Coorg in December 07

21st December 07

We (myself, Murali (my bro), mom and dad left (in our newly acquired Maruti Esteem)to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Virajpet, a small charming town in Coorg district. After some quality time spent with family, we began to tour.

Day 1 - We visited Bhagamandala, Talakaveri and Madikeri. These places are very small but the drive was very pleasant. We were driving through woods and coffee estates almost all the time.

I was convinced that you must enjoy the journey and not wait for the destination.
The Raja Seat at Madikeri was a nice place. It’s a small park situated on an elevated piece of earth with some gardens and stone benches for tourists to rest, overlooking what can be described as a valley. As you recline on one of the benches and look ahead, there are no manmade jungles as far as your eyes can see. In fact, you don’t get a perspective of the distance ahead of you. When you look down, you see forests, lush green fields, meadows and small villages here and there at varying altitudes. When you look ahead, you see one mountain after another after another and then the range of mountains disappears as it dissolves into the horizon far away. We caught sunset in the mountains and reluctantly returned to Virajpet.

Day 2 – This time, my uncle, aunt and their daughter joined us. The more, the merrier! My uncle who is a very interesting man kept us quite entertained with his humorous observations. He said "In the entire country, people drive on the left of the road, but in Virajpet, people drive on what is left of the road!

We visited the temple in Thirunelli, Kerala. We drove to the next destination which was the Kuruva island. The road was flanked on both sides by teakwood forests. These trees have been planted by the government in order to create yielding forests(monoculture forests are not a good idea, but anyway..). We reached the island which was full of bamboo grooves among some other vegetation. We had carried lunch (Bisibelebath and Curd rice) with us. We ate in the woods while my bro stood guard with a bamboo pole in his hand to shoo away all the little monkeys who had gathered from everywhere to watch us eat.

We returned from the island quickly to go on a safari in the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary. 10 of us (plus a guard and a driver) got into a jeep, looking out eagerly for elephants, tigers and other wild animals. At the end of the 45 minute drive through the forest, we had only been successful to the extent of catching fleeting glimpses of wild buffaloes and deers.

These are the first few pictures I took with my new Sony T200 bought in the US :-) Enjoy!



Coorg Dec 07