Trip to Chikmagalur

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"Man, a trip to any place, only if the plan materializes...we all need the break...", grumble we did, but to no avail. But Abhijeet did the follow up beautifully, "eh Jeeva...Arun... plan know, shall we go to Coorg??" The "plan know" meant mails flying back and forth with the initial what-do-u-guys-say to "eh Guru...eh Saba, why don't u reply man?yes or no??"
Destinations ranged from the exotic Coorg to Wayanad and Munnar down God's-own-country to "did you say Chikmagalur? where is that and what’s so special about it??", we cried in unison. Jeeva, aside his perpetual smiley face, wore an expression of don't-even-think-about-it type, but agreed to have it as our last option. Confronted with ranked options, and ending up with the last due to circumstances not in our control, Murphy zindabad, yes we ended up choosing Chikmagalur indeed - expectations wane with the rankings too.
But what followed was a transformation of emotions, transgressing expectations and transporting us to a world of this-is-where-I-wanna-be. If you haven't visited this wonderful place yet...this weekend is the right time.
Enter Chikmagalur and shades of Kerala and Ooty unravel in a mixture of varied plantation ranging from coffee (predominantly) to jackfruit to pomegranate, spices...you name it.
We had booked accommodation at Eagle Eye Holiday Homes about 40km from main Chikmagalur - which we had not enquired earlier, upsetting the very plan we had in mind. Z-point, Kemmanagundi was not to be missed according other sources hailing from this place, for its beautiful sunset. Then an early morning trek in Mulleyanagiri, the highest peak in South Karnataka, suggested by none other than Ganesh; followed by a visit to Hebbe Falls, also involving a good amount of trekking. So the plan was laid, but little did we know of an imminent replan.
When we reached Eagle Eye at about 3 in the afternoon, the proprietor of the estate (yes Eagle Eye was part of a plantation estate) broke our hearts explaining it would be impossible to watch the sunset at Z-point and come back here in good time; also, all the afore-mentioned places was at least an hour and a half's drive from the estate. That day virtually ended there, all we got to do was to consume the scenery around and try our hands at rowing coracles - all part of the accommodation package. But the scenery was breathtaking; you turn around any which way and there is just green hills staring back with mighty clouds hugging their peaks making a great view.
The accommodation was decent enough, the villas (each accommodating 4 adults) probably had our ubiquitous mosquito trouble, but I should say the cottages (each fitting 2 adults) were quite warm and cozy. No complaints on food, it was not great but not bad either.
Replan time (no groans, apparently we were all used to this...) and the basis was to visit all the not-to-be-missed destinations. So replan we did and checked out around 10am the next day morning and headed for our first of destinations, viz..Mulleyanagiri, the highest peak in South Karnataka. As we approached the peak, the vista it revealed was like no other. Now this is a trekkers’ paradise.
There were small hills, rocky hills, humongous hills, folding hills, bare hills, green hills, foresty hills - u name it - quite a sight indeed!!
Spending as much time of the as little time we had left, running here and jogging there, climbing up and stepping down, clicking here and clicking there, we consumed the best of it. The place looked untouched and serene.
Not in any mood to return, but making a resolve to catch with the other not-to-be-missed sights, we then headed for Hebbe Falls. I would probably require an equal amount (if not more) of space to relate just this adventure of a trip to Hebbe especially highlighting the driving skills of Babu (our TT driver) - keeping it short(atleast for now), be ready for an 8km trek through muddy and winding paths laid amidst a not-so-dense forest and coffee plantation. Watching the path, heads low, crossing streams and finally when the heads did lift, a glowing silvery cascade showed up to brighten our tired eyes..."wow!!", we cried..."water-falls"!!...Another photo-shoot!!
Again spending as much time of the as little time we had left and time was running out...
"just a few more minutes...inside the water..ok ok no taking bath...but we've come all the way here...some more time", cried Saba. It was nearing sunset time and the last of our destinations Z-point was atleast an hours' time from here." We've come all the way here, lets make it complete with the sunset", we agreed and headed for Kemmanagundi.
I remember as a kid when asked to draw a sunset would automatically draw two mountains, basically inverted "V"s touching each other at the inner ends, and put a circle in between the "V" that had formed, and place other inverted "V"s around - well we didn’t feel any different here.
The setting was indeed like the picture we had drawn, just that this looked more a mature canvass in amber accentuated by the silhouette formed by the objects in the foreground - breathtaking!! The entire surrounding turned amber as the clouds parted to reveal the dominant sky dot, the orange spot of a huge sun in-between the hills...canvass stuff...nothing but a painting, just awesome.

So what initially we thought would have been a failure of a trip, turned out to be one of our BEST. Mark Chikmagalur and specifically the places mentioned above along with Kallathgiri and SubramanyaBetta (which we missed), no second thoughts just take a break...unwind!!!

Chikmaglur is about 5 hours' drive from Bangalore tracing Nelamangala->Hassan->Belur/Hallebid. Aside a few kilometers of bad roads, largely the driving is quite comfortable.

For your info.

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