[joe1980]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your travelogue. I felt myself being there with your way of narrating with the pictures. Awesome! I can see that you had a splendid vacation. I would love to see this earth full of places like this. Green, serene.

[naveen.raju]

Excellent T-log there Karthi. Looks like a good place to visit and the best place to avoid the usual crowded hill stations.

OT - Dont you have a day job? How do you find time to write all these. No offence dude.

Waiting for your next log.

[ampere]

So the jet's flying again Karthik? .
It must have been pure pleasure driving those beautiful 2-lane roads. (Nanjangud-Bandipur and on NH209)


I had read about Mansoor's initiative on cheese making and about this farm some 6-7 years back, but never got to visit it.
What also struck me then was the guy did have some thing in him to explore. (IIT/MIT/Cornell adding on to his resume!)

The place indeed looks very nice and you have captured it very well.
So what's your camera, lenses and post-processing flow?

And also thanks for that info on hotel in Chamarajanagar. That indeed is a very good find.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by rulerofsun

"There was this weird looking plant with wide leaves and hundreds of thorns. Could any botanical experts identify this plant? It didn't appear like a cactus for sure."

Thanks for the wonderful travelouge. The plant in question is a throny brinjal. here is a website with more detail http://www.indianaturewatch.net/disp....php?id=264272

thanks rulerofsun for that information . Glad you liked reading the T-log.

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Good one Kathik, this place is really wonderful, we had stayed here for 2 nights in Sept, that time Mansoor & Tina were not present. We had encounters with Bison as well one of the mornings, that fellow cleanly jumped over the fence that you have below the cheese making cottage.

thanks motomaverick. I remember Mansoor telling us not to be surprised by occasional Bisons on the top of the hill. You seem to have been lucky to spot one in person. Was it aggressive?

I remember the cooking lady with her Marathi hindi, Mansoor's dog Ria, she acted like some Bollywood actress, giving us her glimpse once a day .

If you want fast paced return journey then there is the Salem route as well, it takes the same time as the normal route.

The staff were all quite cheerful and helpful throughout our stay, especially the cook and her assistants. Ria, well she has grown very old now and was just happy to lie down all the time.

Originally Posted by joe1980

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your travelogue. I felt myself being there with your way of narrating with the pictures. Awesome! I can see that you had a splendid vacation. I would love to see this earth full of places like this. Green, serene.

Thanks joe1980! Do make sure you visit the place when you head in this direction.

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Excellent T-log there Karthi. Looks like a good place to visit and the best place to avoid the usual crowded hill stations.

thanks naveen.raju! It is totally cutoff from the main town, and ensures you of a quiet, peaceful vacation.

OT - Dont you have a day job? How do you find time to write all these. No offence dude.

Waiting for your next log.

I do, but i wrote these by night after getting back from work. Because of that, it took more than a month for me to finish this tiny travelogue, was stuck in assembly line all along *lol*.

Originally Posted by ampere

So the jet's flying again Karthik? .
It must have been pure pleasure driving those beautiful 2-lane roads. (Nanjangud-Bandipur and on NH209)

Absolutely wonderful roads both of them. I loved the Satyamangalam route best.

I had read about Mansoor's initiative on cheese making and about this farm some 6-7 years back, but never got to visit it.
What also struck me then was the guy did have some thing in him to explore. (IIT/MIT/Cornell adding on to his resume!)

We got to know about it through that TV programme, else I would never have thought of this place at all. True on his qualifications - I was a bit surprised. He is a computer science genius turned management guru turned Environmental science expert turned film director turned Cheese-maker. Seems to love variety, eh? The way he speaks is enthralling. Very, very well informed and knowledgeable chap. Later I learnt that he gives occasional lectures and speeches at ISB, IIMs, etc. no wonder!

The place indeed looks very nice and you have captured it very well.
So what's your camera, lenses and post-processing flow?

thanks a lot ampere. Camera remains the same - nikon D5000. My Lens kit is very humble. Only a 10-24mm and stock 18-55mm for landscape shots. The birds were shot using 55-200mm

And also thanks for that info on hotel in Chamarajanagar. That indeed is a very good find.

Lucky I found it on google maps and explored it. Thanks to whoever uploaded that hotel's location on google maps. Here is the website of that resort, in case it is useful for anyone travelling on that highway.
http://www.nijagunaresidency.com/

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

thanks motomaverick. I remember Mansoor telling us not to be surprised by occasional Bisons on the top of the hill. You seem to have been lucky to spot one in person. Was it aggressive?

I would not say aggressive but it was curious and kept looking at us (Colby Cottage) and slowly coming towards us. We just got scared and bolted the door. We saw the entire family on the slope of a Tea estate just outside the farm.

[nkrishnap]

Thats a lovely travelogue there Karthik. Completely agree with the route advise. NH 209 is in the best possible state. I always prefer taking this route if heading anywhere near Coimbatore.

