We booked a Volvo bus to and fro journey from Bangalore to Mercara(Madikeri). [Coorg is also known as Kodai and madikeri is its headquarters.].KSRTC  has its station on this name.

 Reached Madikeri next day morning at 5.00am(around 5 hrs journey).We stayed at GreenHaven hotel.. about 5 min walk from main busstop.Around 11am we  rented a bike(around 300per day advance excluded) and set off for a jolly ride.

We visited Omkaraswera Temple.It has some historical significance, and then went for AbbeyFalls. It’s a great picturesque location. To our luck, there was a Kannada film shooting going on at the wooden bridge. Huh!!! The crew was frenzy at the tourist enthusiasm and had a nice time warding them off..hehe!!!!

Juicy oranges with a dash of red chillis put our tongues on fire. Nevertheless the tea walla did quench our thirst.Slowly, light drizzles changed to a heavy downpour.We were cursing our decision for picking up a bike. Nevertheless, it stopped in 15min and we set out for a 40km ride to Dubare, a famous place for elephant rides and white water rafting.

We travelled around an hour and reached Dubare around 3pm. Had lunch at Dubare Inn and set out for still water rafting .It costs around 250 per head. White water rafting is around 600bucks and is conducted only when Cauvery is in full flow during monsoons. Nevertheless it was a spinechilling experience. The guide was very sportive ..I realized how scraed I was in the water inspite of being a beginner level swimmer. The best part was encounter with a 10ft phyton. It was sedated and the local forest officers were taking it ashore. Eeish!!! I can still feel the sliminess of its skin..

We couldn’t travel to Buddhist monastery and we were already tired and headed back to Madikere. Again the bike ride was both exhilarating and scary if one isn’t accustomed to drive on the ghats. We sang all along the way and had a hot tea sip with garam pakore.. aaah!!! This was a very rejoicing moment.

Next day, we had choice either to head to NagarholeNationalPark(98 km from Madikere) or towards ThalaCauvery.(40km from Madikere). Me being the decision maker chose a jungle safari rather than the temple visits. (Worst decision ever made.). We rented taxi (costed us 1500 bucks) as 200km bike drive  seemed a tire for us. We travelled for 2.5 hrs and landed at the Irrupu falls.

This was the best part of Coorg journey, A km walk into the lush green jungles, brooks of white sparkling streams and the gurgling sounds of water beside … aah such a wonderful experience..It was also a bit dangerous to walk on the slippery rocks  and take a dip in the chilled waters. This was also my near to death experience as I slipped on the rocks but thank God didn’t fall into the waters.Half an hour from here we went to the Nagarhole natopnal park and discovered that we were late for the first evening  ride that starts at 3:30. Hence waited until 5 to get into the next safari. In the meantime caught up with the local crowd who offered us sweet watermelons.. It was so stomach filling.Huh!!!!! This was a total disaster as we only saw deers and wild boar. Dissapointed we headed back for a 3 hr journey back to Coorg..

Reached around 9pm . Had dinner and headed to the 11:00 bus from Madikere.