Got up at 5.15 AM, had a nice coffee at the adjacent hotel and started off towards Bhagamandala at 6.15.
The Woodlands-Hotel is on the same road as the KSRTC Bus stand. To go to Bhagamandala road, we needed to climb upto “Kariappa Statue Circle” and take a right turn towards Mangalore.
It was still dark and the road was not very good. To make the matters worse the terrain was a steep descend for the initial 4 Kms or so. P and M were leading the way and warning me of any major damages on the road. My bike being a thin tired one does not like bumpy roads ;).
Left : Early Morning, Madkeri-Bhagamandala road. The patchy road pattern and the flowers summed up to a good combination for a click.
Right (pic by Manohar) : Looking at one of the mounts that we might have to climb
Bhagamandala and Talacauvery being a popular tourist place, there were plenty of boards making sure that we wont miss the direction. As we had estimated, the terrain from Madkeri to Bhagamandala completely was not downhill-or flat. There were pretty tough inclines on the way. I guess we needed to climb atleast 3 Hills before reaching Bhagamandala.
We stopped at cherambane for tea at around 9. Unfortunately, none of the hotels had started preparing breakfast, we had to move on and decided that Bhagamandala is the right place. Just before Chattimane, me and Manohar stopped for some bike repair and were surrounded by 8-9 enthusisatic high-school boys. They also mentioned about a previous gang of cyclists who were there a couple of months back. We were pretty sure that the gand was Shree's tour de coorg team.
The biggest climb before reaching Bhagamandala was “Kopatti”, the inclines just keep on coming and gets nastier by the minute. From Kopatti, Bhagamandala was around 10 kms away and were were riding had just with one thing in mind, idlies and dosas for breakfast.
Bhagamandala was decorated for the Coorg-Marathon. A welcome arch just before a bridge was erected to greet the brave-heart runners. Imagine 26 kms of runnning in the ghat-section. The marathon seem to be very popular among the localities, there was a live commentary the next day. A veteran gentleman name “Appana” being one of the well known runner.
Bhagamandala is at the foot of Talakaveri, which is part of brahmagiri range. There are number of places for accommodation here, which is is striking contrast with what I saw an year back. We decided to eat at KSTDC hotel, which is on the talakaveri road. Took a much deserved break (90 minutes). The Hotel manager obliged our request to keep our bags at his place until we return from Talakaveri.
Top : Sight of the temple in construction - Bhagamandala
Bottom : One of the prettier buildings in Bhagamandala - The Kashi Mutt.
We had one more problem to solve, where to lodge for the night. The idea was to go to Cheyandane, but given the time, unknown roads and also we were not sure if there are any places to stay in cheyandane. We decided that we shall climb talakaveri, spend ample amount of time there, come back and stay at Bhagamangala itself.
It was 12.10 when we started the 8km climb, my knee was still paining. The problem with a 12 geared road bike is, you wont have a “Smaller Chain ring” which is very useful for climbing with ease. In my bike, i had put more effort, and at after some point of time, one needs to get out of the saddle to pedal. Given my knee condition, i could not do that either.
The plan was to tackle 2 kms a time and give rest to the knee. The first 2 kms was pretty easy, me and M covered it in 8 minutes. P was not in sight for the entire climb, he started flying from the word GO. After a 5 minute break, we were moving towards the “Talakavery – 4 KM” board. This stretch took some more time because of higher gradients. Lot of vehicles passed us and many of them cheered us.
By this time, my knee pain was aggravated to an unbearable state. We ran out of water and had to borrow from one of the bypassing Car-guys. We stopped at a view point and drank some water and rested for some time, from here the climb was only 3 more kms.
Another km later, i had to give sufficient rest to my knee and had to stop for 15 mintues in front of a house. I laid down on the steps of the house when M went inside to fetch some water.
After this lengthy break, the rest of the climb was bearable. With one km to go, one can see the talakaveri temple and the shops arround it. The view from “One Km” Mark is awesome with pictures of mountains and paddy fields in the valleys. Just with half km to go, a steep ascend was waiting for us. M stopped in between to click some photos of me. We took a couple of photos and videos and proceeded towards the temple.
