There is generally a belief that one shouldn't explore "nadhimoolam" (origin of a river) and "Rishimoolam" (origin of a sage). But there is no harm in worshipping a nadhimoolam, if you know where it is :). So we went to Thalakaveri - the starting point of River Cauvery or Kaveri - it is in Coorg district of Karnataka.
Btw, I and Vikram, in addition to seeing Thalakaveri et all, had one more secret agenda. Well, I can't elaborate on this any further and would definitely appreciate one-one queries / calls regarding the same. After all, all is fair with love and war!!
We (I, Vikram, Anand & fly) started from Bangalore at around 2300 on April 4, 2009 in a Tavera. Well, things were fine for around 2 hrs, when suddenly, the driver stopped the vehicle. Part of life, the back wheel was punctured. But what shouldn't and couldn't be part of life was that the stepney was also punctured!! He appeared to be an awesome driver, who had read geography when he was drunk or asleep!! He was very sure that the nearest big town was Maddur aound 40 km away from the place where we were stranded!! Then we tried stopping the vehicles moving on the road for help. Every vehicle that passed went Vrooooom when passing us, as though we were the final pole in an F1 circuit. I don't blame them anyways as these kind of midnight stops can lead to anything (I mean it!!). God gives tests and gives the answer key also in sometime. A highway police patrol, which saw us, came to our rescue. Thankfully, they were not naxals / dacoits in camouflage :). I have to thank those people as they helped us take the tyres (both :)) to Srirangapatna (JUST 4 km) along with the driver and Anand's fly - Anand even offered to go along, but we (I and Vikram) stopped him, as it is always better to get stranded with as many people as possible :). Added to that, the police men told that this is a dangerous area!! Imagine, three stupid people, sitting in a punctured car, on a "dangerous" highway, at 0100 in the morning, windows closed, half asleep, discussing hopeless things... Experience, which could never be forgotten!! We spent an hour after which the tyres came, got fixed and we started at 0400..
Btw, I and Vikram, in addition to seeing Thalakaveri et all, had one more secret agenda. Well, I can't elaborate on this any further and would definitely appreciate one-one queries / calls regarding the same. After all, all is fair with love and war!!
We (I, Vikram, Anand & fly) started from Bangalore at around 2300 on April 4, 2009 in a Tavera. Well, things were fine for around 2 hrs, when suddenly, the driver stopped the vehicle. Part of life, the back wheel was punctured. But what shouldn't and couldn't be part of life was that the stepney was also punctured!! He appeared to be an awesome driver, who had read geography when he was drunk or asleep!! He was very sure that the nearest big town was Maddur aound 40 km away from the place where we were stranded!! Then we tried stopping the vehicles moving on the road for help. Every vehicle that passed went Vrooooom when passing us, as though we were the final pole in an F1 circuit. I don't blame them anyways as these kind of midnight stops can lead to anything (I mean it!!). God gives tests and gives the answer key also in sometime. A highway police patrol, which saw us, came to our rescue. Thankfully, they were not naxals / dacoits in camouflage :). I have to thank those people as they helped us take the tyres (both :)) to Srirangapatna (JUST 4 km) along with the driver and Anand's fly - Anand even offered to go along, but we (I and Vikram) stopped him, as it is always better to get stranded with as many people as possible :). Added to that, the police men told that this is a dangerous area!! Imagine, three stupid people, sitting in a punctured car, on a "dangerous" highway, at 0100 in the morning, windows closed, half asleep, discussing hopeless things... Experience, which could never be forgotten!! We spent an hour after which the tyres came, got fixed and we started at 0400..
Awesome!! Two eyes are definitely not enough to see and appreciate the picturesque Coorg district and the entire travel stretch... Very fertile and green every where. We reached Thalakaveri at around 0900 and it was so foggy that the visiblity was near zero. I got the scare of my life, when I heard that we have to take a dip in the pool near the actual start of Kaveri. I would have preferred to go back to the "dangerous" highway!!
Thala Kaveri:
It is actually a sacred place rather than a tourist spot. A very small 1.5' by 1.5' square - where Goddess Cauvery starts and flows through two states!! Really amazed. Did "Sankalpa snanam" (some rituals and took a dip - fortunately, the Sun was out :)) and performed puja. There are also shrines of "Lord Agastheeshwara" and Ganesha (actually responsible for Cauvery to be flowing from here). There was also a 500 step ascent at the end of which there was nothing (really) - a view point. Like a**** we climbed the steps, took some snaps and climbed down. Just realized that we are geting older.
Abbey falls:
Now that we are done with the main agenda, we asked the driver as to what are the other places of interest around (a mistake indeed). The hero suggested a place called Raja's seat - a rock bench, where the king sat and admired nature. Our 42 senses worked (we were 7 people and all our 6 senses worked :)) and we din't want to see some rock at noon (at least if a queen had sat there we would have :D). So now, the driver suggested Abbey falls. This time we weren't lucky :( We went with dreams of playing in the water fall n all that. We paid 20 Rs for parking and walked down a descent of 2 km with towel, shorts etc. There was a water fall and there was water also. But, the maximum you can do from the place till where tourists are allowed was, hear the sound of water falling and see it too... Nothing else. Again like ***** we climbed up!!
Balmuri falls:
After the Abbey debacle, came the best part of the trip (life does have ups and downs!!). Balmuri, nearly 10 km from Srirangpatna, is a water body - with water flowing த்ரௌக் small man made interruptions - Awesome place to enjoy. Really great!! No risk involved and the 2 hours time we spent in the water made it the greatest two hours of the trip.
Srirangapatna temple:
The temple of Ranganatha swami (MahaVishnu in a lying down posture), very similar to the one in SriRangam (in Trichy). In fact, there are three Rangas - Adhi Ranga (in Srirangapatna), Madhya Ranga (Shivanasamudra) and Antha Ranga (Srirangam) - I have seen Adhi (beginning) and Antha (end) - no philosophy involved :)
We left from the temple by around 20:00. Nothing much to tell about the dinner we had, except that again I would have preferred starvation or getting stranded - driver's choice of hotel :) We reached back by 22:30 - end of an eventful 24 hours - excepting for the puncture, Abbey and the dinner - enjoyable one too!!
PS: please contact me if you want the address of the driver ;D
Bye!!
