Coorg trip - Rafting @ Barpole, an adrenaline quotient certified
It was party time., well, Vinay's bachelor party...we were exploring options as to where to celebrate this time, an idea of coorg just came from some one, yes thats it.,within no time we had plan 
going for it. I knew anish (Bethel estage in coorg) thru some blogging, so I contacted him and got information regarding homestay & rafting etc. The very next day myself, pattabhi and Avadoot had conf call with Anish and very next weekend we were all set to go...
We (Manjunath, Pattabhi, Vishwanath, Shailesh, Ravi, Vinay, Sunil and Avdooth ) started off from Bangalore on Friday night, August 2nd weekend, we traveled overnight and were received by Arun at 5.30 AM in the morning. They had asked us to give a call before we start and Anish kept us informed about the route all night so that we dont get lost. Arun (estate care taker) received us at the gonikoppa at 5 AM -- after all it is a 5 hour journey from Bangalore!!. We parked our TT cab at a travellers bunglow and got on to Arun's Jeep, as the road was rough and only SUV's could take on. It was a nice bumby ride thru the extensive coffee estates, cardomom plantations and lush green beauty of coorg. It took around an hr to reach the home stay place which was inside forest. Accomodation in bethel was in swiss and bamboo cottages, the cottages introduce its guests to the adventure of camping wihout sacrificing any of the amenities of modern home...Although there was electricity inside the camps, Rakesh (care taker of Bethel) insisted to commune with nature
The guys then refreshed and helped themselves to a full breakfast and after that we went on the trek w
ith Rakesh. Our trek with the estate was 
beautiful, but mild. It can be classified at most as a beginners trek, just enough for first timers to be stressed but not so much that they can't complete it as we were the adventerous type ... so our trek was pretty mild . But the wade in the crystal clear waters of spring and streams, trek up to the hill was excelled experi
ence...along with the mix of jack daniels with the stream waters :-)
We came back from the trek at around 2pm and relaxed for a while, then was the time for some more adventures, we went for the 3.30 PM rafting session, had to wait because the 1 PM rafting team turned up l+of+DSC00538.JPG)
ate!! Arun has already booked the rafting slots upfront but still we have to wait for an hr or so to get our turn :( Rakesh made sure that the rafting folks knew of our displeasure. Barpole river offers the wildest white water rafting in south india with rapids becoming the levels upto 4 in peak and we were right in the peak season with rainfall at it max in kaveri basin. A sucessfull rafting run.,ie. non eventfull without casualties, is a combination of great guides, proper training and gear and ofcourse luck. Thankfully we had good quality equipment and gear guides who conducts rafting at barpole, the training program includes rafting commands and rescue techniques. Folks will be prepared ahead of the river challenges trown at them and need to have better river reading skills. Getting down the raft and being recued is common and even lot of fun - Well we were all on the raft equipped plunged in to waters.,initially the coach was explaining us with command of rafting 'left flow, right flow etc' then came the time to jump to water to get used to water movement. hmmmm it was the ultimate scary part of it, even though the life jackets are on, it takes iron nerves to do that, well without having much choice everyone jumped in to water when their turn came. Sunil, pattabhi, vishwa & avdoot were in once raft and myself and Ravi in another, well vishwanath ju
mpped first in to waters without knowing the waters but to the bad luck he was pulled opposite the direction of raft...he was like shouting ' help me help me...i dont know swimming' we could stop bursting with laughts at one side and feelling bad with our helplessness.,well, nothing to horor the coach on the raft pulled him back :-)
The next 1 hr was amazing experience with the rafting.. the gushing waters of kaveri pulled the rafts on the speed quickly. I heard someone yelling 'I know everyone dies one da
y, but why am I paying for it' :-). humours aside, it was amazing rapids up to level 4 sometimes giving ultimate challenge for the rafters..
At night we settled down to a cozy campfire...and the next day we went back home the long way back to Bangalore, via , Gundulpet..Bandipur forest with a stop over at the famous Iruppu falls Photos that wetook have been uploaded, the link to the album is here
Fact file: (CoorG)
Located in the Western Ghats, right on the border between the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, Kodagu or Coorg as it is popularly called is a nature lovers paradise.
