Kodagu

We are back from another AWESOME trip to Coorg!

We had a long weekend in October, with 4 continuous days off from work. So we decided to go to Coorg. Coorg has become one of our favorite and easy destinations as it is the closest place to Bangalore. 

We left on a Thursday morning around 6.30 am. We took the 'nice road' to Mysore road. We always stop at Maddur Tiffanys in Maddur for breakfast. It is a small restaurant, with not much crowd. After a breakfast + coffee break, we continued on Mysore road till Srirangapatna. Right after Srirangapatna town, we took the right towards Yelawal. It is the 2nd big right turn. We usually take this road to go to Coorg. The traffic is always less on this road, and it is a scenic route with fields on either side. The stretch is about 20km to Yelawal. Once we reach Yelawal, we continued on the main road to Hunsur. Hunsur now has few restaurants on the main road. Halli Mane is a decent place for a quick bite before proceeding.

After passing the restaurants, we came across a V junction with 2 roads - right goes to Madikeri, left goes to Virajpet. We had to take the Virajpet road, so we took the left. We continued on this road for around 25-30km. We passed the forest area and an elephant camp before we reached Gonikoppal town. There is a sign board that says "Ponnampet" where we took a left. If we miss this left, we are on the Gonikoppal town road where there are lot of shops on either side and a bus stop. So one has to take a U turn and take the first right to Ponnampet. Once we reach Ponnampet, which is around 6km from Gonikoppal, we come to a small circle, where we take a right turn. We continued on this road to Hudikeri, and then to Ontinagadi where our homestay was located!

After we pass Hudikeri, we have to take a left turn at Ontinagadi, where there are 2 small shops which is actually a ladies club called "sambrama". But the sign board had fallen down when we went. After we take the left turn here, we go for few minutes till we see a small bus stop and a temple arch, where we turn left onto "Sree betta chikkamma temple road".  This is a very small one-car road with coffee plants on both sides. Once on this road, we see a lovely wooden sign board that says "WOODROSE"! And we know we have arrived on a lovely property :)

 

We parked inside and stepped out. We were welcomed by the Raos, Uncle and Aunty :) We chatted with them for a while in the lovely living room. They have a beautiful cozy house on a 20 acre plot, which they have built from scratch. The living room had a lot of interesting stuff and I loved each and everything. Uncle and Aunty live in this beautiful house. 

Welcome :)

 We were hungry, and it was lunch time. We had a heavy, yummy lunch - chapathi, dhal, rice, rasam, cabbage curry, potato fry, curds - followed by fruits salad with jelly and ice-cream which we ate sitting outside.

After chatting for some more time, we went to our room to relax. They have 2 lovely rooms/cottages with a private sit-out, each overlooking the garden and the coffee plants. We loved the room! It was very spacious, with a lovely big bathroom/tv/coffee-tea maker/a big cupboard with safe. We were 3 adults and a kid in the room, and we were very comfortable. I sat outside on the pretty bench in the sit-out outside the room, enjoying nature with my son while the others slept. We could hear lot of birds chirping. I can sit for hours in a place like this :)

My favorite place :)

We were refreshed after taking rest. It was time for the evening walk in the estate. Uncle gave us a tour of the place. They grow 2 kinds of coffee - arabica and robusta. At one end of the estate, Uncle has built a lake. The lake is quite big and I was very impressed that Uncle built the lake on his own. The whole area is very beautiful! My favorite place was near the lake, very peaceful and calm. We sat near the lake for sometime before heading back to the house. 

 

The stream

We had hot tea with freshly baked date and nut cake and choclate banana cake that Aunty had made, sitting outside. We also had Coorgi kajjaya sweet with some mixture. We walked around the property till the gate for some more time till it got dark. We had turned on the geyser before we left for the walk, so had a hot bath and felt so fresh! We sat outside chatting with Uncle and Aunty till dinner time. Both Uncle and Aunty are very interesting people and we had long conversations, talking about a lot of stuff. Dinner was served at 8.30pm. All our meals were soo tasty! We had cauliflower bake in white sauce, ghee rice, paapittu, bagchoi leaves dhal that was locally grown, stuffed capsicum, dhal and rasam - AMAZING food! Everything tasted sooo good, and there were so many dishes!

