Acres Wild - Coonor

Acres Wild - Coonor (http://www.acres-wild.com/) is a good option to have a relaxed break with family and friends. This farm is owned by Mansoor Khan (uncle of Aamir Khan and the famous director/producer of QSQT, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar etc). This farm has a small family run cheese factory with cottages for experiencing farm stay. At Acres wild farm there is a main house where Mansoor and his family lives. The whole farm is at multiple levels. Level 1 has a cottage (Cheddar Cottage) which can house 2 families (2 bedroom, kitchen and hall), level 2 has the main house of Mansoor and the dining area for guests, level 3 has one cottage with a single room (Colby cottage) , another cottage Haloumi Cottage which can host 2 families, has 2 bedrooms, hall and kitchen. Haloumi has the best views. All cottages are secluded and provide complete privacy. This I found as major difference between a Farm stay and a Home Stay. The lunch is not included in the package. One can choose to go out and eat or cook in the farm. All the basic utensils and some tea powder, sugar, salt is provided in the kitchen. They also provide fresh milk from their farm.

Haloumi Cottage

The whole experience is very unique. This is not a place if you want to pack your day with lot of activities. The stay itself is for relaxing and having your personal time. The place is little far from Ooty, however if you are completely bored, then you can choose to do some sight seeing. The food is basic homely food and should not expect exotic dishes. The home made cheese at the farm's cheese factory, served at breakfast is yummy - sad they don't sell that cheese :(

The acres wild site is very well organized. One can see the availability of cottages for each date on the website itself. One needs to plan in advance. The cottages seem to booked perpetually. The number mentioned on the website is Mansoor's direct number. I was a little surprised. I did not expect Mansoor to answer when I called for booking. Unfortunately we could not meet him during our visit as he was travelling. We meet his wife Tina. They have been living here for a while now and completely enjoy it in Coonoor contrast to the hectic life of Mumbai. We spent some time chatting with Tina and she patiently answered all our questions.

Milking Activity

Since we had already done Ooty, we wanted to check out the calmer twin Coonoor and Acer's Wild Farm came as the best option. We booked both the rooms of Haloumi cottage as we were 2 families  - and this was perfect. Atleast 2N/3D is required to experience this place. We had booked the place for 2N/3D. Since the farm does not serve lunch (unless booked in advance), we stopped for lunch at Ooty and reached the farm around 4PM. The farm is around 5-6Kms from the Coonoor town and has super location. Once we reached here it felt like we were some where very far far away.

Acres Wild Cheese - Served at Breakfast

This place is for relaxing and one should not expect many activities. They do have some activities, but nothing major. Kids had fun milking and feeding the cows in the evening, in the morning we saw the cheese making process. The cheese factory is home run - small scale. It was good experience to see and understand the process of Cheese making.

Trekking at Farm

Most of our mornings were spent in Trekking through the Farms tea gardens, reading books, playing games (board games, cards, badminton - please carry your own). Have a good break fast at the farm. The Acres Wild Cheese served with breakfast was very yummy - it just melts in the mouth. Afternoon was left to explore around the farm. Evenings were magical. We asked for camp fire, which was put up in front for our cottage. Since the cottages are spread across distances, you don't have to worry about disturbing others. We played music, danced, played games at camp fire. The moon lit sky with twinkling stars, music in the background and all the laughs and chatter was real fun. Icing on this was the barbecue and wine.  The best part was the Bose Bluetooth enabled music box which Deepa had got. It was perfect and made the experience more exciting. We also got some fresh vegetables from the local market and made grilled vegetables over the campfire.

Campfire

One view from Haloumi Cottage

One day we stepped out of the farm and went to see some local view points. The drive through the acres of tea gardens was beautiful. We also went to a couple of view points. One does not need to step out as the farm itself provides very good view points especially from Haloumi Cottage. If you carry some basic cooking needs like noodles, pastas, bread - one can easily spend few days with complete relaxation.

After spending two relaxed and fun filled days, we headed back to Bangalore. On our way back, we saw a huge herd of elephants crossing the road in Bandipur forest. We also saw many deers, monkeys and couple of peacocks.