Visiting SAI Sanctuary : Closer to the roots & Closer to the thoughts [Day 2]

15th April, 2017 : A very good wild morning...

With no mobile signal and no boring routine I had a very good sleep. My brain was all rejuvenated in just a single day. Nothing else in it, there was the transcript running in my mind and the transcript was of the TedEx speech by Pamela Malhotra. I am a big fan of the following lines of the speech.

"I wanted to share a dream I had.. decades ago. In this dream, I saw house on a small hill... over looking a pond... with a river flowing past.. in a wooded valley.. surrounded by white capped mountains...and the area was full of wild life..."

That's all!!! click on the link and watch the speech. Coming to my morning scheduled, it was planned as below..

1. A morning trek with Pam, followed by lunch
2. Video presentation at the Malhotra's house

Pam, according to me, is a very professional woman when it comes to sticking to the schedules. However, with no chasing timelines these schedules were all flexible. With only two people to manage, making the schedule too flexible may hamper the routine activities in sanctuary. The sanctuary needs the couple more than anybody else. One more interesting thing is, she prays to all the directions daily ( I remember Anil telling this to me).

At the breakfast table...

Small discussions were budding and the discussions were about the differences in the cultures of southern part of Italy and India. Though I like such conversations, didn't want at that moment. 

Execution of the schedule...

1. Morning trek: There were two trekking trails in the sanctuary. One behind the house of Malhotras and the other one was closer to the cottages. The one, now, we went with Pam was the former.
The Camera Traps...
This trail has camera traps. Anything intercepting the infrared beams, the sensor would trigger the camera. There were good number of such camera traps to cover some major wildlife trails in the sanctuary. The cameras were ranging between rudimentary to the advanced ones that are available in the market today.
The trek was not a typical wildlife safari...
I had a previous experience when the people were expecting to see a round table conference of all the animals in the forest during the trek - which is not possible in any sense. The best part about this trek was - nobody was expecting to see plenty of wildlife and hence no sighs. My only wish was to see the age old trees standing tall in the sanctuary. If at all it happened to see animals, I would have considered it a bonus.

I believe, there must be a way to communicate with trees as well. Till, oddly, 115+ years ago no one had a proof that 'trees also have life'. Perhaps, they too can memorise and they too can share age old stories and knowledge with us.. if we can figure out a way to communicate with them.

Coming back to the trek, we saw the camera traps that captured...

1. The attack of Indian wild dogs on the Sambar deer-fawns 
2. The endangered river otters
3. The elephant family marching during one Christmas eve
4. The herd of Gaurs.. so on..

Wide open meadows...

We crossed three meadows and each one was giving a different view to the neighboring Brahmagiri mountain range  - possibly these were the 'white capped mountains' of the dream where the white cap was given by the mist & clouds. Those meadows were uncultivated, wild open spaces covered with brownish/yellowish grass ( not so dense as in savannas. The type of grass was also different) and they host dozens of wild cattle and herds of different species of antelopes.

The Bhrahmagiri range

The friendly poop...
It was in one meadow, we stopped at a 'poop'. The poop gave support to the couples' belief that there was a bear in the sanctuary. Still not very sure of that.
It is a common practice among the folks working in forests to observe the poop. True! poop generally provides very important details about the wildlife such as the food patterns, the type of animal, how long has the animal been there or when it left the place...etc.

During the discussions at this place, I got to know the poop of birds is referred to as 'dropping'. Scat is one another type of poop.. Someone even told poop was friendly to remember than referring to these many different words.

The elephant pond...

As intuitive as its name, a family of elephants often visits the sanctuary and they take control of the mentioned pond. The pond was very placid with a hill range providing a beautiful background. The deepest point in the pond was told to be over 25 feet. We sat in the shade provided by the bamboo shots. There was a small water out let of the pond that made the best healing/meditation music. We spent more than half an hour on its bank. Pam told some past events that took place around the lake and showed some videos in her handy cam. Claudia, too,was telling some stories... Bopanna was picking some seed or a leaf or a branch and telling details about that. Bopanna, being a degree holder in the forestry studies, had a very good knowledge of the plants and animals. Occasionally he used to give some edible fruits to us. I felt it was a good thing to go trekking with Pam and Bopanna together.

The Elephant pond

A short tutorial...

It was after we finished a relatively long break on the bank of the pond, I was struggling with my camera. As I was( even am) not a skilled photographer, I was taking pics in point-n-shoot mode. The worst part was when the cam tried to adjust for  bad light, the flash used to popped up. Being a professional(?),  Claudia took a short tutorial/tour of how to handle the cam in manual mode. I tried to remember some key points.. ;)

• More ISO results in bad quality
• Strict no to higher ISO's unless the light is too less
• Lens take more light when aperture number is low. But no less than 4 or 5.
• Holding the camera... and so on..

The home tree...

In the sanctuary, there had been many a tree lived for several hundred years and one of which hosted us for a little while. The age of that particular tree was 700 years. Pam compared the tree with the home tree in 'Avatar' movie. In the words of Pam - "For us it is like the home tree in Avatar". This was the end of our trek. Pam collected the memory cards from the camera traps and we headed back to the starting point.

The home tree - I think I tried with manual settings :)

Lunch.. after finishing it real quick, I took a stop at a temple of the goddess "Bhagavathi", an incarnation of "Parvathi", on the way to my cottage. I like this goddess as one of our friends told she protects the forests.

2. Video Presentation:
By the time I reached their home, they were not done with their lunch. I utilized the time to explore the forest around that place. Before starting the show, Anil and I had a good chat. I explained him how I got to know about the sanctuary and the story before I reached here in sanctuary. Shanthi was roaming around us during our entire conversation.

