Exploring some offbeat locations in Coorg in my Renault Duster

We visited a location that I had never been to before. It's a huge backwater and dam, and the approach road is absolutely amazing.

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Allow me to digress a bit first!

After my trip to various hill stations in Nilgiris (Wayanad, Ooty, Coonoor, etc.) towards the end of 2024, I haven't been on any longer trips. So, Holi in March'25 was a decent opportunity to plan a short getaway. And this was a family trip wherein my wife, furry friend (Eliz), parents and brother were all going together.

Also, just a couple of weeks before this trip, my brother got his XUV 3XO (AX7) delivered. I wanted to have this trip on my bike (Interceptor), and it was ideal with my brother joining in as well. Though Eliz clearly prefers riding on the bike, it's much easier for pets in a car in summers.

However, just a couple of days before the trip, I was feeling a bit under the weather. So decided just 2 days before the trip that I too shall ride this time in my car (Duster, turbo petrol automatic).

Like most people, we enjoy travelling a lot as well. And have been travelling for a long time already. But looking at some memories created by Google or Apple on my phone, I realized that I don't quite ever revisit the pics or videos I take on my trips after it's over. Though when I see these as travel memories, they do look beautiful. So last year only, I thought to start editing some travel videos and post them on YouTube as well -- something I can enjoy watching as well after the trip.

Creating travel videos on bike rides is much easier, and given this time it was a car ride -- I thought of giving it a try. So ordered Neewer camera mounts from Amazon that very day, and these arrived the next day, just in time to have some fun and get some shots from my Action Cam and Insta. Not much difference anyhow in terms of how I use my main camera and drone, be it a car trip or a bike ride, so nothing different for this ride there. Some of these shots came out well, some didn't quite as well.

Deciding on the kind of travel experience we wanted

My first trip to Coorg (from Bangalore) was around 10 years back. In fact, this was literally the first highway ride with my better half, which developed my appreciation of travel in myself. On this trip, I did a lot of riding in my car in Coorg from northern parts of Madikeri (Mandalpatti, Abbey falls, Raja's seat etc.) to the southern part of Coorg (Iruppu Falls).

Since this trip, I have been to Coorg multiple times. But mostly stay was Resorts focussed and getting to enjoy some leisure time there before heading back home. This time around, I thought to get back to visiting some locations which maybe we haven't been to earlier, so that parents too can get the experience of this part of Coorg. Also, mom had a preference to stay near the market area. Hence, we decided to stay first day at a natural location (Jawa Mane), and book a villa for nthe ext 2 days of stay at Madikeri itself.

With the bookings and mode of travel sorted, we were all set to get on the ride.

Let the Trip Begin!

We started in our cars a bit later than I would have wished for. It was a 6:15 am start, approx. And I just realised that I had missed a beautiful sunrise. Morning sky was looking wonderful and the weather was quite pleasant as well in the morning.

For car rides, the elevated corridor on Mysore Road is probably the best option and saves us a lot of time. Ride to Mysore is literally a breeze with this. Anyhow, we did stop on a couple of occasions to capture some shots.

As the day progressed, the weather decided to return to the norm of the season (as expected). Summers have clearly taken a toll on the greenery along the roads. However, as we approached Coorg, I was pleasantly surprised to see that greenery there still looked quite fresh, though the temperatures there were still quite high.

Ride till Coorg was fine, real fun of driving starts as we reach Coorg and we start getting some winding roads going through scenic landscapes to drive on. The approach road to our stay was very good as well.

Last stretch of road, approx. 1km before reaching Jawa Mane is an off-road patch. Though it's quite manageable.

Jawa Mane homestay is in Suntikoppa town in Coorg. It's a big property, there's a stream of Harangi Backwater flowing right next to the property (though not accessible). In this property, the stay is in an old family house. Given we were in a group, we had the whole stay for ourselves!

Later in the evening, I took out my drone to check out and capture the vicinity of our stay. Some of the views I captured were beyond my expectations, totally humbled me with its beauty. Thought had to do with drone shots only, as with limited time, didn't really manage to find an approach to visit this spot myself.

Heading to beautiful locations in Coorg!

We had 2 more days to travel around in Coorg on this trip. In this weather, though, exploring the place in daytime was ba it tough, especially for parents. So we decided to go around either early in the morning or in the evening, when it was still pleasant. Still, all the locations we managed to visit in this trip looked absolutely fresh, something I didn't expect in the summer.

After checking out the next day from Jawa Mane and heading towards our next stay in Madikeri, we thought of visiting Harangi Backwaters -- a location I had never been to before. It's a huge backwater and dam, and the approach road is absolutely amazing. Maybe given it was a weekday, only very few people were there when we visited. This was a good opportunity to capture some pics of my car along the backwaters..

Next day, early morning, we headed towards Mandalpatti Peak. Though I did not know that pets are not allowed there. Here, only off-road capable 4x4 vehicles are allowed to be driven towards the peak, and the driver there is informed that due to this area being a forest range, pets aren't allowed there.

I thought that we perhaps missed an opportunity to witness and capture sunrise amongst clouds. And decided to head towards Abbey Falls instead. Here too, we saw that the place opens up only later in the day (after 9am). However, we did manage to get some pretty amazing aerial shots -- which sort of took away the disappointment of not being able to visit Mandalpatty.

After spending some time there anyway, started looking at other options to visit. One thing that stood out to me was Gravity Falls, again, a place I haven't been to before. But we thought of visiting here around evening instead, and headed towards Madikeri town. Had our breakfast here, then visited Omkareshwar Temple, which is very close to Madikeri circle.

Later in the evening, we went to Gravity Falls. This too seemed like a less visited place. Road leading to Gravity Falls was absolutely amazing to enjoy a nice drive.

This place has a suspension bridge, and after crossing that over we can go towards the riverbank. It's a very scenic picnic spot. Very few tourists visit this place, probably. But I did see a campsite here as well, they provide a campsite here near the river.

Though I did not find any waterfall here, so wonder why this place is called Gravity Falls. Maybe because few people may have fallen off after seeing how amazing this place looks!

Ride back home!

After a wonderful stay at Coorg, it was time to head back home. We decided to have an early start and have breakfast on the way back. On our drive back home, the roads in the early morning were simply amazing to enjoy the ride. There was very little traffic, and fog was surrounding the road from Madikeri till we reached Kushalnagar, where we took a halt at Namdroling Monastery.

Having a nice stay, enjoying some good moments are all good and wonderful things. But for mean riders like us, ride matters the most. And getting a parting gift this this wonderful ride, made this trip truly memorable for me. And of course, this makes us crave to head back on the roads and get to experience this all over again.

And on to the last bit, I have grown to enjoy!

After returning from a trip, getting back to all the memories captured in cameras and putting together a video on that is something I have grown fond of as well. Here's a short video put together capturing the wonderful memories of this trip.

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