Coorg 2013

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November 16th 2013

Published: November 16th 2013

Coorg Travel-log (21/10/13 to 24/10/13) by Aravind

Prelude

It’s after more than 12 years that I am at writing a travel-log again. Not that, in 12 years we haven’t travelled, but for one reason or other, it simply didn’t happen. I dedicate this to the dearest family!

When I make a comparison between ‘the then’ and ‘now’, I realise that slowly I have distanced myself from making detailed planning and preparation for the trip. As for everything else, this approach has its positives and negatives. Many of them revealed themselves during the trip. We hope to learn from these experiences and get better for next trip, which of course will be next year. We have forced ourselves to be in the business of travelling each year by becoming member of Club Mahindra for 10 years. So, here we go with our first trip to ‘Coorg’, courtesy Club Mahindra Coorg Valley!

Day 1 – 21/10/13 – The journey and introduction to Mahindra Resorts

Before starting from Puttur, I checked about the distance, time and condition of road to Coorg with some experts. Distance is about 80 to 90 KMs, none was sure about the road condition and time it would take is about 3 hrs. I wasn’t convinced with the ‘time’ as it seemed 30 KM/hr is too slow for any condition of road. Trusting the words of the experts, we started at 11 AM as check-in @ resort would be at 2 PM. I was almost sure that we will complete lunch on the way. My conviction got further strengthened as we could maintain an average speed of 60+ for first half an hour or so (close to Sullya). Then came the most dreaded part of this journey, as there was any road for next 30 KMs (upto Sampaje), forget about the condition of the road. It took almost 90 mins to cover this 30 KM distance. ‘TATA’ jindabad, our Indigo XL survived! As we entered Coorg and the ghat section, the road was amazingly, in excellent condition. Yet another realisation about different ways in which ‘unity in diversity’ is demonstrated in our great country, India!

Our plans of having lunch before checking-in, had gone for a toss. With butterflies in our stomach, we went through the rituals of check-in. By the time we were on lunch table, it was 3:15 PM, and restaurant was about to close in 15 mins. We rushed through the orders and lunch. At the end, I am not sure if had enough to fill our stomach, but certainly bill was fat. We realised we need to be ‘kanjoos’ when it comes to availing services within the resort, and we indeed did so! The microwave owen and fridge in the room helped us in the process.

Rest of the evening was spent in park (children’s play area), and fun zone. Anagha did painting and Amogh had a bike ride before ‘evening activity’ of that day.

Evening activity

Each evening the ‘holiday activity’ department organises entertainment programs. This evening was ‘magic show’ and ‘dj’. It was refreshing to see a magic show, and we thoroughly enjoyed it along with Anagha. For some reason, it didn’t seem to invoke any curiosity in Amogh. However the last part, removing Salman Khan’s top, and Aishwarya’s hair (from their photos) had both kids rolling in laughter. Anagha, Amogh and I (though I am ‘pappu’ when it comes to dance) danced to the DJ and Grishma watched us. The experience had us looking forward to the activity in coming evenings.

Being very cautious of the charges, we booked ‘jeep safari’ for next morning and ended our day with dinner in the room. The leftovers were stored in refrigerator. We had fairly good idea about what to do next day i.e. a ‘jeep safari’ in the morning, ‘swimming pool’ in the after-noon, and ‘fun activities’ in the evening.

Day 2 – 22/10/13 – Beginning of adventure

‘Jeep safari’ was to start @ 9:30 AM, and we managed to reach on time. We started fairly on time compared to usual stretches that happen with IST (Indian Stretchable Time). Ours was the first jeep among the 2 and we had a couple accompanying us. Naturally we occupied the 2 back seats (parallel to road). This seating was first time for Anagha and Amogh, they seemed to be excited about it. Our jeep was leading the way through the rocky mountain roads (if they can be called roads), and we suddenly found ourselves on the tip of a mountain. We were to drive them from that tip at an angle more than 45 degrees, and so we did with ‘woos’ and ‘aaas’. The real risks involved in this ride were visible only when we got down from our jeep and saw the second jeep take the same path. There came Grishma ‘If I knew that this is what we were up to, I wouldn’t have taken this ride’. Then we trekked around on the mountains. We went to a place where last scene of supposed to be hit Kannada movie ‘Galipata’ was shot. I haven’t been really watching or following Kannada movies, but even Grishma hasn’t been doing it for long, so we couldn’t really relate. Grishma seemed unusually energised by the surroundings and did all trekking (though with some grumping). It was difficult to believe that she was almost stuck to bed for 50+ hrs 3 days ago.

