Madikeri

Place: Karnataka,India
Date : August, 2004
Camera : Vivitar 3800N with 28-70mm and 100-300mm lens

It was Friday and i decided to go some where to explore. I enquired my friends/colleagues but none were interested. Finally i decided to go alone to Nagarhole by bus. But i didn't enquire about bus timings.
I started morning 6'o Clock and reached Majestic (Bus Stand) by 7:15.I enquired about the bus to Nagarhole. They suggested to go to Mysore and take a bus to Nagarhole. I took a bus to Mysore rand reached there by afternoon enquired again about Nagarhole bus they said there is was bus available at around 4:00 evening since i didn't have any reservation i called forest department to book a forest cottage or dormitory but in vain. I had an outlook's 'weekend breaks' book with me.I was looking for any alternative place. Finally I changed plans and decided to go Madikeri. There are frequent buses available to Madikeri, so I called to Mayura valley view hotel to check the availability of hotel accommodation. They said accommodation were available.
I took a bus to Madikeri which is a passenger bus seating was not comfortable. I thought there would be some forests on the way. But I couldn’t find any forest or hills till kushalnagar. Its almost same land scape and climate till Kushal nagar. Buts the things started changing from Kushalanagar. To my amazement there was a bamboo forest with very large green bamboo bushes which looked very beautiful and some sign Boards which warned about wild elephants. A small ghat section started with so many coffee plantations. Everything was green and beautiful (i like orchids and heard there are so many orchids there in coorg district) I was looking on tree tops to find some.(Orchids grow on tree tops which does not take any thing from supported trees but just moisture from air) Surprisingly i found many orchids on tree tops, almost on every big tree around.


Orchid Growing in Tree

I couldn't observe any flowers. i thought it was not a season for flowering). I finally reached Madikeri and took an auto to Muravalley view hotel. The hotel was good ( not a deluxe hotel as I was looking at budget accommodation).Accommodation in off-season is Rs.275 (double bed room). I took the room. Its was approximately 4:00 o clock. The weather was chilling. I wanted to take some photographs of orchids and some scenic views. I have a manual SLR camera with 70mm and 300mm lens. I was just walking through the roads to find orchids and finally found a big orchids on a tree I took some photographs and reached the “Raja's seat” where we can have exotic view of mountain's.



Mountain View From Raja's Seat

I spent some time there. The place was very calm and extremely beautiful and there was toy train for children near by “Raja's seat”.


Raja's Seat

I had dinner at a restaurant. There were so many restaurants that serve South Indian food. Food was good. Next day morning i decided to go to abbey water falls. It is around 6-7 km from madikeri. I enquired in hotel about it .They said I can hire an auto. I walked to rajas seat, where I found a taxi (a Black color maruthi old modal) The driver said it costs 300/- and he would wait 1hour there. He was very amiable and had good idea bout coorg and orchids .He told me that he used to write with orchids on slates when he was in school. Finally we reached Abbey falls.



Abbe Falls

Falls were in the middle of some private coffee estate and I found condominium plants. The water fall was very beautiful and surrounded by very think Green Vegetation. I found some patches of forest which were extremely thick and had never seen any like that before. It was like rain forest, where even sunlight cannot reach the ground. The Driver said there were leeches here. He asked me to check for leech bites on my legs. I spent about 45 min's there. Finally I decided to return. On the way I found an yellow color orchid on a fallen tree. Finally i started in the after noon to Bangalore. There was a direct bus to Bangalore via Mysore.I reached Bangalore by night

The trip was excellent even i was alone and enjoyed the scenic beauty of Coorg. This was the first time i have seen such a climate in India.


Other Useful Information

Distance : Approx 260 km From Bangalore

Transport : There are frequent buses available from Bangalore

Stay : Plenty of options there. Mayura Valley view is good budget option. In Season need to book in advance