Among the coffee beans and pepper trees in Coorg

Coorg or Kodagu is a district in Karnataka famous for its hills and coffee plantations. This place attracts a lot of tourists year around. There are various places to see here apart from wandering aimlessly along the various hills. Popular trek spots such as Tadiyandamol, Pushpagiri, and Brahmagiri are in this district.

Kushal Nagar (north eastern part of Coorg district) in Coorg district is around 260 kms from Bangalore and 120 kms from Mysore. Located 4 kms before Kushal Nagar (when driving from Mysore), it is a small and circular island, called Nisargadama, formed by the branching of river Cauvery.

Picture Courtesy: http://www.indiatourism.com/karnataka-maps/The various attractions in Coorg include (and not limited to) Abbey Falls, Nisargadhama, Tala Cauvery, Raja’s seat, Dubare elephant camp, Buddhist monastery and Golden Temple (Bylakuppe, closer to Kushal Nagar), some peaks to trek for, various coffee estates, Nagarhole national park, Harangi Dam, Irupu Falls, Fishing, and white-water rafting in river Cauvery.


Picture Courtesy: http://www.mapsofindia.com/How to Reach:
There are KSRTC buses from Bangalore to various popular spots in Coorg (like Kushal Nagar, Madikeri, Somvarpet, Virajpet). Madikeri seem to be the popular and centrally located place amongst the rest. However, if you want to be away from the tourists and enjoy the nature and wilderness pick one of the smaller known places. I don’t think Coorg is as well connected by rail. If you intend to drive from Bangalore, it should approximately take you 5 hours depending on the road conditions, traffic and your driving skills! From Bangalore, you drive towards Mysore and close to Mysore, you will have to take the Mysore-Hansur road towards Kushal Nagar to reach this place.

Stay at Coorg:
If you are one of those back-pack and tent/camp-kinds then there are plenty of places/peaks to camp for the night and you shouldn’t have any problem. For the others, there are plenty of hotels to stay at each of the attractions. Madikeri tops this list. Recently, home stay places are becoming very popular and since these are typically the estate houses of the owners, you get a chance to stay in the midst of their vast estate with the next near-by home atleast a mile or so away (sometimes many miles away). Being a home stay place, the food is taken care of (and that too traditional food), and you feel-at-home. The owners can also arrange help or organize your various activities (transportation to see places, guides to trek, etc.). This website (http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay.html) which lists the various home stay places.


Coorg Dale, our homestay placeAfter browsing a few, I decided on Coorg Dale (for no particular reason, http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay/coorg_dale.htm). But it was centrally located at Valnoor (more closer to Dubare Elephant Camp) and a little cheaper as well. (You can find more cheaper ones as well). Valnoor is around 17-20 kms from Kushal Nagar and we were told that we could take an auto or take the local buses (which start around 6 AM). I have heard from friends that Green Woods (Napoklu, http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay/green_woods.htm) is very nice (and cheap) and that Bamboo Groove (near Sunticoppa, http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay/bamboo.html) is also good. Have read good reviews about Jade Hills (http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay/jadehills_coorg.htm) but felt this was on the expensive side.
Dates: 21st, 22nd and 23rd March 2008

Our Experience:
Day 1 (21st March):
It was raining in Bangalore and we were hoping better weather in Coorg so that we could do some treks. We (Abhi and I) left Bangalore on Thursday (20th) night, actually late night, to Kushal Nagar by KSRTC bus. I had booked the last bus to Kushal Nagar (leaves at 11:30 PM from Majestic) so that we wouldn’t reach Kushal Nagar too early in the morning. Still we managed to be in Kushal Nagar around 4 AM!!

We spent an hour or so just lazing around the empty and dark bus stand (except for one tea shop) and around 5 AM we decided to call our hosts and get directions o their place. We left to their place by an Auto (who charged us 200 bucks) and after little difficulty we found the place which was in the midst of large coffee plantations.

Their dog (forgot its name!! - problem of writing travelogues after months) was barking to glory at the sight of us but was friendly enough not to bite. We got a room for ourselves and we rested and refreshed in a while and were treated to some traditional Kodagu breakfast.

Since we were tired to take up a day long trek, we decided to go around and look at the various tourist places around Madikeri, Kushal Nagar. The hosts (Kalpana and Geoffrey Muthanna) arranged a jeep for us.

We left the house around 9:30 AM and stopped for a close to half hour at Dubare Elephant camp and our next stop was Nisargadama, which we reached around 11 AM. We spent an hour easily at Nisargadama, walking around the island and doing some bird watching.


Birds couple at Dubare
A bird at DubareFrom there, we went to the Buddhist Monastery and the Golden temple (which is us a few minutes from Nisargadama. I decided to stay put and rest/sleep in the Jeep and Abhi went to the Golden Temple and around 1 PM we left towards Madikeri. The road from Kushal Nagar to Madikeri is not all that great and the travel (around 30 kms) took a little more than an hour.


