Slideshow: Gokarna-Karwar trip

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:00:25 +0530

Slideshow: Ranagthittu, Srirangapatnam trip

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:12:06 +0530

Travel: Bangalore -> Nagarhole -> Madikeri -> TeleCauvery -> Dubare -> Kushalnagar -> Bangalore

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:16:00 +0530

Yes, that's the route I drove over the last weekend.

Till Friday morning, I was planning to visit Coorg with my brother and his friends. I did some research on the places to see and on the schedule to be followed. I called my friend to get some place to stay (Thanks to her ) and she came to know that it is raining heavily in Coorg so we should reconsider our plans of going there. Hence, the group has decided to explore Wayanad over the weekend as we were not in any mood to cancel the plans.

Saturday morning, we left Bangalore at around 4:30 AM and got on Mysore road. The driving on Mysore road is pleasant early morning and we reached third CCD (Cafe Coffee day) on Mysore road. Now, there are three CCD points on Mysore road instead of one. The older one is in the middle while one is opened at around 35 KM from Bangalore and another is opened closure to Mysore. I got some coffee to sip and continued the journey to Mysore.

Last time, I had nice breakfast in Mysore so I was looking for that restaurant but couldn't get that. We decided to have a light breakfast in a restaurant near the Bus stand. Though idli and dosa were quite OK, the tea was very tasty. We asked directions from the restaurant owner for Wayanad and headed towards that.

From Mysore, we had to catch to Hunur road. For that, we need to get on the road from Mysore Bus Stand to Railway station and take the left there and then the second right. The road till Hunsur was quite good and comfortable for driving so we reached in the town before time. There we had to take the left turn for Nagarhole forest.

The road after taking the turn is not that great in condition and only one lane. But absence of traffic and presence of greenery both sides don't allow you to zoom so you should drive slowly and enjoy the nature. After driving for 1-1.5 hours, we reached the check post of Nagarhole forest (Rajiv Gandhi National Park). It was usual checking which includes noting down the basic details of the vehicle and passengers. Not to mention about tip for the guard there

We were lucky because we saw giant elephant as we entered inside the forest. The road condition is good considering it is inside the forest. Some tips given by the guard became very handy while driving inside like no honking, no parking, no music etc. to maintain the decorum of jungle.

Soon, we spotted lots of dears across the roads and we clicked pictures. We reached at a junction after crossing the forest, where left turn goes to Madikeri and straight takes to Wayanad. The beer shop at junction lured people to enjoy the misty weather with beer. We had a word with person while buying the beer and he mentioned that the climate is same both in Wayanad and in Coorg. It was heavy rain at both places.

We already had some data in hand for Coorg so decided to take the left turn. I called my friend to get the details of contact person in Madikeri. One thing to mention here is about the petrol station, there is a patch of around 100+ KM where there is no petrol station so we were little worried when started towards Madikeri. The absence of any other vehicle on road to Nagarhole, inside forest and towards Madikeri increased our worries.

After driving for 1+hours, we found the petrol station where we got the enough fuel to take us to Madikeri. The road till Madikeri is in bad condition. We found out nearby restaurant "Rajdarshan" to satisfy our hunger but we regretted our decision soon. The service was awful and food was not properly cooked as well so I don't recommend this place to anyone.

Anyway, we moved to our home stay which was around 1-2 km from the main town. It was a nice place to stay in the residential area. The view from balcony was breathtaking and I could see fields, mountains and clouds around me. We took a small nap till 4:00 PM when we started to watch the Abby falls after having a nice tea.

The way to Abby falls is not that wide but road conditions are reasonable. Also, the distance is mere 7 km so it didn't bother much to us. The timing was right as we found the falls in its full swing. During or immediate after monsoon is the best time to visit any falls though won't be good for driving. We spent around half an hour there before moving toward the town.

There are two other places to visit in the town other than falls and those are park and fort. The fort is converted to govt. offices now but it is open for public to limited extent. From the architecture of the building, one can easily feel the existence of fort there. The church inside the fort was closed for public.

The park considered to be a nice place to spend the evening and it is located on the top of the hill from where valley can be seen clearly. This location is best to see the sunset and I heard from previous visitors that it is really the experience one would like to have. But we were not that lucky as it was cloudy and misty so nothing was visible. We spent time in the park in clicking some pictures and roaming around. There is small rail track near the park which was closed for public because of unknown reasons else it is good ride for the tourists.

Soon, it started drizzling and we caught one shed in hurry to save ourselves from rain. We all had one cup of tea each in that sexy weather. We headed towards the town market to do some basic shopping. While talking to one of the shopkeepers, I found there is a famous temple in the town and I planned to visit the temple. In fact, there are two temples back to back which are really nice.