Shradda, Shanthi and Lila...
According to the schedule, we were supposed to start the presentation at 5pm. However, it was 5.30+ pm when Anil and I finished discussion. It was feeding time for the three cats...and I thought it would be better to feed them first. The presentation started around 6pm after feeding them. The presentation covered the following videos.

1. The elephant march
2. The Gaur herd
3. The smooth coated otters
4. Some carnivores
5. Indian wild dog family - including seven pups
6. Wild dog pups attacking Sambar fawn and the mother taking on the pups...etc

After the show, I was sent with a torch. It started raining before I reached my cottage.

Dinner time and the discussion continued
It was little late by the time we finished our dinner. Then Claudia started discussing the caste system in India. Perhaps, she watched some videos on youtube before landing in India - it's quite common to know a little about the place that you are going to visit. However, the caste system is not a small and simple topic to wrap up in 15 to 20 mins. People living in the system itself didn't understand it - so there was no point trying to open the Pandora box - but it was made clear that system had changed a little from the past.
If not for politics, caste system could have been eradicated by now - if worked it out with some common sense. Surrounded by many sleepy eyes, we finished the discussion very quick.

Some other things that I got to know...

• Northern part of Italy is more urbanised, whereas Southern part still sticks to the culture to some extent.
• Wages as well as cost of living in north Italy is more.
• Minimum wage( I guess it is for blue-collar work) in the south Italy is between 600 to 700 Euros (approx).
• Southern most part of Italy has more influence of Greek culture - Of course, geographically it is closer.. so on...

Visiting SAI Sanctuary : Closer to the roots & Closer to the thoughts [Day 1]

When you have a strong desire to do something - It just happens. Yes, I visited India's first( probably the only one) private sanctuary - SAI( Save Animals Initiative) Sanctuary - This plan had been in my mind for more than half an year. A couple owns this sanctuary - more than owning it they devoted their lives to the sanctuary. The equation is quite simple here:

'Save the forests, wild life thrives on its own which in turn propagates and nurtures the forests' - such a divine relationship.

This is simple to comprehend but not so simple to put into practice unless one has utmost commitment & is true to the self. Fortunately we have two here: Anil Kumar Malhotra & Pamela Gale Malhotra.

It all started...

When I was thinking of the migration of the elephants from the dry regions of the Bandipur forest to Brahmagiri wild life sanctuary via Kabini reservoir. Brahmagiri wild life sanctuary abounds in terms of vegetation & water sources even during the hot Indian summers. The banks of Kabini reservoir, which lies in Nagarhole national park, set stage for Asia's largest mammal gathering as part of the migration.

Not really sure which search term landed me on the home page of "SAI Sanctuary", but somehow I stumbled upon it. When I made a call to the numbers listed in the website, the voice on the other end suggested me to email the details. Then I thought that's one of those emails for which I would never receive a reply. But surprisingly, I got a reply from Pamela. Email exchanges went on for next 2 to 3 months and finally she locked a day for me - 14th April, 2017.

14th April, 2017...

Awaited this day like a crazy person. Started from Bengalore at 6.30am and reached Theralu village, where sanctuary is located, around 12.30pm. The route suggested by Pam was:

   # Bengalore - Mysuru - Thitimathi - Gonigoppa - Ponnampet - T.Shettigeri - Sanctuary #

There were no suggestions for the route to sanctuary even after reaching T.Shettigeri. A person from the sanctuary escorted me in the final 10km of my journey. I was actually surprised/disappointed how people were not ware of the great work going around - Or it is also possible that I didn't ask in a language that they understand.

Welcome to SAI Sanctuary

1. First things first...

As I reached Theralu village by afternoon, first thing as per the schedule was to finish lunch. Food was outsourced to a near by home stay(?) ( Jungle side). Some of the people in Kodagu / Coorg, especially Kodavas, own massive chunks of land for plantation. One of such people is maintaining the Jungle side home stay. There were two people, accompanied me, who were doing some research on food security, demographics, culture and customs of that place. ( an Indian boy - Bopanna & an Italian woman - Claudia). Along with them it was their driver - one another landlord - and his name is Raja.

After lunch I went to my cottage and was eager to meet the couple.

2. Meeting the couple...

The meeting spot - In front of the house of Malhotras

'The house' was around 1km from my cottage. I reached there by 4.15pm, the scheduled time. Finally I met 'them'. After exchange of formal greetings, I too joined the discussion that's taking place. Probably I was the least educated among all in terms of forestry knowledge. Anil & Pam have been staying with the nature for last three decades, Bopanna is a masters degree holder in forestry studies  and the other lady has organisation of her own. However, my love for the nature is no less than anyone else's. The discussion ended around half past six in the evening. Tons of topics were discussed. The following were a few -

• Transpiration, a natural phenomenon in which plants & trees act as medium to create clouds. Trees absorb water from their roots and releases the water vapor into the atmosphere from the back of their leaves.
• 50% or more contribution of forests in the rain fall across the world - scientists identified this using the chemical signature of the water droplets ( I think I remember it correct). Whereas, the rest of the rain fall is from the Oceans. 
• Easing of the forest clearance rules for setting up projects( know more..)  - it's trading the nature for money and a disaster. My past experiences suggest, it is difficult to make people, who have political bias, believe in the facts. They just don't listen .
• Elephants propagating the forests by pooping the seeds across their migratory areas.
• Slight increase in the tiger population due to the tiger conservation program - Project Tiger
• A good Bengalore vet who visits the sanctuary whenever is required
• Mr Righteousness, ex-CM, approving dam in the past, that could have submerged 25% area of today's Coorg.
• SST's fight against the dam
• Domesticated dogs in the region and how they affect the eco-balance
• Animal/bird rescue stories at the sanctuary.. about the hornbills, parakeets & love birds
• Influence of western civilization  on Indian youth that made them ignore the knowledge given by their ancestors. I personally cannot throw complete blame on the West - there are multitude of reasons such as:
• Misinterpretations of various concepts which in turn led to ignoring the knowledge inculcated by the ancestors
• Irresponsible media & politicians
• Education system to some extent - I remember reading the uses of tree as everything else but what they actually are. Though there were chapters that stressed upon reforestation, I don't remember anybody caring it.
• Ancient Kodava knowledge & Devara Kadu: Kodava ancestors, as any other nature loving clan, used to respect the forests. They preserved certain areas of the forests with a name - Devara Kadu( Sacred Forest) - the sole purpose of which is conservation. 
• God's in chains, a documentary that tells the horrifying lives of elephants in India.

