Kerala and TN Hill station : Waynad - Calicut - Ooty : Day 01 & 02

Good Day Reader :)

We are bunch of friends who wanted to spend a couple of days out somewhere away from all hustle-bustle of city life, away from work or basically to go on a holiday. We decided to explore Waynad as we had heard about this place from lot of our friends. 

We had a plan for 4 days, so we decided to go to the queen of Hill Stations - Ooty as well. When we started looking for hotel/accommodation option we did not get anything in Ooty for our budget on the required date. As it was available on the next day we decided to visit a beach place - Calicut. I suggest you avoid Waynad if you are travelling with elders who can not walk/trek and infants, because carrying them for long time in the trek will be really difficult. 

Day 1:

We set off from Bangalore early in the morning around 04:00 am and reached Bandipur around 8:30 am. In between we stopped for quick tea and breakfast in Maddur. It was not so great place, as it was early in the morning we did not had any other choice.

In Bandipur we were welcomed by a scenic view of  forest, with lots of elephants and deer.

Elephants in Bandipura National Park 

Bunch of Deer in Bandipura National Park

We reached Waynad around 11:00 am and we checked in into the home stay. We got fresh up and set off to Edkal Caves. It was nice trek up to the hill to the caves. 

few steps while getting down from Edkal Caves

Inside Edkal Caves

on the way to Caves

When we reached down the hill it was already past lunch time we had a quick lunch in the nearby food joints and started towards Soochipura Water Falls. 

Soochipura Water Falls

Soochipura Water Falls

It was already 4:30 pm when we reached the falls. So we had to make it quick towards the fall. It is a walk close to 20 min down to reach the falls. But you will have to trek while coming back. 

After that we did some shopping for chocolates and called it a day after dinner.

Day 2:

After breakfast we checked out and started to Kurva Island. We need to take a boat ride to reach the island. It has very nice water stream where you can get into the water and play. There is around 20 min walk to reach there. We spent time playing in water till noon. 

Motar Boat ride to Kurvadweep  

Walk in the island

Water stream in Kurva Island

After Kurva Island we went to Pookode lake after lunch. We did the peddle boat riding in the lake. 

boat ride

Pookode Lake

After the boat ride, we had some snacks in the food joints near the lake and set of our journey to Calicut.

We went to Calicut only because we did not get accommodation in other places, otherwise you can really skip this time and make a separate trip there. It adds up extra travel and you can go only to a beach in Calicut. But the view on the way to Calicut is awesome. 

We reached Calicut around 8:30 pm, after checking in to the hotel we went to have a diner and called it a day. 

Watch this space for further travel. the Day 03 and Day 04 will be updated soon. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)

3 days in the natural lap of Coorg - Day 2 & 3

Day 2:

When we woke up in the morning hot puri's and hot coffee was waiting for us from  Capitol Village Resort's 's kitchen. Believe me breakfast was really yummy and we enjoyed it with the nature in our private balcony of the room. 

Our today's plan was to visit Bhagamandla, Talakaveri, and Raja Seat.

We drove to Bhagamandla and the greenery on the both sides of this zigzag road is really nice. We visited to Bhagandeshwara temple and felt it is very peaceful. Interiors of the temple  looks like  Kerala style temple. There is Triveni Sangama at a short distance from the temple where the river
Kaveri is joined by two tributaries, the river  Kannike and the Sujyoti river. It is a crystal clean water and I just step down into the water and did not feel like coming out of it at all. There are pay&use toilets available here which are neatly maintained. We spent around 1 hour 30 minutes here.

Bhagandeshwara Temple Inside view

Triveni Sangama

Next we were supposed to visit Talakaveri. As one of our own friend was driving our car and he was pretty new. As you all know the roads were zigzag and the way to Talakaveri was a bit steep high and narrow. We did not want to take risk so we enquired with few localities over there. They guided us very well and one among them agreed to come with us driving our car.

We reached Talakaveri Temple. Beauty of the view from up hill and temple if indescribable with words. There is also a water tank where you can make a wish and throw a coin. People say coin has to land in the centre of tank where there is a Shiva linga shaped sculpture then your wish will come true.

Wish Tank

Benches to rest near Talakaveri

 

The person who had come along with us driving our car had to leave early so we did not get a chance to go up to the hill. We spent around 30 mins here in Talakaveri.

Then we drove back to Madikeri from Bhagamandla ourselves enjoying lush greenery of the roads. We had our lunch at Athithi. It is quite average food both taste wise and quantity wise. Even the ambiance is not so good.

After lunch  we went to Raja Seat, nice beautiful flower garden with a view point where you can see the  zig zag road which you just drove before your lunch. Amazing. 

There is a small children train in which you can take a ride. This gives you a feeling of you going back to your child hood days. You must try it. We spent another 1 hour 30 mins at raja seat clicking pictures and then went back to resort.

 

Toy Train at Raja's Seat

After reaching resort we relaxed for a while and then went to roam around resort. There is a small lake and there is kids play area as well. We clicked few pictures there. We spent some time sitting some time in our balcony and enjoy the chirping of insects while sun was setting down.

Lake in the resort

The dinner for that evening was buffet arranged by Capitol Village Resort in the kitchen area which was quite good. After having our dinner we spent some time near reception area as they have WIFI there, then came back to our rooms and went to bed. 

