Got up at 5, as usual in the morning and were off from KSTDC hotel by 6.30. Bhagamandala was more colder place than madkeri, probably because of the river. It was still dark and to make the matters worse for riding, there was a thich fog engulfing the temple-town. A nice strong coffee at Santhosh hotel and off we went towards kakabbe.
Localites warned us that the road to kakkabbe was in a bad condidtion, and this was an understatement. Ballumavuti, where we planned to have breakfast was only 17 kms from 
bhagamandala and we took around 3 hours to reach the place, mostly due to Lack of visibility (Upto 7.30) and worst road conditions.
The road condition was such that, we were praying that we wont encounter steep declines, as it was very difficult to ride fast on this shambled terrain.
On the contrary, the fog and the occasional paddy field settings lifted our spirits, not to mention the umpteen photographs we clicked.
Pic: The misty morning & Manohar
bhagamandala and we took around 3 hours to reach the place, mostly due to Lack of visibility (Upto 7.30) and worst road conditions.The road condition was such that, we were praying that we wont encounter steep declines, as it was very difficult to ride fast on this shambled terrain.
On the contrary, the fog and the occasional paddy field settings lifted our spirits, not to mention the umpteen photographs we clicked.
Pic: The misty morning & Manohar
Reached Ballumavuti and had bareakfast at Hotel-Priya. Pooris were among the best I have had so far, but the chutney was very very spicy. Most of the people are Estate-owners and seem to be well-off.
From here, the road condition is good. We took the right side of the fork at Nelaje(3Km) and proceeded on a much better road with a sigh of relief. The terrain was not flat as we had assumed, it had apattern of “Ascend-Flat-Descend-flat”, if the ascend and descend were surrounded by the coffee estates ; the flat ones had the paddy fields for its company.
From here, the road condition is good. We took the right side of the fork at Nelaje(3Km) and proceeded on a much better road with a sigh of relief. The terrain was not flat as we had assumed, it had apattern of “Ascend-Flat-Descend-flat”, if the ascend and descend were surrounded by the coffee estates ; the flat ones had the paddy fields for its company.Pic: Bad roads
Kakkabbe is around 7 kms from the fork, just 2 kms to go and we found two enthusiastic boys (Bhavishya and Rajesha) racing us. They were on an atlas make old model cycle with single speed, guess what? both were on the same cycle. Bhavishya was the pillion and Rajesha the rider. They used to match us on flat-terrain and descends, but on the ascend, the pillion used to get down and push the cycle.
Just before Kakkabbe, me and M stopped and waited for our champs. As an incentive, we allowed them to take M's bike for a ride. This time couple of more boys joined and they too wanted to ride. I am sure, they will be talking about “Riding a geared” cycle for weeks to come.Pic: The Champs of Coorg
Kakkabbe is slightly bigger town, Coorg's deity “Iggutappa temple” can be accessed from here. There are lot of Jeeps which ply you to the place and back. Also, this is one of the starting points of “Tadiyendamol Peak” trek. Tadiyendamol is the tallest peak in Coorg district and third in Karnataka (After Mullayanagiri and Kudremukh).
Speaking of Mullayanagiri, somewhere in between i got an SMS from gauthaman reading “This sms is sent to you from the highest peak of Karnataka, Muliangiri – 1918m. Believe it we cycled all the way up”
For this I replied “Great man. Congrats to you and your team :-)”
More about his story at http://www.bangalorepedals.blogspot.com/
As usual P was waiting for us on a bridge, chatting with the Jeep drivers.
From here, Cheyandane was only 9 kms on a beautifully looking newly laid Tar-road. We decided to push ourselves and cover this in 30 minutes. We almost did that.
Cheyandane is a small town with a Governament hospital and array of shops on the main road surrounding the “Chelavara Cross”. We were planning to spend 2-3 hours leisurely at Chelavara. Prema, my colleague had arranged for a Jeep, pickup truck it turned out to be. We were served with nice hot Tea and a dozen bananas while waiting for the driver “Paapu” (Nickname, means baby in Kannada) at his house.
For this I replied “Great man. Congrats to you and your team :-)”
More about his story at http://www.bangalorepedals.blogspot.com/
As usual P was waiting for us on a bridge, chatting with the Jeep drivers.
From here, Cheyandane was only 9 kms on a beautifully looking newly laid Tar-road. We decided to push ourselves and cover this in 30 minutes. We almost did that.
Cheyandane is a small town with a Governament hospital and array of shops on the main road surrounding the “Chelavara Cross”. We were planning to spend 2-3 hours leisurely at Chelavara. Prema, my colleague had arranged for a Jeep, pickup truck it turned out to be. We were served with nice hot Tea and a dozen bananas while waiting for the driver “Paapu” (Nickname, means baby in Kannada) at his house.
