Trip to Chikmagalur

Chikmagalur is situated in south western part of Karnataka. Carved against a mountainous canvas this beautiful place is full of surprises - lofty peaks, sparkling streams, lush forests and bracing mountain air. This district is primarily famous for its commercial crop - Coffee !

I got a handsome opportunity to explore the hospitality offered by Chikmagalur on Dec 22-23, when we planned a weekend trip to Chikmagalur. Getting the stats done and essential food procured, we left the chill weathered Bangalore at 4 am (Sat). Being just 9 of us, a tempo-traveller sufficed. Racing along the empty roads of Bangalore at that odd time of the day, I could find the wind literally freezing me.Having not slept the previous night, most of us got into fits of slumber. But the ultimate word was - "To not let anyone sleep !". And it worked I must say - for everybody kept talking. We took a tea-break and moved on.

A significant activity that occupied all of our minds during the journey was the "Wolf_Game", hats off to Bino for introducing it to us. Each one of us got so involved into the strategy/mindwork of the game that I must say we scarcely noticed it was time for breakfast. We were at Hassan, about 60 kms from Chikmagalur.

We planned to hit Chikgamagalur by noon if all went well. The roads were wide and clean and our driver was doing the best navigation possible. In couple of hours, we got into the Ghat Section, witnessing hilly passages into the unknown horizon. There were yellow grass meadows around and roads meandering uphill amidst them. By 12, Chikgamagalur arrived and we had to head for another 20 kms to our resort - TexWoods. It was surrounded by forests on all sides and offered a spectacular view of the entire Chikmagalur country. This is what their website spoke & I was eager to verify the same. We passed by the Honnala check post and then the road got worse. I was reminded of my childhood strides in Arunachal alongst the hilly slopes of the mountains where the roads used to be just enough to hold a jeep with hill on one side & steep abyss on the other. It was an identical scenario here, our vehicle bumping like it never had done before against the broken tar and tyring ahead. I looked around, it was concentrated vegetation all around with streaks of sunlight lighting our pathways. Desperate to ensnare the view around, I dashed against the camera, but was only partly successful owing to the mighty jerks. There were coffee plantations to be seen around and few cottages, but no TexWoods !! We kept moving and it took a while for our Resort to appear all of a sudden in view. It was relief at the end, we were hungry jackals by now.

We checked into TexWoods and had a refreshing lunch indeed. It was time now to look at the prospects available - we had Trekking, Fishing, Wildlife Safari in mind. But nothing materialized in the end as we slept off at 3 & our souls were woken up only by 7 in the eve. "Let's make the best time of the night at least" - thought we. Following a campfire lit by TexWoods, we had dinner and then sat down beside the swimming pool. I must say this was the best night I had ever been in. We had a full moon, plenty of food/drink by our side, music around (thanks to Bino & his band again !!), Ashish for his professional and fact-filled talk (despite the fact that he had swallowed in gallons and claimed he wasn't high !!), grass on the other side wherein we laid down in peace, forests all around. Noteworthy was the philosophical discussion that ensued (after couple of us decided we were not going to fall asleep so soon) - agenda included/not_restricted to "Defn of GOD", "Universe", "Existential Theory", etc. And I must say our discussion brought out a cocktail of wierd cum logical reasoning, which I would rather prefer to suppress due to an offensive touch ;)

Popular defn of GOD from Bino went along - "When u toss a coin, u get a tail or a head. GOD is the force that eventually decide that !". After a combination of philosophy+physics in the talk which carried us away very far & forth, we decided to take a stroll for a couple of metres to enjoy the forest and moonlight. But there was Ashish - "Come on man ! I am not doing this. Its pretty unsafe at this time of the night..". So we put off the idea, Bino turning around remarking "It's no fun getting along with a guy who's scared..". So we decided to hang around the resort amongst the car park & savour the ambience.

We were just busying ourselves with the surrounding, while I caught glimpse of something dark & hairy moving towards us. "Bloody hell ! It was a dark dog-like creature, having a bushy tail with its eyes sparkling green in the dark. We were petrified, "wat if it was an Wolf ?". "Do you think so" - I asked Bino. "Maybe, bt m not very sure" - was the reply. We suspected it to be a fox, but then it was way too confident & undeterred in its walk. It moved besides the car that was parked and came along the other side, turned around to have a clear view of us. Bino put off his cigarette (lest it be attracted by the fire), me and Ashish stood still pinned to the wall. Not a word to utter, for a moment I had butterflies in my stomach ! This creature then turned back & moved on. We fled into the resort rightaway, but our curious souls never stayed still, we wanted to know what that damn creature was. We spotted it coming along the same path again, then wiling around the resort, swimming pool and looking around as if he was the king of the resort. We took a close look from inside, it wasn't a fox, neither a wolf (for it would have pounced upon us on sight), seemed to be a dog probably wild in nature. Cutting off our endeavour, we got to bed still wondering what it could be. The next day we saw him again, moving along the same place and I managed to grab a image of him (shaky though).

Next day, we geared up for the Jungle Safari at the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. A jeep took us about 10 kms deep into the jungle, which was pretty much awoken by the sunlight and a previous jeep that had passed by. So we couldn't spot anything significant but the ride into the forest was enthralling.

Returning to have the breakfast at the resort, we decided to go fishing and then trek down to a stream in the forest. The idea of a stream amidst the jungle was inviting indeed. We walked along, our guide taking us to the fishing pond where we were given the baits and fishing rods to dip in & let the fishes fool us. We fished, fished & fished, but not a single fish to be fished, oh.. what the fish !! Our guide smiled at us sarcastically- he had caught four of them and we were still not even off the mark ! But more than the outcome, it was a spectacular feeling to sit down, staring into the pond, dipping our unlucky equipment into the water and look at the commotion that followed - fishes frantically closing in onto the bait. After an hour or so, we took a leave. There was a stream couple of kms ahead, with a wooden log over it. We crossed over just for the sake of doing it and then got into the water, beginning the fundamental splashing game. After having gotten drenched & more importantly satisfied that everyone else was drenched, we got out of the stream & trekked back. We were damn hungry by now and I longed desperately for some quantity food. We trekked via a different route this time and then a jeep took us to our resort, tired and hunger-laden souls that we were !

Having a refreshing shower & invigorating food, we bid adieu to TexWoods and subsequently Chikmagalur, reaching Bangalore by midnight. Ample fun & memorable stay @ TexWoods accomplished :)