I believe, India is one country where in the animals are treated in an inhumane way in the name of God. People boast of these hideous acts as traditions ( a few years back I was also one such ignorant who had no clue that animals too have their rights).      

I felt that I had spent, almost, more than two hours of quality time discussing these things. It always happens when you speak to the people of your wavelength.

I, along with other visitors, finished my dinner and went back to my cottage. Then I saw a spectacular scene - that was orchestrated by a swarm of fireflies.

After the night fall, my cottage took a plunge in the darkness. It was hard to see anything other than the light coming from my bike. I turned off the ignition and looked around - the trees were fully covered with thousands of these fireflies. It was in my childhood, I saw these creatures in great numbers and this was the first time in recent past.

The fireflies started flashing the light as if they were playing a symphony - however, the outcome was not music but a visual spectacle.

3. Night at my cottage...

My cottage in day light - imagine the absence of it ;)

Cicadas, crickets or whatever... they were making noise and that was the only thing I could hear inside my cottage. Having been disconnected from nature for so long, I could not adjust to the forest initially. I could actually listen to the silence - I mean it. I had a great experience with 'silence'. The extract of my experience is:

   #"Silence greets... silence whispers... speaks..if not understood, it scares... and silence heals..."#

Didn't I scare? Of course, yes. Living alone in the forest, the cottage surroundings and the sounds I heard were new to me. Survival instincts had my body in control - as a result - my body was super alert. My pupil dilated to its max diameter and capturing every single light ray, my ears were listening to even the rustles of the leaves.

The experience I had with silence spawned new thought in my brain: When our ears are super alert they try to listen through the gaps in the sound waves - that situation is very difficult to explain - presence of any sound triggers investigation; absence of any sound lets the ears further pierce the silence.

Finally, I settled down after thinking and recollecting the events of my day for sometime. Later I slept off.. ;)

Coorg(Madikeri) - A Pilgrimage (Part 5)

26th Jan 2015, Day three - Time to leave Coorg...

        Uff!! This was my final day on the soil that I loved a lot. As I was very tired yesterday, I couldn't wake up early. I woke up around 9:45am. In fact, I had an amazing night...slept well...and that too in sleep...I had beautiful dreams. I saw the volcano 'Ol Doinyo Lengai', standing tall in the middle of the 'Serengeti' game reserve, ... I saw the herds moving as a part of the Great Migration towards the North-West part of Serengeti. I saw the Masai people... Wow!! those were the best dreams I had. To be frank...those dreams were the main reason for me, waking up late..as I didn't want to disturb them. But when I woke up and saw the time, at 9.45am, my first thought was to start as early as possible. Because I need to visit one or two places on the way back to Bengaluru. My plan was to travel through Nagarhole national park. I came out of room after taking pics of it, I returned the keys to the hotel owner, whose father helped me in deciding the route. I quickly noted down the route he told and started. The route he suggested was...

(Madikeri - Virajpet - Gonikoppa(l) - Ponnampet - Irpu falls - Nagarhole - Mysore - Bengaluru)

           Please keep a perfume spray with you while reading further. Because, It was already late and close to mid-day, I didn't take bath before I started...he he...:)

           I started at 10:15am. After five minutes, I was riding on the road to Virajpet. Again, It was a beautiful road. As it was around thirty odd kilometres from Madikeri, I though I would reach there in 30mins. However, There were two reasons why I couldn't meet my timelines...one being the scenic  places all around and the other.. smooth but frequent curves. I was travelling..thinking..speaking to myself, to surroundings and sometimes to my bike. I was in some kind of mood...that I used to get when I visited temples during my theist-hood. I was feeling like..."some life is still present in my life". At that point of time, I felt...
        "Life is not an aimless journey of a body loaded with soul... but it is the journey that the body             makes to meet the soul". 
Bww!!! I was thinking like a maaadddd fellow. There was no stop for the flow of thoughts in my mind during my return journey.

            When I immersed in these thoughts, I crossed a place called 'Murnur'. It was a good place to stop for a breakfast. However, I wanted to have breakfast after reaching Virajpet. Yes!! I reached Virajpet...around 11:15am. In two places, 8&10km, before reaching Virajpet, I saw some school children taking part in 'Swach Bharath' as it was republic day. I recollected my school days when I took part in 'Janmabhoomi' program. ( agenda of the two programs is almost same. But the charisma of the persons differs. Hence the popularity of the new program)

Breakfast in Virajpet...

             It was around 11:15am, when I reached Virajpet or Virarajendrapete. Sorry!! I lied. I forgot to have breakfast here. I had to travel for some distance within the town. But this time it was for my good. I could see the people in traditional Kodava attire. Kodava is the major...what to call...probably the caste or community in the Kodagu district. This had been one of my dreams to see these people since I saw the portraits of the 'Kodava Couple' in the 'Janapatha Loka'. There was a community meeting, I guess, as it was republic day. I didn't have any clue, why those people were making the republic day as an occasion to gather. I took one pic of that meeting place, and was about to start from there. But here comes the real surprise... A middle aged person was walking towards me and he was...again...a kodava person in traditional attire. I greeted him with a great smile. He was an educated guy and that helped me a lot in interacting with him. I asked some dumb questions to him...as I was not prepared for what to talk if I met one such guy. "What are you? Do you hunt? Still hunt? Can I hold the dagger?... so on..". Though he was in hurry, he answered me patiently. In fact he was happy that a person from the other side of India came to feel the culture of that place.
       