After the heavy dinner, we headed back to our room, and hit the bed.

We woke up around 6 am the next day to a chirpy fresh morning! We could hear loot of birds at the same time. The sound was like sweet music to the ears! We sat outside sipping coffee watching the misty trees and the birds flying everywhere. We had a relaxed and lovely morning. We got ready and went to the dining room to have breakfast around 8.30am. We had yummy Uttappams with Rajma curry, freshly cut papaya and pineapple fruits followed by awesome hot fresh coffee!

We left the homestay around 9am, and drove towards Talacauvery. Talacauvery is the birth place of Cauvery river. The place was around 2.5 hours from our homestay. The drive was beautiful, we got to see Kodagu desha - paddy fields, coffee estates, local houses - a pretty drive. We drove via Gonikoppal, took a left at Gonikoppal town towards Virajpet. We took a left turn at Kadnoor and reached Bhagamandala via Kakkabe and reached Talacauvery around 11.30 am. Talacauvery is one of our favorite places in Coorg. It was nice to see the mighty river Cauvery's origin place which is about 1276m above sea level. We had a lovely time here, touched the river water, and sprinkled the same on our head :)

We left the place and started driving down. We stopped at Bhagamandala at a small restaurant for lunch. By the time we started driving back, it started drizzling and then it rained heavily. We reached Virajpet via Napoklu and then came to Gonikoppal. Reached the homestay around 3.30pm. The geyser was on, so took a hot shower and sat outside. 

The gorgeous "Poinsettia" Christmas flower plants that we saw along the roads in Coorg

Gonikoppal town

 The weather was perfect, very pleasant, no rain, no sun :) Hot Uppittu and samosas were waiting for us!! What more could we have asked for on a day like that!! We had tea alongwith the YUMMIEST orange cake that Aunty had baked. I have really fallen in love with the orange cake. I should definitely get the recipe from Aunty :D

After tea, we walked around on the property till it got dark. We sat and chatted for a long time till dinner. The weather was perfect for a chat and drink with loved ones :) It seemed like a different world over there compared to our Bangalore city. No sound, fresh air, very clean, and in the middle of nature! One of the best vacation places. It is really amazing how Uncle and Aunty have built everything from scratch. There was nothing when they bought the 20 acre land. They have built a beautiful house, 2 very cozy rooms for guests, a rich coffee plantation, pepper plants, banana plants, papaya/pineapple/guava/greens etc. They have a nice small pond with lot of colorful fish. My little boy wanted to stay near the fish pond all the time. He was super excited when Aunty gave fish food to him to feed the fish! And of course the 2 lovely golden retrievers, Casper and Bo. 

View from the "katte" where we used to sit and have tea and chat

The Walk

We had pulav, moong gassi, lady finger curry, paratha, rasam and raita. The dessert was like a finale to our whole trip - a chocolate dessert and kheer. I cannot even explain how the chocolate melted in my mouth. It was THE best dessert I have had in many years!

The next morning we woke up early, and headed out for a walk around 6.15am. The weather was very pleasant, with slight mist. We went all along the estate. After a lovely walk, we had tea sitting outside. I sat near our room for a while without doing anything, just enjoying watching the birds, trees, butterflies, insects and inhaling fresh air :D :)

View from the estate

Water Lily

Coffee flowers

Sun Rise

We had Neer dosa and curry with papaya and pineapple fruits for breakfast. We enjoyed a cup of fresh hot coffee sitting outside!

It was time for us to leave, so got ready, packed and had to say goodbye! We will definitely be going back to Woodrose. The trip was extra special as my mom was traveling with us for the first time after we had A2. And all of us had a GREAT time! A lovely holiday :)

Beautiful Belladonna flowers, seen everywhere in Coorg

We left Woodrose around 1030am, took the same route back to Bangalore. We stopped at the elephant camp for 10 minutes as A2 loves animals. He didn't want to leave the elephants and come back :)

We stopped at Halli Mane in Hunsur for a quick lunch. By the time we reached Bangalore it was around 4.30.

A beautiful place, awesome food with at least one coorgi dish at every meal, lovely weather and very warm and caring hosts = A PERFECT vacation!

Thanks a lot Uncle and Aunty for everything you did for us during our stay and making our stay so enjoyable!