After having a bad experience of lunch, we wanted to visit some new place. After inquiring some people, we found out about "east end" hotel which is located on Mysore road immediate after the HP petrol station. There is only one board along with the petrol station and nothing else. The board marks you to a small drive way which takes you to the restaurants inside after covering 100 m or so.

The place was simple and I love simplicity Lots of local people were around. The rates were reasonable and quality of food was also decent. But they don't serve pork which is said to be specialty of Coorg and the service takes around 15-20 min on average.

After reaching on room, we decided to go to bed early so that we can get up for next day though we couldn't as it was raining whole night and cold weather forced us to stay inside the blanket only.

We got up at around 7:30 and took quick baths. After having morning tea (no breakfast ), we started for Telecauvery: the birth place of Cauvery river. The drive was for around one hour but can be considered as one of the best drive in the whole trip. Majority of the time, we were going down the hill and the curves on the round didn't allow my arms to take rest on steering as it had to be properly aligned.

The curves were so sharp that the guy sitting next to me almost went to nausea. After an hour, we reached the misty region where we couldn't see anything else other than cloud. We realized that we are at our destination. The temple constructed around is well maintained. The peace and natural beauty takes all the pain of driving. It is a must visit place though there is no place to eat around, just couple of shops for pooja/archana items.

we spent around 30-45 min there when we decided to go back as all of us were starving. After driving for 8 km or so, there is a very nice temple to visit which is told to be around 300+ years old. The architecture there is marvelous. The doors are very small which reminds me of my childhood when I used to visit the old time houses near to my home. Correlating both constructions, I could understand the age of that temple.

By 12:30 PM, we reached "East End" hotel again. Though, the authentic pork items were not there but still we liked the food last night and we didn't want to (and didn't have time too) try any other place. After reaching restaurant, we realized that the restaurant would open at 12:45 PM though the bar was open. The guys ordered their drinks and we decided our menu in the mean time so that we can order as soon as the restaurant opens.

Once our stomachs were full, we said "Good Bye" to Madikeri and started for Kushalnagar. The road is not in great condition and there are patches after every half a km or so where I had to shift to first gear to drive. All others were sleeping in the car and I was listening the latest CD we bought last night from Madikeri town. Just before Kushal nagar, there is an elephant camp named "Dubare" for which I turned right and drove for around 7 km.

The Dubare elephant camp is on the bank of Cauveri river. The place gives you the options of water rafting, boating, elephant ride etc. As we didn't have suitable clothes for water rafting and had to wait for an hour or so for elephant ride, we decided to go for small boat ride only. The ride took us to the other side of the river where we spent little time clicking the pictures before coming back. Then, we continued our journey for Kushalnagar.

The road from the river to the road is about 1.5 km and is quite narrow. The width of the road doesn't allow to pass two cars in parallel. I had to park my car on the side few times when there was a car coming from other side so using horn was quite necessary.

After driving for another half an hour so, we reached Kushalnagar which is famous for Buddhist monastery. The architecture of the monastery is welcoming. The peace inside the temple and chanting takes you to spiritual world. The coconut water outside the temple gave me energy to drive for another 200+ km.

The road from Kushalnagar to Mysore is just awesome. Initially, I planned 3 hours to Mysore but absolute stunning condition of road made me reach in couple of hours only. My car's odometer touched 125 couple of times and car was absolute stable. I was planning to take to 140+ (my WagonR record on Chennai road) but humps didn't allow me to do so

In no time, I was on Mysore road. After driving on such a nice road, the traffic on Mysore road irritated me a little bit but soon I had to switch myself to Bangalore traffic We planned to have dinner at Kamat and we were waiting eagerly for that but there was no sign of it.

All of us started planning to having dinner in Bangalore when we saw board saying Kamat restaurant. I realized that this is exactly at 50 KM from Bangalore city. I always loved food in Kamat and can't stop myself having unlimited lassi and rotis there. And of course, not to mention tea in the end.

From Kamat, it took around 1.5 hours for us to reach in the city. After dropping my friends at their places, I reached home at 10:30 PM.

The trip was awesome. I had a good time. The nature was favoring us in Madikeri. It was raining heavily whenever we are inside the room or having dinner/lunch. On and off, it rained while driving too. This rain, steep ascent and descent, curves on hills and bad patches provided best conditions to test ABS, defroster and AC in the car. I would say, "Tested OK" at the end

The slideshow can be seen here.

Mittal, Amit - Travel

Slideshow: Gokarna-Karwar trip

Slideshow: Ranagthittu, Srirangapatnam trip

Travel: Bangalore -> Nagarhole -> Madikeri -> TeleCauvery -> Dubare -> Kushalnagar -> Bangalore