The Kodava gathering...

            I rode a beautiful curve in Virajpet, where I saw a excellent view on my left. I felt it was worth capturing. But as I already told...my only problem was draining time. However, I can see the same view even now...because it is on the back of my top lid. Alright...!! I will try to describe the view - there was a church on the left of the curve, had a bend towards the left, and two hills were providing it a nice background. Hmm!! I know I failed to describe it well. What to do..!!?? I am not Wordsworth or Keats. I can't romanticize such situations...I've just told what I saw...

Towards Irpu Falls...
               After crossing Virajpet, I didn't take any stops to relax. However, my brief stops were just to inquire the route. Virajpet and it surroundings fall in South Kodagu. This part of Kodagu was really superb. I saw so many woman in typical Kodagu dressing. They wear Saree in a way different from what we generally see in other parts of India. I can't explain much about it, as I don't have much knowledge on this concept. Please try to google it...if you are interested. I crossed Gonikoppa(l) and reached Ponnampet around 1pm.
            On the way to Ponnampet, I stopped to have a Sugar cane juice and the name of the Vendor was Shazid Khan. He introduced himself as an ex-truck driver. He told about the impending risk in taking the route through Nagarhole national park. He told about the possibility of the elephant attacks and the chances of tiger encounters.  I had to respect his instructions...because he had more experience in travelling. However, I was still looking for a person to give me enough confidence to go through that forest. I didn't meet THE one person I was looking for. The worst part was...a person telling that the bikes were not allowed inside Nagarhole.
              I had lunch in Ponnampet and started to Irpu falls. I took a right turn towards the falls from the village(??) 'Srimangala'. Again, I don't want to describe the beauty of the roads I travelled. Those were so nice. Finally I reached the 'IRPU falls'. The place, where these fall were situated, was Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. After parking my vehicle, I took an entrance ticket to the falls and reached the falls after a small trek of 15-20 mins. As I didn't have much time to stop, I took snaps of every sign board I found there so that I could read them afterwards. After seeing the information about the variety of the wild life in that sanctuary, I felt it was also one of the good destinations. However, I didn't gather much info about the safari kind of programs in that sanctuary. Near the waterfalls, I tried to photograph a couple of butterflies. Later I realised that they were about to engage in a mating ritual after seeing the intimate behaviour and approach of them. Probably that was the season for them to rise a new generation of caterpillars. These fellows are really great because they don't just multiply their numbers, they play a major role in the reproduction cycle of the plants by helping them in pollination. #respect

@ a point...five minutes before IRPU falls

@ a point...two minutes before IRPU falls - The white dot in the centre of the pic

Yup!! Please avoid making noise while trekking... avoid color glasses as well

@ midway of the trek

The best shot I got - IRPU Falls

Biodiversity of Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary

THE butterflies I was talking about

          I met a forest guard, Nanda, when I was about to leave that place. After having a brief conversation with that guy, I started off to Bengaluru. My plan was to go via Gonikoppa(l), as I had decided not to go through Nagarhole. I was riding happily until I found a sign board indicating a right turn towards Bengaluru.

Do I really need to go back???...
                Yup!!! This was the major question I asked myself when I was travelling back... However, I didn't have any other choice. Because I knew, though I was in love with the place I had been, that awe wouldn't last long enough to spend the rest of my life. My next thought was...
               "The only choice I have is...to visit those places as frequently as possible..."
                 When I was riding on the road connecting Gonikoppa(l) and Mysore, I saw some big cage like structures on the right side. As I already guessed, it was an elephant camp -  Hanasuru Elephant Camp. But the public was not allowed inside the camp. So I took some pics, and headed back towards Mysore. Somewhere on the way, I found an arch indicating that I was inside the 'Rajiv Gandhi National Park' - the official name of 'Nagarhole'. I felt very happy for a moment that I rode for sometime inside the Nagarhole...though the road was not through the heart of the jungle.

Rajiv Gandhi National Park - I prefer to call Nagarhole National Park

                  Just before reaching Hunsur.... exactly near the Y intersection where I took the road on the right to reach Madikeri via Periyapattana, I stopped for having a sugar cane juice. There I met a person, Haneesh, who was travelling to Kannur on some personal reasons. After a little chat, we departed from the place.

SH88 - A desert...
                 Now I was riding on SH88... the same route, I admired very much when I was travelling towards Madikeri, was started appearing like a desert. The reason was, I travelled for two days on the roads that were surrounded with thick vegetation. Now the sides of SH88 were so barren that they were, almost, resembling the desert. Though I was travelling continuously, I was not crossing the speeds ranging from mid-50's to 60. I just wanted to prolong the journey. I was not at all willing to check the time. I was scared to check. Because every draining second was making a damage of two seconds - I mean to say...it was causing double impact.

Why not Time...a commodity...??
                   This was one of the my best thoughts arose in my trip. I remember watching in a recent movie in which the time and gravity were considered as forth and fifth dimensions to measure the position. But when I was travelling back to Bengaluru, I really wished the time should have been a commodity... I felt the time as a lump of some material that was decaying in front of my eyes. Literally, I was bleeding time.
                Somehow, I reached the outskirts of Mysore around 5:15pm. The traffic on the Mysore-Bengaluru highway was suffocating. I struggled a lot to ride in the heavy traffic after travelling for almost five to six hours. After three( tea, pee and fuel) stops, I reached Bengaluru around 9:35pm.
             Hmm!!! That is the end of the great trip. Hope, I go for such trips again an again....

