The Coorg Conundrum

As the popular band Green Day puts it,

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right!

I hope you had the time of your life! 

Our trip to the Scotland of the Indian subcontinent, Kodagu, was something similar. It was full of unexpected encounters. While some were good, the others were disappointing. On the whole, the entire plan was another addition to the innumerable memories we have from our previous tours.

Deciding the place and the dates turned out to be a major challenge in itself, keeping everyone's comfort zone in mind. With a few compromises here and there, the second weekend of July was set as the D-days. Locking the destination turned out to be a hurdle bigger than we'd imagined because most people were apprehensive about the rains. Letting nature decide our fates, we set off to Coorg on the decided dates.

Off We Go!

The journey to the destination started from three different places. While 3 people started off from Bengaluru, 2 of us were leaving from Mysore. The remaining 5 came from Shimoga, along with our ride for the trip, the Tempo Traveller. As decided, we met on Saturday morning at the home-Stay in the heart of Madikeri, which we'd pre-booked online. Changing into comfortable clothing, we departed for the famous Iruppu falls, located 80 km from the city.

The route to the falls was mesmerising, but the best part was the small hill in the temple premises of a village called Kakot. The lush green hilltop was a perfect place for photo-philes like us. Spending some quality time there, we restarted our journey to Iruppu.

It's not everyday that you get to see such greenery!

It was then that we encountered an unprecedented incident, the TT broke down! There was some problem with the gear shift of the vehicle and it did not get to the higher gears. Dragging the vehicle at a moderate speed, we reached CKB Garage, on the outskirts of a village called Gonikoppal. The mechanic took more than 2 hours to fix the vehicle, which resulted in schedule getting set back by almost 3 hours. We started again and within 10 km, the same problem reoccurred, forcing us to return to Madikeri. All in all, it was a waste of one complete day.

Disappointed, we returned to our place of stay, sent the damaged TT back, spoke to the owner of the home-stay and got ourselves a new vehicle booked for the following day. Though the day was wasted, the night wasn't! Ganesh and I had turned 20 on 2nd and 5th of July respectively. The guys had planned a surprise cake-cutting session for us, handing me my best ever birthday celebration. That was followed by bouts of the classic card game Uno and a new game called Mafia, introduced to the rest of us by Deepak and Yamini. Late into the night, one after another of us fell asleep and even those who were quite determined to stay awake the whole night, decided to call it a day as we had a long day coming up.

After a quick shower the following morning, we checked out of the home-stay and left for Mugilpete or what is locally called Mandalpatti. Located 20 km from Madikeri city, the place is an abode of clouds, literally. The place became quite popular after a super-hit Kannada movie was shot there. Parking the Tempo at the parking lot, we started our walk. The 6 km a side trek was totally worth it. Mild showers every now and then, the cool wind and a feast to the eyes... Mandalpatti exceeded all our expectations by a great margin! When we reached the peak, the winds were at their fiery best, the visibility was next to zero and the weather was as romantic as it could get! Spending some time up there, we started our way back to the base. The walk back to the base was equally enthralling. 

The GAALIPATA spot...

Visibility: Zero | Squad excitement: 100%!

The majestic Abbi falls!

By noon, we were back at the base and ready for the next destination, the famous Abbi falls. That, however, turned out to be a nightmare as it was a Sunday afternoon and was overcrowded. Parking space was scarce and we had to walk a long way to reach the falls, which would have been spectacular had the view not been blocked by the fusillade of cameras and mobile phones by the overenthusiastic crowd. A little let down, we headed back towards the Buddhist Temple at Kushalanagar, our last stop of the tour. After some light-hearted conversations and discussions in the serene temple premises, it was time to head home.

Right from deciding the place and dates of the trip, this particular outing has been one big conundrum. Amidst all the yeses and nos, the trip was planned and executed and it turned out to be just right! It’s always right to go ahead with our first instincts, even if it’s a bad idea, because bad ideas make great stories!