On the way back, we got down near a bridge where river Kaveri flowed across and played in the water. We were back at the resort at about 1:30 PM as 1 piece each after the first adventure.

Kids had the urge to immediately get into the swimming pool after lunch, but I had exercised veto and we had a nap. We went to the swimming pool at about 4 PM and there was little drizzle and water was freezing cold. Our urge, determination and ‘paisa vasool’ mentality got better of us. We spent about an hour in the pool. After lot of force, Anagha swam in the 4 FT pool and I tried my ‘once in a year’ kind of swimming attempt. Amogh was in the kid’s pool, and Grishma was enjoying our ‘suffertainment’ (a combination of suffering and entertainment).

Due to the rain, the evening activity was limited to ‘indoors’ and there was a ‘visual quiz’. Residents of the resort were split into 2 teams and mostly ‘bollywood’ based quiz was conducted. From each team volunteers were called up to answer questions. Our team won, thanks to our contribution of ‘not attempting to answer the questions’, surely we would have lost as we hardly knew any answer.

We planned the next day after dinner. We had to leave our kids in the room to go to the ‘wi fi’ zone. Our plan was to go to ‘Buddhist monastery’ in Kushal Nagar early morning, then to ‘Dhubare elephant safari’, and some other places nearby. Curtains, day 2!

Day 3 – 23/10/13 – On our own

After paying Rs 1800/- for ‘jeep safari’, we had decided to go around on our own on day 3 & 4. Even though our plan was to start at 7 AM, we started at around 8 AM. Experience had forced us to have breakfast outside the resort, and so we did. Not that the experience was great outside (except for economy). When we inquired about cold idli, wada and sambhar, the prompt reply was that it’s common in hilly areas, by the time the eatables reach the table, it becomes cold (I remembered Rajnikanth).

Finally we bought Duracell batteries for our camera on the way to ‘Buddhist monastery’. Even these batteries run out quite fast and we had to change them often (date gets reset every such time and photos show 1/1/2002). We reached monastery at 9:30 and were there till 11 AM. It’s a peaceful place where one will be absorbed into spirituality. The writings were inspiring especially because I consider myself spiritually inclined. It was more than worth the travel!

We reached our next destination ‘dhubare elephant safari’ @ 11:30 AM. For the first time in our life we had ‘jolly ride’ on the elephant and also a ‘horse ride’. While height was only risk factor in the elephant ride, horse ride had combination of height and speed. My overconfidence took a beating when the horse took off. I was left at the mercy of the horse and so was the horse. I enjoyed this ride though! The kids too enjoyed the rides. The boat ride and little play in the water were icing on the cake. There was white water rafting as well, but we have postponed it for future (possibly somewhere else).

I had ‘Rajiv Gandhi National park (a.k.a. Nagarahole)’ in the mind all the while. As we hadn’t planned anything in particular, we inquired about Nagarahole. We got mixed feedback on safari, some said it’s ON, and for some others it wasn’t. However people referred to nearby ‘Irupu falls’. It was about 60 KMs, and we decided to GO FOR IT, after having a quick lunch.

The drive was scenic and quite long among the hills of Coorg. Roads however weren’t in great condition though better than between Sullya and Sampaje. Impact of the lunch was visible on the kids as they went to sound sleep on the back seat. Grishma had several doubts, ‘is it worth? Will it be safe (naxalite area)? When do we come back? Etc’. I kept on giving some or the other answer which obviously weren’t convincing to her (as always). We passed through Ponnampet and Gonikoppal which evoked some childhood memories of Grishma. We reached an isolated and crowd-starved ‘Irupu falls’ @ 2:30 PM. To know that it’s 0.75 KM walk (trek) to the falls one-way, only increased existing doubts (on its worth) multi-fold. ‘Let’s have look at the falls anyway’ we thought (paisa tho vasool karna padega).