Coorg(Madikeri) - A Pilgrimage (Part 4)

Day two in Coorg:

    It was around 7am when I kick started and hit the road. Two to three places yet to cover, it was a late start. Immediately I went to 'Raja's Seat' view point to see how it looks in the morning. If you don't mind, I want to use early moring as it was still very foggy. It was so pleasant under the mask of fog. This time my halt was just for ten minutes with nothing new to explore there. Then I started to my next destination ...'Mandalpatti'. I had tons of expectations on this place as every person who knew about it lauded like anything. But my plans never go as I decided... I visited another place before I reached Mandalpatti. That was 'Abbey Falls'...

Falling towards 'Abbey Falls'...

   Situated seven to eight kilometers from Madikeri, the Abbey falls was another beautiful place to visit. It's name was derived from a Coorgie word 'Abbe or Abbi' - means 'Water Falls'. I was inquiring the locals and heading towards 'Mandalpatti'... Everybody told to take a road to the right in next 'Y' intersection. I crossed almost three of such 'Y' intersections. Finally, I saw a sign board at the third one. I found some enticing piece of info on that - 'Abbey falls - 5km', besides the info I was looking for - 'Mandalpatti -17km'. But to reach Abbey falls I had to take the left side route. As it was just 5km, I didn't want to miss it. Here comes the real thrill...

How come a place be at two different distances from a single place?

   Yup!! As I already said, it was literally falling towards the falls. The road was nice and...in most of the places it was almost vertical. So here comes the excitement...at the end of each vertical fall there was a curve. So I couldn't completely make use of the advantage the gravity offered. Riding the slopes was simply amazing. I didn't want the road to end. But this time, exactly after 5km the road ended. It was around 7:44am by the time I reached there. I parked my bike and had a chai for Rs15...I never had a chai for that price even in Bengaluru. But at that time I was not in a state to think of the things like price...distance and time..

   - Because I went to Coorg to be a part of that place. I wanted to breathe the air of Coorg...drink the water of Coorg...eat the food of Coorg whenever it was possible. Because, I felt "if I have to be the part of Coorg, Coorg has to be the part of me - the molecules of the air,water and food should be flowing in my veins".

   It was a small trek for ten to fifteen minutes. The route was very good and was very colorful with the combination of the tender leaves, the fog and the thick vegetation. I was listening only to the  sounds of birds and the roar of the water fall. And at the end of the small trek...Wow!!! that was the Abbey falls. There was a hanging bridge opposite the falls. I got an eye to eye view of the falls from that bridge. I was looking at the falls...listening to it...counting the numerous small falls within it - counted almost eighty. I was trying to find shapes in the protruding rocks...and finally figured out one..'The Kingkong'. Finally I put an end to my madness when a gang of people asked me to take a group pic of them. 

Just before reaching Abbey Falls

Hanging bridge...

Abbey Falls... and Kingkong

   I left the place, unwillingly, after spending a good time. This time it was a ride uphill - against the gravity - now and then falling into some thoughts. Though I was enjoying the moments...there were some questions running in the back of my mind... 'am I behaving weird when I am feeling my surroundings?? are people thinking of me crazy??' - But who cares..?? None of them sees/meets me again...Even if somebody asked, I would have answered them... 'Go to heaven'...because that place gave me tons of positive thinking and love towards the people - so I might have used positive words even for cursing.

   On the way back, I stopped in so many places and took pics in some lonely places. With all the thoughts in my mind, I missed the intersection and went towards Madikeri. I realized that after one 

kilometer or so. Then I went back to the intersection and clicked a pic of the sign board and took the right turn towards my next destination..

While coming from Abbey falls

While coming from Abbey falls

THE roads...I rode...

     

Way to Mandalpatti

Towards Mandalpatti...

   I felt it was like a next level in a game, after finishing a level of riding to Abbey falls. The roads were steeper in this route. Riding on that route was like surfing on the waves - but not so smoothly

because of the intervention of the bends in the road. Again I stopped in so many places on the way. Though I knew the route to the place, I used to ask the native people about the way. Then next

step was to observe how interested were they to speak to strangers/travelers. If found interested, I used to have small conversations with them. Here again, I don't know the language 'Kannada' properly. They were kind enough to understand my hand gestures and the bullshit I spoke. After riding for fifteen minutes or so, I reached a place called 'Devasturu'. Even there, I inquired some native women about the route. Later I spoke to a guy who was educated and physically challenged. This time, I changed the questionnaire as he already see me inquiring about the route. I asked him if I could get any place to stay there. He gave me a mobile number of a person, Laxman, who owns a home-stay there. There was an abandoned building on the left side of the road, which he told as a school. It was shut down because of no children in the village. Uff!! perhaps it might be because of the migration of the people to the near by towns. However, there was an Anganwadi ceter running in the premises of the school. I spent a brief amount of time there and again started towards my next stop. Yup!! my next stop need not be my destination. I love to take as many stops as possible.

On the way to Mandalpatti

School @ Devasturu

   As I told my next stop was not my destination. It was a road side canteen - one or two kilometres from Mandalpatti. In fact, I was not hungry. However, my only intention was...again...to speak to the people. This time the people I met were Satish and Rathi. I had 'Chithranna & a liquid that tastes exactly like the mix of coffee and tea'. The items were not so good but their behavior was. Speaking to strangers might not be a new thing to them. Though I can't speak Kannada, I can understand it to some extent. The mistress of the canteen owner, Rathi, explained me how they prepare different varieties of the home made fruit wines. When I was about to ask her that I wanted to see the process of wine preparation, she told that they didn't have any machinery for doing that and it was a manual process. She was very good at extracting the meaning out of an about to be asked - but not been asked because of language problem - questions. She told that their mother tongue was not Kannada but a mix of all four major South Indian languages - Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. I let her speak just to catch any Telugu words from her voice. Here, I just want to affirm, as I'm praising the woman a lot, that I didn't have any interest in that woman. It was all about my respect to the people who lead their life in aboriginal ways. However, I could not convince the pair for a pic. Then I felt...if I knew Kannada, I would have convinced them for a pic. After a small photo session with my bike, I left the place and reached 'Mandalpatti' with in no time.

