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.