Trip to Dubare,Siddapura,Ammathi, Bhagamandala and Talakaveri:

Day2:

As per our initial plan we were supposed to cover three places i.e. Igguthappa temple, Nalknad palace and Chelvara falls in the first half of the day and then head back to Bangalore. The jeep arrived at 8 AM in the morning. After having breakfast we headed towards our first destination, the temple. We had to take the same route that we had travelled the previous night to reach the temple.
The route: Virajpet - Karada - Kakkabe

Igguthappa Temple

Igguthappa Temple is dedicated to lord Igguthappa (another name for Lord Subramanya). Igguthappa is the main deity of Kodavas, situated at Kakkabe small village near Virajpet. In Kodava language “Iggu” stands for Food and “Thappa” stands for provider.

The legend goes that Lord Subramanya appeared in the form of Lord Shiva at this very place and taught people about cultivation, living a selfless life and to pass on this to the coming generations. To commemorate this every year people celebrate the festival called Huthri, a crop harvest festival where people donate part of the produce to the Lord.
The devotees believe in the miracles by Lord Igguthappa, where one can ask for anything. Tulabhara, weighing oneself against fruits, sugar, coconuts, rice etc, is an important offering here.

Our next Destination was the Nalknad Palace

Nalknad Palace

Nalknad palace was built by Kodava King Dodda Viraraja in 1792 A.D. It is situated the foothill of Tadiyandamol, the highest peak of Kodagu (near Kakkabe village). It is a two storeyed building, supposed to be the summer palace of the Kodava kings.

The guard of the palace volunteered to take us around the palace. The palace mesmerizes everybody with its exquisite wall paintings, intricate wooden carvings. The palace has a Darbar hall on the first floor, but don’t be fascinated by the paintings on the roof since it was done by some film crew few years ago for their film shoot. At that time the palace was yet to be taken over for renovation by government.It is sad to see such a place being tampered for one’s personal benefit.

The guard also showed us around various rooms which were covered with exquisite paintings. Out of his own interest he had it covered with polythene so that it won’t be tampered with by the visitors.

He also showed us around the hiding place for the king, in case of any attack. It was a dark and a narrow passage which also leads to the entrance of the palace, but well hid.

Our next destination on list was the Chelavara falls:
The route: Virajpet - karada - Kadanga - Cheyyendane - Chelavara village

Chelavara Falls

Chelavara falls is one among the most beautiful waterfalls in Coorg, yet it is relatively unexplored. This is approximately 4km from the Cheyyendane village. The waterfall is a wonderful view, situated amidst the coffee plantation.

A walk for about 10min takes us to the bottom of the waterfall, which provides the spectacular view. One can also reach the top side of the falls and can get a spectacular view of the falls with lush greenery all around.

It took us almost 5 hours to cover all the three places and had to thank the rain god for having mercy on us J . It was a fantastic weather to visit these places, chilly in the morning when we started and remained cloudy all the way on our trip. We reached the hotel back at around 1 pm.
We decided to head back to Bangalore in a different way, i.e. via Nagarhole and visit Irpu falls on the way as we had enough time left on our hands. This was initially not part of our two day plan.
The route:
Virajpet - Gonikoppal - Ponnampet - Kutta - Srimangala

Irpu Falls
Irpu falls, which is around 45kms from Virajpet. The tributary of river Cauvery, the Lakshmana Tirtha River has its source in this falls. This fall is a major tourist attraction along with a pilgrim sight.
One has to walk along the guided path for about a 1 km from the temple at Irpu to reach the falls. It is located on the Brahmagiri range. The falls creates a spectacular view with water plunging down in three tiers of approx 60m height, creating deafening noise that could be heard from a distance.

According to a legend lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana passed along the Brahmagiri range. When lord Rama asked his brother to get some drinking water, Lakshmana shot an arrow at the Brahmagiri hills which started spurting water. This stream of water came to known as the Lakshmana Tirtha River. Due to this legend many pilgrims visit the Irpu Falls to wash off their sins.
There is a trekking route available over here where one can reach the peak of Brahmagiri hills. One has to contact the forest department for the arrangement.
We spent close to 1.5 hours here capturing some spectacular view of the falls.

To reach Bangalore we had to go via Nagarhole national Park and we had to be there before 6pm, since Karnataka government has imposed restriction for entry of vehicles after 6 pm for the safety of the wild life. We had to hurry as it was close to 4:00 pm and we were 25-30km away from the entrance of the national park. The road leading to the park is not that good. We reached the entrance at around 5pm.
The Nagarhole reserved forest stretches for a distance of about 45km. It is a treat for the eyes when travelling through this sanctuary, with greenery all around. Also during this part of the year (monsoon) the forest comes alive with greenery with sprouting grass alongside the road. This entire stretch is known to be the habitat for Asian Elephants.

We came across herds of barking deers and also few wild elephants crossing the road. At one place we were chased by the angry mother elephant, a warning to keep away from it!!!

