23rd November 2023, 18:35
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| BHPian | Kodagu for fitness lovers A nature- centric break of few days a year is perfect balm for us city souls. And as one addicted to fitness, in bad need of de- addiction from Bengaluru's grind, I settled on Kodagu. Now I've been to Kodagu many times before, but this was a solo drive for a six nights stay at a lonely place. Welcome to Crossroads homestay. The homestay is located just some 3 km from Nagarahole forest Karmadu gate. I chose this location knowing that some wildlife spillover or atleast forest ambience would be around. I wasn't off the mark as the pics here will show. I started quite early on 8th Nov 2023, a Wednesday, well before Diwali traffic could spoil things. Drove the default route of Bengaluru- Mysuru expressway, then at Manipal hospital, a right towards Hunsur. The landlady had messaged me to take the Hunsur- Thitthimathi- Balele- Nittur route to reach the homestay. Google maps did a perfect job throughout from my home to the homestay. The route goes thru a few km stretch of Nagarahole forest, a range known as Anechowkur. My dashcam did a good job of capturing the whole drive. Here's the link to the part thru the Anechowkur range. Coming to the road conditions, I'd rate 10/10 for the expressway, 9/10 for the Manipal hospital- Hunsur stretch, 8/10 for the Hunsur- Thitthimathi stretch and 9.5/10 from Thitthimathi to Balele. The last 300 m was of course sort of village road, but that's like 0.1% of the drive! The Thitthimathi- Balele stretch was one driver's dream, with rich greenery lining both sides. I reached the place in a little over 3 hrs from home, after a food halt at Kadamba in Bengaluru and fuel stop at Mysuru. And then, the homestay itself. My car seems to love it too..  The homestay has a cottage located within its premises. There are two rooms, one slightly larger than the other. I stayed in the smaller one. It was nice and cozy, with a well maintained toilet and a queen sized bed for two. They supply hot water using a bio- waste heater, but I'm a cold water bath guy, so that didn't matter to me. Here's a view of the outside of the cottage door..  Food is served in a dining room with a lovely garden in view..  Food used to be prepared just in time by the landlady, Mrs. Reshma Cariappa. She cooks great, and notes all guest food preferences in detail. I am strict veg and had a great spread of fresh idlis, chapatis, mixed veg curry, green salads thrice a day and their own coffee of course! And after your meal, step out of the dining to see why Kodagu deserves to be called the Switzerland of India..  The homestay has a lovely collection of orchids, roses and hibiscus and a small lotus pond..          Pepper and coffee are around everwhere you see..  The homestay owner, Mr. Subbaiah, has large plantations that nearly stretch upto the Karmadu gate at places. He's a retired dental surgeon who spent much of his life in Bengaluru. At 82 years, it was amazing to see him drive his Wagon R confidently in and around the plantation roads. They've a paddy field as well that yields them around 150 quintals an year. Indeed the rice I had everyday was from this very crop!  That paddy field is also where the owner's son told me later, he once saw a tiger step into from the palm trees you see in the distance. I got to know of this well after my first run on 9th Nov morning! And my run! On this narrow but good concrete stretch of some 2 km, absolutely lonely and scary with dense growth on either side..  I'm somewhat panting out of nervousness here.. Fortunately my runs were uneventful on 5 days I did this stretch (approx 4.5 km total from/ to the homestay). Did see some fresh scat of wild boar on the stretch once though!  Before reaching that concrete stretch, there was this lovely forest- like stretch of road..  This road crosses a small stream that reaches Lakshman Thirtha river in Balele, I was told. The stream surroundings are just lovely.. I did a walk in their plantation on 9th Nov morning. A worker boy guided me along. Had to use a spiked trekking pole for safety as the paths were quite soft after rain the previous night. Couple of pics..   There were many large spiders with completed web projects on the path. I took care not to spoil any of their hard work by crouching well under..  Lovely juicy oranges grow here too..  Imagine if monkeys discovered them!! There was the Malabar giant squirrel but it kept eluding my lens.  I was told sloth bears frequent their property at nights during March when their Chickoo trees are in season. Subbaiah said their tough looking dogs gave custom barks to warn them on arrival of these late night visitors!!! I could do little of my professional work on this trip. Jio network, I discovered, was very poor in their property area. They did have a fairly good BSNL WiFi router though, that was my sole means for all communication, from calls to WhatsApp. Could manage very limited work on my Mac with a clumsy setup of power and WiFi connections in the adjoining dining room, something I gave up after a day! There is another lake around the homestay where plenty of birds frequent..  But getting to click birds calls for lots of patience and a high end DSLR, neither of which I had! Managed just a couple of shots..   Sorry about the image quality. The Drongo was clicked just at sunrise with little light and using full optical zoom! Did see many racket- tailed Drongos but all just momentarily like they didn't like being clicked! So was it with beautiful sunbirds. If you love bird photography, this is just the place to be! Here's Karmadu gate on one of the evening walks from the homestay..  Finally on 11th Nov, it was time to get back to Namma Bengaluru life again. On that morning's run, there was this dreamy mist rising above a pond near the cottage..  The return drive was uneventful and after a stopover of few hours to see my relatives at Mysuru, touched home in Bengaluru by 1745. The city traffic was not that heavy as I had imagined. I chose not to tank up at Mysuru as I prefer V- Power shell petrol for long drives. But just to ensure enough to go on, I did top up about 7.5 litres at a Bharat Petroleum (Nataraj Service Station) on the drive to Hunsur. Only ordinary petrol was available. BP Speed seems to be impossible to get! Some important things for anyone wanting to go there.. 1. Download offline Google maps covering enough around your area. Make sure your navigation is using them and not the online version! Had I depended on the online version, could've been badly stuck somewhere! 2. Get a BSNL sim with at least a plan enough for calls. It would be a life saver in such areas, especially if you get lost or are in an emergency! 3. Carry all your medicines and supplements for a trip to this place. I couldn't see any medical store beyond Thitthimathi, 35 km away! 4. A dashcam is very helpful on drives. Good and safe driving. Last edited by DrVjy : 24th November 2023 at 17:25. Reason: WIP |
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24th November 2023, 17:53
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