[Samurai]

Amazing journey Riju. Eventhough I lived in Coorg for 3 years, I haven't covered all the places you did in one weekend. Excellent photos as usual.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Route taken to reach coorg : Bangalore--Mysore--Hunsur--Gonikoppa--Virajpet-- Madikeri.

Actually it is Gonikoppal, that's where I lived.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Thalacauvery( Lot of renovation work is on at this place. Appreciate the effort by the gov' to restore this place.).

Looks very different from my last visit in 1996.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Dont stop is only coz we wanted to spend time at Raja Seat and visit the old monument(Madikeri Fort) converted to government offices.

Looks like you were late to reach Raja Seat, not much light there. I have one with better light taken long back, same angle.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

I dont know how many of you guys have made it to a coorgi wedding ? Never miss a chance because in the coorgi culture its all night drinking and dancing before the wedding.

I have, but was too young to drink. Just did the dancing part.

[akroy]

Nice travelogue and a good collection of pics...
There are lots of stuffs tocover in Coorg although I have done the Madikeri part, the talacauvery, nisarghadhama etc needs to be done in subsequent trips....

Abhi

[magiceye]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Make sure that you find home stays or estate houses for stay rather than the regular City hotels.
.

Love this photograph!
By the way how does one book one's stay at the 'estate houses' or 'home stays'? Is it possible to make bookings or does one have to know someone there?
Thanks

[black12rr]

@ rj fantastic pics , crip and clear from d50 .
And did u go all the way to the top at thadiyandamol peak ? ,thats sum effort right ?

[rjstyles69]

And did u go all the way to the top at thadiyandamol peak ? ,thats sum effort right ?

Not @least when am in my senses mate . Nopes we dint go all the way to the peak. Maybe we scaled a 1/4 of it..maybe...

By the way how does one book one's stay at the 'estate houses' or 'home stays'? Is it possible to make bookings or does one have to know someone there?

Pretty simple, 10 days before you travel start a thread on t-bhp am sure some of us will help you out.

[swathyd]

Thank you for posting your experience and photos, will try to visit these places. Photos are good, good light sense.