Pic : The Pickup truck, our transport to the top
A second hand Pickup truck, supposed to be bought on that day was in a good condition.We parked our bikes at his house and jumped into the truck, me and Manohar at the back…. No seats and no cushion.. which proved to be a very wrong decision later on kuccha roads. The road was in pretty good initially, after 3 kms it just disappeared, what we had in front was a path made by water during rainy seasons. Lot of boulders on the path, most of the times the truck was in 4-wheel drive mode. Its better not to risk own vehicles here. 4 more kms of climb on this road took us to the view-point, the place was just awesome.
We were told that one side of the mountain-cliff is Kerala which was in front of us. It was a sight of abundant forest (trees) and range of mountains in the horizon, no man made structure obstructed our view here. The mountain we were standing was part of “Brahmagiri range” which starts from talakaveri. All this time, we were tracing the base of these ranges while riding from Bhagamandala to Cheyandane. This is also a popular shooting (Film shooting) place.
Pic: M and P looking over the cliff
Spent around 30 minutes on the top, clicked
some photos, enquired routes for trekking and off we were from the beautiful place. While returning, I occupied the front seat and P had to join M at the back. We stopped at Chelavara-falls (also called as KABBE) on the way back. This was like a private falls, not a soul there (except we four), the water was too cold, I decided not to immerse myself completely. P and M were in water for at-least 40 minutes.Pic : Awesome Brahmagiri Range
We also visited one Mr Tilak’s house. There is an interesting story behind this visit. M had visited this place 17 years back, when he was a small kid. From the moment I planned this route, he was very interested to visit this place and people who treated him soo well in his last visit. I felt it was some kind of gratitude and “Thank you” visit.
I guess both Mr Tilak and M were excited and a bit emotional to see each other. Me and P were more interested in the “Heralehannu Juice”, Heralehannu (in kannada) is a fruit that belongs to citrus family. Its very popular for its pickle in south India. Mrs Tilak filled a 1500 ml bottle with the juice, which proved to be a life saver for us later.Pic: Manohar Jumping from one of the rocks
It was almost 3 hours since we stopped cycling and we thought that we should get back on the saddle, bid adieu to the Tilak family and proceeded towards our bikes. We were on the Pick-up truck all this time for traveling, thanked the driver and paid 600 Rs for the trip (which we felt was costly) and started towards Virajpet.
We thought of skipping the lunch as we could not find any decent hotels on the way. From Cheyandane, Virajpet is around 17 kms. The last 4 kms is on the Madkeri-Virajpet highway and mostly flat. We covered this distance in 90 minutes with couple of long breaks for munching biscuits and gulping bananas.
We thought of skipping the lunch as we could not find any decent hotels on the way. From Cheyandane, Virajpet is around 17 kms. The last 4 kms is on the Madkeri-Virajpet highway and mostly flat. We covered this distance in 90 minutes with couple of long breaks for munching biscuits and gulping bananas.Pic : Chelavara falls (Kabbe)
Virajpet is second largest town in Coorg district and finding a Kamat hotel for hot-Masala dosa was not tough. Our plan was to ride further and camp at Gonikoppa so that we would be left with only 100 Kms on the last day.
The route from Virajpet to Gonikoppa was mostly on a flat road with paddy fields on either side. We enjoyed this ride slowly, clicking some sun-set photos and shopping at a Wax-shop. The last 2 kms was riding in the dark. M was holding a torch in his hand and the other two were following his trail.
At 7 P.M we were at Nandanavana, inside our room. A noisy double bedded room just next to the main road. Had nice dinner at one of the Udupi style hotel. I watched some EPL on ESPN and slept around 10.
The route on Day 2.
Bhagamandala – Take the kakabbe route, the road is in a very bad condition, better to start after dawn.
At Nilaje (20 Kms) – take the right hand side of a fork which leads to Kakabbe. The left side goes towards Napoklu. The Road quality from here is better.
At Kakabbe (26 Kms) – continue on the road towards Cheyandane.
At Cheyandane (37 Kms) – Take left in the middle of the town to visit Chelavara falls (3 Kms). From Cheyandane, on the same main road proceed towards Kadanga then later towards Kadanur.
At Kadanur (50 Kms) – Take left on the Madkeri – Virajpet Highway and proceed towards Virajpet.
At Virajpet (58 Kms) – Ask for directions towards Gonikoppa (18 Kms from here) .
Food.
Breakfast – Ballumavuti, Hotel Priya. Nice Pooris but spicy chutney. One can also explore some hotel option at Kakabbe.
Snacks – Cheyandane, this town has couple of shops for light snacks. One can have Lunch here after visiting the falls as its hard to find a good hotel later upto Virajpet.
Evening Snacks – Masala Dosa at Hotel Kamat, VIrajpet. Virajpet is a big town and offers nice restaurants and sweet shops.
Dinner – Udupi hotel, Gonikoppa – Nice food.
Accomodation
Hotel Nandanavana – 400 Per room. Don’t take the rooms that are adjacent to the main road, too noisy.
