When three women who have been friends for a decade decide to take their first trip together, we had to make it spectacular; and Coorg was the star of our spectacle.
We set off on a train to Bengaluru and on reaching the station, we unwittingly got into a ‘No English, no Hindi, only Kannada’ auto rickshaw to the Satellite Bus stand. From there, a super clean, very on time KSRTC bus took us to Kushalnagar, which is about 225 km from Bengaluru in four hours.
It was a fantastic drive on superb, pothole free roads. Kushalnagar is a bustling little town with warm and friendly people. There are many hotels which are quite close to the bus stop and also conveniently priced for us budget travellers.
Two places you should definitely visit from here are Bylekuppe and Dubare Forest reserve. Bylekuppe is a Tibetan settlement which houses a beautiful monas-tery. It is such a calming experience to see the monks dressed in maroon and yellow sit down to prayer in the large hall with the gleaming golden Buddhas.
From there we went to Dubare, which was a paradise for the animal lover in me.The high point of the reserve is the elephant interaction programme. You can roll up your sleeves and get dirty as you bathe an elephant, while cavorting around in the Kaveri flowing at your feet and then feed them huge globes of food and finally as a reward for your hard work, get up on the Jumbos and experience the jungle as they see it. It’s a memory that will be etched in your heart forever.
The next day, still talking animatedly about the elephants, we boarded a bus to Madikeri. About 35 km away from Kushalnagar, it is a gentle climb up a hill. Once we got there we were joined by a fourth team member; the rain, who was our constant companion from then on! Undeterred, we whipped out our umbrellas, zipped on our raincoats and headed out to see the Abby falls.
The mighty Kaveri in all her fury, cascading down steep rocks, to become the glorious Abby falls. We could not take our eyes off her, and try as we might, we could not take a picture that did justice to her splendour.
There are many other to-dos in Madikeri that tourist guides will give you but I suggest you slow down, walk through the narrow winding streets of Madikeri, breathe in the fresh mountain air and
experience nature at her pristine best.
Writer is a travel enthusiast
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / by Dwithiya. R / Home> Channels> Lifestyle> Wanderlust / October 18th, 2011
