4 guys..Pradeep,Rithesh,Anil and myself..started out on a trip to some of the places in the western ghats.
We left Bangalore at 11.30 P.M on wednesday night(15th June '05). we used a TATA Indica for travelling,booked from Pooja travels.
Our first destination was Madikeri(roughly 260 kms from Bangalore). We moved at a stately pace in the dead of night to reach Virajpet by about 5.30 AM on thursday.We made a brief stop-over at Anil's relatives' place,had a cup of hot coffee and set off on our way to cover the remaining 30 odd Kms to the town of Madikeri...the Scotland of India. The weather was surprisingly not as cold or as wet as we expected. The locals told us that rain was expected any time soon and we would be lucky if we managed to escape it. We arrived at madikeri by 7.30 AM and checked into the hotel "Rajdarshan", located right opposite RAJA SEAT, a spot meant for viewing the scenic beauty of Coorg. We walked around the town and visited the Madikeri fort, which has been converted into the Govt. offices' administrative block. Later, after breakfast we went to Abbe Falls, also called Jesse falls. Due to lack of adequate rainfall, the water was but a faint trickle. Having seen the water falls at its glorious best earlier,I was disappointed with what I saw.The water falls from a height of 21.3 metres and really makes a wonderful sight to behold when in full flow. We then went back to our hotel rooms, had lunch and caught up with some much needed sleep....considering that we had travelled through the night with hardly a wink of sleep. We then set off to Talacauvery, the point of origin of the river Cauvery. The drive is a pretty tough one..uphill on the notorious Ghat sections. We felt the full fury of the Monsoon in this part of the malnad region as we climbed higher. The rainfall was torrential and we could hardly see a thing. However, we braved the rain and got out of our car to have a look at the origin of river Cauvery and got drenched in the process.The mist was so dense that we could not even see a few feet ahead of us. Due to the rain we did not stop at Bhagmandala. We went to our rooms drenched to the bone. It was well past evening by then. Already tired, we decided to skip the Omkareshwar temple. After having rested for a while we decided on a late night walk after dinner at hotel "east end point".This was what we came to Madikeri to experience....a slight drizzle....then heavy rains....cold winds .
Next stop Mangalore....more about that later...................