The scary trek: As we started on, several signboards appeared about ‘wild animals’, ‘poisonous snakes’, ‘tigers’ etc., but there was no sign of any other human soul. Anagha and Amogh quickly found some security by holding my hands tightly, and brave Grishma was left alone behind. The memories of cheetahs attacking Tirupathi pilgrims only made matters worse. Soon all the mentioned animals (and much more) were running around in our stomach. Somehow, we reached the falls, and it was ‘AWESOME’. I remembered quote ‘there is no short cut to any place worth going’. How true literally it was, and I wished it applied to all our lives on a daily basis. Why are we always in a hurry?

There were few people near the falls and it seemed they were spending their day there. We stuck around for 30 mins or so. The return trek was easier than the forward as we were walking down the known path, experience teaches, and indeed counts! Just when we were near the exit, Anagha screamed loud!!! She mistook ‘Aumbbhhaaaa’ of a cow for roar of a tiger J

At about 3:30, we started to ‘Nagarahole’ from there which was only about 8 KMs or so. As anticipated there was no safari, but we decided to pass through the forest to Hoonsoor and back to Madikeri. We could spot lot of deers, few peacocks, and a lot of signboards warning us about wild animals. When Anagha asked about ‘what’s a safari?’, Our answer was that ‘it is opposite of the zoo’. The logic being ‘In zoo, animals are inside a cage and we enjoy looking at them, and in safari, we are inside cage (car etc.) and they enjoy looking at us’!

It wasn’t spectacular, but ok for an evening long drive through a thick forest. Now we had to rush back to the resort before the start of evening activity. We reached just at the right time.

The family games: The participating residents were divided into 2 teams and made to play/involve in different games/activities. One such activity was picking a pair kids sandals, and Anagha made our team win. In another activity, maximum number of upper clothings (vest, shirt, coat etc.) was to be collected. As Grishma removed Amogh’s clothing, he was furious and started to cry. I enjoyed the moment though, and more so, others even more, when we were made to dance to the tunes of gangnam style, lungi dance etc. The last was a ‘couple musical chair’ which we quit mid-way. Our team won handsomely in the end!

Day 3 ended with plans of visiting ‘Talakaveri’, ‘Abbey falls’ and back to Puttur on day 4. I must say we were totally drained out that day, and the big portion of this travel-log dedicated to this day goes to validate that. It was immensely satisfying day!

Day 4 – 24/10/13 - On the way back, Talakaveri and Abbey Falls

Day 4 started with check-out from the resort, and we started at about 9 AM. We thought of going to abbey falls first, but due to my mistake we ended up on the road to talakaveri. I refused to turn back even after realising the mistake, but this wasn’t to Grishma’s liking. As expected, the drive to talakaveri was silence personified! By the time we reached talakaveri after having breakfast on the way, it was 11 AM. The place was filled with clouds and visibility was near to zero. It was a very hard drive in the curving hills. We took about 30 mins at the temple with a ‘kumkum archana’ pooja. With some shopping on the way back, we went to abbey falls.

Abbey falls didn’t take much of our time as it didn’t have a long trek and we were very hungry. We spent just about 15 to 20 mins, but it was a treat to watch as well.

We started to Puttur after lunch at about 3 PM and called up Amma to convey that we will reach by 6 PM. The return drive though was much faster than the onward journey though. We reached Puttur by 5:15 PM. Memorable 4 days of time was spent on the journey of life, and this had left us hungry for more in the coming years!

17th September 2014

sahil kapoor
non-member comment

Very nice blog. Thanks for sharing your experience. I am also planning to do adventure in Coorg .If anybody wants to join me for the trip feel free to contact me. After an exhaustive online research i found this best package. check it out http://www.365hops.com/social/event_detail.php?eventid=VkZod2JrMTNQVDA9

21st November 2017

sahitya
non-member comment

Hey AravindPai, it was great that you wrote again after 12 long years. The post was very interesting with your experiences packed in it. Here is the link of the blog which i want to share with you where you can explore and experience more. https://blog.xoxoday.com/weekend-getaways-from-coorg/4997

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