Thanks for sharing.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Absolutely wonderful roads both of them. I loved the Satyamangalam route best.

Karthik,

We just drove around that region last month (Nov). Putting a few snaps with your permission. Hope you don't mind!
Since you mentioned about the beauty of NH209 and Sathyamanglam, I just could not contain myself any more.


Here it goes....

We wanted to make it to Kollegal before day break. There was no sunrise, but rain all through the day.
We started by 3:15 AM from our homes amidst rain (leave BLR by 4AM) so as to make to Kollegal by 7AM

Green fields greeted us at Kollegal


We drove in through places, where every one begged to be snapped


Once we were into the mountain range, we found a sweet spot to snap a nice valley.
(Some how I did not get a fully satisfying shot of this valley. Before I could do much, it again started raining)


At Hassanur, we halted and spent some time snapping what ever we could find. Found this lavender in a green backdrop.



When we reached Dimbam, it was engulfed in mist. And that was at 12 Noon !
But there was also a guy making fresh fried stuff and tea.
What more could we ask for !


Even plain things looked out of ordinary.


The Dimbam range looked very green and majestic.



So all in all it was a beautiful day where we did 500km PLUS all the snapping ! It was always : halt; burst mode snapping,
get inside the vehicle (as it started raining), progress further and the repeat the whole process !

[RSimonS]

Nice travelogue. Thanks for sharing.
I had been to this place late May this year. Indian Gaur's used to visit the pond every day for water while we were there.
Acres Wild is a very calm and quite place, away from tourist infested Ooty if I could say that way, kind of back to roots type.
Typically in a home stay you would see lost of cost cutting on the general ambiance, whether it is the furniture, kitchen or the rooms itself. But Acres Wild was an exception in every sense, highly recommended place.

[chaudh2s]

Well, i got to admit, you people down south really have some very beautiful countryside and amazing offroading trails. Here up north we do have the himalayas but either they are very big(intimidating), or it is the offroading culture that's missing, barely anybody go offroading here, no trails, nothing. Am jealous of you people living in southern India.

[majumon]

Karthik ,,wow that was quite a travelouge,, thanks for the info about the eatery at chamarajnagar, we had done a trip in last may through this stretch , we went to bannari, mettupalyam kotagiri and then conoor. On our return too we took the kotagiri route which is slightly longer but very litle traffic and amazing roads.

The property acres wild seems wonderful from your description,, thanks once again.

Wont you be getting a mileage of around 18 or so in the linea.

[vb-saan]

Thanks Karthik for the wonderful travelogue. Have bookmarked this thread as a possible holiday destination during my next home visit

[BusyBoyKK]

KarthikK,

My wife and I spent 1 hour last evening going through the entire travelogue. Liked the narration and pictures very much. In filmy style - awesome screenplay, narration and script.

Now, we know where to stay when we go to Ooty. Thanks for sharing.

Kanth

[ku69rd]

Karthik,
Fantastic Trip Writeup that you have written. Apparently it appears that you have taken the Kalghatti Hill Climb, come on mate that's the road a petrol head should take unlike the other route. Your blog is tempting me to do one myself; how was the roads though? Were they good enough for a SBK?

What do you do to keep the car shining like that all the time"? Sajan and you...both make me bonkers over your cars

Rated a very well deserved 5 Star for your narration and photography

[kkstile]

Very nice photos Karthik! All your photography skills on display here!
I think everyone of us should make it a point to visit 'desi' beautiful places and encourage others to do so instead of salivating over 'countryside' in Europe.

Well deserved 5 stars.

[floyd.bell]

Karthik, Fantastic TL as usual!! Its always a pleasure watching your Jet.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I cannot for the life of me understand why people use the boring Salem expressway to go to Coimbatore / Munnar / Valparai and other southern destinations. And for the same reason I cannot understand why people use the cliche'd, cursed, wretched Mysore - Bandipur - Ooty road when there is a better alternative available now. NH-209 is pothole-free, the traffic is almost zero, and there are no pesky speed-breakers either.

For the very same reason, you took the cliche'd route while going . Lack of knowledge regarding the route. But I think it should be kept as a secret to avoid transferring the traffic from the cliche'd route to NH-209
I simply love the NH-209. Once while going to Bandipur, I took the Mysore road and was completely frustrated with the travel. That's when I started looking out for alternatives. And came upon NH-209 on this very forum. Since then I have travelled twice on this stretch, once to Ooty and next time to Wayanad. In fact, I would take this route even if I am travelling to Mysore, Malavalli-Bannur-Mysore. And both times we have stopped at Nijaguna Residency, for breakfast while going and lunch while coming back. Excellent food, I must say. In fact, we love the Veg Biryani so much that we pack one extra on our way back to have for dinner at home.