Impromptu trip to Coorg

This Saturday was no different from any other Saturdays, we woke up slightly late, had a late breakfast and post that we went out to complete the weekend chores, then my in laws arrived for their weekly time with Anvitha, , the day was spent at home and after my in laws left by 4 pm, we were getting bored, I asked Jyo if she wanted to go for a walk, she said she preferred a long drive instead.
Now, Jyo travels close to 60kms to and fro from work, isn't that long enough for a drive?
But, that is not the kind of drive she was talking about, she wanted to go on a traffic free road, with the wind in her hair and some nice music for the ears. Hang on, if such a drive exists in Bangalore then I want to do that too, well of course one can neglect the "wind in the hair" part :-)

So, we spent the next 15 minutes from 5.30 pm, discussing what can constitute a long drive, I came up with the bright idea that if we indeed wanted to go for a drive, then why not drive out to someplace, spend the night (or whatever that will be left of the night) and then return by nightfall on Sunday.

We had stopped these whimsical, spontaneous and planned on the last minute outings ever since Anvitha was born as it was not feasible, but the old fire was reignited.

Next was if we did manage to find a place that would accommodate our whims and budget, how soon can we leave, Jyo said she can pack in the next 15 mins if I manage to find a place to go to.

So, I messaged two friends who run holiday getaways in Sakleshpur and Coorg respectively. I knew the chances were bleak on a weekend and did not really expect a positive response from either of them, but, we were meant to be on the roads that evening.

Sameer, who runs the Linger Leisures, ( www.Linger.in) along with another friend responded from Gokarna where he probably had put up his feet and was sipping a drink. He said Chettimani, his place in Coorg, could take us in as they had a cancellation, then a phone call to him and I asked for directions. Jyo had already begun packing for Anvitha the moment the sms from Sameer gave us hope.

So, by 6.45 pm, we were ready to drive out, I was told that it would take me a minimum of 5 hours to get there, but I knew getting out of Bangalore itself would take a good 2 hours and then the weekend madness on Mysore road would add to our woes.

So at 8 pm we were yet to cross Kengeri, by 8.30 pm we were hungry, so by 9.30 pm we saw a well lit place just after the mega food place on the right which houses everything from KFC to Coffee day. The board said Vaishali, it looked decent and we decided to give it a try.

The food was much better than our expectations and the place had clean rest rooms, definitely worth a stop if one is on Bangalore-Mysore road. By the time we were through with dinner it was almost 10.30 pm. The road seemed much quieter after that, we made decent time till the turnoff to Madikeri at Srirangapatna. Once we turned off the SH17 the road was completely broken and we had to endure this bad stretch for about 21kms till we reached the Mysore byepass road at Yelawal, from here onwards the road is in very good shape till Madikeri, the only thing to watch out for are the numerous almost unmarked speed breakers, luckily a couple of guys on a bike kept us company till almost Kushalnagar and I allowed them to ride ahead as the pillion rider kept waving his hand everytime they approached a speed breaker and this helped me to brake in time.

We reached Madikeri at 1 am and I reconfirmed the route to Bhagamandala with two policemen who were the only souls on the road at that hour. I further made a call to Harish, the caretaker at Chettimani, I could make out that he had woken up from deep slumber, but he promised to be at a designated spot in an hour from the time of my phone call.

Once we turned into the road proceeding to Bhagamandala, we were engulfed in a thick fog, the road was unknown and the visibility was extremely poor, so we had to drive really slowly.

By 2 am we reached the designated spot and I was not one bit surprised not to see anyone there, my phone showed zero signal strength and so I dialled from Jyo's phone, the line kept ringing at the other end and no one answered, so here we were at 2 am in the middle of nowhere in a blanket of fog with no clue as to where to go. Multiple tries to Harish's number proved futile, finally I called Sameer and woke him up to update him of our situation, he was kind enough to be disturbed and guided us to the place over the phone as he too was unsuccessful in trying to wake Harish up.

We were actually very close to the place and under Sameer's guidance we reached there in a jiffy, Harish was soundly asleep in the porch and I had to literally shake him awake, we were then shown to our rooms and we promptly crashed for the night.

We woke up by 8 am to the call of a few late birds and took stock of our surroundings, we had not seen much at night especially in the fog.

Chettimani is a quaint cottage in a small garden of coffee and other plants, mind you, it is not situated in a coffee estate but is definitely surrounded by quite a few of them, the place is tranquil and has a certain degree of warmth to it which makes you just want to relax and wait for the next meal.

I went around taking a few snaps and here are a few

Anvitha checking out the hammock

The Cobweb shows you the kind of time one needs to just do nothing

 Some colourful flowers

Lichen on the trees, everything reminds you to take it easy

Coffee Blooms

The peaceful countryside as seen from Chettimani

Dew drops on a coffee leaf

The Chettimani lounge

The

The Mezzanine floor with a bed

A quaint looking electric light

Then Anvitha found a cricket bat

Harish could not name the fruit in this tree, but they were edible he said

 then we were called for breakfast and this was the spread

After a hearty breakfast we decided on going to Bhagamandala and Talacauvery, both which were under 15 kms from there, so a quick shower and we were off after telling harish we will be back for lunch.

Bhagamandala is just 4 kms from Chettimani , details of the place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagamandala

We reached this peaceful place and went into the immaculately clean temple

The inner courtyard

The spic and span temple premises

After a good darshan we moved on to Talacauvery,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talakaveri

The drive up to the temple is quite scenic and there is a visible drop in temperature as we go up.
The entrance to talacauvery

Once we climb up the initial stairs we come across this lovely tank at the far end of which a priest sits and performs puja to the spring from which the river Cauvery is supposed to orginate from.

It was interesting to see people wading through the water to reach the priest who would then pour a pot of water over their heads after which they would go into the changing rooms to wear dry clothes and then come and attend the puja.

The wishing well, where coins are dropped and wishes made

Jyo gave me a Malaysian Ringgit to drop, hope a trip is in the making :-)

A view of the Brahmagiri hill 

Lovely hills in the backdrop

We drove back to Bhagamandala where I stopped to take a few snaps of the confluence of rivers, the sangam

By then it was getting slightly warm and we still had to pack up and head back home, so we drove back to Chettimani and for lunch. Harish had the lunch spread out for us and after another hearty meal we decided to rest a bit and then check out.
So by 2.30 pm we were refreshed enough to start our drive back, the road seemed so much better in daylight and we could see all those lovely coffee estates we had passed by in the night.

We were soon on the lovely winding roads between Madikeri and Hunsur

Coffee estates in bloom

The road back home

After a very leisurely drive we reached the chaotic Mysore-Bangalore road and joined the teeming crowds headed back home after the weekend, we once again decided to stop for dinner at Vaishali since we had liked the food there.

Post dinner we completed the last leg and reached home by 11 pm and to the comforts of our own beds.

This was one trip done on an impulse and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, it was comforting to know that even after an addition to our little family, we still had the zeal to do something which we used to do in the past with gay abandon.
Regards,
Hari.