More Birthday Adventures Amid Nature

Hello there!

It’s good to be back on the platform after a work trip and recovering from a nasty flu.
In my previous blog, we found ourselves in the middle of a coffee estate in Madikeri, Coorg for my 26th Birthday celebration. We had a great time exploring new spots and viewpoints and it was a great escape from the busy work schedule and the polluted city.
On the second evening of our stay, the skies cleared up from the moody clouds that were above head all afternoon. Hence, we hopped on our bike and headed out to a waterfall for some sightseeing.

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This one’s a popular 70 feet fall in Madikeri which is visited by the tourists throughout the year. Although we were visiting the falls during summer, we were lucky enough to witness the falls since we got an early monsoon shower. The falls, though not in its full glory, was still quite pleasing to the eye.

We parked our bike and had to walk around 500 meters to the falls. There were steps to and from the waterfall. We saw the falls and then climbed the stairs chit-chatting and then headed back to our hostel to get ready for the next day that began at 4 AM!

Image source

Situated 5,250 ft. above sea level, this popular peak was another destination that everyone visiting definitely has on their checklist. The hostel we stayed at had an option to book a jeep till the peak and back to the hostel which was around 25km in distance. We found the price reasonable for the service they provided and hence we opted for this short trip till the top.

The jeep arrived at the hostel at 5am and we were off to the peak. The driver zoomed past the curves and turns since this was his routine each morning. We reached the base at 6am and the entrance was queued up with other jeep services.

Since the hill falls under the government wildlife reservation area, the forest officials made a rule to let only 250-300 jeeps go up the hill at one time. Once all the jeeps are back, the second batch of jeep would go and so on. Since we opted for the sunrise batch, the gates would be opened at 6am and it was on a first come-first serve basis.

We got into the first set of entry and the real journey began! The way to the top was around 30 minutes of pure offroad and it was brutal! Only an experienced driver who has been through these path multiple times could go through without damaging his vehicle badly.

At times, the jeep even climbed and descended boulders! Hence only hired jeeps were allowed to go up the peak. The driver mentioned that anyone that has a personal jeep can use the route, but they would be responsible for any damage that was caused to their jeep. I noticed that all the jeeps that were hired to climb the peak were mostly the first-generation Mahindra Jeep which came with the leaf spring suspensions and these were a great choice for these “roads” compared to the newer jeeps which have the regular spring suspension.

We finally made to the peak and the driver gave us 40 minutes to spend the time since they had to move back before the next batch would come up. We climbed a few steps to reach the top of the hill to witness…. Nothing!

Since it was raining the day prior, the morning was fully covered by fog. All we witnessed was a bunch of people on the top of a hill surrounding nothing.

Since we had some time to spare, we took in some fresh air and clicked a few pictures before heading back to the jeep.

Once we descended the hill which was a roller coaster ride indeed, the driver mentioned that there’s a falls 15-20 minutes away and mentioned that it would be more interactive. We were curious and decided to head there as well.

The driver zoomed past the empty roads and we reached the falls in 15 minutes. We checked with the driver on why the falls was interactive for which he advised us to buy a packet of biscuits from a shop nearby to feed fish!

My girlfriend was very happy to hear this and we quickly made the necessary purchase and headed towards the falls. The falls were also well known but since we were early visitors, there were hardly any people near the falls.

The falls here weren’t gushing in its full glory yet but the fish covered up the fun for us. At least 100 carps were patiently waiting just near us to crush up the biscuits and feed them. Since this is done by most of the tourists, the fish have built a liking to the biscuits and they heavily depend on them. We emptied the packet and thoroughly enjoyed the feeding bit.

Once done, we headed back to the jeep and requested the driver to drop us back for which he zoomed past the roads and swiftly dropped us back to the hostel by 9am, giving us ample time to explore other places during the day and catch our bus in the late afternoon!

Camera: iPhone 15 
Editing: Lightroom mobile
All photos/videos are my own. For any use or questions, feel free to reach out to me.