Madikeri, Coorg Trip

Mayura Valley View, Madikeri - Review.

It was effectively a 2-days and 2-nights trip we had planned to Madikeri (a.k.a. Mercara) in Coorg (a.k.a. Kodagu) district by our Swift VXI, but the total trip duration involved was close to 3-days and 3-nights. 

Kodagu district's capital is Madikeri and it is at an altitude of about 3800 feet above mean sea level. The Kodagu district is bordered by Dakshina Kannada District to the northwest, Hassan District to the north, Mysore District to the east, the Kannur District of Kerala to the southwest, and the Wayanad District of Kerala to the south.

In preparation, the car was given for a regular service 5 days in advance, fuel tank topped-up, tyre-pressure (including stepney wheel) verified, etc. And, also got the list of Maruti service stations at Mysore and Madikeri ready.

Booked online a room at Mayura Valley View Madikeri, about 1.5 months in advance. It involved calling KSTDC office at the phone numbers given below, and an executive there verified that vacancy for the dates we needed were really available, and then, we did the booking ourselves, online. One can also directly visit KSTDC office and do the booking in person. The address and phone numbers are:

Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC)
49, 2nd Floor, Khanija Bhavan, Race Course Road,
Bangalore 560 001, Tel: +91 80 2235 2901

Karnataka Tourism House
A One-Stop-Shop
No. 8, Papanna Lane, St. Mark's Road,
Bangalore 560 001, Tel: +91 80 4346 4351

Badami House
Central Reservation Counter
Opp . Bhruhut Bangalore Mahanagar Palike office, N.R. Square,
Bangalore 560 002, Tel: +91 80 4334 4334

The hotel's website is here. And, the online booking page is here.

Had a planned halt at Srirangapatna (had pre-booked room at Amblee) on the starting night, then to leave the next morning to Madikeri.

Plan was to take the following route:
Srirangapatna ➔ Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary Road ➔ Brindavan Garden Road (a.k.a. KRS road) ➔ Yelawal (a.k.a. Elivala) ➔ Hunsur ➔ Kushal Nagar ➔ Madikeri. 

Did not want to touch or go via Mysore or Mysore Ring Road / Bypass Road, because it was Dussehra time, and there would be heavy rush in Mysore for the ongoing celebrations in the entire city including the Palace area and Chamundi hills.

Basically our route involved Karnataka state highways SH-17 (runs from Bangalore to Bandipur via Srirangapatna & Mysore) and SH-88 (runs from Mysore to Bantwal via Yelawal, Hunsur, Kushal Nagar & Madikeri). And, we did not touch Mysore, but, we transferred from SH-17 to SH-88 like this:
Srirangapatna ➔ Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary Road ➔ Brindavan Garden Road (a.k.a. KRS road) ➔ Yelawal (a.k.a. Elivala).

Also got ready the Google Directions map for our route as seen below. Click here for the direct link to Map.

- Started at about 5 PM on 13-Oct-10 (Wed) from Kodichikanahalli (Bommanahalli), Bangalore.

- Ate Dosa, Poori, Bonda-soup, etc. at Kamat Upachar, located on the left-hand-side before Maddur, at about 7:15 PM. 

- Also picked-up some burgers at McDonalds drive-thru (again, located on the left-hand-side just before Maddur), at about 7:30 PM.

Amblee - Riverside Breakfast

- Reached Amblee, Srirangapatna at 8 PM and halted for the night. Around 7-8 KM before Srirangapatna, heavy rains started pouring. When we got down at Amblee the attendants had to escort us with umbrellas to our rooms.

- The next morning (14-Oct-10, Thu) was clear with no rains. We started at about 10:00 AM from Amblee.

- Drove towards Mysore on SH-17, and took the right on Ranganathittu Birds Sanctuary road.
- Reached KRS road (Brindavan Gardens road), and took right turn on KRS road towards KRS Dam.

- Just before KRS Dam (Brindavan Gardens), took the left to go towards Hunsur road.

- Reached Yelawal (a.k.a. Elivala) on Hunsur road (SH-88), and took right turn towards Hunsur direction.

- Drove through Bilikere, Somanahalli, Hunsur bypass (stopped for 5 minutes at 'Cafe Coorg' to buy soft drinks!), Kampalapura, Periyapatna, Bylakuppe, Kushal Nagar and reached Cauvery Nisagadhama just after Kushal Nagar at about 12:15 PM.

