Hi,
My wife and me visited Madikeri(The capital of Kodagu - almost a mini-state within Karnataka) in May 2007. Coorg is the englishman version of Kodagu and Mercara is his Madikeri
What follows is a trip guide cum travel experience piece.
DISTANCE:*
Bangalore - Mysore : 139 KM,
Mysore - Kuhalnagar : 81 KM,
Kushalnagar - Madikeri : 35 KM.
Madikeri is roughly 5 to 6 hours from Bangalore. A car drive can reduce it to a minimum of 4.5 hours and a KSRTC bus will make it 6.5 to 7 hours with stopovers in Mysore and in towns after mysore to pick passengers. We took the Airavat KSRTC at 2.30PM on Friday afternoon and reached Madikeri at almost 9PM.
Recommended: *Drive by car.
ROUTE:*
Drive 10 Km beyond Srirangapatna in the Bangalore - Mysore highway and reach the outskirts of Mysore. After which, take right on the Madikeri road, thereby avoiding traveling till Mysore. The Blore Mysore road is pretty good after completion, although the traffic is heavy.
The Mercara road from here till Kushalnagar is quite okay, however since two laning is in progress you might have to alternate between the right and the left sides on the road for some time.
Kushalnagar to Madikeri is a scenic drive through the hills although there aren’t any hairpin bends. You can spot coffee plantations along this stretch. There is a Golden temple buddhist monastry at Bylakuppe near Kushalnagar which is a recommended visit. This place is the biggest tibetan settlement in India. You can see a lot of Nepalese at even local eateries in Kushalnagar and Internet parlours advertising lowest call rates to call China and Nepal.:-)
Recommended:* Start early by 6 from Bangalore, have breakfast on the way(at Maddur Tiffany’s) and reach Kushalnagar at 10AM and visit the Monastry on the way to Madikeri. This would help since you don’t need to travel back to Kushalnagar from Madikeri later in your trip just to see this Golden temple.
STAY:*
You are spoilt for choices on the stay front. However there can be two different themes that you have to choose from.
Theme 1.* *Stay at the town in a hotel
Main advantage - You can choose the kind of food that you want to have at different times. You can just choose to visit the different types of hotels in downtown Madikeri and get easy access to buses, autos, taxis and other transportation for travel around Coorg.
Theme 2. Stay at a’homestay’ or an’estate’
These are quite far from the city. most plantation estates are situated in Siddhapur(29 kms from Madikeri) or Kakkabe. There aren’t any hotels available in these places and civilization is quite far, so you are pretty much tied up with the fare served by the estate/resort. And you wont get access to autos/buses/taxis as easily, hence unless you have your own car you are again tied down to the resort.
The choice between(1) or(2) depends actually on the kind of a holiday that you want.
If you want a touristy holiday visiting the 5 or 6 attractions in Kodagu(explained below) then choose 1. If you want a laidback holiday and are content to have walks around the plantation, have food and idle the time away in the resort then choose 2.
Recommended: *First time visitor, choose 1. Repeat visits choose 2.
Recommended for theme 1: *Lots of hotels available. Coorg international, club mahindra(3 stars) and other budget ones around the bus stand. Googling will throw up only a few budget options, best idea is to just hit the town and choose one around. Be wary however that on season(April, May) accomodation is pretty difficult to get and have to be booked.
Recommended for theme 2 *- Alathcad estate, School estate, Honeyvalley estate, Palace estate and so on. Google for more. Almost all estates have a net presence. These offer shared cottages for less expensive lodging and independent villas for the luxury seekers. Orange county is strictly for the ones with thick wallets.
PLACES TO SEE:*
AT MADIKERI:*
Abby Falls* - 5 km from Madikeri town
Madikeri fort
Raja’s seat *- 2 km from town(Recommended to spend the few evenings at Coorg, this is just a view down to the valley, but is serene and scenic)
Omkareshware temple - 3 km from town(Recommended, just a simple temple but its cool)
AROUND MADIKERI:
Dubare elephant camp(Highly recommended)*
- Drive down the siddapur road and take a left after 12 kms, unless you are careful you might miss this turn.(Its called Guddehosur route). This is the short route and is about 28 kms from Madikeri. Jungle Lodges runs an elephant camp on the Dubare Island where you get to’interact’ with them - wash, feed and take a ride. Reach the place by 9AM latest in the morning. Camp ends at 11.30.
Travel: Buses available from Madikeri. However it will drop you at the main road. Dubare island is 2km from the main road.
Recommended: *Take an Auto or Taxi from Madikeri if you don’t have a car.
Valnoor Fishing camp(recommended)*
- On the same road to Dubare but 2 kms before Dubare. The Cauvery river is still and offers good options for fishing. You can contact the Coorg Wildlife society in Madikeri or at Valnoor to get permissions and fishing rods. You have to plan atleast a day or two in advance and call people to make bookings. Directly dropping down at Valnoor will not help, since its a very basic village with absolutely no food or any other options. One cottage run by Muthanna available. Google it.
Travel: Same as dubare
Talacauvery and Bagamandala(48kms from Madikeri, recommended)*
- A steep climb up the mountain and you reach the place where river Kaveri originates. A religious place where you can see localites worshipping. A pond and temple construction is in progress. If you have the physic to climb 1000 steps from this temple you can reach the place where Saint Agasthya did tapas. Pure religious significance, not so inclined can skip.
Bagamandala - 3 rivers supposed to congregate here. Religious place.
Travel: Easy. Lots of buses from Madikeri, but these buses will stop at all places enroute and will take 2 hrs or more for the trip from Madikeri.
Recommended*: You can hire a Jeep or a Taxi.
Kaveri Nisargadhama:(About 3kms from Kushalnagar and 30kms from Madikeri)*
- Its a kind of a park which offers boat ride on cauvery, elephant ride and lots of bamboo trees. Recommended if you have kids with you or if you are in a touristy mode. Preferable reach after lunch and stay for the evening.
Travel: Buses available from Madikeri.
Recommended: *Take a’direct’ bus or a hire a taxi.
*For want of space here, I’ve reviewed the Places, Food and Shopping experience of Kodava nadu at https://mouthshut.com/review/Hotel_Coorg_International-126026-1.html
Kindly continue reading.