With pleasant climate lasting through out the year (average temperature 15°, maximum temperature 28° in May), dense tropical greenery, scattered hamlets among rugged mountains, extensive Coffee and Cardamom plantations, Coorg provides for one the most beautiful settings for a vacation anywhere in India.
going for it. I knew anish (Bethel estage in coorg) thru some blogging, so I contacted him and got information regarding homestay & rafting etc. The very next day myself, pattabhi and Avadoot had conf call with Anish and very next weekend we were all set to go...We (Manjunath, Pattabhi, Vishwanath, Shailesh, Ravi, Vinay, Sunil and Avdooth ) started off from Bangalore on Friday night, August 2nd weekend, we traveled overnight and were received by Arun at 5.30 AM in the morning. They had asked us to give a call before we start and Anish kept us informed about the route all night so that we dont get lost. Arun (estate care taker) received us at the gonikoppa at 5 AM -- after all it is a 5 hour journey from Bangalore!!. We parked our TT cab at a travellers bunglow and got on to Arun's Jeep, as the road was rough and only SUV's could take on. It was a nice bumby ride thru the extensive coffee estates, cardomom plantations and lush green beauty of coorg. It took around an hr to reach the home stay place which was inside forest. Accomodation in bethel was in swiss and bamboo cottages, the cottages introduce its guests to the adventure of camping wihout sacrificing any of the amenities of modern home...Although there was electricity inside the camps, Rakesh (care taker of Bethel) insisted to commune with nature
The guys then refreshed and helped themselves to a full breakfast and after that we went on the trek w
ith Rakesh. Our trek with the estate was 
beautiful, but mild. It can be classified at most as a beginners trek, just enough for first timers to be stressed but not so much that they can't complete it as we were the adventerous type ... so our trek was pretty mild . But the wade in the crystal clear waters of spring and streams, trek up to the hill was excelled experi
ence...along with the mix of jack daniels with the stream waters :-)We came back from the trek at around 2pm and relaxed for a while, then was the time for some more adventures, we went for the 3.30 PM rafting session, had to wait because the 1 PM rafting team turned up l
+of+DSC00538.JPG)
ate!! Arun has already booked the rafting slots upfront but still we have to wait for an hr or so to get our turn :( Rakesh made sure that the rafting folks knew of our displeasure. Barpole river offers the wildest white water rafting in south india with rapids becoming the levels upto 4 in peak and we were right in the peak season with rainfall at it max in kaveri basin. A sucessfull rafting run.,ie. non eventfull without casualties, is a combination of great guides, proper training and gear and ofcourse luck. Thankfully we had good quality equipment and gear guides who conducts rafting at barpole, the training program includes rafting commands and rescue techniques. Folks will be prepared ahead of the river challenges trown at them and need to have better river reading skills. Getting down the raft and being recued is common and even lot of fun - Well we were all on the raft equipped plunged in to waters.,initially the coach was explaining us with command of rafting 'left flow, right flow etc' then came the time to jump to water to get used to water movement. hmmmm it was the ultimate scary part of it, even though the life jackets are on, it takes iron nerves to do that, well without having much choice everyone jumped in to water when their turn came. Sunil, pattabhi, vishwa & avdoot were in once raft and myself and Ravi in another, well vishwanath ju
mpped first in to waters without knowing the waters but to the bad luck he was pulled opposite the direction of raft...he was like shouting ' help me help me...i dont know swimming' we could stop bursting with laughts at one side and feelling bad with our helplessness.,well, nothing to horor the coach on the raft pulled him back :-)The next 1 hr was amazing experience with the rafting.. the gushing waters of kaveri pulled the rafts on the speed quickly. I heard someone yelling 'I know everyone dies one da
y, but why am I paying for it' :-). humours aside, it was amazing rapids up to level 4 sometimes giving ultimate challenge for the rafters..At night we settled down to a cozy campfire...and the next day we went back home the long way back to Bangalore, via , Gundulpet..Bandipur forest with a stop over at the famous Iruppu falls Photos that wetook have been uploaded, the link to the album is here
Fact file: (CoorG)
Located in the Western Ghats, right on the border between the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, Kodagu or Coorg as it is popularly called is a nature lovers paradise.
With pleasant climate lasting through out the year (average temperature 15°, maximum temperature 28° in May), dense tropical greenery, scattered hamlets among rugged mountains, extensive Coffee and Cardamom plantations, Coorg provides for one the most beautiful settings for a vacation anywhere in India.
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