Coorg and Slice of Waynad

Date: 25-Dec-15 to 27-Dec-15

What a spectacular year 2015 was!! The year had given us numerous unforgettable memories and wonderful moments to cherish. We wanted to end this spectacular year with one more amazing trip. Both of us did not have a week-long holiday. We just had three days long holidays (including weekend :-() and we decided on visiting Coorg and waynad this time. Coorg is another name for “Kodagu” which is a district in Karnataka and is one of the most traveled tourist destinations in Karnataka. Both of us had been to this place before. But, together, we never had been to this romantic place. So, we thought to end the year with this popular attraction of our homeland.

Previously, when I visited Coorg, it rained heavily throughout the days. This time, we planned our trip in winter. So, we were hopeful of seeing clear sky and visibility of all amazing landscapes in Coorg.

Coorg guest house

We booked a hotel called Coorg guest house which is a bit far from all the tourist places of Coorg. It is situated almost on the border of Coorg and is very near to Waynad. Initially, we thought that we made a bad decision by selecting this guest house, but as our planning continued, it turned out to be a great choice. Because, as the guest house was not very far from Waynad, we decided to touch Waynad (Thirunelli Temple and Banasura Sagar Dam) on the last day of our trip.

As Coorg was a familiar place for us, we did not have to do much research on the route to take. During planning, we chose to reach Coorg via Hassan road. We opted this route for our onward journey, because with this route, we could cover Shettihalli Church and Gorur Dam on our way. For the return journey, we decided on the usual Mysore road. The detailed route information is given at the end of this post and also will be covered in the day-wise travel posts.

Itinerary

We actually did a lot of research to decide on the best of the places to cover in these three days and came up with the following plan:

• Day 1 – Start from home at 4 AM, visit Shettihalli Church and Gorur Dam before breakfast. Have breakfast in Konanur. After breakfast, proceed towards Kushal Nagar (Coorg). Visit Kaveri Nisargadhama and Bylekuppe Golden Temple. Post lunch, go to Abbi Falls and Madikeri Fort. Reach our guesthouse in the evening.
• Day 2 – Have breakfast at the guest house and start the trip at around 8 AM. Visit Chelavara falls, Nalknad palace, and Igguthappa temple which are close to each other. Then, visit Bhagamandala. Post lunch, visit Talakaveri, and then proceed towards Madikeri (Raja Seat and Omkareshwara Temple). Plan to reach Raja Seat before 5.30 PM as to not to miss the sunset.
• Day 3 – Have breakfast at the guest house, check out, and start our last day’s trip at around 8 AM. The first destination for the day would be Iruppu Falls. Then, visit Thirunelli temple which is in Waynad. After Thirunelli, proceed towards Banasura Sagar dam which might take around 2 hrs. Post lunch, visit the dam and start towards home (via Mysore). If time permits, visit Nanjanagudu temple. Have dinner on the way and plan to reach home before 12 in the night.

As always, this again turned out to be a tightly packed plan considering the distances between these places and the road condition (the roads in Coorg are curvy roads and we were unsure of the condition of the roads inside the towns). One more concern was the crowd due to year end vacations (which in turn will result in more vehicles on the roads). We made up our minds to miss out one or two places because of all these reasons.

Additional details

• Route Travelled: Onward: BTM Layout > Yashwanthpur > Channarayapattana > Devihalli > Shettihalli Church > Gorur > Kushal Nagara > Madikeri > Virajpet > Gonikoppal > Coorg Guest House
  Return: Coorg Guest House > Iruppu Falls > Thirunelli Temple > Banasura Sagar Dam > Sultan Batheri > Gundlupet > Mysore > Mandya > BTM Layout (via Mysore Road)
• Total distance (To & Fro): 1100 km
• Mileage (Car): 22 km/l
• Fuel expense: 3145 Rs
• Total expense: 7103 Rs
• Photos: Day 1 – On the Way to Coorg Photos, Day 2 – In and Around Coorg Photos, and Day 3 -On the Way to Waynad Photos

See also:

• First Day – On the Way to Coorg
• Second Day- A Well-Spent Day in Coorg
• Third-Day – Touching Waynad