Date 30, dec to Jan 3rd, 2022
After an unfortunately abrupt ending of the Chikmagalur trip due to mechanical breakdown, I undertook a trip to Coorg on New Year's Eve. The weather was nice and the ride was easy.
Started early morning from Bangalore around 5 am and headed towards Mysore. Instead of taking the Mysore highway I took Bellur route for better roads due to a lot of road construction on the Mysore highway. The sad part of the trip is that I hit a dog while riding and ended up killing it. Harleys are difficult to stop and dogs just show up on the roads.
For my first stop I decided to stay in the Roambay Hostel, just to hang out with fellow travelers. Surprisingly, I slept quite well, given that usually these hostels are highly noisy. Quickly refreshed I next headed to Jaganmohan Palace. The Palace is quite nice with a lot of art work inside. Apparently this is the first palace of the Wadiyar kings who ruled Mysore at that time. Taking photos inside the Jaganmohan Palace is prohibited so here's a nice Harley photo in front of the palace.
Next stop was the near by zoo. I find it quite depressing to watch captive animals, but I guess kids love to see them. I would never visit any zoo again just out of curiosity.
Mysore Palace is very impressive. Even though the art and architecture is not that complicated compared to European counterparts, at least the ones allowed to visitors, it is still wonderful to know the history of Wadiyar kings and how they lived.
The next morning, Dec 31st, Coorg was finally in range. The road was nice, however, for some distance before and after Virajpet it is bumpy. Apparently Coorg produces 40% of India's coffee as the weather is conducive for coffee plantations. Before coffee plantations Coorg is known for its tangerines however, because of some virus whole plantations were gone. The whole of Coorg is full of coffee estates and I stayed at HoneyValley which is in the middle of the coffee estate. HoneyValley was the first homestay in Coorg, is close to lots of hikes, and carries a lot of history. It overlooks the hill, and in the morning I was greeted with an amazing vision of fog over the hill accompanied by the sounds of birds chirping.
Some photos from outside of honey valley:
Folks at Honeyvalley also make some local wine; but it felt more like fermented wine. Bought some Mulberry wine, which seems to me similar to wine made out of blackberries.
There is a small waterfall on the estate, where I spent some time climbing the rocks the first day.
Ridge Valley Hike:
The next day started with a ridge valley hike at 8 am, and it was entirely worth the effort.
You will see a lot of elephant's poop on the way to the top. It was there that I met these folks, who stayed all night in the middle of fog and chill weather to celebrate 2022's arrival.
The views from the top of the ridge are nice, and I stayed there for few minutes until the skies cleared to take some shots. If one continues on the same path, it leads to Tadiandamol Peak, the highest peak in Coorg. We are not allowed at this time because of the elephants migrating.
Overall I spent 3 relaxing days at HoneyValley, and met some cool people there. Finally I returned to Bangalore on Jan 3rd, and of course Harley had to pose.
Final stop was at the Hotel Mayura to have some lunch and ice cream at Scoops!