Mysore to Bylakuppe and Cauvery Nisargadhama

pmvelu

Driving Directions :
Bylekuppe / Tibetan settlements
1. From Mysore , Take Hunsur Road and drive straight via Elivala, Hunsur, Periyapatna,Bylekuppe and you would reach a place a called “Koppa” (Around 80 kms From Mysore)
2. Turn Left and it’s 3 kms drive to Camp – 4 (Golden Temple). 10 Rs. PARKING FEE
3. Excellent Tibetan style Gompa & High School with a very large Buddha statue (1 ½ hour is enough)
4. Come out of the temple and ask Auto wallah about “Dera sey Monastery which is in Camp 1.
5. It’s around 3 kms from Golden temple
6. Dera Sey monastery is Damn good and Bigger & Newer than Golden temple (In Fact, We are the only visitors to this Monastery” and it was closed. I went and enquired in the nearby Monks hostel and one Monk came and opened the Temple gate and it’s AWESOME ( Will post few pictures soon) (45 minutes is enough to cover)
7. Golden temple is more like tourist place With Bus and Van loads of tourists thronging in and Dera sey is far apart and Classic little known to tourists (In fact Tourist Bus can’t even enter the narrow road that lead to Dera sey!)
8. Bylekuppe is the largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet (Around 15000 people)

Cauvery nishadharma:- (May spend Around 2 hours Overall)

1. Return to the main road (Mysore-Madikeri-Mangalore Highway) and go towards Kushal nagara (This is the best place for all your food needs and this place has N number of good / really good Veg/ Non veg hotels
2. Take Left (towards Madikeri)
3. Drive for 5 kms , you can see the signboard “Cauvery nishadharma"
4. Park , get 10rs Ticket /Adults , 5 rs for child and you will see a hanging Bridge which connects the Island to the mainland. NO PARKING FEE
5. Once you cross the bridge (over the Cauvery River), you can see Bamboo forests and walk past and you can see “Tree houses” .. Just we can climb up ,No fees and 5 to 6 people can sit in the tree top.
6. Get down and walk straight and you will see a deer park (You can get platefull of Cucumber for 10rs) and you can directly feed Mega Sambar Deer OR Chota Normal Deer
7. If you are interested, you can go for Elephant Safari
8. Walk past and you can see a small gate and you can cross over and you can see the Pristine White pure Cauvery river.. Can get down safely (No Slipping rocks etc..) and play / bath in water for few ½ an hour!
9. If you are interested, you can watch the Widlife movies which are are shown here (Near the Information Centre) on “WILDLIFE” (timings 10 -1 , 2 – 5)

General :-

1. Road is Extra-ordinary upto Hunsur, Good upto Periyapatna, OK upto Bylekuppe, Poor upto Kushal nagara, Poorer upto Cauvery nisha!!
2. For all your needs (Food, water, soft drinks etc), Kushal Nagara is the best place (Ofcourse once you leave Mysore)
3. You can take photo /video etc. inside the Tibetan temples NO ISSUES , No Fees
4. There are 2 routes to Kushal nagara one is wat I told above and next one is Elivala,KR nagara,Kushal Nagara (This route is 10 to 15 kms lesser distance) BUT I took the standard route (First one)
5. All of the above places falls under “Kodagu District” But all are in Plains, No mountains & Madikeri is just 22 kms from Cauvery nisha !
6. If you are more inclined towards elephants, you may go to “Durbare Elephant camp” (11 kms from Cauvery Nisha) First & Special of it’s kind as in Durbare Elephant Camp , we need to go before 9.30 am and we need to take Thoni to cross Cauvery river and 15 elephants are there. The difference is , we can purchase tickets for 100 rs / person and we can observe/ feed/ bath elephant for the entire day (9 – 5) . If you plan to visit this place , You need take a LEFT After hunsur and before PEriyapatna (A Big Signboard will be there) and while returning, you can come back via Cauvery nisha followed by Tibetan Settlements !.
7.Petrol bunk is available in Hunusur, Periyapatna,Kushalnagara
8.4 laning is in progress from periyapatna upto Koppa .Be very careful when you drive as one side it's 10 feet depth and all vehicles "to & fro" run on the other single road.
9. And from the Tibetan websites & their plight I got a feel I MUST donate something and I checked with the monks in both Golden temple and Dera sey and they told "No donation" (Not sure whether it's due to communication problem) BUT finally I dropped some money onto the Hundis kept before the Buddha Statues)
10.The drive is exactly Mysore-Tibetan Settlements- Cauvery Nisargadhama-Mysore (with No Detour) and it is 215 kms Overall.
Even thought this may help all , it would be of more use to those who are on their own (Self-Groups / Self-Drive)

steven_ber

Thanks, great info.

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shahronakm

Visited sames place this Diwali. Although by a hired car.
Also stayed Mysore for two nights. Liked Mysore Zoo a lot.

Ronak.