Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 30 APR (Day 4)

I started at 6.00 AM towards Dubare Elephant camp. It is 12 KM from Kushalnagar. The terrain had changed drastically now. Green hills on all the sides and riding was pleasant. Kushalnagar to to Siddapur road is newly done. Reached Dubare in half 45 mins. You have to take the boat and cross the Kaveri to reach the camp. The Camp starts from 8.30 AM so I had plenty of time. This spot is amazingly beautiful. There are 5 cottages in Dubare Inn and Jungle Lodges & Resorts have few cottages on the other side in camp. But they were all full as expected. You have to do booking in
Bangalore to stay here. At 1600 Rs./night this place is worth that. By 8 AM the tourist influx started and this place was like any other spot then. I got a feel of what it would be inside camp in few hours. So changed my mind and decided to ride to Siddapur which is around 15 KM from Dubare. I had a heavy breakfast in Dubare Inn.

This was the first time I was in hilly terrain on mountain bike. I was expecting that it will be tiring and exhaustive. Not at all! This was when I actually enjoyed riding! Dubare - Siddapur stretch passes through some dense forest and coffee estates. Morning views were superb. I inquired for home stay at few places but its tough to get when you are single. Ideally I would like to stay here in the traditional Kodava house in the midst of forest and do nothing. Just hang out for a week.2 KM before Siddapur you will get a road to Madikeri on your right. I stopped here for water and inquired about the road condition and distance. The tea shop Ajja suggested me to go back to kushalnagar and take the Madikeri road since that is not very steep. That distance was around 45 KM. Where as Siddapur - Madikeri road is around 35 KM, it is very steep but its extremely scenic. I was here for mountain biking so my choice was clear. Entire Siddapur - Madikeri road has coffee estates on both sides. Clearly they have destroyed the forest for coffee plantations and thats why there is lot of buzz in Kodagu for wildlife conservation by the same guys :-) This entire stretch I was riding in 1-2-3 (lower gears) got lots of opportunity to climb on 1st gear. My bike has 7X3=21 speed combinations, at two places even that wasn't enough; I felt that my bike should have few more gears. Where as on Bangalore - Mysore road I used only top gears 6 & 7. Took few snaps on this road but you have to be there to get real experience of the natures beauty.

Traffic is very very less on this road. You will only see Mahindra Jeeps and few buses. Kodagu has a very efficient public transport mainly run by private operators. I took a break at Murughodu and one more place after that. Had some mangoes on the way and reached a small place 4 KM to Madikeri. There was a board "Shanthi Estate" which I knew from Outlook guide provides accommodation. I took there private road which was going down the valley, this was extremely steep and it was just a mud track. I couldn't see anybody even after going half a KM. and the road was going down for another 1 KM. The thought of climbing it up if no one is there came to mind. My left knee was paining badly by now.

That slight injury at Srirangapattana was un bearable now. So I came back to main road totally exhausted. This 4 KM stretch to Madikeri is a extremely steep climb so I have to walk most of that. The milestone was showing that only 1 KM is left but I could not see any house, people or vehicles. That was surprising for me because I knew that Madikeri is a big town & its a district place so have to have a large population. And it is a big town! as soon I reached the top I could see the entire town!

Hotel Atithi is one of nice restaurants, serves veg buffet for 30 Rs. I had a heavy lunch. The tough task again to find accommodation. There is a tourist info center next to Atithi run by a beautiful & polite lady. Its actually a gift shop and info provided is free. She gave me 4 phone nos and all of them were full. BTW this lady was not at all impressed that I have peddled all the way from Bangalore :-( in fact no one gave me weired look or asked why I was cycling, after Kushalnagar! On the 5th call I got the room at Hotel Kaveri. Evening I went for a walk and visited
Omkareshwara temple. It was calm here, felt really good. I was not in a state to ride further as my knee was paining badly, So decided to head back next day. All VOVLO buses were full, its easy to transport bike in VOVLO. I had no choice but to book the 10 PM Rajhamsa before it gets full. I noticed that Rajhamsa buses don't have carriers on top and not all Rajhamsa will have luggage space at rear. So went to bus stand and inquired the matter. The 9 PM Rajhamsa is a new bus which has VOLVO like luggage space. So canceled the old ticket and booked the 9 PM bus.