The Three Km Mark View point
All this time we assumed that P would have climbed “Brahmagiri” and would be waiting for us with a icecream in hand. Poor guy, he was waiting for us from an hour or so even without even entering the temple. P being very good in PR (personal relations), managed to keep the stuff at police check-post and also had a hearty chat with the ASI.
Left : View from talakaveri
Right Top : One of the small mantapams - talakaveri
Right Bottom : View of talakaveri from the steps-to-Brahmagiri
We took around 90 minutes to climb, where as P had climbed it in 36 mintues non-stop. Thats an amazing 15 kms per hour during the climb (way-to-go P, no he is not on steroids).
Talakaveri is the “Birth-place” of river kaveri. A small temple with a pond (Kalyani in kannada) in front of it. The devotees prostrate to the square shaped water hole from where its believed that kaveri starts flowing. Brahmagiri is a mount on talakaveri, one needs to climb 300 steps to go on the top. What awaits the visitor here is a cool breeze and and excellent panaromic view of the mountains of Coorg dist.
There are numerous small-shops at talakaveri, we were lured by a shop who offered hot-pakoda and cold butter milk. Each one of us easily devoured 3 glasses of butter-milk and a couple of pakodas.
After a hour and a Half, it was time for P to bid goodbye to his police-friends. The descend was interesting, we stopped at the “Three Km” view point to celebrate by munching on a “5-star crunch”. Within 15 minutes we were in front of KSTDC. P inquired for a room at KSTDC and somehow got three beds in a Dormitory of 90 beds. The place was pretty neat and we had the luxury of 24 hour Hot water .
It was 3.30 by this time and we decided to have lunch and rest for and hour before visiting the temple and getting into river-kaveri.
The rest of the evening was spent bathing in the river, visiting the temple, calling family members from a public telephone, dinner, slight bike repairs. We slept around 10 in the night and had an alarm set for 5 in the morning.
The Woodlands-Hotel is on the same road as the KSRTC Bus stand. To go to Bhagamandala road, we needed to climb upto “Kariappa Statue Circle” and take a right turn towards Mangalore.
It was still dark and the road was not very good. To make the matters worse the terrain was a steep descend for the initial 4 Kms or so. P and M were leading the way and warning me of any major damages on the road. My bike being a thin tired one does not like bumpy roads ;).
Left : Early Morning, Madkeri-Bhagamandala road. The patchy road pattern and the flowers summed up to a good combination for a click.
Right (pic by Manohar) : Looking at one of the mounts that we might have to climb
Bhagamandala and Talacauvery being a popular tourist place, there were plenty of boards making sure that we wont miss the direction. As we had estimated, the terrain from Madkeri to Bhagamandala completely was not downhill-or flat. There were pretty tough inclines on the way. I guess we needed to climb atleast 3 Hills before reaching Bhagamandala.
We stopped at cherambane for tea at around 9. Unfortunately, none of the hotels had started preparing breakfast, we had to move on and decided that Bhagamandala is the right place. Just before Chattimane, me and Manohar stopped for some bike repair and were surrounded by 8-9 enthusisatic high-school boys. They also mentioned about a previous gang of cyclists who were there a couple of months back. We were pretty sure that the gand was Shree's tour de coorg team.
The biggest climb before reaching Bhagamandala was “Kopatti”, the inclines just keep on coming and gets nastier by the minute. From Kopatti, Bhagamandala was around 10 kms away and were were riding had just with one thing in mind, idlies and dosas for breakfast.
Bhagamandala was decorated for the Coorg-Marathon. A welcome arch just before a bridge was erected to greet the brave-heart runners. Imagine 26 kms of runnning in the ghat-section. The marathon seem to be very popular among the localities, there was a live commentary the next day. A veteran gentleman name “Appana” being one of the well known runner.
