After much speculation on the night of the 14th, i woke up at 5:45 a.m (five hours after i went back home from work) and packed my bags, getting ready for a promisingly gorgoues drive to Coorg.
The weather was perfect, the drive peaceful, the view calming. I was wide awake throughout the journey. Good thing, that. Was able to see tobacco plantations - for some reason i'd always thought they were trees and not bushes. I was proven wrong. The tobacco is used in cigarettes of course, while the leaves are used to make beedi wraps.
At Nagarhole, we spotted plenty of spotted deer and a very hungry young tusker. He was an angry one too, considering he sort of threatened to come at us with a flailing trunk when we got close to take a picture.
We stayed at Polybetta the first night - a full bungalow to ourselves. Four poster bed (yeah pp, they had one of those. Pity we didn't know of it when we were together), hot water, antique furniture, skylights - the setting was pure fantasy. Everythe the estate owners served us was homegrown - even the coffee we drank.
Our next stay was at Dreamland Holidays - another home stay, this time a stone's throw away from Iruppu Falls. So while A and L went gallavanting to the falls, i stayed back to soak in the beauty of the place and more importantly, the comfortable silence. When it started raining, i went into the estate owner's home, settled on a stone seat in the kitchen and had an easy conversation with Maya, the proprietess, about marraige, having kids, running a home stay, the works.
Sunday morning was the most exciting. My first time out rafting. Barapole was the chosen river. Slightly muddy, but not in the rapids where the water was crashing against the stones and churning. Manju, the very easygoing organizer of the rafting, made us get into the water wearing our life jackets. So i floated for a bit, my breath coming in short gasps because the water was freezing (and not because i don't know swimming). Then he pulled us all into the rafts and we went in search of gushing rapids.
Good Morning, Grasshopper, Wicked Witch aka Raam Jaane, Milk Churn - each rapid more unnerving than the other. My favourite was the Wicked Witch. (No guesses why). I loved the whole experience. So much so, that every opportunity i get to go rafting, i will. I recommend it to everyone - you must experience it at least once in your life.
We arrived back in Bangalore at 11 on Sunday night to torrential downpours. Surprising, because we didn't have so much rain in any part of Coorg we passed through - this, despite all the floods that it was rumoured to be ravaged by.
The trip was totally worth it. Sprawling tea estates, lush coffee plantations, lakes, rain showers, drive-throughs, spotting wild animals, stopping anywhere we wanted... it's my first trip for the year. About time as well.
Will post link to pictures soon.
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