Canteen - Where I met Satish and Rathi

   Mandalpatti - it was a very beautiful and cool place even when the sun was high above the head. I can't explain the beauty of this place. I was a little greedy and wanted to capture the beauty of that place with my Sony Xperia. But I felt it was a great dishonor to that place. Somehow, I apologized that place and started taking the pics and video. I was not satisfied by the pics I took as it was like picking the best out of the best...I donno...I can't explain that feeling. Every frame was so beautiful. The beauty was not just that appears there...it was a mixture of the colors I saw there. Blue & White color of the open skies, something like...Golden yellow color of the Sun rays, Green color of the leaves, Red color of the tender leaves, Black from the shadows and some distinct color from the fog-

covered hills at a distance. At this place, I met an auto driver Shabbir and two lads,Sri Kanth & Arun, from Udupi. After spending a good amount of time including a small photo session, I started back to Madikeri around 10:45am. On the way back, I gave a drop to a person till Madikeri...and his name was - Lalu &%$#(I didn't understand this part) Appa. He told something about the places I was going to visit - Bhagamandala and Thalacauvery.

One of the beautiful views - from Mandalpatti

One of the beautiful views - from Mandalpatti

One of the beautiful views - from Mandalpatti

Now To Bhagamandala and Thalacauvery...

   It was a detour to the left from the SH88 that connects to the Manglore. Bhagamandala is 33km from Madikeri and Thalacauvery is 8km from that place. It was around 1pm, however, I didn't have any plans for my lunch until I saw a board... "Coorg Style Food". I stopped immediately at that place and ordered lunch. For non-vegies, it could have been a very special meal. But for me it was just a decent & Ok meal... Anyhow, I was happy that I had Coorg style food. The ride on the ghat section continued for some more distance from that point. I was a little ... I don't know...something happened and I started reading the info on the mile stones wrong. I was reading 'Thalacauvery - 20km' as 'Thalachery - 20km'. Was I tired? or My desire to visit Kerala was so predominant that it made me read it like that...??  I have no clue... As a precaution I stopped by the road side and relaxed for some time. Because I'm not used to ride in such a rugged landscape. Riding in a ghat road is entirely a game of balancing the center of gravity that rapidly shifts in and out - in the sense, oscillating on all the sides of the center of gravity when the bike is ridden on a flat road. If the CG oscillates more than certain distance...that will result in fatal injuries. After riding so much, I got used to this game.

Coorg style food

   I reached Thalacauvery around 2pm. After seeing the pond or something which is considered as the origin of the river, I climbed the hill - Brahmagiri. After spending some time on the hill, I headed back towards 'Bhagamandala'.

A view from Brahmagiri hills... The hills in the pic are Kumara Parvatha @ Kukke Subramanya

   In Bhagamandala.. there was a temple, of Bhagandeswara - Lord Shiva, that was constructed in Kerala/Nepali architecture. In fact, I was not at all interested to visit temples. But both the temples I visited in this trip were really extraordinary - or - not the temples built in the typical South Indian style. There was a confluence of three rivers in Bhagamandala which was not so impressive. Finally after visiting all the places that I wished to visit today, I started back to Madikeri and reached around 6:30pm.

      

Bhagandeswara Temple in Bhagamandala

   After that I had the non-alcoholic grape wine that I bought yesterday. Roamed in the streets of Madikeri for sometime. I spoke to the traffic police and a few local drivers and inquired about the Nagarhole route to Mysore. They told it was alright to go but before the dusk. I wanted to have some Coorg specials...like.. Tender Bamboo Fry and Bella Kafi. But because of the heavy rush at the hotel, I could not make it.

Coorg(Madikeri) - A Pilgrimage (Part 3)

A small tale - before reaching Madikeri...

        I reached Madikeri around 3:10pm. Before that, as I was approaching my destination, I started thinking of accommodation. I started seeing the home-stays almost ten kilometres before reaching Madikeri. So I wanted to check for vacancy in one of such home-stays, and took a right turn after seeing a sign-board. I didn't find anything even after travelling for a kilometre. However, I saw a small waterfall... Hurray..!! That moment I felt like...WoooW!! I spent 5-10 mins just by seeing it and listening to it. The only sounds I heard were the chirps of birds and the song of that brook.. I don't remember the distance I travelled interior. However, I found some, not more than 2 if I remember, houses in the entire distance I travelled. After some time, I found two school kids walking along the road. I inquired them about the place. My interaction, once again, was difficult. I can't blame them for not knowing the languages I know. Rather, I blame myself for not knowing the language of the place I want to explore. I used some words I knew in Kannada and they were great enough to understand the rubbish I was speaking. They told the place, I was in, was 'Hattiri/Hatteri', if I clearly remember. After that I rode almost one kilometre to find the traces of humans once again. This time I raped Hindi for gathering some info regarding accommodation. The guy I spoke to, Hussain, told that nobody would be ready to give accommodation in a home-stay for a single person. Rather I should consider staying in a lodge. I don't like the name itself...'The Loadge'..wooahk(puking sound)..!! He told that he knew some hotel owner and asked me to follow him. After travelling some more distance we took a right turn into 'THE' Madikeri, I was dreaming about.
        Madikeri(aka Mercara) is the head quarters of the Kodagu(aka Coorg) district. Coorg has history of its own. It was ruled by so many kings... Gangas, Cholas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagara rulers, Tippu, Haleri kings and finally by The British. Madikeri - the name was derived from its actual name 'Maddu Raja Keri' which means 'Maddu Raja's Town'. He was the 3rd Haleri king ruled this place in the 17th century.

