The first challenge was finding an accommodation. Coorg being famous for home stays, we wanted to explore that. For me an ideal place was an estate home stay where greenery surrounds me. It was at that time a friend suggested a home stay where he stayed sometime back. It was run by very friendly Coorgy family. The trade-off is that it was not in an estate. But we settled down for that and never repented. Rather they made our stay so comfortable that still my two year old son thinks that Coorg is his home.
Prologue
The Passengers: Husband, Wife, Kid
The Carrier: SantroXing XL
Petrol consumption: Around Rs 1500
Starting Point: Hebbal, Bangalore
End Point: Madikkeri
Approximate distance: 270KM.
Road condition: Bangalore to Kushal Nagar: Excellent (70% road was 4 lane)
Kushal Nagar to Madikkeri : Bad (Work is in progress. May get better soon)
Route
Bangalore- Bidadi- Channapatna-Madya-Mysore-Hunsur-PeriyaPatna-Khusalnagar-Madikeri
Driving direction to Madikkeri
From Hebbal, we took outer ring road to Yeswanthapur. On the dead end (Gurugundapalaya, T junction, left to yeswanthapur) took a right and then left after 200 to 300 meters. We kept on going straight till we hit the Magadi road. The over bridge construction is still going on and from here again a left followed by right (around 200meters). Kept going on this road and approximately 20 minutes later we hit the Mysore road where the big arch over bridge has been completed. Took a right and zoomed in Mysore road.
The better way to reach mysore road now is NICE roads. If you are staying somewhere near to the Nice road, I strongly suggest you to take NICE road unless you are travelling at night.
Mysore road is in good condition, but you still need to watch out for the humps and mad drivers. Once you reach Srirangapatna, you have two options to reach Madikeri road. Go till Mysore and take Hunsur road. The other option is to take right after Srirnagapatna. The board you need to look out for is Rangathhittu bird sanctuary. You need to take the same road which goes to this bird sanctuary. Since we skipped this road, don’t know much about it.
Once you reach near Mysore, you need to take outer ring road. You will see a big aqua duct going above the road. You need to take right in the next junction. Look out for direction to Hunsur. We didn’t see much sign boards on Mysore outer ring road. But keep going and by the time you compete a semi circle, you will find board to Madikery. From here it’s a straight road till Khushal Nagar. From Kushal Nagar the roads become narrow. Watch out for signboards as it is very easy to miss from here.
Another 45 minutes, you are in madikeri.
Hotels around the way
KaduMane(Before Bidadi)
Kamat Lokruchi and another Kamat (don’t remember the other name)- Channapatna and Ramanagar
Coffie Day- I counted three
MC Donald’s - Near Madhya
Idra Dhanush
Madur Tiffany - Madur
Places to Visit
Tibetan Monastery: Look for their arch on your left side once you reach Kushal Nagar. Very hard to miss.
Nissargadhama:This is on your left side after you cross Khushal Nagar. There is green arch in Kannada. You could see vehicles parked inside from the road.
Raja seat: Right in the city. Look out for sign boards.
Thala Cauvery: This is around 45 KMs from Madikeri. You need to take the road to Managalore. This is the road going down in the main junction of Madikkeri. This is on your left side if you are coming to Madikery. The first 10 KMs of the road is in pathetic condition. There were lot vehicles in this route because of Pooja in Thala cauvery when we visited and everybody was driving crazy. As you are getting down in the winding roads, you would see a deviation towards left to ThalaCauvery. The road gets better from here onwards.
Dubera elephant camp: We went to Dubera from Madikkeri. So this route may be good, only if you plan to start from Madikeri and want to reach back Madikeri. It is almost a 45 minutes drive of which every minute is worth the drive. The road is in excellent condition and is very scenic. You need to take left in the first junction once you reach Madikeri. This was an unmanned junction and there was no traffic at all. I couldn’t see any board there. So watch out for a board of Koorg international instead. After you travel 10 minutes, you would see a Bhavans school. Keep going in this route. After travelling further straight on a junction, you will see a board towards left to dubera. The road become extremely narrow from here. So it is advisable to drive slowly and enjoy the scenery. This would soon hit a main road where you need to take left. Keep going on the bigger road and you will see the board to dubera on your right.
-Manoj
