It was 5.30 AM and the sudden brakes of the bus opened my
eyes. I looked out through the window- Whoa I was in a different world
altogether!! The sky painted with city
lights has changed into an arena covered with floating clouds, clouds disappearing
the hills ready to wet the red soil. The tall buildings have been converted
into the Nariyal trees alongside the road and the streak of stores and shops
has been converted into the never ending coffee plantations, and the climber
plants of pepper and clove. Coorg it was..!!! Truly called as the Scotland
of India..or Kashmir of South.. or the Misty Hills.
Getting off at the bus stand we enquired about the tour packages
available with the agencies. But finally we hired a cab on our own. That went
to be relatively inexpensive.The travel agencies literally loot you. The driver
was an awesome cheerful man, having a strong command on Hindi. We headed
directly towards the Abbey falls.
The Peaceful Falls: Abbey Falls
In the morning silence one can easily hear the peaceful noise
of the falls from the road itself. The way to the falls passes through the
jungle with coffee plants all around. The trees there were so dense that even
in the full sun, the sunlight will plead to touch the ground. The sweet chirping
of birds was a nature’s welcome to us. The very first look of the falls relieves you
from all the tiredness. The white water falling from the rocks, collecting at
the base, making a stream and then disappearing in the thick forest. The
morning weather added to the beauty of the falls, with dark clouds still
hovering up in the sky and the mist giving a soft bath to the leaves as the
wind slowly played with the falling water (and my emotions ;) ). We tried to
climb up the hill on a trail carved out in between the shrubs. After going a
bit up I remembered the fearful warnings written in English and Kannada on the
boards, and changed our decision and came back.
The Bliss of Kaveri: Dobare
Next we went to the Raja’s tomb. I have no interest in
describing that but the view of surrounding hills was pleasant. We clicked some
funny pictures there with the stone elephant and other architecture. We then
went to the Dobare’s elephant camp. This elephant thing is seriously nothing
but an elephant shit. They take 100 Rs to bathe an elephant,50 Rs to feed dried
grass to the elephant ,100 Rs for a 100 metre elephant ride..and people were
doing all this. Anyways the nature there is another pie to eyes. 
The Kaveri
unshackles itself from a narrow stream and extends with all its effort on both
sides to show its affection to the land. The water crawls slowly on the black
stones. One needs to cross the river with the boat to reach the elephant camp.
But you can do it otherwise by walking on the stones lying on the river (risky
but fun). My fellow friend insisted on doing rafting there so we changed our
dresses and went with one of the groups. The water being so slow, the rafting
felt like boating. After going downstream for 1 km we jumped in the river and
swam. Swimming in the cold waters of Kaveri with rain drops falling from
above- an experience which you can never forget. The other group with us
and our guide everyone was fantastic. Without even knowing each other we played
in the water, swam to the other shore, competed and made fun of other groups.
While returning back, we would have rowed for less than a hundred metre, when I
asked the guide “What is the depth of river here?” He replied-“Right now more
than 30 feet” . The very next moment he pushed me into the water. I was
shocked to the fullest, after a few seconds when I balanced myself, I found him
smiling and saying “swim swim..its fun” . Later three other members joined
me. We returned back swimming. I drank the water twice. It was bitter because
of the diesel engine boats running on the water(Pollution man pollution L ).
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