 Now in Madikeri... 

        I was introduced to the hotel owner, Abdhul, and finally checked in at the hotel, Green Stay,situated in the heart of the town. I booked the room for two days - Rs 650/day. I thought it was a little expensive as I thought of getting a room for Rs 500 at most. However, I didn't want to waste time in searching another room. Without even entering, I threw my luggage into the room, took a list of visiting places from the desk of Mr Abdhul and went out. I was so lucky that the three places I visited were within 2km range.

The tiled roof houses, the style I'd fallen in love with...On the way to Raja's Seat(Sunset point)

        The places I visited today were...'Raja's Seat - sunset point', 'Fort'(...lucky no typo..) and Omkareswara Temple..

At Raja's Seat...

        What kind of name they have given to this place... Think in this way.. "Raja's Seat is the best place to see sunset..; Raja's Seat is a must watch; Raja's Seat is one of the visiting places; The people enjoyed the Raja's Seat.". Ha Ha. I can't stop laughing.

        This is a neatly maintained park and was, once, the sunset point for the kings of Kodagu. Now for all. I took the entrance ticket at 4:20pm and started roaming around. That was a pretty ordinary place unless the valley on the other side exists. There I met a guy came with his (beautiful :))wife and a TV reporter. The guy,with his family, was very much worried about the meter reading of the vehicle they hired. He told that his driver was cunning and calculating the readings wrongly - The driver showed them the distance from Banglore to Madikeri as 380kms. :) Where as it was just 250+kms for me. I was very lucky. I didn't have any such problems. The TV reporter 'Vamsi', if I remember correctly, was recording footage about some flower show for his channel.

        There were a few more view points at that place. Perhaps they were abandoned or under construction. I spent some good time in one of those places as density people was very less - in fact I was alone for some time. I was able to see the ghat road that I might have covered to Madikeri. I took some snaps from there. After that I had a ride on the toy train and left that place around 5:20pm.

Raja's Seat - Sunset point

A View from Raja's Seat - This is the valley I was talking about

The Route I might have travelled - Awesome Curves

3 stages of a flower - My Sony mobile camera is no less than a DSLR - Isn't it?? :)

At Fort...

       I reached the fort around 5:30pm. A Church which is converted to a museum, a library and a prison were there in the premises of the fort. The palace itself is converted in to 'Deputy Commissioners Office'. The fort has walls.. of width almost enough to drive a car. I walked on the walls and found some places that I assumed to be the places to accommodate the Canons and rifles/arrows. At first, Madduraja, Haleri king, built it in the 17th century with mud and bricks which later was rebuilt in granite by Tippu - this fellow was a cultural intolerant idiot and named this place 'Jaffarabad'. Some Wodeyar(does he belong to Mysore kingdom??) king renovated the same in 19th century.

      One more attraction in the premises of the fort was the masonry elephants - looks alive. I talked to some people while I was walking on the wall. They told that the prison was converted into a school - what a coincidence - I couldn't stop laughing. While I was walking past some, two, persons, I heard they were greeting me.."Namaskara". They were from the west. One, Ben, from Germany and another(don't remember name) was from Netherlands. They came here from Ooty. They asked if I was travelling alone & by motorbike( at that point of time I had helmet in my hand) and told that they were also fond of doing so if possible. I moved on after a ten minutes of chit chat with them. Later I met a man, a father of a cute little baby of age less than one year. She was adorable.

       Though I missed the sunset at the Raja's seat, I saw it from the wall of the fort. I liked it. I took some snaps on the wall of the fort. I found that the palace and the Deputy Commissioner's office was getting ready for the republic day celebrations.

The Masonry Elephants

THE Wall I walked on

The Prison and School

The Palace and DC Office

       The below picture has some story. I wanted to take pic of the one standing in the middle. However I could not avoid the other flowers on the left and the stem on the right from the frame. I wanted to remove them but for a while I thought that it was unfair to torture them for just a stupid photograph. Finally I apologized them and took it as it is - may the flowers bless me.. :). I left the fort around 6:15pm.

 Some random click - I liked it very much

At the Omkareswara Temple...

      This was one place I wanted to avoid as I thought it was just another temple. However, I have a lot of time left in the day. So I inquired a person and went there. The temple was amazing. I mean it is not THE temple we generally find. There was a pool in front of the temple and the temple has a dome in the centre and four turrets surrounding this dome. This temple was built by Lingarajendra II in nineteenth century. He brought a linga from Kashi and installed it in the temple to appease the spirit of a Brahmin he killed for the political reasons.

       After seeing the dome and turrets, I made my assumptions and came to a conclusion that this guy, Lingarajendra II, might have converted a mosque into the temple of lord Shiva. Because he ruled this place after the age of Tippu. I desperately wanted to know the reason behind the temple being so.. Then I asked a middle aged lady. She suggested me to check it with her husband who was just coming towards us. His name is 'Sunil'. He is a superb guy. He told that the temple's architecture was an amalgamation of Islamic and Gothic style. Later we spoke for a while before they left the temple. I was really amazed by Sunil sir's spontaneous explanation. And, this was one of very few places where I found a Shiva Linga was adorned so much with flowers, probably the other one being 'Sundareswarar' in 'Meenakshi Amman' temple.

Omkareswara Temple

     

       This was the end of day - 1. After visiting these places, I had dinner and went back to my hotel room.

Coorg(Madikeri) - A Pilgrimage (Part 2)

At the end of the first part, we stopped at a distance of 70km away from Madikeri. At least at the end of this part, I'll, hopefully, reach Madikeri...

