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 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!!!
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