Hey, It was the 26th of December 2006. Just after x'mas. We had decided to go to Coorg. Had heard a lot about Homestay's there. So, just surfed the net and were surprised to find the number of available homes we could stay at. Finally zeroed in on a place called the Vindhyas. Set out from Bangalore in the morning. Drove to Mysore and continued on to the Mercara route (the Mysore Hunsur road). As we neared Kushalanagar you can experience the change in locale and the climate. Suddenly you see a lot more trees and beautiful mountainous region all lush green.
Reached Vindhyas in the evening and Jayant and family were waiting for us. It is a beautiful estate. We had a sumptous dinner and slept after a day of travel(almost 300 kms).
Got up in the morning and the view inside the estate was fantastic. It is a coffee estate and looked amazing.
We had a lovely cottage that could accomodate 2 couples and maybe 3 children. A very comfortable place to stay in with a lot of privacy. Jayant's (the estate owner) bungalow is about half a kilometer away.
The next day we went out to Abbey falls which is quite near to this place. It was a beautiful sight. The sound of the waterfall and the beauty of nature is truly enthralling.
We had a campfire dinner in the evening. Jayant helped us with the Bbq equipment as well! The hospitality was wonderful from the entire family. On the 28th we commenced our return journey. We had planned to visit the Nagarahole Wildlife Park enroute, but we heard from some other fellow vacationers that they had no sightings of wildlife. So, we thought we could visit the Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary which we did. It is a paradise on Earth. The whole picture is so surreal that you start wondering just what our tourism department is doing. These are places that are so exotic and different and yet they do not receive the promotion and publicity they deserve.
We saw a number of different species of birds like the cormarant, painted stork, night heron and so on. we also saw a couple of lovely crocodiles lazing/basking in the sun and of course a number of bats clinging upside down on the trees enveloping the river banks. It was still the start of the nesting season. We could not see too many nests nor the noisy chirpings of the young ones.
Returned to Bangalore on the beautiful highway very comfortably. It was a very memorable vacation and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks to the Jayant 's for their wonderful hospitality and not to mention their culinary expertise.
Jayant's phone numbers are 9880148160/08272239305.
