... digged out this half finished post from the drafts folder.. written 4 months ago and lay there.. just reminder to do things on time...
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its only a week old story now. but am amused by the pace of the city that clouds your memory so fast. next time hopefully will write as it happens.
20-05-10
finally.. am rid of all the ties to the work for the next 10 days.. discussed, instructed, delegated and forgotten.. can finally focus on the trip.. buying batteries, getting a haircut, meeting mom at sis's place and retiring for the night at s'cruz to avoid saifee having to drive in the morning to pick us up at kandivali.
21-05-10
we start at 6.00 am as scheduled.. target is to reach the jungle lodge at ganeshgudi by 6.00 pm. its saifee's new honda civic with automatic transmission on to her maiden long drive. its got no spare room with 4 adults, 2 kids, a baby and an assortment of small bags and waterbottles. taking a second car would have divided the small group so we avoided that, not to speak of the adventures of taking my 12 yr and 120k km old honda along. we did take her to mandu last oct and had our share of fun fixing an ageing leaking hose pipe 5 times on the road, finally resorting to a makeshift arrangement to replacing it with a sturdy brakehose that lasted just enough to get us back to mumbai safely.
the option of me taking the bike along was promptly shot down by everyone else, i suspect they dont want me to have more fun than they do. also the bike wud have slowed the car down and i argue no further.
its a 580 km drive to ganeshgudi (dandeli forest reserve) and decide to keep the breaks to the minimum to reach the destination in daylight.
breakfast and fuel stop on the expressway at khopoli and i take on the wheel. nice car and a boring highway but fast and efficient. music in the car is a bone of contention. kabir and sabiha dont like ours, we cant appreciate theirs and saifee cant bear any beyond a point.
sane words come to me and i tell the parents to learn to appreciate the music and other things their kids enjoy if they want to stay connected to them. funny how music can become walls between generations. i make a note to myself to follow that too. lol. kabir and i have real trouble picking and playing PS2 games, he thinks i am too boring coz i almost always pick those racing games, when the fun is in fighting wars and killing monsters. he was playing a war game once, i said its too violent and gory, he said its historical and he cant help it if history was violent. i shut up.
mum - pune - satara - kolhapur, where we stop for lunch around 1-30.
as we enter the state of karnataka, NH4 betters. the surface, the flowering plants on the divider, reflective strips, laybyes for bus stops, service roads..
approaching a petrol pump on a dug up service road, the civic scrapes a rock, one of the several in the days to follow to worry saifee abt the safety of his new shining car and doubt the sanity of allowing me to chart the route.
we miss the turn off belgaum, stay on NH4 till kittur and take a right to dandeli. the road is bumpy and civic's low ground clearance worries saifee further.
finally reach ganeshgudi at 6. a km long dirt track off the tar road takes us to the enigmatically named "old magazine house jungle lodge". turns out, the place was originally built to store gelatin sticks during the construction of dam over the kali river.
the cottages are decent and kabir is in depression over the "creepy crawlies". a 3 inch spider on his pillow worsens the situation. saifee rather undiplomatically announces the slaying of a scorpion in his own room. it aint cold but the campfire is lit and kabir takes refuge in it. the food is decent too. kiara is happy to be out of the confines of the car and busy playing with stones and mud and sticks. she knows no fear. yet.
22-05-10
you dont need an alarm in this place to wake up. i wake up to a cacophony of bird sounds and whistles.
though it was only a stopover for the night, we go for a coracle ride in the kali river. its a round basket for a boat. the river is magnificent and further down you can do white water rafting but we skip it. nice place to come back to.
we leave after a good breakfast. the route planned passes thru anshi forest to karwar. inquiries reveal its in bad shape. with the civic we are no position to discover the truth. so we are on the yellapur- ankola route and reach the NH17. lucky to spot a kamat's restaurant at ankola to stop for lunch.
having heard so much of it, pay om beach at gokarna a brief visit but cant stop kiara from getting into the waters. she loves it. its off a cliff. we park the car and then have to walk down the cliff to reach the beach. makes it very tucked in, but the weekend crowd spoils the fun.
as it gets dark, the drive on NH17 to mangalore gets slow and laborious. everybody is bored and we stop for dinner at udipi around 10 and reach the urban retreat in mangalore at midnight. theres a party on, of the coffee planters guild, and we are invited to join. but too tired to be interested.
23-05-10
wake up to find urban retreat a very homely place with a cozy patio at the back. we are recommended to visit the zoo and the artisan's village nearby which we do, instead of zooming towards coorg. zooming anyways is not possible. its a winding road uphill from mangalore to madikeri, the capital of coorg district. 140 km takes us 6 hours to negotiate and then another to reach linger by 6 on the bhagmandala road. its a beautiful drive but everyone is too cramped and waiting to get on the terrafirma. and the suspense of the place we will be spending the next 5 days in. i tell them its a homestay not a resort, and they are trying to figure if thats a good thing or otherwise.
the instructions to reach the place are clear, but we are escorted by a friend to the place. between the milestones reading 6 and 5 kms to bhagmandala is a bus stop on the left with a dirt track adjoining. 100 m inside after a few twists is a clearing to park yr car. then u walk down the track and come down to a flat open space with a cottage set back. a traditional construction, 2 rooms with attached toilets, one with a cozy attic bed, large verendah on three sides with a sloping mangalore tiled roof. coffee plantation of the slopy sides of the property and one side sloping down to a strip of paddy fields.
its been raining for the past few days and everything around is green. we are greeted with an overcast sky giving way to a light drizzle. complimented with fresh creamy coffee and onion pakoras by harish, our man friday for the next 5 days.
the place has a very private feel, and i guess people take time to warm up to it. the website for linger promises books and there is just a shelf full of those right now, but a good collection for everyone to find one. saifee does manage to finish one in his five days and really happy for it. kabir is lost but for the book. he is 11 and i guess he needs to have some company of his age. next time, i ll have asad or kani come along with us. he is also probably bored also coz there were no hose pipes to fix this time around. lol.
dinner is traditional coorgi food. pandi is a famed coorgi pork dish but no takers in our group of vegetarians and muslims.
24-05-10
bhagmandala.. mangoes ..medikeri.. east end.. cycling.. walk in the field
25-05-10
river.. kakabe .. talcauvery
26-05-10
dubare nisargdhaam bailkuppe
27-05-10
bhagmandala .. eve to talcauvery
28-05-10
drive to shimoga
29-05-10
drive to mumbai