Bhagamandala is at the foot of Talakaveri, which is part of brahmagiri range. There are number of places for accommodation here, which is is striking contrast with what I saw an year back. We decided to eat at KSTDC hotel, which is on the talakaveri road. Took a much deserved break (90 minutes). The Hotel manager obliged our request to keep our bags at his place until we return from Talakaveri.Top : Sight of the temple in construction - Bhagamandala
Bottom : One of the prettier buildings in Bhagamandala - The Kashi Mutt.
We had one more problem to solve, where to lodge for the night. The idea was to go to Cheyandane, but given the time, unknown roads and also we were not sure if there are any places to stay in cheyandane. We decided that we shall climb talakaveri, spend ample amount of time there, come back and stay at Bhagamangala itself.
It was 12.10 when we started the 8km climb, my knee was still paining. The problem with a 12 geared road bike is, you wont have a “Smaller Chain ring” which is very useful for climbing with ease. In my bike, i had put more effort, and at after some point of time, one needs to get out of the saddle to pedal. Given my knee condition, i could not do that either.
The plan was to tackle 2 kms a time and give rest to the knee. The first 2 kms was pretty easy, me and M covered it in 8 minutes. P was not in sight for the entire climb, he started flying from the word GO. After a 5 minute break, we were moving towards the “Talakavery – 4 KM” board. This stretch took some more time because of higher gradients. Lot of vehicles passed us and many of them cheered us.
By this time, my knee pain was aggravated to an unbearable state. We ran out of water and had to borrow from one of the bypassing Car-guys. We stopped at a view point and drank some water and rested for some time, from here the climb was only 3 more kms.Another km later, i had to give sufficient rest to my knee and had to stop for 15 mintues in front of a house. I laid down on the steps of the house when M went inside to fetch some water.
After this lengthy break, the rest of the climb was bearable. With one km to go, one can see the talakaveri temple and the shops arround it. The view from “One Km” Mark is awesome with pictures of mountains and paddy fields in the valleys. Just with half km to go, a steep ascend was waiting for us. M stopped in between to click some photos of me. We took a couple of photos and videos and proceeded towards the temple.
The Three Km Mark View point
All this time we assumed that P would have climbed “Brahmagiri” and would be waiting for us with a icecream in hand. Poor guy, he was waiting for us from an hour or so even without even entering the temple. P being very good in PR (personal relations), managed to keep the stuff at police check-post and also had a hearty chat with the ASI.
Left : View from talakaveri
Right Top : One of the small mantapams - talakaveri
Right Bottom : View of talakaveri from the steps-to-Brahmagiri
We took around 90 minutes to climb, where as P had climbed it in 36 mintues non-stop. Thats an amazing 15 kms per hour during the climb (way-to-go P, no he is not on steroids).
Talakaveri is the “Birth-place” of river kaveri. A small temple with a pond (Kalyani in kannada) in front of it. The devotees prostrate to the square shaped water hole from where its believed that kaveri starts flowing. Brahmagiri is a mount on talakaveri, one needs to climb 300 steps to go on the top. What awaits the visitor here is a cool breeze and and excellent panaromic view of the mountains of Coorg dist.
There are numerous small-shops at talakaveri, we were lured by a shop who offered hot-pakoda and cold butter milk. Each one of us easily devoured 3 glasses of butter-milk and a couple of pakodas.
After a hour and a Half, it was time for P to bid goodbye to his police-friends. The descend was interesting, we stopped at the “Three Km” view point to celebrate by munching on a “5-star crunch”. Within 15 minutes we were in front of KSTDC. P inquired for a room at KSTDC and somehow got three beds in a Dormitory of 90 beds. The place was pretty neat and we had the luxury of 24 hour Hot water .
It was 3.30 by this time and we decided to have lunch and rest for and hour before visiting the temple and getting into river-kaveri.
The rest of the evening was spent bathing in the river, visiting the temple, calling family members from a public telephone, dinner, slight bike repairs. We slept around 10 in the night and had an alarm set for 5 in the morning.
