Coorg is 260km from Bangalore, situated on the Western Ghats of Karnataka in South India. Its name is probably a corruption of the Kannada kodagu ("steepness"). Coorg is drained by the upper Cauvery River and its tributaries, which in legend have some of the life-giving properties of the Ganges. Rice is cultivated on the valley floors. Coffee plantations occupy hillside clearings. Other crops are tea, cardamom, rubber, pepper, and millet.
We stayed at a Home Stay (Guest House) - Victory Home. We arrived on Friday night and on Saturday morning Marc and Ingo went fishing, while us ladies just enjoyed the tranquil setting and each others company. We went for a lovely walk through the coffee plantation. Later ,we all sat around on the lovely varanda enjoying a cup of the excellent Coorg coffee and tried our hand at diabolo.
We all really enjoyed the traditional spicy Coorgi cuisine, very different from South Indian food.
The coffee plants, in blossom
The ripe berries are picked and sun dried.
I couldn't resist taking a photograph of this little boy playing on the heap of ripe "coffee" berries.
Starry Starry night!! We were all absolutely amazed by all the stars...a rarity when you live in the City.
Sunday morning bright and early the guys went fishing in the Cauvery river, with the hopes of catching a Mahseer. No luck there, as apparently the crocodiles get to them first.
Diya, Maya, Marc and I with our driver Nagraj in the background.
We collected the guys and headed off to Dubare Forest Elephant Training Camp, 15km from Kushalnagar. The reserve forest is famed for its amazing variety of avian fauna.
We fed the elephants banana's and some of the left over "Ragi balls" which was meant as Masheer bait. Marc doing a good job feeding Kupti...
The ele, trying to feed me...
Some of the training in progress.
The guys decided to walk over the rocks and the ladies took a short boat ride back to the other side of the river.
We drove past a beautiful field of flowers (marigold's, I think).
Another funny sighting - a semi manual steam roller. The guy walking along side was actually pouring water over the drums as it rolled down the road.
We arrived in Bylakuppe, where we walked around a small flea market for a while, had lunch and then visited the largest Tibetan settlement in India outside the Himalayan belt.
Both recent refugees from Tibet and those born elsewhere, live here in a landscape and climate that is a far cry from Tibet but, as one monk pointed out, with one crucial consolation: they live without fear and practice their faith in freedom. With the cross-border migration of thousands of monks in recent decades, India also seems to have emerged as the destination for higher Tibetan Buddhist studies. But unlike most Tibetan settlements in the Indian Himalayas, the monasteries here appear to be larger and more opulent (more ostentatious at any rate).
Kim and I admiring the amazing temples.
The shiny Namdroling monastery even has gigantic gold-plated statues of Tibetan deities.
a face that tells the story.
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