In March 2008, long weekend was coming and also the work pressure was increasing. But I had to make use of this long weekend. Myself and my friends had long discussions on where to go, finally we decided on Coorg - Land of Kodavas. It was long weekend for me but not for my friend, so I forced him to leave office early on Friday. Weather was awesome and I didn't want to miss on this trip. Finally we started at 3 PM.These days getting information is not difficult but when these long weekends come, it is difficult to find any accommodation at any weekend gateway.
Accommodation Myself and my friends were trying all means to get a decent accommodation but all in vain. Some of my friends told that if we don't get accommodation, let us drop the plan but I was ready to go even without them and accommodation.Tried calling all kind of places, finally when we called Coorg Wildlife society, person there gave us a lead and suggested a place, only problem was, 4 of us would have to share a single room. Something is better than nothing.
Route Coorg is around 240Kms from Bangalore. Took the driving directions from MapmyIndia India Only site I found which gives detailed direction for Indian roads. We took the Bangalore - Mysore - Husnur - Madekeri route. Road is good up to Mysore/Srirangapatna , bad till Hunsur and tolerable till Kusalnagar and worse after that.
On our way, our first stop for evening snacks was Kamat’s Lokaruchi, Ramanagaram (Mysore high way) about 50kms from Bangalore. This comes to our right while going towards Mysore. They serve special Elai idli as it is called. It is wrapped in leaves. Never seen idli served like this any where. Another thing I like at Kamat's is ragi dosa. It was raining, we were driving slowly and reached at Mysore @ 8 PM. We decided to stay back in Mysore. Next day again started at 7 AM and headed towards Madekeri via Hunsur.Reached our first stop at Nisargadhama. On the way to Madekeri, turn left from kushal nagar, 5 kms from there you will see a sign board "Cauvery Nisargadhama". Parked our car. Entry fee for adult Rs.10/-. It is developed by Forest Department as a tourist place. Here you can take elephant ride, see some rabits and deer in the enclosed area, take a walk on the banks of Cauvery river. On that day it was raining heavily, so elephant ride was not available. From morning we didn't have anything to eat and were hungry. There was a small canteen but closed due to rain. Next to canteen there was a house, when we checked, people who run the canteen were staying there. We requested them to prepare some bread butter toast, omelette and tea for us. Nothing much to do, we headed towards Medkeri.
At around 2 PM we reached, home stay, where we got the accommodation. We haven't informed our host that we will be having lunch there and we had to go out and eat outside. She (our host) suggested us to go and try East End Hotel. It is a local favorite and food is good if you know what you are ordering. If you are not sure what you need to order, do ask for suggestions from the waiter. Unless asked, they will not suggest any thing or not even bother what you have ordered. Do try some local non-vegetarian dishes especially coorg chicken. Before leaving our accommodation, we have planned our sight seeing tour for the day with the help of our host. They suggested us to go to Raja Seat, Abby Falls, and Omkareshwara temple.
By the time we finished our lunch it was 3:30 PM. As soon as we finished the lunch, we headed towards Raja's Seat. It is a small pavilion and offers a great view of valley. According to legend, the kings of Kodagu spent their evenings here. It is supposed to have unforgettable sunset. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and we could not see the spectacular sunset.We spent around one hour here and moved towards Abbey Falls.
Way to Abbey falls is from thick forest as shown in the picture. On the way you will get to see Coffee and Cardamom also known as Elaichi.
As I said earlier, it was rainy day. Rainy days are best days to see any Waterfall, Abbey falls was no exception. Below picture depicts the velocity at which water was coming from the mountains and the speed at which it was falling from top.
It was already getting dark and roads were narrow, we decided to move from here and go to Omkareshwara Temple.
