The Scotland of India

We couldnt go anywhere during the long weekends of Dusshera and Diwali because of Anurag's travel to Taipei. Hence the weekend after his return , ie the weekend of 19th and 20th of November, we decided to hit Coorg. As it was not a long weekend, we took off on Friday afternoon and started by 3 from our home. We touched the Mysore Road just below the long flyover at 3:30 and set our trip meter to 0. The towns you pass on Mysore road before reching Srinrangapatna are Kengeri, Ramnagar( 43.3Km), Chanapatna(54.4km), Maddur at (74km) Mandya at 92km and as the odometer reads 120kms, you are at Srirangapatna. Around 2kms after the Srirangapatna junction there is a right turn with huge hoardings of OrangeCounty and GRS Fantasy Park. Take this turn and go straight all the way till Yelwal(139km). On this road, you would have seen diversions to Bird Sanctuary, GRS Fantasy Park and KRS Dam. As you enter the state Highway (SH88) at Yelwal, take a right and proceed towards Hunsur. At around 168Kms, the road forks and the right fork is the Hunsur Bypass whihc you need to take. Before this forking also there is a huge Orange County board which urges you to take the right turn. At 176km, you will find another right turn, where you again need to keep right and this leads to Periyapatana. We reached Periyapatana as our trip meter read 192 km and we proceeded to Kushal Nagar which we reached at 214kms. Proceeding further from Kushal Nagar we reached another forking at 230km where the left leads to Madikeri.. Finally slight after 250kms we reached Madikeri.

Madikeri is a small town and we didnt have any problems finding the office of our agent and from their our host took us to his house. We got the entire upstairs which included a hall and two bedrooms all for ourselves. It was around 9:30pm when we reached here and the long drive without any break had left us really tired. We bought dinner from a restaurant nearby and slept early.

Saturday morning , we proceeded to Talakaveri which is where River Kaveri originates. There is a pond where people take bath and a small temple where the goddess is worshipped. There is also a peepul tree which is supposed to be an offshoot of the original peepul tree under whihc Sage Agastya used to meditate. There is a Ganesha and Shiva temple and Lord Shiva is called Agastheswara. Talakaveri is around 47 kms from Madikeri. Follow Mangalore road from Madikeri and then take a diversion to left to reach Talakaveri. We went there are tourists but lots of ppl come there for worship. There is view point at Talakaveri but the sight of the steep flight of stairs made us quit the idea.. Enroute to Talakaveri is Bagamandala, where there is a temple of Kerala Architecture style. From Talakaveri, we came to Madikeri and proceeded to Abbey Falls. It is around 8 kms from Madikeri and the road is narrow with steep curves. Not a very impressive falls and was too crowded on the day we were there.From Abbey falls we came back to Madikeri and then went to Raja's seat. Raja's seat provides a good view and the sunset is really beautiful from here.

Sunday morning we stated at around 8:30. We went to Omkareshawara temple whose architecture is a mixture of different styles and the idol here is supposed to be brought from Kasi.From Madikeri, we came to Cauveri Nisarghadama. Nisargadama is 2 kms before Kushal Nagal and the big Karnataka tourism board is facing those coming from Kushal Nagar. So while coming from Madikeri, you may miss this place. Nisargadama is an island formed by a tributary of Cauvery and there is a hanging bridge whihc connects the mainland with this island. Nisargadama houses a deer park and also has elephant ride. Otherwise it is a beautiful park where you can just relax. 7kms from Nisargadama, we took a right towards the Tibetan Settlement. Another 5 kms on this road, there is a Tibetan Monastry and Golden Temple. For me, it was the first time I was seeing a Budhist temple and hence it was interesting. From there we proceeded back to Srirangapatna, where we stopped at the Tipu's summer palace turned museum and then proceeded back to Bangalore.