As I already told, a ride on the SH88 was really awesome. After that stop at the bus stop, I was riding at a constant pace of mid 60's. After travelling one or two kilometres, I again found a mile-stone showing the same info 'Madikeri 70km'...it was so surprising how they maintain these sign-boards. However, I was not at all upset...because I love travelling..unless the destination is my office.

Still 70km away from Madikeri...

I crossed 'Periyapattana' with in no time or I didn't observe the time. Around twelve-thirteen kilometres after 'Periyapattana' I started observing a slight change in the construction style of houses on the left side of the road and some people in the Buddhist attire walking around. Then I realised that my next stop, Bylakuppe, was closing in... I asked some people for the route I need to take to reach the 'Golden Temple'. I was told to take a left turn and to travel a few more miles, around 4miles, to reach it.

Bylakuppe - The Tibetan settlement:
         This is the second biggest Tibetan settlement in India after 'Dharamsala' of Himachal Pradesh.
Here in Bylakuppe, the Tibetan population is predominant. Though the constructions were not completely in their architecture, we will find good number of dragons and other things specific to their culture. I felt, I was in some different country when I saw them in the stalls, the vegetable shops, and in the school for Tibetan kids. The best part is the way they greet each other. They look like some kind of peace loving people - perhaps, I felt so... as the Buddhists are stereotyped as so...
It was so great to feel a different ethnicity - particularly in the southern part of the country, far away from the Tibetan boarder.

Entrance Of the 'Golden Temple'

         While I was waiting for her to leave, the little lady in the below image was giving so many poses. In fact this was the only pic I clicked.  I truly repent not capturing all her poses. 

The Bell and a Cute little lady..

          I reached the 'Golden Temple' around 11:55am. I parked my vehicle and entered the premises of the temple. It was clean and well maintained with lots of greenery. As soon as I entered the temple, people started asking me for photograps... Yes! you read it correct. As they immediately learnt that I was alone, people started giving  me their cameras for taking their group pics... ;) It was very funny. This might be the first time I photographed people... Generally I prefer pics of nature to that of humans. After the photo session, I spent good amount of time in side the temple. I photographed the characteristic paintings of the Buddhist temples. I thought there might be some story or theme behind the paintings. However, I couldn't exactly figure out the story but tried to decipher some of them as the changing state of The Lord Buddha from the Princehood to the Priesthood. Though I didn't know the complete story of Buddha, I tried to relate the things I knew about him with the paintings on the walls. But the actual story behind the paintings is - they are called the Tibetan Thangka - the paintings depicting all the incarnations of Buddha and the deities of the Vajrayana Buddhism.

One of so many beautiful paintings

       One more interesting thing about the temple was the statues of the 'Buddha' and two others 'Padmasambhava' and 'Amitayus', standing tall almost at a hight of 60ft. If possible, observe the dragons on each side of 'Buddha' and colourful cylindrical hanging things on the either sides of the image.

Padmasambhava - 58ft; Buddha - 60ft; Amitayus - 58ft

          I inquired with some of the fellows about the history of that temple and how the Tibetan people flew so far to reach here in Bylakuppe. But to my surprise, nobody here knows about those things. The Tibetan people, living here, abandoned their homes in Tibet and came here as a result of the Chinese invasion. The guys I met in the premises of the temple were...read carefully... "Kun Sung" from Arunachal Pradesh, "Nim Ha" from Darjeeling and four people from Tibet. I felt like, these fellows were in there just as a customary thing..they were not very well into the 'ism they were following. However, speaking to them was very nice, especially with the ones from Tibet. I was trying to communicate with them in, a language I think of as, English. But they were thinking of it as 'Hindi' and responding that they were not aware of 'Hindi'..even I don't..he he..I fooled them. Somehow, I managed to speak to them (read it as struggling to communicate) for almost 20 minutes. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. I forgot the names of those fellows.

THE Tibetans I was talking about

          I liked this place so much that I wanted to buy something as a remembrance of this place. The surroundings of the monastery were full of the handicraft shops. I though of buying a 'Prayer Wheel'. But I don't know how to pray..!! So I bought a pendant of 'Laughing Buddha'. It was 12:50pm when I came out of the temple. I had Momos and started for my next destination..."Nisargadhama"

Cauvery Nisargadhama - An Island park:
           Cauvery Nisargadhama is a island located amid the Cauvery river. There is a hanging bridge that connects this island to the main land. The main attractions at this place are the hanging bridge on the river, Elephant rides, Rabbit park, Deer park, Bamboo groves, Boating, Tree houses or view points.
           It was about a 20mins travel, 13-14km, from Bylakuppe. I reached, in fact crossed, 'Nisargadhama' around 1.20pm as I was looking for the same name I mentioned. But it was 'Cauvery Nisargadhama' on the board. It was on the left side of the road. If we are not alert, there is a high probability of missing it.

Promise...!! I clicked it for the bridge only :)

A superb view from the hanging bridge...

          I just walked across the park twice and explored almost everything. I liked the Bamboo groves very much. Please be cautious while entering any bamboo grove. Nobody warned me about this before...I ended up witnessing a couple being busy in some biological activities. I am not sure if it is usual there or it was my misfortune(obviously..I came to enjoy the Nature. Not to see the bio-chemistry). I wanted to go for a elephant ride. But very disappointed to know that the morning session was over and I need to wait till 2:30pm for going for a ride. It was so hot over there..and I felt it was more of humidity than the temperature. I think afternoon is not a good time to visit this place. I enjoyed seeing the school of fish feeding on the things thrown by the people went for boating. The fish were very big and clearly visible from the bridge. I entered some no-entry zones to take pics. I can't call it venturing but I trespassed.

Elephant Ride.. Missed it.. :(

View Point...

I regret but Worth Trespassing...!!

           After having a good break, I started to Madikeri at around 2:15pm and to put a full stop to my today's travelling. I reached the outskirts of Madikeri at around 3.10pm after negotiating a good distance on the ghat section.