You know how they say "what you do on the first day of New Year is how that year is going to be for you". This is the year I wish it to be true. The top of my bucket list for 2018 read 1. To have an adventure road trip, 2. To learn to use the map, 3. To have a homemade local cuisine and remained unchecked. But the truth is Universe keeps the record of things that you wish from the heart and sigh out into this bubble and grant us on time. The trip to Madikeri was such a wish granted before the deadline.
On 31st of December 2018, me and my friend decided to leave from Mysore to Madikeri on our friend's two wheeler (scooty). Since it was the new year and holiday time there was no other available options for us to rent another bike. Madikeri is a hilltown that is 117 km away from Mysore in the Kodagu district of Karnataka. Even though google map read around 3 hours to reach there I highly recommend rounding that number to 5 hours (I know that's not how rounding works though!). Also, we were pretty stupid not to wrap ourselves in warm clothes so do not make that mistake.
The National highway to Madikeri is a smooth road that goes through the rural Karnataka and as we were going far from Mysore we could feel the cold sweeping in and crawling all over us. Shivering throughout the way we didn't stop much for photos or anything. The only aim was to get to the destination asap.
It started to get dark and we were not really feeling so good with the cold wind. So, we stopped by a CCD on the way and warmed up ourselves with hot drinks. Just take a look at the wall hanging pictures from this cafe! (The below one. I just realized I have only taken videos from the CCD. Vlog coming up soon on Dtube )
The road from there was not so much fun with the cold and especially when it was all dark. After entering Periyapatina we did start o get a little bit of chill inside us for the road started to seem never ending and we were in the middle of nowhere (no I didn't make mistake on the map part here I promise!). The roads that came after here were hairpin turns and the scary part was the darkness. There was no street light or other light sources and most of the time ours was the only vehicle on the road. We might not have felt this strange if we were in a group I think.
Entering into Coorg more spice shops appeared and we stopped at one such shop to get some water and ended up having a coffee. The shopkeeper was a young guy who was very friendly and we had a nice chat for sometime. He told us the temperature really dropped down that day and it was not this cold the previous day. We took a picture of the places to visit nearby and he suggested there won't be much water in the waterfalls in this season.
Finally, we reached Madikeri at around 9.00 PM and checked into our home stay in the center of the town and near the bus stand. Being a weekend getaway and a famous tourist destination this place offers a lot of accommodation options. Being cold to the bone and tired we were too ill to go out when we heard the fire crackers at midnight. Yes it was a New Year and we successfully reached our destination. And only then we shared how scared we were on the road even though we seemed confident through out. No, that was the end of an eventful year 2018.
Before coming to Madikeri our plan was to hike through a hill but changed our plans to visit Madalpetti, a view point to be reached through awful off road drive. It is 20 kms from Madikeri and we started early in the morning on the first day of the year 2019.
View from Raja's seat
On the way was the first point "Raja's seat". It is a view point and a park where people came for their morning walk. The park was maintained colourful with Marigold and other flowering plants.
From the view point you can see the valley and the town spread out like in a canvas. Near to the Raja's seat is colourful temple. There were flowers available to buy to offer pooja I suppose.
Moving towards Mandalpetti the sides of the road are filled with tiled rooftops of houses which gives a oddly satisfaction with its arrangement.
We stopped at Club Mahindra resort for breakfast. The food here was so good. You have different options and we opted for Indian breakfast combo. The aloo paratha was so soft and yum plus in a combo you get a breakfast snack, a fresh juice of choice/ lassi and tea/coffee. Even though price vice it is a little bit expensive the quality of the food is great and with our very weak body from last days drive, it was a perfect hot breakfast.
We spend a little more time walking inside the resort since it was so calm and almost looked like a forest. The stone trails they have through the trees and coffee plants were just amazing. Speaking of which, remember the pictures I showed you from CCD on the way, if it was not for those pictures, I would not have identified those plants were coffee plants.
Travelling on Scooty forward was very difficult. The road was all broken and filled with digs and potholes. The more close we reached the scene became very disheartening. Even though both the sides of the roads were filled with coffee plants you can never miss to notice the patches of land that have slid from the hills. It is there all over the place. At one point the road was very scary with the soil from the hill spread all over the road and the other side being a steep slope into the valley. It was all caused by the flood in 2018. Looking to the other side we could see the land slid from the middle of the hill.
We reached a point where we could not more go on our Scooty. To reach the peak you need to either take the jeep services provided by the locals or have a good vehicle to carry through those path. So we decided to go back and I think the peak would look much better in monsoon or soon after monsoon with lush green cover all over the place. And the jeep ride costs Rs. 1500.
On our way back we stopped at a place where we saw a bus stop and a trail that went down with coffee plants on both sides. At the end of the trail we could see a huge barren land and a water stream. We decided to go down and just spend some time there.But awaited was a warm surprise. While we were looking at the coffee plants, we were asked to come down by a lady. She smiled at us and started talking and the stories were all about the recent floods. Since we both were from Kerala and she spoke little bit of Malayalam it was easy to communicate.
We were invited to their small house just near the edge where the barren land I referred above. Turns out that used to be a land where they cultivated paddy and now the whole place is spread with rock powder and soil that came from the landslide. That land is no more suitable for cultivating anything at least not for few years. They also lost many coffee plants they had in the upper part during the rain. The story of the losses and scariness of the situation was sad to hear from those who went through it. We spent some time with them listening to their stories and we were happy that it made them a little happy.
We were invited for coffee and it was the first time we both saw coffee beans in real. They had some coffee beans spread outside to dry. We had a wholesome millk coffee and refused to stay for lunch since our scooty was left there unguarded. They said it was a safe place to leave the bike though. Hugging her goodbye I was happy to have such a warm experience and sad at what we have done to the nature. It was just the travel experience I always wished to have and the last item from my diary was checked out.
Going back through those same roads I only had one resolution for the year 2019 and that was to be kind to nature. I may not be able to bring out a huge change to the problems that are happening all across the world now but how can I deny my part in it?! So Mandalpetti was just a reminder to start taking actions however small it may seem to restore the nature.
Back in Madikeri the town was lit with the Christmas and New year lights. We made a visit to the nearby churches and went out in search of a shop to buy jackets. Let me tell you there are not many shops in here for that so do carry one. By the end of the day we both were down with slight fever and cold. That was the last in Madikeri and next day we were going back to Mysore via Coorg.
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