Places to Stay and Eat at Kushalnagar and Madikeri

At Kushalnagar, the two good hotels are:

1. Kannika International (Ph: 08276-274728, 273401/02/03). It has slightly old look. I didnt check out the rooms but the food is very good.

2. Hotel Shylaja Arris (Ph:08276-272762) This was a newly built hotel so the rooms very neat and fresh. There were a few teething problems but I guess they would have solved it by now. Their restaurant serves Andhra food ("first restaurant to serve Andhra food in Kushalnagar" etc). The food was OK.

3. Nisargadhama (Ph: 08272-228305) This is the Forest Office number in Madikeri. You will need to call them and send them a draft if you want to book a cottage at Nisargadhama. The location is superb but the food is pathetic in the canteen there. Even if you are staying here, it is better to head for Kannika or any hotel in that vicinity.

At Madikeri

1. We stayed at Brahmagiri Comforts.(Ph: 08272- 225866 / 224866 / 224867) The road leading to it is very narrow and steep. You need to ask for directions getting to the hotel or you will miss it. It is a mediocre hotel. We didnt eat there. There is a good vegetarian restaurant on the main road, less than 5mins from this hotel. We had food there which was good.

At Bhagmandala
1. I dont know about the staying options here but the best and probably the only place to eat is the Hotel Mayura. The lunch was good here.

At Kakabe

1. I didnt notice any good eating places here. If you are going to Kakabe, ensure you get to the Iguttappa temple during lunch time. That way your food problem will be solved :))

Trip to Madikeri, Bhagmandala, Talacauvery and Kakabe

We started from Kushalnagar in the morning after breakfast and headed to Madikere. Madikere is around 45 to 50 km from Kushalnagar and you should do this distance in an hours time. This is the ghat section but the hills slope very gently. So the drive is quite good and not very strenuous.

We got to Madikeri and went to the hotel, Brahmagiri Comforts. We just dumped our bags here and started for Bhagmandala and Talacauvery. This road is also on a ghat section and has many twists and turns. On the way there is a small shop where you can have a cup of coffee and can also buy coffee powder and spices. What caught the eye was the slogan there, which went 'Drink and Drive'. They meant coffee ofcourse :)) We stopped here and had a cup of coffee, bought some spices and drove down to Bhagmandala.

Well, if you are not too religious a person, there isnt much to do at Bhagmandala !! You can see two river streams joining there. There is also a temple here which you can visit.

From there we went to Tala Cauvery. This is the birthplace of Cauvery. There is a small tank built here and you can take a dip in that. Take a change of clothes along if you want to take a dip. Next to this spot are steps which lead up to the peak of the mountain. Frome there you can see a lot of the Brahmagiri ranges and also the hills of Kerala. Since it was close to lunch time and we were hungry, we didnt climb up this mountain.

On the way back we stopped for lunch at Hotel Mayura at Bhagmandala. This is the only decent place to eat in the whole stretch from Madikeri to Tala Cauvery. So ensure your stop is such that you are at Bhagmandala when you are hungry :)) The food is good here but do expect a crowd since everyone going this side wants to eat here !!

Starting from the hotel, we went headed for Kakabe. For this you need to go straight thru a village road without turning left at Bhagmandala. It is better to ask people at Bhagmandala on the road that you have to take. This drive is excellent. It takes you thru lot of plantations and except for seeing a town bus once in a while, you get absolutely no traffic on the road. It is very peaceful.

Our destination at Kakabe was the Iguttappa temple. When you reach the taxi stand at Kakabe, you need to take a right and follow the sign boards to get to this temple. The temple is on top of a hillock and is on all sides surrounded by mountains. You can see Todiyendamol, the tallest peak in Coorg, from here. The temple is a Kerala style temple.

As luck would have it, we reached there when the temple was closed. We got there around 4pm but the temple opens only after 5pm or so. They close at 1 pm. So keep this in mind when you plan a trip to this temple. The priests were very nice people and asked us to stay back. But I didnt want to drive late in the night not knowing the route. So we put a small donation in the hundi and the priests gave us some prasad and some coffee !! We started from here and drove back to Madikeri.

The next day morning, we left for Abbey falls. These falls are part of a private estate. We reached quite early and so the crowd was very less. You need to park your car and then walk down for 10 mins to get to the waterfall. This walk will make you feel miserable. It is not the strain of walking but the strain of seeing !! Everywhere along the path plastic is strewn. Empty chips packets, cigarette packets, empty plastic bottles etc etc.

But your anger vanishes when you see the falls. Abbey was in its full glory when we went there. It was a wonderful sight and we could go down and stand in the water. We didnt take a shower in the falls but you could do that if you take a change of clothes along. We stayed there for quite some time and by the time we were leaving, it was getting crowded.

We drove back from Madikeri, with a brief halt at Nisargadhama, for my daughters to say Hi to the rabbits and then had lunch at Kushalnagar, before heading back to Bangalore. We got back to Bangalore late in the evening.