A 2 day visit to Coorg, Coffee country

How did we do it?

We took a two day taxi from Coorg to Mysore, it was a small Hyundai car, but it was comfortable and our driver spoke enough English to converse and help us with information on the sites and temples. Coorg is known as the Scotland of India, and true to form it rained, heavy showers on and off all day. 

On the first day we stopped at the golden temple in Bylakkuppe, a Tibetan colony which set up in India after being forced out of their country. The temples are gorgeous. And these are like none of the other temples we had seen in India. The temples all had golden roofs and an 18ft giant statue of Buddha, as well as 2 other gods flanking him. After visiting the temple we grabbed a bite to eat in a restaurant across the road that was full of Buddhist monks, we chose steamed Momo's (thinking it would be good to try a traditionally Tibetan snack!). However, we waited for nearly 30 minutes for this...we weren't expecting this to take so long and eat into our day so much! Following this we saw Kaveri Nisargadhama an island formed by the river Cavery, its pretty and has lots of deers there that you can feed!

Then we were taken to Haringay Dam/reservoir on the recommendation of the tour operator, as we pulled up the security told us it was closed and we couldn't walk around the dam...Also the water we expected to see flowing out of it (as in all of the spectacular pics) wasn't there... This was frustrating but there was a sign to a local temple which was preparing for the Ganesha Festival. They welcomed us and showed us around, they were very welcoming and even realising I had a cold they told me to eat a plant used for Ayurvedic medicine.... It didn't taste too nice, a bit like tea tree. And it did make my throat hurt a little less, mostly because I was concentrating on the horrible taste in my mouth. From this we drove on to Abbey falls a large waterfall in the middle of the forest, it was rather gorgeous except the rain was trying hard to dampen spirits and we hadn't taken precaution for Leeches, a big problem in Coorg in the wet season. In less than 30 mins out of the car, I was bitten twice....Abi got away with none!

After this we had a 1 hour drive to a coffee plantation, where we were walked around and told everything there is to know about coffee, the guy taking the tour was great, and helpful, and we bought a couple of bags of coffee, this tour cost us 800 INR where we saw coffee growing, cardamon plants, oranges, and the guide told us how the wild elephants have worked out how to get through the electric fences designed to keep them away from the crops. 

We stopped in the Madekeri fort around 5pm, we went for a little walk around, and this was a bit disappointing, it was run down and not well kept as well as having a few bits of graffiti. They have a museum of Indian archaeology within the Fort which was small but had some interesting artefacts. After this we were taken to Raja Seat a view point that the Rajas used to sit at and watch the sunset. Whilst we were there at sunset, the grey fog had rolled in over the hills and the view was limited. But it was simple to see this would be a wonderful view if the conditions allowed. 

We stayed in Madekeri that night in a hotel called Madekeri Heritage hotel. At first they gave us a room with no shower (due to it being on the top floor the pressure couldn't get to the shower). They moved us out of that room to a room on the second floor, the shower worked great and the hotel was very nice and clean. They were good hoteliers besides giving us a bad room to start with they helped with everything and made sure we were ok, we didn't do too much in the evening due to feeling a bit ill. Gary ate at the hotel which was ok, and fairly priced food. The next morning the buffet was reasonable with a mix of continental and Indian options. Although the hotel we stayed in was pretty good, there isn't much else in Madekeri, so would have preferred to stay in one of many of the homestay's in the area (its famous for this!). 

The next morning we were collected at 9, taken to Bhagamandala where we saw the Bhagandeshwara Temple and Triveni Sangama (joining of three rivers - Cavery, Kannike and the mythical Sujyoti river). This is a pilgrimage place where it was tradition to wash arms and legs in the river before entry, this temple was nice but very busy in preparation for the ganesha festival. Then we were taken to Talakaveri, which is the source of the river cavery and has another temple. It also had a beautiful viewpoint at the top of a climb up 300 steps, and sure enough what was at the top of the steps but COWS. It was a little cooler at the top and so once we had cooled following the climb we were putting our jumpers on!! The temple had a washing pool, and seating area to look over the hilly scenery of Coorg.

All in all it was a fairly expensive 2 days with the taxi costing 4250rs for a non a/c small car plus hotel, food etc, but it allowed us to see the beautiful Coorg countryside and the sights it had to offer in a short period of time.

Small Village temple! looking a bit Psychadelic!!

The greenery around Coorg

Enjoying the wash in the Cauvery River