Coorg Itinerary - The Raja seat

We had planned a quick visit to Raja seat on landing day but couldn't due to long queue of vehicles lined-up for parking. There was no space to park vehicles and we settled it for next day. The subsequent day as well the location was packed to rafters. Despite the fatigue post visit of waterfall trio, we decided to have short visit. After much of ordeal found a space to park car and explore the Raja seat.

The Raja seat is translated as King's seat is well known tourist hotspot in Madikeri. Rulers of this region used this seat for relaxation and enjoyment. The views from the seat is magnificent. The closely knit mountains, the lush greenery, the floating clouds and magnificent sunset makes this place dear to nature lovers. Its also natural stress buster. Nothing can beat the views during break monsoon season where clouds are intermittent, sunset is colorful, air is clean and greenery is vibrant. The overlook of cascaded mountains embracing clouds is such a magnificent sight to behold.

A garden surrounds the Raja seat which is well maintained. Statues of animals are erected  throughout the garden. The promenade is quite vast and tiring since we had long winding drives comprising of 3 waterfalls. The tiredness was two-fold owing to curvy roads throughout the journey. We plodded  through the promenade and shot some pictures. Numerous viewpoints with varied elevation are constructed for people to rejoice the beauty of nature at multiple angles. Due to tiredness, we restricted our visit to only certain viewpoints.

Kids literally were excited watching the buoyant stratus clouds amidst the valley! They were like "Hurray! We are above clouds!" :-). It was cold and foggy at the outset of our visit. Fortunately, the fog cleared after a while and the views turned clear. This was another form of luck since previous day the town was engulfed in fog till late night. The views would be obscured even if we had visited Raja seat!

Apart from views, there are plenty of activities initiated in the garden. The zip-line activity was quite popular and there was long queue. We skipped due to hefty price and tiredness. Kids too weren't interested and activity was just view only from our side. After healthy stay of 45 mins, we left to our room to rest for the day.

Here is short video of western ghats from Raja-seat garden.

Shishileshwara Temple, Southadka, Belthagandy Taluk

This is the temple which we have been hankering during every commute. We stare at signboard during every drive along Dharmastala route. I am glad that we visited the temple this time with conviction driving through the dense jungles from Soutadka deviation. 

The concluding Navaratri week in native was gloomy and this helicopter stood firmly on a vine. The vivo captured it decently. 

Our journey started at 8AM sharp and drove straight to Shishila temple. It was concluding monsoon season and the rains were feeble. It was decent drive and the last 10kms through dense jungle was mesmerizing. The well paved winding road coupled with mild drizzle provided excellent aura for driving through nature. The last 10kms consumed 20mins of time due to curvy roads. It was winding drive of 14,kms through dense desolated jungles to reach the temple. No network, no civilisation. Even navigation was banking only on GPS. The roads are manageable and rains were bearable. Being close to western ghats, the place does heavy rains almost every month except in winter. 30 mins of drive, led us to serene temple. We parked car at designated location. There is vehicular bridge and hanging bridge for passengers. The vehicular bridge is unguarded and needs heedful while driving. Did not dare to cross the bridge in car.

Lying right beneath the serene western ghats, with pristine kapila river meandering from valley, the Shishileshwara Temple is truly a blessed location.

The primary deity is Lord Shiva while lord ganapathy shrine is situated adjacent to main sanctum. The temple has ancient look and doesn't seem to have seen renovation in recent years. Heard this temple has connection to Shri Vaidyanatheshwara temple located in Kokkada. The injured shishileshwara was treated by Vaidyanatheshwara.

The rock outside is believed to be holy since it is connected to shivalinga.  A placard narrates scared story connected to the rock formation.

Local artists performing PiliNalike (Tiger dance) as an offering to deity. Tiger dance is folklore of the native region here. A lot of energy and art skill is needed to perform this dance.

Locals risk through this narrow unguarded bridge to travel to remote villages. There is no other connectivity. The bridge barely accommodates auto-rickshhaw and small four wheelers like omini. Bikes need to zip through without pause to avoid loosing balance. Loosing balance means direct jump to river! There is no room for  two way movement even for two wheelers

Aralu Seve is feeding puffed paddy rice to fishes near Shishileshwara Temple located beneath the dense western ghats of belthangady taluk. It is one of prominent offerings here. One can buy pack of aralu which is officially an offering here. The fishing is banned here as they are considered sacred. We also offered and kids were overjoyed by seeing scrambled fishes attempting to grab the puffed paddy rice.

As usual, we had darshan of Southadka Mahaganapathy post Shishileshwara visit. The deity was adorned with vivid flowers which was blessing to watch.

Here is a short video of Aralu seve