Trip to Coorg

It was my cousin Deepu's wedding in Coorg on the 24th of MAy '10. So off we go driving to Coorg early Sunday morning. We had a lot of expectations... nice cool weather, lots of jungles n coffee estates. May be spot a elephant. But by the time we reach Kushalnagar... via Mysore... all expectations faded away... no jungles, no elephants, no coffee estates... just a hot summer day makign u sweat n tanned. :(

Visit to the golden temple which is actually a budhhist monastry was good. And visit to Nisargadham was to satisfy ourselves to an extent about having visited green area full of bamboo. This place wud be beautiful in the rains for sure.. but today it was reaaaaaally hot.

Nisargadham is a island formed by the forking of the cauvery river. Its full of bamboo shoots. It has a deer park n a elephant which u can ride on. n some cool tall machan's built with bamboo. Visit to this place was a bit of a respite from the hot sun.

Off we drove to the wedding venue. On the way we were lucky to spot 3 foxes while they were tryign to cross the road. The weather got cooler in the night.

After the wedding the next day, we were still thinking if we shud visit Nagarhole or Bisille. We had visited the sanctuary at Nagarhole before so decided we visit bisille. My uncle had told us about this place n it sounded exciting. While asking for directions many told us the road was bad. But the call of the jungles was stronger than the thgt of the bad roads. By 3pm we were on our way to Bisille. The travelling party- my dad, Anu, Aarik Rajesh n me.

Well the roads were bad.. lots of pot holes, but the drive down the mountains n the beautiful country side negated the bad roads. I made a nice lil bed for Aarik to slp on btwn me n Anu in the back seat n he happily slpt off. The road was getting from bad to worse but the jungles were getting dense n the air more cooler. we drove slowly passing few settlements/villages n then pure jungle. After about 2 hours of slow drive we reached the spot. Well it better be worth the trouble we took to drive up here.

We park our car at the gate. Its a view tower built by the forest dept in 1995. We have to walk up a lil pavement abt 200mtrs from the main road. We had a glimpse of wat we were abt to see n tat was exciting enough.

But as we reached the spot .... Goodness !!!!!!!!!!! it was a breath taking view !!!! simply superb. Lots of mountains as far as u can see, fully green n a dense forest covering. We walk in awe towards the viewing point which kind of juts out of the hill we were on. And as we walk towards the end point it was a magical experience. We could actually feel the forest floor (which was still not in view yet) raising up. It was like the whole valley was on some kind of a lift and the floor was being slowly lifted up for us to have a better look... it was simply too good to be there. We could hear a river and spotted it far below in the valley covered by trees jsut exposing itself to us at few spots. Well , it REALLY was WORTH going to this spot. Beauty spot in Bisille ghats as they call it.

We were enjoying the scene n the silence n the sound of the forest... lots of birds n crickets n the river. After soaking in the beauty of nature for long enough it was time to get back. We were thinking of which route to take back to Mysore. We decided we take the route to the holy shrine of Kukke subramanya (about 20 kms from the spot) n then drive back to mysore.

As we went ahead.. we realised the roads were worse at this side... rather we had to look for a road among the pot holes. The forest was getting more dense n we were forced to drive dead slow cause of the roads. It was like a safari drive in the jungle only diff was that we were driving a small car instead of the customary jeeps or SUV's. Oh aren't we loving it.. It was simply a superb feeling. If only we could spot few animals it would have been like a icing on the cake. But we were unfortunate with the icing. But the cake was fantastic ;).

This is a trip that every jungle lover must make. No wonder that we were the talk of the day among my cousin's new relatives. They found it crazy that we choose to drive to Mysore via Bisile ghat travelling abt 120kms extra then wat we cud on good roads in lesser time n distance. It may be something stupid in thier view, but for us it was a great experience. Something that we truely enjoyed. :)

Few pics from our trip...