Coorg trip

A state holiday comes on a Friday, and we pass up the opportunity to go somewhere? No chance. After a lot of plan changes, we went to Coorg, one of the smaller hill stations of Karnataka. We meaning, me, Brilliant, Kid, Enigma and Beautiful. Bangalore is so lucky that it has so many hill stations and sightseeing places nearby. The story of Coorg is quite funny. After booking tickets to Bangalore and securing an Innova for 3 days, we had the liberty to choose a destination. Ooty or Coorg? It went down to the wire, and was eventually decided by the non-availability of a state permit. Thus, Coorg became our host for the 3 days.

Bangalore, or Bengaluru now, to Coorg is a very beautiful 5 hour drive via Mysore, or Mysuru now. Man, every city is renaming itself, what is up huh? Anyway, we stopped at a restaurant in Mysuru for lunch. I have been to Mysore before, and I still cannot believe how green the city is! Kudos to Mysore, for keeping the city clean and green. A few minutes later, we left for Coorg.

Day 1 17:30, Rajah's Seat:

The first of what Coorg had to offer. A toy train first, and then a beautiful view of the valley. And couple that with sunset, and you have every person trying to capture a click. We did capture a LOT of pics there. I mostly took photos when the others weren't looking. I feel this is the best way, this captures the essence of every person enjoying himself/ herself. One thing became clear though: Enigma likes to pose, and a lot of photos taken of her! After the photo session, I managed to take in the feeling of the place, the beautiful sunset, the cool breeze wafting smells of forests, and the sights of the valley. Then we just sat in the adjoining garden eating cotton candy, which I thought was quite good(Maybe I was hungry).

Day 2 10:00, Talakaveri:

We climb up the first flight of steps, amid the chilling winds, and the low clouds. A pleasant drizzle was upon us. To give you an idea of how much fog we were engulfed in, let me show you the picture of its entrance:

This, ladies and gentlemen, wasn’t visible at all. All of a sudden, the whole gate came into view, something very similar to the windmill on my Pune trip last September. After peering over the rails and a few pics, we went up the stairs towards the temple, which had a small pond. Different opinions on how cold the water was led to us all washing our feet in it, We went towards the view point for the valley, where Kaveri river originates. This place was really nice, cool, foggy and windy. Spending 30-45 minutes is worth here.

Do read upon the mythological background of Talakaveri, it is very interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talakaveri#Pilgrim_center

Day 2, 14:00, Abbi Falls:

This was a disappointment in my opinion. Not much to see, the falls is pretty small, and is closed to visitors. It wasn’t even a great photo location to be fair. Enigma got paint on her hands was probably the highlight of this place. Me and Beautiful got a few good pictures with the jungle background, but this place was totally underwhelming.

Day 2  15:30 Mandalpatti:

This was a place I liked a lot. A spur of the moment decision that we should take the jeep up the hill proved very fruitful in the end. I don't think anyone else regrets going there as well. Our driver suggested this place which was somewhat pricey, and seemed unworthy from his description. But we went ahead by a creaky old jeep that had no doors by the side. It was drizzling the whole way and the road was muddy. At the top, the view was sublime. Hills covered in grass as if painted green by a toddler. Clouds literally touching us. Cool winds carrying the delightful rain on grass fragrance. The most beautiful place Coorg offered by quite some distance. After clicking a few gorgeous photos, me and Enigma were kind of enjoying the place. I was enjoying the breeze in particular. Suddenly the heavens opened up. Brilliant and Kid ran quickly to the relative shelter of the jeep, with Beautiful not far behind. Me and Enigma. After ensuring that my phone was safely away from the water, we started walking back slowly. I was enjoying the rain. To be honest, I wanted to get drenched. I am not sure about Enigma, but I was thoroughly enjoying the downpour. A break from the heat I guess. It made me quite glad, which was a nice feeling.

Day 2 19:30 Homestay at Madikeri:

This is where the fun part begins. Hungry and thirsty, we ate and drank, and sang and danced. Everyone was blissfully happy and totally ignorant of what they are doing, or saying. Almost everyone except me. This bothers me. It annoys me to no end. But yeah, I did enjoy the moonlit night and the bonfire. We do have some talented dancers in our group. And some people have a great collection of songs as well. The bonfire should have continued for a while longer.

Day 3 10:00 Dubare Elephant camp:

This was fun. This was a really good way to end the trip. I thought the elephant camp itself wasn’t that fascinating, but the river crossing part was fun. Especially for me. All eyes were on me, to see if I can break my phone for the third time in three trips. Sorry to disappoint you folks, somehow I managed to take care of it this time. Joke/pain aside, it wasn’t challenging or anything: it was just different. Maybe because we were trying our own way across led by Beautiful. Not the tried and tested and crowded route the majority were taking, but a more slippery, less taken route. I am probably exaggerating here. I got a really really wonderful picture of a pink dragonfly sitting still on a rock, pointed to me by Beautiful. I am secretly very happy about this pic. The rest was smooth sailing, and on the way back, we clicked like a gazillion photos. All Shah Rukh Khan poses were on display.

Pretty much nothing to add after that. The drive back to Bangalore was calm and quiet. Some sort of satisfaction hung in the air. Everyone enjoyed the 3 days. I came back to the blackness that awaits in Hyderabad a little cheered on by the fact that it was a good trip away.

Adios!