Weekend Getaway to Honey Valley Estate in Coorg, Karnataka, India
Five of us left Bangalore one fine Friday morning to spend the weekend at Honey Valley Estate in exotic Coorg that is nestled in the Western Ghats of Karnataka.
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It was smooth travel till we reached Hunsur. We had sumptuous breakfast of steaming hot idlis, maddur vada and filter coffee at Maddur Tiffanys’. But, just after Hunsur, we had a bad flat and the tyre itself had cracked open.
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We fixed the spare tyre just outside Hunsur and then bore the brunt of the extremely bad roads till Virajpet.
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At Virajpet, we had a brief stopover for chai (tea) and some snacks to go with it. Then, we took the small winding roads that took us to Kabbinakad. It was already night time by the time we reached Kabbinakad.
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From here, a steep dirt track took us to Honey Valley. We lost our way once and then our SUV lost grip at a couple of places, but we overcame these small, yet eventful hurdles to make it to our destination.
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At Honey Valley, we were taken to our cottage rooms by the hosts, the Chengappa family, where we freshened up before heading down to the common room for a great dinner.
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Post dinner, most of us decided to explore the territory nearby under torch light. It was a great experience, though we could hardly see anything.
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Next morning, was an early Coorgi breakfast. The homemade jam and honey are a real treat here. The hearty and healthy breakfast got us all charged up for our day’s trek.
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We ditched the traditional trekking route to Thadiyandamol and instead opted for the more steep route to the top of a nearby waterfall.
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The ascent was fairly easy as we climbed up with the support of the long grass blades, but when we looked down below us, we knew that we had to find an alternate route for our descent.
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While we were searching for the alternate route, we came across a large group of gaurs and this freaked us out completely. We stood frozen till this large bovine group moved away from us.
Soon, we found our way down. Enroute our descent, we enjoyed a great dip in one of the many streams flowing down from the waterfall. Lunch, as with all the other meals, was sumptuous. All I can say is that the Chengappa family have a great cook.
We relaxed for a while after lunch, bought ourselves some original Coorgi coffee, honey and jam and then packed up to make our way back to Bangalore.
Honey Valley nestled deep in Coorg is a great weekend getaway from Bangalore!!
