28-Jan-2003 -- My husband, son and myself were in Chennai (Madras) for a wedding and decided to take a tour by train of southern India. We were going to Mysore, Bangalore, Vembanad Lake in Kerala, Madurai, and then back to Chennai.

We took the overnight train from Chennai in Tamil Nadu to Mysore, a nice mid-sized city in southern Karnataka. After checking-in to the Green Hotel, we hired a car and driver to take us approximately 50 kilometers south-east of Mysore to the confluence point. We had a detailed map of Karnataka that we borrowed from some New Zealand tourists staying at our hotel. Armed with the map, the GPS and our driver's knowledge of the roads, we set off around 11:00 am bound for Kollegal, the closest town to the confluence.

After driving for about 1 1/2 hours, we were able to zero in on the longitude (77 degrees E) but we were 7 minutes north of the latitude (12 degrees N). We were on a bridge over a small stream near Dagarapura-about 3 kilometers from Mugur. Mugur is between Mysore and Kollegal. The road where we stopped had sugar cane fields on either side and some cows grazing in the fields. There was a jaggery mill (brown sugar made from sugar cane) to the south of the bridge. The people working there gave us some freshly squeezed sugar cane juice - sweet! On the banks of the stream, women were washing clothes and spreading them to dry on shrubs.

We checked with our driver, Kaarthik, and he said there was no other road that would get us any closer. Seven minutes is over 7 miles that we would have to hike through sugar cane fields, streams and brush. So we decided to chalk this up as an attempt and to try again another time.