Chikmaglur Trip

We started our journey towards Chikmaglur on one Saturday morning at 9.30 am from Mekri Circle. We halted at Kamath to have our break fast, unaware of the fact that we  were 40 kms away from the scheduled route.

When we reached the place called Javagal, we came to know that the Yagachi river was over flowing on the road. It was almost impossible to pass through the same. So we had to go back and take another route from Bellur and Halebidu, which added extra kms to our already long journey.

We reached Chikmaglur, but still were far from our destination, Athithi Homestay, which is some 30 minutes drive from there. However, it took a longer time than that, as someone had miss guided us at the last turn. We reached a dead-end and where the road is so narrow that one can’t even turn back the vehicle. We had to drive the Wagon R in reverse direction. We finally found some space before a house below the road. 

Unfortunately, the grass on the ground was wet due to the recent rains. The wet mud stuck in the gaps of the tires, making the ground slippery. We tried to remove the mud on the tires with wooden sticks. This only helped us to go forward upto some point.We tried our best, but couldn't get the car out of that place.During this time, we had called the owner of the home stay and informed our situation. Sudha told us that she would be sending a taxi to pick us up from there to the home stay.

Then the owners of the house came to our rescue. We tried again with their help, but still we couldn’t get to the road. Finally, that person got an idea…he went and came back with some wooden sticks and placed them before the wheels of the car, and asked us to drive on it. We were finally back on the road.We offered some money to him, which he refused to take. It feels nice to come across a good samaritan like him.

Finally, we reached the Athithi home stay at 6.55 pm and it had become dark by then. We decided to have hot bath after the tiring journey. 

I liked the below painting on one of the walls of the home stay.

There were so many books to go through, sadly not much time for doing that.

This window reminded me of my short story "The Window"..

"A thing of beauty is joy forever"...This flower in the below picture was much higher and I had take the picture from below. I am a nature lover, and I love taking pictures of nature landscapes, flowers and birds more than anything else.

The home stay place was too good. If you are a nature lover, looking to get away from a city, looking to get some clean air, peace and quite, yet want a comfortable, cozy stay, this is the place for you. The location of this home stay is wonderful, set amongst the coffee estates, with a panoramic view of the mountains in the front and the coffee plantation at the back. One thing which we really missed was to explore the coffee estate as we were short of time. 

This location is rustic, but it is a lovely place and a scenic beauty. The whole bungalow is very well maintained by the owners. Sudha Rajashekar was very nice lady to interact with, and we met her on the day of our departure to Bangalore.

After a hot bath, we all felt refreshed. Our cook brought us hot cups of coffee along with biscuits. As it was already late, we decided to take some snaps in this nice bungalow before our dinner. We took some cool snaps. Meantime, our cook brought us a very delicious chicken soup along with French fries. I should admit that I had never tasted such a wonderful and delicious soup so far in my life. The French fries were good too. Then we had a very delicious dinner to end our night with.

We wanted to watch some nice movie, but realized that the dvd player wasn’t in working condition and so was the sony music system. We decided to go to bed and wake up early in the morning. Our cook had spoken to one person who would be our guide for the next day.

We woke up at 6 am and got ready. We even washed our car with the help of a local boy. He even clicked some of the pictures for us. I didn't have chocolates to give him, but gave him the pack of Kurkure. 

We had a nice break fast in the back side of the bungalow, next to the garden. The break fast was good too. Our guide came at about 9.00 am and we started at 9.30 am to Mullayangiri Peak. It was about 22 kms from that place. 

Our guide in the below picture, wasn't so keen to be in pictures...but I had taken this one.

The journey from the home stay to this place was scenic and nice. We finally reached Mullayangiri and went up the hill to see the Shiv temple. Two kids were counting the steps as they were ascending the hill. The count was 373 steps so far. I think there were some 432 steps.This is my third visit to this place. I loved it every time. 

Mullayanagiri, the tallest peak in the vicinity (and also the tallest in Karnataka @ 1930 m). We also visited another temple on the way back.The above picture of Ravi Sidula was taken near a tree outside this temple.

We set towards Bababudangiri from this place. We stopped near waterfalls to take some snaps. Last time when I went to this place, it was raining. This time around it was normal with the sun in the sky, though it wasn’t hot up there in Bababudangiri.

The Wagon R, which was our companion in many journeys of life. We had visited many places in karanataka...even outside in this cozy car of Ravi. "Poetry in Motion..." is written on the back of the car...well, the poetry continues...

The waterfalls in the below picture looked different last time as it was raining at that time.

Our guide told us that some people used to trek the hill in the below picture and reach the top.It would take about 4-5 hours to reach the top.

We returned back to our home stay at about 2 pm and had our lunch again in the backyard of the bungalow. We bid farewell to our cook and went towards Chikmaglur to meet the owner of the home stay, with whom we had interacted over phone until now.

This was our first home stay experience and I should tell you that other than the bad experience on Saturday, it turned out to be a wonderful Sunday. We really enjoyed our stay in this place. They made our stay really cozy and comfortable. I am a nature lover and this place was like heaven to me. I have brought back some fond memories of this place. 

I highly recommend stay in this place.

Athithi Home Stay Details :-

Home

Sudha Rajashekar
Hosamane Road,
Chikmagalur
Phone : 08262 - 231 096

Estate
Sudha Rajashekar
Sanehadlu Estate
Chikmagalur
Phone : 08262 - 246 777

Mobile No's:
Sudha Rajashekar : 09449586828
C.P Rajshekar : 09448211499

Bangalore assistance call 
Raghuram : 09886383709

Email : stay@athithi.in