We reached Bangalore at around 11pm troubled by rain all over from Mysore. It was indeed an exhausting but a wonderful trip experience in the monsoon season!!!

July 10-11 2010

Trip to Dubare,Siddapura,Ammathi, Bhagamandala and Talakaveri:

Day 1:

After lots of Discussion and research on net it was decided that we would head to lesser explored places in Coorg. In two days time we decided to cover were Dubare Elephant camp, few places around Siddapura, Ammathi, Bhagamandala, Talakaveri, Chelavara falls, Nalknad palace and Igguthappa temple.
Four of us started from Bangalore early morning at 5 AM so that we can reach outskirts of Bangalore without encountering any city traffic. The route was to go via Hunsur. At around 8 AM we decided to have breakfast and as per our driver’s suggestion decided to have something different and hence stopped by Thatte Idli hotel near Bidadi. Many such hotels have sprung up on the way to Mysore.
As per the plan Our First Destination was to reach Golden temple but decided against it as it would reduce our chances of making it to Dubare before its closure time. We headed towards Dubare via Ranganthittu-Hunsur-Bylkuppe road. We reached Dubare at around 11-11:30 AM. We sensed something wrong as we couldn’t spot any elephants. When enquired we came to know that one of the elephants was sick and also since there were no elephant rides on this day they were let into the jungle pretty early.

Dubare is known for its elephant camp, situated on the banks of river Kaveri. It is this place where wild elephants are tamed and trained for Mysore Dussehra festival. Activities like river trekking, rafting, fishing etc can be done which is organized by Jungle Lodges.

We were quite disappointed with the result but spent some time over there going around the place. If one has to make it for all activities in Dubare one has to reach early morning around 9:30 AM. We then decided to head towards Siddapura. This is the start point of scenic route filled with greenery. The place is filled with coffee and pepper estate all along the way.

We reached Siddapura at around 1 pm and had lunch at an Udupi hotel. After enquiry with locals we decided to head towards Pollibetta (or pallibetta) where there is a Tata Coffee estate. We decided to try our luck there to go around the estate but were disappointed for not getting the permission. Only people with prior permission are allowed into the estate .This was the second disappointment of the day.
We then decided to head towards Virajpet via Ammathi, a small place on the way to Virajpet. It is a very scenic drive with greenery all around. We stopped by for few snaps of coffee plantations/paddy fields on the way.

We reached Virajpet at around 3 pm, and as we had not booked any hotels for the night, went around the city in search of it. We zeroed in on a decent hotel for the stay. We also enquired with the hotel people regarding our plans for the second day and after some discussion fixed our second day plan of visiting the Chelvara falls, Iggutappa temple and Nalknad palace. As we were not sure of the terrain of these places we decided to hire a jeep for Rs 1200 for the second day trip.
Since a lot of daylight was left we decided to head towards Bhagamandala and Talakaveri. To reach this one has to head towards Madikeri and take deviation near Moornadu.

Bhagamandala is a piligrim place situated on the upper stream of river Kaveri. At this place, the Kaveri is joined by two tributaries, the Kannike and the mythical Sujyoti river. It is considered sacred as a river confluence (sangama). It is common for pilgrims to take a dip at this place. This is considered to be a sacred place for Hindus.

We reached just in time at around 5:30 pm at Talakaveri, birth place of river Kaveri, situated on Brahmagiri hill. It’s around 8km for the Bhagamandala.

The temple here closes at 6pm. We visited the temple and the small pond which is believed to be the origin of river Kaveri. From here the river goes underground and emerges some distance away from this place.

After visiting the temple we headed towards the peak of Brahmagiri hill. The legend goes that Sage Agasthya meditated here on this very peak of Brahmagiri.

The weather here is highly unpredictable and also given the rainy season, it was also drizzling slightly. After experimenting with our cameras for few snaps we headed back to our car and decided to pay visit to Bhagandeshwara Temple at Bhagamandala. This was the time we encountered heavy rainfall, which cut down the visibility to a great extent.

In the meantime our driver enquired with the other drivers about the drive back to Virajpet. There was another way to Virajpet, often used by Buses to ply which meant that the road would be wide enough compared to the earlier route we took to reach Bhagamandala. This new route goes via karada.
The return journey towards Virajpet was pitch dark, raining and also filled with thunder sky. As part of our travel itinerary we have a GPS to keep track of our journey. The new route that we took was moving parallel to our initial route and we were quite excited about the meeting point. We were mislead a few times at few junctions owing to the dense vegetation and unavailability of road signs and had to return back. To add to this problem very few people were around to ask for the direction.
Finally reached a village named Kadanga at around 8pm, were we could see some civilization. We went around in search of hotels for dinner but couldn’t find any. We then decided to buy some snacks as a backup in case we come across the same situation in Virajpet where we would be heading to have dinner. When we reached there the entire city looked deserted and we lost hope in finding any hotel. In the end we were lucky enough to find one hotel. We finished our dinner and headed back to our hotel after a rather hectic travel of 16hours!!!