Hesaraghatta

This has been a unique trip, for various reasons!!!! This will always be one of my special cherished ones :)

It was my birthday weekend. We are the kinds who make a big deal out of birthdays. It is a nice feeling to feel special one day in a year, have all the attention towards you ;) hehe.

I had no clue where we were going that particular weekend. I was just told that we were going on a trip. That itself was enough to keep me excited :) So I packed for 2 days and one night for all of us on Friday. Saturday morning we got ready and for the first time I sat behind the wheels before a trip :D. I started driving my new car not knowing where we were going, just following the directions given by A. Our first stop was Windsor Manor - one of our favorite breakfast places in Bangalore. They have a huge buffet spread which we relish every time we visit the place. We thoroughly enjoyed the breakfast. Our lil ones also had a hearty meal. And we wrapped up by having masala chai.

After spending more than one hour at Windsor Manor, we got back in the car to resume our journey out of Bangalore. I was the most relaxed person that day, I enjoyed the drive, while A drove. We reached the Hesaraghatta Lake. So I guessed that we were going somewhere near Hesaraghatta. And then I saw a board that said "Our Native Village" :) So thats when I knew! We asked someone the directions, and we were told to go past Nrityagram dance school. But we took the wrong turn after passing Nrityagram and so we drove around a bit longer. The surrounding was so green, that we did not mind the extra few kilometers :)

We reached the resort just before noon. We checked in to the room, and started walking around and reached the parking area. The kids were playing near the car when I saw my sil's car enter the resort. This was the 2nd surprise!! My mom, brother and sil also joined us on this trip and this was planned by A long back :) It was just PERFECT! The kids and me were sooo excited to see them :)

The 2 rooms that were booked were opposite to each other with a small katte in between them. So we could sit on that and chat. And soon it was time for lunch. We went to the dining area where they had buffet lunch. We had a relaxed lunch and went for a stroll. The kids tried their hands at pottery and enjoyed a lot :)

We then did a small bullock cart ride. It is a widely spread area, where there is lot of greenery and away from all sounds. We ventured towards the area where there were lot of game equipment. The place is rightly called "our native village" as it reminds us of all the olden day games. We started off with kite flying. Kids started playing with the swings - rope swing, tyre swing. It started drizzling, but we continued to play. Badminton, tennicoit, cricket, catapult, chasing the tyre, running race - these were a few of the things that all of us enjoyed playing again and again, including my mom! Brought back so many memories. And the rain continued while we played in the rain. All our dresses still have the red mud stains from this trip :D

Kids were too excited to take a nap that day. They just kept running around and trying all the different games. Tea and snacks were served at the dining area in the evening. After having hot tea and pakodas, we headed towards the other side of the resort, where they had a tennis net and lot of group activity stuff made out of logs. The walk was beautiful, chatting, taking pictures and the highlight being our regular jumping pictures! All of us got very nice jumping pictures - both individual and group :D

Our older one did many of the log games that were there and enjoyed playing thoroughly. We started walking back towards the resort , stopping to play carom inside the recreation area. We reached the room once it got dark, all of us were exhausted. We freshened up and went to the dining hall to have dinner.

After dinner, kids slept in the room. We sat outside in the sit-out area and started chatting. Got wished for my birthday and continued till 2am. We then caught some sleep before waking up early the next day.

A lovely day to wake up on a birthday :) Listening to birds and my kids singing happy birthday :) We sat outside and watched the cows waking up. Kids loved talking to the cows and calves and listening to the sounds of nature! It was peaceful - a perfect morning!

We all got ready and stepped out of the room to have breakfast. After having hot tea outside, we walked around, kids running around and playing some more till it was time for us to leave.

Our stay here was PERFECT - simple and fun! We totally loved the place! All of us, from kids to my mom had so many fun things to do. The food they served was decent good food.

A perfect birthday followed by lunch at UB city, temple visit, cake cutting and dinner at home with in-laws!

-Blessed me :)


I do not have any pictures from this trip (except for the one below), I guess I was too excited and busy having fun to remember to click pictures :)


Bheemeshwari

When we lived in the US we traveled a looot. We used to book flight tickets last minute, waiting for great deals and so were able to see a lot of places. Bheemeshwari was one such trip, our first last-minute trip after kids :) 


We always travel during weekends. Traveling on weekdays are so nice. We booked accommodation for one night stay at the  Bheemeshwari jungle lodges resort. Bheemeshwari is around 100 km from Bangalore. We left home around 830am. We took the Kanakapura road. There is a new MTR restaurant that's opened on Kanakapura road. It is right after "Art of living" ashram. There are lot of boards pointing to MTR, so one cannot miss the place.


