Coorg the coffee destination of India - famous for its coffee and spice plantations, this district is a beauty all through out the year. It is more beautiful in monsoons - when it pours day and night. As far as your eyes can see, its just greenery. This is also the birthplace of river "Kaveri". You will see the river in its fullest form during monsoons. The water falls around Madekari (capital of Coorg district) are mesmerizing during the monsoons. The Iruppu and Abbey falls are a must see during the monsoons.
For us, the monsoons are incomplete without a visit to Madekari. We have been trying different home-stays in Madekari. This time, we chose a home-stay which did not have any frills & fancy - "Honey Valley Resorts" (http://honeyvalleyindia.in/ ). We found this place a prefect weekend getaway from Bangalore. The resort is little farther from the Madekari town. It is located midst of a coffee plantation. There is private waterfalls within the coffee plantation owned by the home-stay. The location of this home-stay is "Picture Perfect".
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| View from the room sit out |
Cars needs to be parked at a parking place close the road. Once you reach, we need to call the home-stay folks. We were picked in a jeep. The roads to the home-stay are not very good for cars. SUVs will not have problem. The road to home-stay passes through the coffee plantation and a water falls. Once up, it is beautiful. You can smell the freshness in the air. Its is green all over and since it was middle of July, the monsoon were in full swing. We had a nice hot lunch. The food is basic with Vegetables, Rotis, Rice and Dal and some sweet dish made from a fruit which grows on their farm.
After lunch we had a good nap. It was peak monsoon and it was raining heavily. This is what we love in Madekari. Evening, when the rains had stopped, we went for a small trek to a view point. Here we were literally covered in clouds. The views were good. By the time we reached our room, it was dark. It started raining again. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards.
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| View point view |
Next day, after breakfast we walked to the water falls which is within the plantation. The walk to this falls will take about 30-45 min (if you are doing it with kids). It's about 2 KMs walk. My elder daughter was not very well. Hence we took a little longer as we took multiple breaks. The water falls areas is full of leeches. Be prepared to handle them. But it is worth a visit. The site of cool, gushing water and greenery all over is very refreshing after a long walk.
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| Walk to the water falls |
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| Water falls in the home-stay estate |
It was lunch time by the time we returned. We had a good meal and within no time we were all curled in the room with our favorite books. This is the best part of such vacations - where you don't have any interruptions of phone calls, TV etc. Evening was spent walking playing cards in the sit out of our room with insects cricking and birds chirping. Normally they have bon fires in the late evening. Since it was raining, there was no bon-fire lit.
Before we realized it was time to return. It was one lovely weekend spent with the family.
