Coorg and Kabini

Monsoons, and the Western Ghats comes alive during the time when the water starved regions, barren lands, dry forests, brown hillocks come alive in various shades of green and numerous waterfalls spring up in nook and corner of the region turning the virtual entire into a carpet of greenery. When it rains, it pours in some regions diminishing the might of the Sun for a few days and the tree canopies prevent the lesser available sunlight to pass through them to hit the forest floors thus rendering it moist always. Leeches love this environment and numerous bugs, beetles, frogs, snakes thrive during the rains. In a corner of the forest, safe from the flowing water, the might King Cobra builds its nest carefully and tirelessly to ensure its eggs hatch. Frogs and toads come out of hibernation and so does many of the smaller insects virtually infesting the whole region with their calls, songs and music. With abundance of prey around, the snakes make the most of it grabbing a meal or two, whenever it can.

The smell of the land after a good rain is probably the best fragrance you could ever sense and a lush green thriving forest is probably the best sight you could see and the calls of the birds, insects and animals is probably the best music you would hear. A complete therapeutic treat to entice all of a human’s senses and re-energize the mind and soul.

We were well aware of the fact the Kodagu region comes alive during monsoons with many waterfalls springing up and the well-known ones cascading in full force and we always wanted to explore some of them at leisure and so we did traversing through Kodagu and tracing out hidden gems that come alive mostly during the monsoons. We did visit a few and we had to skip a few more owing to short time, but nevertheless it was a rejuvenating sight that lot of people miss even though they wander so close to them. Some of these need a hike and walking through unknown terrains and the area around the waterfalls are generally slippery, so you need to exercise caution before you head out deeper into the woods. If you are not sure, then take the help of a local to accompany you as it’s easy to get lost!

Starting out from Madikeri, our first stop was for the Devarakolli falls that is visible on the roadside, about 15kms on the way to Mangalore from Madikeri. Pretty easy to find and is quite well known as there are makeshift shops setup and a good number of vehicles passing by stop for a quick visit. Small drop, elegant and as its more popular, more trash too!

Devarakolli falls

Next, we took a local from a nearby tea shop and ventured into the woods in search of a bigger, mightier falls that’s also known as Devarakolli falls but it’s not easily accessible as it’s housed in the premises of a private estate. The off-beaten hike was worth it as there was copious amount of water and the falls was in full glory and the best part was that the falls was covered over with a huge canopy of trees blocking out sunrays from accessing most part of the ground there. Time well spent here and worth all the effort!

Devarakolli falls in a private estate

Our next visit was to the Kallala falls, that needs a moderate downward hike that can get pretty exhausting and with leeches waiting to such out your blood, there’s no stopping in between. It’s a huge waterfall and you can’t quite see the whole expanse of the falls as it tumbles down in a stepped manner into a gorge that is beyond view of sight. The rocks are extremely slippery and an adventure outing can turn into a morbid sorry state of affairs if common sense and self-intuition is not applied on where to tread and where to stop. We did hear about an incident of a college youth who was drunk slipping from the rocks trying to be adventurous and had to be rushed for emergency medical care.

Kallala falls (up and down)

That incident put us off and we lost hunger for more action and so we chose the rather subdued Abbiyala falls that is on the roadside towards Chettalli from Madikeri. Although wide and expanse, the falls resembled more of water trickling down rather than a proper gush of water bellowing down.

Abbiyala falls

With this, we ended our exploratory trip and were eager about our next day’s visit to Kabini, Nagarahole National Park. Kabini is famous for its regular and plentiful sightings of the Leopard, more than pretty much any other National Park in our country. In the short stay, we had we were blessed with lady luck as our capable guide and drive Afsar was able to locate a leopard lazing on a tree from quite a distance. Elephants were plentiful in sight and so were the spotted and sambar deers brining an end our wild trip.

Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus)

Cia until next time!