Birds at Nisargadama
Birds at NisargadamaWe stopped at the popular East End Hotel (near Tollgate, Madikeri and on G.T.Road) for lunch. This place was packed but we managed to get a table for two in quick time. This is a very popular place for non-vegetarian food. After lunch (around 3 PM), we stopped by at Raja’s seat for a while before moving on to Abbe Falls. Just when we were leaving Abbe Falls (around 4:30 PM), it started to rain. We headed straight back to the house to end our day. After refreshing, we had a very good dinner with dessert and hit the beds early.


View from Raja's seat

A typical desktop wallpaper - taken from Raja's seatOne interesting observation as we drove through various parts of Coorg was that most vehicles had the sticker “Coorg Wildlife Society” creating awareness to save and protect the wildlife, which I thought was a very nice gesture.

Day 2 (22nd March):

We hoped that the night would have been dry and we could do some trekking but not surprisingly, we woke up to a lot of rains and entirely wet weather. It didn’t look like we could step out of the house, even for a walk. The rains were intermittent and heavy.


Red rose enjoying the rainsThe greenery around was a soothing sight to the eyes. The raindrops were cooling. The birds were waiting for the rains to stop so that they could dry their wings. The coffee plantation smelled like jasmine with the coffee flowers resembling jasmine flowers. It was a perfect setting for “wake-up and smell, taste the coffee” and given that the coffee harvest was fresh, it was ideal for a morning cup of hot coffee. But since both of us don’t drink coffee, we enjoyed the rest in the offing!


Dew drops on the leavesAgain, a traditional Kodagu breakfast treated us and we spent the rest of the morning enjoying the natural ambience, the gardens, the pet dog. We spent a few hours reading books, chatting with the friendly hosts and sleeping for a while with some lunch and snacks in between as the rain continued to pour heavily all through the day. It was a very relaxing but well-spent day.


The trail along the woods..More about the hosts: Geoffrey Muthanna, the owner of the house, is an adventure sportsman and is a member of the Coorg Adventure Club and was the chief instructor of Coorg Water Sports. He still organizes white-water rafting (in river Cauvery) if there is a minimum number of people. He conducts guided treks and also some exploratory treks in and around that area. He can organize treks to suit your needs. He is also a fishing expert and interested folks can spend time along the river. Geoffrey’s wife Kalpana takes care of the estate and the locals who come to work. They have a daughter and a son in Bangalore (working/studying) and they come to Coorg most weekends and when they do come the home stay is not offered. But surprisingly, we were offered to stay even though her daughter was with them. The hosts were very nice, helpful and very friendly.

Day 3 (23rd March):

It was dry and little sunny and the locals were working hard to dry the coffee beans in the big courtyard outside the house. After the morning rituals and breakfast, we made an aimless walk towards the Cauvery River and took many detours and explore the various forks to see a few birds and enjoying the smell of pepper trees and tasting some raw and fresh black peppers.


Locals working hard to dry the coffee beansWe spent a few minutes by the river-side and the few dogs/pups around that area were entertaining, to say the least. The walk must have been around a couple of kilometers and we came back to the house around 11:30 AM.


Black pepper...We had booked tickets for the bus that left from Kushal Nagar at 3 PM. So we left the house around Noon and made a walk to the main road, which was around a couple of kilometers. We reached Kushal Nagar at 1 PM and had our lunch in Athithi restaurant. To our surprise, we met our friends who had left Bangalore that morning on a day-trip. Our friends were rather surprised and shocked to see us there. They had plans to drive to Madikeri and Talacauvery before heading to Bangalore.


Bird drying itself on the trees...We left Kushal Nagar around 3 PM and reached Bangalore around 9 PM (thanks to the traffic). It was a quiet and relaxing weekend. The smell of the coffee plantation still lingers!

Useful links:
http://www.gocoorg.com/
http://coorgyatra.com/index.php
http://reji.tripod.com/coorg.html
http://www.browseindia.com/Dubare.html
http://www.homestaykodagu.com/home_stay.html
Travelogues:
http://karthikclicks.blogspot.com/2005/11/tadiyandamol-trek-details.html
http://karthikclicks.blogspot.com/2007/01/nisargadama-quiet-vacation.html
http://travel.paintedstork.com/blog/2005/12/hiking-up-brahmagiri.html
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2006/sep/18travel.htm
http://chatto.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/12/coorg-smell-the-coffee-and-spices.htm

Some useful info:

Being a popular destinations buses to places around Coorg gets booked fairly quickly. So book your tickets in advance.

The roads are good these days to drive and having a vehicle to move around would be very helpful.

If you can find a good group, white-water rafting would be a good way to do some adventure activity.

There are plenty of treks around this area, so plan in advance.

This place is a heaven for bird watcher provided the weather holds good.