Vast paddy fields on Ranganathittu road

Cafe Coorg, Hunsur; Like Cafe Coffee Day?

Entrance to Cauvery Nisargadhama

Hanging bridge as soon as you enter

Monkeys, snatched bread sandwiches from us

Some Machaans had damaged ladders

The deer park inside Nisargadhama

Get to the river through the entrance

The river was flowing high

 

- Started from Cauvery Nisargadhama at about 1:40 PM towards Madikeri.

- Soon we stopped at Orange Lagoon (on the right hand side) within 6-7 minutes, just a few KM from Cauvery Nisargadhama for lunch. Food was okay. But the ambiance was nice like a garden restaurant and pleasing interior decor.

- Drove via Suntikoppa and reached Madikeri at about 3 PM (14-Oct-10, Thu.). It started raining heavily from Suntikoppa onwards and the drive uphill was a bit difficult but not too bad. Oncoming vehicles as well as vehicles from behind were zipping past very fast, so I had to be very attentive.

A few KM after Cauvery Nisargadhama

View back from inside Orange Lagoon

Sudden clouds, near Suntikoppa

Heavy rains as we climbed up

- Hotel Mayura Valley View in Madikeri is located a few hundred meters after you go past Raja Seat. 
          Hotel Valley View, Mercara
          Raja Seat, Madikeri (Mercara) - 571 201
          Phone: 08272 228387

- The hotel has been renovated a few months ago and the delux room we took was very nice, clean, roomy and with the valley view through the window was great.

- 'The Valley View' restaurant (run probably by a sub-contract group) attached to the hotel served tasty food. We had dinner there on both (Thu. & Fri.) nights of our stay. We also had the complementary breakfast, that is part of the room tariff, there on both (Fri. & Sat.) mornings of our stay.

- Weather wise, Thursday (14-Oct-10) was rainy, and Friday & Saturday were normal (gradually becoming hot, but we just left Madikeri by that time).


Just arrived at Mayura Valley View

Valley is within 15' from the window

 

- Thursday evening, we walked up to Raja Seat to see the sunset in the valley view. The rains in the afternoon and evening had made the late hours very misty, that quickly became very foggy.  So, no view of sunset was expected. But it was a beautiful view to see the mist and fog developing slowly in the valley and surroundings. The All India Radio (AIR) tower located next to Raja Seat was playing hide-and-seek in the fog. The drizzle and wind added to the wonderful climate. We were lucky. We also took a ride on the toy-train (Rs 10 per person, for two rounds) in the park adjoining Raja Seat.

- Later after dinner we took a short drive around the town to see some of the familiar, and some unfamiliar roads as well. [The last time we had gone to Madikeri earlier was 6 years ago in October 2004. At that time, we went directly from Bangalore to Madikeri by a KSRTC bus, and hired a local package by Maruti Omni van for sigh-seeing, and did rest of of the local rounds by autos.]


All India Radio is between Mayura Valley View and Raja Seat

Toy Train next to Raja Seat

Toy train

Raja Seat Park

Fogging in the park

Fogging valley view from Raja Seat

AIR tower - hide and seek!

Covering for the drizzle!

Fogged valley view from the room

Scenery changes by the minute

Slide out thru' the window for a stroll

Soon turned into blue mountains!

Hotel was well lit for Dussehra

- When I woke up Friday (15-Oct-10) morning was more impressive with dense fog. It cleared up later though.

Front side of the Hotel

Very foggy morning

Densely fogged valley in the morning

 
Misty windows

 

- We really wanted to go to Maandhalpeti (sometimes spelled as Mandalpatti) where a lot of Kannada movies were shot recently and has become very popular, scenic, greenery spot near Madikeri town. It is an off-beat location and not a common spot. We enquired around and learned that it is about 25 KM one-way to reach that place and most vehicles (including my Swift) cannot climb the steep route there. Only the local Jeep-wallas take you on trip and they asked about Rs 1400 for the trip. We felt it quite high and dropped Mandalpatti from our plan. To see the article from a recent Deccan Herald issue (12-Oct-2010) on Coorg click here.

- So we went to Abbey Falls in the forenoon at about 11 AM. Again mild drizzle of rain kept us impressed. The waterfalls was in full flow. Decent amount of crowd, not too much. So it was enjoyable.

Madikeri town by morning

Abbey Falls is inside a coffee estate

Walk down a few 100 m

Abbey Falls

Downstream

Hanging bridge for a front view

Coffee berries

- Came back to Madikeri town and had a pre-lunch at Hotel Amantrana on the main road. Was not too impressive though.