We had a heavy and nice breakfast, masala dosa, ragi dosa, idli, khara bath and kesari bath. And yummy coffee and tea.


We headed again on Kanakapura road. I have always liked this road as it is country side and very scenic with greenery on both sides of the road. We took a left at Sathanur and went via Muttathi. The road wasn't great, but there was not a single vehicle or person on this road for over a stretch of 25 km. We went inside the forest area, the air was fresh and we could hear all kinds of birds. It was a beautiful drive. We had the windows down and the kids were asleep in their car seats. 












After Muttathi, inside the forest area is the Bheemeshwari jungle lodges resort. 


We usually don't travel to the same place twice as there are soo many places to see. But this was an exception. We are always on a lookout for places that are closer to Bangalore. We had been to Bheemeshwari around 7 years ago. And we had enjoyed our stay. It was too beautiful. So this time we booked the same place.  





We entered the jungle lodges around noon. We had fresh lemon juice before going to our tent. We had booked a tented cottage, which is the basic level of accommodation available there. There are log huts and mud cottages as well. But I loved the tent cottage the best. It gives us the feeling of staying closer to nature. We spent most of our time outside. We were inside the tent only while sleeping.



The kids started exploring the place immediately. There were lots and lots of monkeys, and many variety of birds. And as expected they enjoyed acting like monkeys and having fun. Kids singing "swing swing high, swing swing low..." while we lay on the hammock was one of the highlights :)

View from the hammock


After roaming around for some more time we started walking towards the dining area. Food is usually good at all the jungle lodge resorts. We had a lovely meal. We went back to our tent so that kids could rest for a while.


Cauvery river flows thru the place. One side of the river is the resort, and the other side is the forest area. We could see lot of deer drinking water on the other side. We saw wild boar running around near the resort as well.


After a quick nap and tea and snacks, we walked closer to the river. The river is very beautiful! The whole place is so serene, calm, peaceful and quiet. We went on a long coracle ride. The kids had so much fun on the "boat" as we all sang "row row row your boat". We saw 2 crocodiles lying on 2 separate rocks, basking in the sun. We all loved the coracle ride.


Crocodile!




 

Coracle ride


After the coracle we did kayaking. A took lil A alone in a kayak - he didn't have any harness, but he had a life jacket on and was very well behaved and enjoyed the ride. I took V on my lap and the guide kayaked and took us for a small ride in the river.


The kids just loved playing in the mud near the river. We spent a lot of time here, relaxing playing. We headed back to the tent as it started to get dark and began to drizzle.



We sat in front of the tent as the sun set and it started to rain. It was a different experience to just sit and watch the rain for a long time :)




As it got completely dark, we had dinner at the tent, and called it a night. The food was soo yummy, we polished everything. 


The kids loved listening to the various sounds of birds and insects and animals coming from the dark.





One more good thing about traveling on a weekday was that we were the only ones staying at the resort.



We woke up early to the sounds of nature, birds chirping and we all singing happy birthday to our lil one, and she also singing along with us :D



We had tea sitting outside enjoying the freshest air. Last time we had been on a beautiful trek, climbing a small hill. It was a 4 km trek and on reaching the top, it had an amazing view of the river Cauvery. We wanted to go this time also, but a slight drizzle had started, and our older one wasn't feeling too well, so we decided to start our trek expeditions from our next trip :)



Morning sun


To add more to our nature experience, there was absolutely no cell phone signal from any point in or near the resort.

We went to the dining area to have breakfast. After eating, we spent a lot of time near the river. The weather was perfect! We all had a lovely time at the river side.


We walked around the place, kids played for a while climbing ropes, tree branches, swing  etc.










We also climbed a huge hammock that was tied on top of 4 big trees which was super fun! 





Soon it was time to leave. We packed and started our journey back. The drive was beautiful, the lil one dozed off as soon as we sat in the car. Older one enjoyed the breeze and the villages till we reached Kanakapura road before giving in to sleep.


We did not stop anywhere till we reached MTR restaurant, we were waiting to have their meals for lunch. But they were closed as it was a Tuesday. So we had a quick one at the north Indian restaurant which was in the same complex, next to MTR.


And we got home, fully energized and refreshed! Thats what all the trips do to us! I feel new during and after every trip, till the next one :D