As the years pass, we find newer and newer challenges.. And in our case, challenge comes in the name of ‘Where to’.. Having explored Karnataka quite enough, we are left with very few choices. And I cant go easy on them, ‘coz its the only trip that we enjoy with our pals.
Hmmm.. After quite a lot of search I ended up in choosing Coffee Valley home stay in shakleshpur.. Quite a lovely webpage..;-)
..and the day came..30th Dec 2008..
We were all set.. (Selvakarthik, Kubhi, Krish, Vinoth,KasturiRangan, Senthil, Praveen, Dinesh, Vijay and Myself).. The poor guys who missed the trip with half-hearted was Arun and RameshKannan.. Both had valid reasons, so we didnt persuade them.
.. And girls stuck with their own schedules and didnt make and we decided to take it as ‘Guys’ trip again. (May be a last one)..
That was a eventful day..RameshKannan came to Bangalore to invite us for his marriage. Bharathi (Vinoth) joined us for a quick chit-chat in between her classes. and Indra, Krish’s friend spent some time with us.. It was total gala time; we had good home cooked food.. Later that day Ramesh thrown us the treat in Inchara (For his marriage, or may be as the penalty to miss the trip??!!)..
All were perfect, we started our trip..Interesting part is, coffee valley homestay sits off-the-road and Vinoth had very hard time in telling the route to the driver. Infact we were bit deviated and drove some 20+ Kms just to realize no more road ahead of it.. We wokeup some of the locals and they were scared to hell to get knock on their door at that time and reluctantly advised the right route.
We reached the resort around 5AM and the first one we met was Tommy the homestay cross-breeded dog, which was extremely happy for the guests.. We were wondering that how come a dog could be very happy for newcomers. We had been taken to our sweet little homestay from there with a very little walk on the valley (to be precise at 100 feet downwards).. We took a small nap..Weather was almost cold.. 😉
31-Dec-208
It was a beautiful morning.. How many days in our life we get the chance to wake up in a homestay in between coffee plantations and with a great-tasting coffee waiting to be poured for you.. We dont miss, had one and a half cup making sure all get their shares..;-)
Home stay is small with 4 single rooms on a row with attached bath facilities. They were quite neat and clean. Thats all we expect.
Shakleshpur is full of natural beauty but almost no sight-seeing places. So I didnt bother to have a itiniery as they adviced some viewpoint..
We had our lovely breakfast(Idly) which really tasted very good. But we were practiced to see many varieties for the breakfast in the trips, so bit disappointed.
Taste managed us not to bother. I hate idly and its been years since I touched them.. But I had 10 that day.. Believe it.. Some sweet, Coffee followed.
We started to that nearby view point. After a 20 minute drive we reached that place. A small temple which was so artistcally placed on a small mount.
View from there was not bad.. and the homestay boy who came with us later told that we have to walk uphill for the view point.. With some photo-sessions in the temple, we started walking uphill.. In no time, we were tired. To be frank this lifestyle what we live today totally ruins our stamina.. We somehow managed to walk till the top first mount (next one was has to be climbed from here).. It was sun at noon no place to shove our heads under shadow.. Assume the rest.
When all made it to the top of the first mount, Krish and Vinoth excused themselves not risk more by trying the second mount. Still they made a start, but stopped wisely. With all the confident I gathered on my earlier treks, I measured this almost to nothing and started with a run.. It was a little slope after first mount and then uphill.. Kinda ‘U’ shaped.. Just to accelarate I ran and that helped. It reacted while reaching the half, I felt nausea (which I had never felt anytime) and shortly had to throw up all the idlys I consumed.. my mind and stomach were even then.. With some water I managed to climb the rest.. (Good to mention, Senthil thrown up too later.. :-P)
When we reached the top, we were tired, I was hell tired; Sun was right on us. All I wanted was to sit, less bothered about UV rays on me. But the view was very good. Generally we get some views which are limited to a quarter or two. But here, we had almost 360 degree view.. I swear on God they will look extra-ordinary during monsoon. (I luv mountains when they are lush green)
After some time we receded back. There is a never-fished pond/Mini Lake dedicated to the temple. Which had big fishes (few were real big) and fearlessly interacting with human beings.. I think they got practiced. I was thinking Thenmozhi’s reaction if she was there. She would have loved them our kitchen than there.. 😉
After some wandering, we started back to resort. Had tummyful lunch.. All were in need of afternoon nap very very badly, but I knew, if I let them, then the evening is gone and I can forget the last sunset of 2008. Still few managed have a short nap and when time came we got them with coffee (a tactic to get us to active state)
We headed to a nearby bald hill top, that gave us a very beautiful view and we were sure no clouds can ruin the sunset. Almost we were on time and ‘that’ happened slowly.. Every little thing in this world got its own charm and beauty, I have a thirst not to miss any of them.. 😉
With some good pics, we ended our day with few phone calls because that was the only place where we could get signals. Actually I loved it because these days cellphones are capable enough to ruin our holidays.. I was glad homestay didnt have the signal at all.. 😀
We had funtime and around 8pm we started our campfire.. this time we had some hot topics and few turned arugements too.. 😉 After fixing all those we had dinner..
12:00 It was time!! Happy new year!! ..I was sooooooooooooo lucky to cut the new year cake (or bread) this time.. I thought my chance may come in 8-10 years as per the probability but was soo soon.. 😉
1-Jan-2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
We started our day to a nearby falls. You know, it was a hell of a falls.. By 11AM, its cold.. real cold.. Never felt that cold falls!! Still we could enjoy that.. With Senthil’s new High Definition handycam, we didnt miss any fun at all.. We spent enough time with the water and 2 times longer for photo sessions.. My guys are becoming obsessed with pics these days.
Later we had lunch and the only scheduled of this trip is to Kasargod to watch the ruins of the fort which sits on the coast beautiful Arabian sea. But god and to hell with, Shakleshpur roads!! They are our biggest problems since we started new year trips in ages. They claim the new road laid and in 3 months, we see upto 1 feet pits everywhere and the worst road system anywhere you could see. Driver gaveup and said it might eat all day just to reach there. With half heartedly okay-ed to return.
On the way back, we stopped for a quick visit at Manjrabad Fort one of Tippu Sultan’s. (Now Sukanya, going to claim she had been there to the same place).. Even her itiniery was almost same. Good to mention the other famous Rotikal homestay is just nearby to coffee-valley. Nothing to tell about the fort, just some leftovers of their regime. With some filling snacks we returned to homestay. With dinner, day was gone.
2-Jan-2009
Time to bid adieu to the homestay. Senthil,Kubhi and myself had a small morning walk in the valley. Later we had our breakfast and bidded bye to the homestay. Just to mention, they were very courteous and caring.
Its our practice to visit a temple on first of Jan, but this time on Second. Only thing we could think of was Komatheeswar temple on the way. We almost skkipped our lunch and went there. Again a test for stamina which is too much. We managed to reach top. With some prayers for a better year and some calls to Barbeque Nation in bangalore for dinner (Dinesh’s treat) we started back to Bangalore.
….another memorable one!!
Now pics to you..
[flash https://ardentsage.rainyhills.com/wperp/Gallery/NY2009_files/Videos_NY_NEW.flv]
2 Comments
Malar · June 24, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Blessed with sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet friends:)
Dinesh AYM · March 10, 2009 at 12:22 am
Cool photos but seems to be very less in numbers… 🙂