My trip to enchanting Coorg,India

It was in the last week of November 2013, we visited one of the enchanting places in Southern India, Coorg.

Coorg or Kodagu is in the state of Karnataka in India.

After hearing so much exciting things to see in Coorg, we booked a homestay resort called Biddanda Estate, Elephant Corridor for our weeklong tour.

It is a family run resort with home food and beautiful surrounding with rich flora and a huge coffee plantation. This homestay resort was recommended by my niece and a colleague and it was worth listening to them.

The homestay in Coorg was around 250 Km from Bangalore in the centre of 20 acres of coffee estates.

 On the way to our resort, my husband and I visited the famous places like the Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple in Bylakuppe and Dubare elephant camp. 

Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple: 

The temple housed three captivating golden statues of Buddha, Padmasambhava, and Amitayus. Its walls were decorated with intricate paintings. These colourful paintings illustrated stories of God and demons from Tibetan Buddhist mythology. The altar of the temple was filled with flowers, candles and incense sticks. 

We also went around beautiful landscapes around it.

The full name of the Namdroling Monastery is Nyingmapa, Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dargyeling. Initially spread over an area of 80 sq. feet, this temple was constructed of the bamboo from the forest which was donated by the Indian Government to the Tibetan exiles.

We were told that this is the second largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet, first being Dharamsala in north India. Bylakuppe houses many monks and students.  

The monastery was founded in 1963 and is a teaching centre and we had an opportunity to meet Buddhist monks and their students. Currently, the impressive monastery is home to nearly 5000 monks and students and is renowned for its pure upholding of the teachings of the Buddha.

About five hours drive from Bangalore, Namdroling was established by His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche shortly after he came to India from Tibet, one of the Monks said.

This monastic college trains monks in logic, philosophy, debate, and all of the traditional Buddhist teachings. He said this is the largest teaching centre (Shreda), Nyingmapa which is a prime a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

These are some of the structures we saw inside the Monastery.

After completing the visit to the Monastery, we moved further to have a glimpse of the famous Dubare Elephant camp. It is a project undertaken by the forest department and Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd.

 Dubare Elephant camp:


Dubare Elephant Camp, Madikeri is about 19 km from Golden temple and took nearly 25 minutes to reach.

This camp had plenty of elephants which are trained under naturalists. A trained Naturalist explained the various aspects of Elephant history, ecology, and biology.

We spent only two hours at the Elephant camp as we had to reach the homestay before sunset. So we could not participate in various activities with the elephants (which is allowed for tourists) and missed the river rafting too. But had a chance to watch people doing it.

Dubare elephant camp is a forest camp and is on the banks of the river Kaveri in Kodagu district.

The forest officials said Some of these elephants are trained for Mysore Dussera festivals. Other elephants have been practically retired except for giving some rides to tourists.

Then we went to Biddanda Estate in Elephant corridor, owned by Viju and Nimi Chengappa, which is around 15 km from the Dubare Elephant camp.



Biddanda Estate in Elephant corridor:

Elephant corridor gets its name from the fact that it actually is the corridor where wild elephants wander from one estate to another. The owner was telling us just a couple of days before our visit, four or five elephants came during the night and destroyed many plants ruthlessly.

 Luckily, during our stay, we did not witness any such incidents.

The place where we stayed had different varieties of flora.

Coffee plantation surrounding the homestay resort

Coffee berries ----->>>>>>

After a good night sleep, the next day, we headed for Talakaveri, about 85 km from the place where we stayed.

Thalakaveri:

Talakaveri is the place that is generally considered to be the origin of the river Kaveri. It is located by Brahmagiri hill ( around 1276 m above sea level) near Bhagamandala in Kodagu district, Karnataka bordering Kasarkod district of Kerala.

Although we could not visibly see the river course from the origin the temple priest in Talakaveri said during monsoon one could witness it.

There is a tank on a hillside erected by Kodavas. There is a small temple on one side of the tank where the pilgrims are given holy water of Talakaveri by a priest.

The tank and the temple are located behind me.

You can see the tank where several pilgrims are queuing up to get the holy water from the priest.

Bathing in the holy water is allowed only on special days, the priest said. He showed that the river originates as a spring feeding the tank and then the water flow underground to emerge as the Kaveri river some distance away.

From Talakaveri, we travelled 17 km to Abbey falls and another beautiful place in Karnataka. This fall is one of the best places to visit in Coorg.

Abbey Falls:

Abbey Falls is situated in the middle of private coffee plantations and spice estates. Numerous small streams and abundant rainfall combine to form the waterfall.

This waterfall flows to join the River Cauvery. Abbey Falls cascades down the rocky slopes from a height of 70 feet into a pool. A hanging bridge has been built across the gorge here, from where the visitors can get a beautiful view of the falls. The path leading to the waterfalls is filled with thick vegetation and was a wonderful experience.

 The waterfall was earlier called Jessi, named after a British officer's wife. However, the place was a thick jungle area back then. Years later, the waterfall was discovered by Neravanda B.Nanaiah who bought the place from the government and converted it into a coffee and spices plantation that surrounds the waterfall.

After trekking for more than two hours on this hill, we returned to our place.

In the evening, we spend some time with the hosts and exchanged information about Coorg, elephants and coffee plantation and other flora in the area.

After a night-long heavy rain, the next morning the sky was clear. So we decided to visit Nagarhole National Park.

Nagarhole National Park:

We were excited to go to the National park as it is one of India's premier Tiger Reserves along with the adjoining Bandipur Tiger Reserve. This park was declared the thirty-seventh Project Tiger, Tiger reserves of India in 1999.

Nagarhole National Park, also known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park is a wild reserve spread over 755 km.  A rich forest cover at the west of the Kabini River, the Park is counted among the well maintained one.

All along on the way to the National park gate, we found a large number of spotted deer and they beautifully posed for our cameras.

When we reached the gate, we were told that the Park was closed for the day and therefore no safari. The reason given at the ticket counter was that the entire ground in the park was very wet and slippery due to the previous night’s heavy rains. 

We were very disappointed. So we had to return without spotting any tiger and other wild animals in the Park as planned.

Following day, we left for Bangalore and then to Mumbai.

By 

Lalitha Vaidyanathan, Mumbai