After
cancelling lot of plans, I finally decided to take the long weekend off to a
coffee estate 300 kms from Bangalore. Though I have RF 350 Classic bullet, I kind
of figured that it would not be convenient to ride for long. And guess
what, I WAS RIGHT!! The weather was unlike the Bangalore weather. 35`C on the dusty
roads of Karnataka, the 'Baleno' (read car AC) came to my rescue. The roads to Chikmagalur were good,
as they say “makhan ki tarah”. But hot dammit, these self -driven cars have a maximum speed limit and well for me it was 100 kmps. Now those of you
who know the 'NICE' Road, this was a drivers ultimate purgatory; DO NOT CROSS 100 kmps. Imagine my plight, smooth as silk roads, close to no traffic, 2 wheelers whizzing by, and me keeping a tab on the speedometer. But truth be told, the
roads were brilliant, and with sufficient breaks we reached our destination in 4-5
hrs. But a word of caution from my experience, don’t use Google Maps literally to
navigate outside the city. It will suggest the most stupidest roads which don’t even
exist in reality.(read giant dust paths!)
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I like myself a lot ;-)
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Amazing mountain view
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| Smooth Drive |
So this
coffee estate is in the hills of Chikmanglur owned by Halli Berri. They have a
nice Café at the entrance. Call it ideal placement or smart location, our first stop was the was the Halli
Berri Café. As soon as our tummies were full, we were taken to our rooms. Most of the evening went in between sheets lost in deep dark, KO style slumber . I mean it has to be right, after 300 kms drive, I needed a well-deserved sleep.
Dinner was served by the estate staff, in a cozy dinning area. It was beautifully decorated with a lot of unique knickknacks and decorative pieces. Then rest of the
night we spent in our rooms, playing Uno. I lost most of the rounds, yeah I agree
all the rounds. And I am not proud about it. I used to love this game as a kid
and now see what happened to me. One of the rooms had a Carom-board as well. I
lost Uno and then lost interest in all and every game, even the carom board seemed to be uninteresting and the bed was all I longed for. I loved the beds. For me trips
are more about relaxing and chilling around. And I planned to watch the Sunrise
as well. Early to bed early to rise, I'm sure that's a rhyme thats hard to put by.
Although
Early to Rise didn’t happen as planned, I did wake up in time to enjoy the morning
with a cup of Tea. Yeah yeah !! I know why would I be so nuts to have tea in a
coffee estate. Well I am not allowed to have coffee (that’s a story for some
other time). I was such an amazing feeling waking up to the sounds, sights and smells of nature. Such a blissful morning, amidst all of the greenery. Yeah with us living in the cities – working class, this is a
luxury we can’t afford. Morning Tea was followed by Photo session and
boomerangs. Then all of us went for a walk in the woods. For me it was more of
nature cum knowledge session. I learnt a lot about Coffee that day. Damn I
can’t drink coffee anymore!!!
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| Deep thoughts !!! |
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| Early Morning Tea |
So this
estate of 200acres is owned by a lady who inherited it from her ancestors. They
grow majorly two types of coffee – Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is a premium
coffee bean whereas Robusta is more like an adopted son. Both the coffee beans
look the same once roasted. However, Arabica beans tend to have a
sweeter, softer taste, with tons of sugar, fruit, and berries. Robusta harsh
& stronger taste with twice caffeine content. Most of the instant coffee machines have Robusta
beans. The estate had apart from coffee plants, Silver Oak trees and Pepper
plants. Well those of you who don’t know about this tree, it is used
extensively for all interior wood work and as shade plant in coffee estates and
also used as support for pepper plants. We could see lot of the wood work in
the estate was made of these Silver Oaks. Well, first thing in my mind was with
min cost of production, the lady is earning good with her Homestay business im sure of it!!!
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| coffee plants Nursery |
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| Twin Rabbits in the estate |
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| The good looking centerpieces. |
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| Pretty ain't it? |
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| Breakfast at the estate |
The walk was followed by a delicious breakfast. I liked the
way they served the food. Impressed!!We chilled around a bit more and then
checked out of the place by 12noon.
On our way back to Bangalore we stopped by the 2nd
largest lake in Karnataka - Ayyanakere Lake. It was huge and beautiful. But as I mentioned it was too hot for us
to stay longer. One tip from my side, always save the offline Google maps for
the area you are travelling. We almost got screwed up. I still don’t understand
how without Signal my google maps worked in some areas.
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| Ayyanakere Lake |
I'm glad that I was able to take this mini trip. It's always a good way to recharge our batteries to go on to face the realities of City life. But most of all memories were made and we took time to pause for a while and take in the immensity of the vast wonder that is Mother Nature. Certainly a weekend well spent.
P.S. In the whole trip we ended up killing a grasshopper. I don't feel good about it but then I remembered the Food Chain that exists and everyone is eaten by another species !!!