- At about 12:20 PM we headed towards Bhagamandala (37 KM) & Talacauvery (45 KM) for the second half of the day.

- We reached Bhagamandala at about 2 PM and took a step into the Triveni Sangam. Very little crowd, and the slow paced flow of rather low water level in the river was fantastic. We also took a quick tour into the Kerala style temple, though the main shrine was closed for the afternoon when we went in.

- As we exited Bhagamandala towards Talacauvery (or Talakaveri), we stopped at the Mayura Cauvery Yatri Nivas restaurant for a lunch at about 2:45 PM.


On the way to Bhagamandala

Scenic hills and valleys

 
Paddy fields with hills in the backdrop

Low, calm water flow - Easy crossing

Confluence of 3 rivers, Bhagamandala

Sri Bagandeshwara Temple, Bhagamandala

Mayura Yatri Nivas, Bhagamandala

   

- We stopped at a Spices shop en route to Talacauvery and bought coffee powder, cardamom and pepper.

- Reached Talacauvery at about 3:40 PM. As we parked our car we saw wonderful sights of low lying clouds and thick moving fog covering the Talacauvery temple. During our entire stay at Talacauvery area including the climb over the adjoining steps to the Brahmagiri hilltop for valley view, the scene was dynamic - one the previous minute, and completely another the very next minute - due to the random and continuous flow of foggy clouds. A magical experience. Also, the view of  green valleys and the faraway grasslands were thoroughly attractive.
 
You can find many en route

On the way to Talacauvery

Talacauvery wrapped by fog

Talacauvery

Scenery kept on changing

To Brahmagiri view point

Temple completely lost in cloud

Brahmagiri valley

A resort (?) deep in the valley

See-thru' clouds

Ranges of mountains

Far away grass carpets!

- Left Talacauvery at 4:30 PM towards Madikeri and reached hotel at about 6 PM. The cloudy evening made the sunset on the valley side of our hotel not too attractive. But it was still a scenic view.

- After dinner, we again took a local round in the town area. The Dussehra celebrations were in full swing with a lot of lights and sound everywhere. Even at 8:30-9 PM the surroundings were lively with people moving around.

On the way back from Bhagamandala - AIR tower, Raja Seat

Nice views from the room

Distances from Raja Seat

Dussehra lighting around Raja Seat

Kundurmotte Sri Chowtti Mariyamma Temple

- Saturday (16-Oct-10) morning was clearer with no fog. Even though I was a bit late, I could get a glimpse of the sunrise at about 6:20 AM and a couple of snaps.

- After the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we visited the local Fort and the Gaddige (tomb) on a quick tour. It was Ayudha Pooja day and we saw lot of vehicles getting Pooja done at various temples we passed by.

- Came back and vacated the hotel.

Sun rising over Madikeri town

Another view, 6:22 AM

The hotel during sunrise

Another view of Madikeri town

Valley view seats behind the hotel

Having a sunbath, he gave a nice pose

Madikeri Fort

Long fort walls

Palace houses government office now

Details about the Fort

Gaddige, the tombs

 

- Started from Madikeri towards Bangalore at about 10:45 AM.

- Had a pre-lunch at Coorg Upahar, Bylekuppe.

- Took the detour right turn and reached the Tibetian Monastry at about 12:15 PM. Went around the  attractive Golden Temples and the mini shopping area.
 
Entry to Tibetian Monastry

 The Golden Temples

Prayer hall, attractive statues

The second hall, more statues

Outer view of the second temple

  

- Started from the Monastry at about 1 PM.

- Drove straight to Yelawala on SH-88.
- The left turn at Yelawala to go to K.R.S. road on the way towards Srirangapatna is not guided well by signs or cleanly identifiable. Was watchful for it at Yelawala, and did ask for guidance. And we did not miss it.
- Reached K.R.S. road, and on it, after a few KM, took the left turn towards Ranganathittu road and reached Srirangapatna (on SH-17), and turned left finally towards Bangalore.

- Stopped by Maddur Tiffany's at about 3:45 PM for a Maddur vada and coffee, and again at Vasudev Adigas for a quick soft drink. Experienced some rains around that area, and also sighted a brief appearance of rainbow!

See the rainbow?

- We reached Bommanahalli, Bangalore by 5:45 PM. No rains.

All the way it was a graceful and memorable trip, with some very nice climates that we enjoyed. Could have been longer.