Our next day's plan was visiting Dubbare forest and driving back home.

Day 3:

We woke up and got ready. The day's breakfast was arranged in the kitchen area. That was a buffet which included Dosa, Eggs and many more. After having breakfast we did checkout from resort. A very pleasant stay. The resort is economically best and is neatly maintained. 


We were set ti visit Dubare Forest. This is an elephant camp on the banks of the river Kaveri. I love elephants and this was my most favorite place in our Coorg trip. Here you can take an elephant ride, you can feed them and you can see elephant bathing. There is an option for still water rafting or you can take a boat ride (you will have to share the motor boat with other tourists) to cross the river to reach the camp.

All the activities will get over by 10:30 in the morning here, so you make sure you reach the place between 09:00 - 09:30 in the morning. We got to see elephant bathing, and there was a small cute elephant which was 2 years old. There are around 20 elephants.


The road to the Dubare forest is narrow and single lane. Google maps were very helpful in reaching all the destinations at Coorg.

After Dubare we set off to come back to Bangalore, we took Hasan Road (which is terrifically wrong option) from Kushal Nagar rather than taking Mysore Madikeri Road. Because of the worst Hasan road condition we lost time, otherwise we had a plan of visiting any of the places in Mysore.

As the road condition was bad, we decided back to come on Mysore road, Thanks to Google maps, we reached Mysore and had our lunch there around 03:00 p.m. Then we started to Bangalore, as it was Sunday evening Bangalore-Mysore road traffic was no lesser than Bangalore city traffic. We reached Bangalore around 06:30 p.m. in the evening with a tea break near Ramanagr which was perfect end to our 3 days trip.

I hope the itinerary   of my trip helped you in planning yours. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
 
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)



p.s. : I have not given all pictures, as main purpose of this blog is to show itinerary :)


 

3 days in the natural lap of Coorg - Day 1

Kodagu, popularly knows as Coorg is on Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka. This is famous for coffee plantation and its ethnic warrior people. A perfect weekend getaway from Bangalore/Mysore/Mangalore or any near by places for all age range group.

We covered  Srirangapatna, Kushalnagar(Bylakuppe and Kaveri Nisargadhama), Bhagamandla, Talakaveri,  Dubare Forest. We stayed in Capitol Village Resort. All destinations can be easily reached with the help of Google Maps.

Day 1:

We set off to Coorg on Saturday early morning from Bangalore. We took Bangalore-Mysore highway. We started by 05:00 a.m. from Bangalore and we took around 30 min break for the breakfast at Kamat Upchar. 

On the way we stopped at Srirangapatna a very famous religious, cultural and historical place. we visited Ranganathaswamy temple, Baillie Dungeon which is very nearby to the temple. There are horse ride available which gives nice experience. Then we visited "Sangama" the amalgamation of 3 holy rivers Kaveri River, Kabini River, Hemavati River. We could cover all this in 1 hour 30 min. Not to forget there are nice locations available for the photography. We clicked very good pics here.

Dungeon - Inside

Dungeon -Top view

Horse Riding

Ranganathaswamy temple

Tippu Death Place

Then we started to Madikeri (Coorg) via Hunsur road. We did not go inside Mysore city to save our time. We stopped for a lunch break at Cafe Coorg. Believe me these guys serve a very delicious South Indian thali at very moderate cost.

Then we headed towards Kushalnagar. A very pleasant whether welcomed us. The town Bylakuppe is mainly inhabited by Tibetans and is very well knows for the Golden Temple and  Golden statues of Gautama Buddha, Padmasambhava and Amitāyus. Stepping inside the temple feels like walking into another world, and the noisy streets of South India suddenly seem to be very far away.There are options available for food and stay and one can easily opt to stay here after a very long drive. But we decided to go further as we had already booked the room at Capitol Village Resort. We spent around 1 hour here. 

Then we headed towards Kaveri Nisarga Dhama. The  hanging bridge is built over the river  and there is boating facility. There are rabbits and love birds to see but in cages. There is deer park where you can feed deers. I love doing this. Main attractions are Tree house and holy river.  Since the depth is not much, you can stand in the rocks in the water and feel the cold water. A very good place just to roam around and surrounded by trees where you can spend more than an hour.

We were tired a bit because of journey and we decided to go to Madikeri and rest for the day. We reached Madikeri after an about 45 min of driving. Roads are very good and you an see lots of greenery over here. But now we had to find our resort. It was a bit difficult to find with Google maps.
But never mind, the manager was so generous he guided us very well to reach the resort.

Resort Entrance

It is a nice beautiful resort with all basic amenities. Located in the mid of coffee plantation as soon as you enter you can here the chirping of birds and insects. Food is delicious and staff is friendly. 

We went and checked in at the resort. We had a room with private balcony to spend our rest of the evening with the delicious  hot pakodas they served. But you don't get the mobile network there for Vodafone provider. There is WiFi network available near the reception area. 

After relaxing for some time we roamed in and around our room. It was a nice pleasant late evening. We had Jeera rice and Dall along with fresh fruit juice for the dinner. We had opted for the room service that evening. Enjoyed our dinner in our private balcony. 

After dinner we discussed about next day's plan and everyone were sleepy by then and everyone went to bed.

I hope the itinerary from day 1  of my trip helped you in planning yours. Find Day 2 and Day3's itinerary here :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Tripping :)