Kolavara Heritage Homestay & Sringeri

In continuation to my previous blog Why this Kolaveri

Day 02: 27 October 2013

Next day we woke up around 0700. Sun was getting out slowly and it was getting warmer. We did not feel too much cold as expected. Had tea, which was very good, and just lazed around. Another family who had come from Bangalore were busy making their travel plans for the day. I had not planned anything for the day and thought will do as I feel like.

The atmosphere was so calm and peaceful that I really did not feel like venturing out anywhere for the day. Just want to be with me, myself and I in that pristine surroundings. But keeping the kid and others busy was not an easy thing, and Sringeri being close (about 40 kms), thought will visit Sringeri temple. The owner suggested that we visit Sirimane falls as well, as it is just 13 kms from Sringeri. So the plan was made. I estimated that the round trip would take 3 - 4 hours. Since the plan was made by around 0930, by the time all of us got ready and left, it was 1030.

The ride to Sringeri

The owner uncle told us clear directions on how to get to the main road which goes to Sringeri. We need not trace back the route which we took while coming. There was another route which could take us to main road in the direction towards Sringeri. His directions were - "Always take left, keep taking left turn on the tarred roads till you reach the main road. It is about 5 kms from here.". I had switched on my navigator and mapped Sringeri. It also showed some directions. We started. Took the first left, then second left, and reach the third point. Now, my navigator was showing 'Go straight', but I could see a left which is a tarred road (well, how well tarred was it is another debate. It could be argued that it was not a tarred road as well.) I was in doubt. I found a local person and asked him for directions to Koppa which is en-route Sringeri. He guided us straight. So with my navigator and this person suggesting the same direction, I headed straight.

I was only worried about the road condition here. There is one more risk that the navigation tool might suggest roads which were there when it's software was update. The road could be there now or need not be there as well and the condition of the road was also not certain. 

The road straight was not good. It was narrow and broken. But I went ahead. The navigator kept showing me directions and I followed. Asked one more person on the way for Srigneri and he also pointed in the same direction. So I was happy. By now we had traveled more than 5 kms from Kolavara and I was certain that navigator is showing me a different (and shorter??) route to the main road. I had missed what the owner uncle had told, at that junction. 

The route was very scenic through the woods, bamboo forests and water-bodies. Roads were there, but not good. Finally reached the main road and headed towards Sringeri. Superb roads from there, and driving was fun too with the winding and curving roads. So, in short, we did a longer stretch on the bad roads and lesser on good roads than what we would have done if followed owner uncle's directions. But, we did save lot of distance in that process, at least 7-8 kms.

Sringeri

Reached Sringeri in almost an hour from the homestay. There was rush since it was a Sunday. Had darshan at the Vidyashankara temple and Sharadadevi temple. There was some new construction happening there since our last visit in 2009. There is a Gopuram which is 127 mts which is under construction, and there is a new temple for Shankaracharya which is almost complete. There were 2 elephants and one cow which were blessing people (trained to do so). Tip their masters, they will bless you and you can take photos with them. We wanted to take Samyu closer to an elephant and did so. She was not scared, but was amused to see the elephants and cow.

Next destination was Sirimane falls. Asked for directions and headed towards the falls.

Sirimane falls

The route from Sringeri to Sirimane falls was good. First few kms were on the main road, and then a right which was going in the direction of the falls. The roads were in good shape and was mostly empty. Passed through good vegetation, small villages. I love this kind of place. Vast green spaces, farms, woods, streams, and fresh air. In about 8kms we reached a temple town of Kigga. The road from this point was narrow, and was not of good surface. In about 5 kms we reached the falls. It is pretty far from main road, about 10 kms. 

The falls are tucked inside thick vegetation, and nobody can guess there is a falls nearby. We parked at the parking slot, took the tickets and started descending the steps towards the falls. It was a superb view, and the falls were great. Unlike other falls, this was a safe one where one could take bath safely right under the falls.

We did not plan to take bath, and had to get back for lunch at the homestay. It was already past 1300 hours and it would take minimum 1.5 hours to reach back. So we spent around 15 - 20 min there while Janaki ventured to get her feet wet, and for few snaps. We returned to the car and started back to the homestay. The route was same, and this time I took the route suggested by the owner uncle. It was longer on good roads and shorter on bad roads.

Reached homestay at about 1430 and went straight for lunch. Lunch was simple, tasty and nutritious. We were a bit tired after the quick trip, and so we got back to the rooms, took a good nap. Evening was again time for roaming around and a chat with the son of the owner. He took us around the area showing the crops that are being cultivated, their pond, mini-waterfall, and other plantations. It was a nice, informal, and informative chat with him. It was getting dark by the time we got back.

They had put up the camp fire by then and few of us assembled around it for chatting. By around 2000 hours dinner was served, and was usual stuff - good and healthy. We slept off early as we had to head to Kollur tomorrow morning. Another eventful day came to an end.

Why this Kolaveri Di - Kolavara Homestay, Sringeri, Tirthahalli and Kollur

Prelogue

It has been a long pending plan of me to visit the Malnad area of Karnataka. The plan got postponed for quite a while, and it happened finally in Oct 2013. While searching for places to visit in Malnad, I had come across few stay options. They were mostly homestays, since there were only very few or no hotels in some places. The places to visit included Tirthahalli, Sringeri and the towns around them.

The plot

This October I decided to go there for few days. The plan was to drive to to Tirthahalli, spend couple of days there, visit Kollur Mookambika Devi temple and return to Bangalore. I wanted to spend 2 lazy days in Tirthahalli just to cut-off from the daily hectic routine, and then visit the temple.

Shortlisted Kolavara homestay for stay in Tirthahalli. Did the bookings by calling them and confirming availability, and later on transferring an advance amount. I did not want to do any advance booking at Kollur since I will be reaching there on a Monday and rooms should be available since it is a weekday.

Day 01: 26 October 2013

We were 4 adults (me, my wife and my parents) and my daughter Samyuktha who is just 14 months old. The plan was to start by 0400, and reach Tirthahali by lunch time. Started finally around 0430 from Bangalore, passed Yeshwantpur in 30 min and Tumkur in about another 1 hour. Traffic was there but relatively less. Took the Tumkur bye-pass to take the road to Gubbi, Tiptur, Arsikere and Bhadravathi.

The break

We broke at around 0800 before reaching Arsikere to have our packed breakfast. We were carrying idlis and chutney for breakfast. I was lucky enough to find a place with a seat and toilet to break for food. This seemed like a new shop in the making. The roads  were good throughout except the Tumkur bye-pass which is about 7-8 kms.

There seemed to be a small play area in the making, as we could see a couple of swings. Samyu enjoyed the swing and was reluctant to come out from it. We all had idlis, and fed Samyu as well. The total break was about 30-40 mins and continued our journey towards Bhadra dam.

Bhadra Dam

We wanted to visit Bhadra dam as well to see the place where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar meditated for 10 days in 1982 after which he conceived Sudarshan Kriya. This spot is next to the dam, attached to the Tourist Banglow. We reached the place in about an hour after taking a detour from the highway. We could take the car up to a certain point to one end of the dam. We could not enter the dam since we did not have prior permission. We walked towards the Tourist Banglow, but to our disappointment we found this to be locked. Nobody seemed to be there.

We waited for few min, and then 2 fellows came in a scooter, who looked like the caretakers of this place. When I checked with them on entering the premises, they denied, saying that we need prior permission to enter. This permission has to be got from the Bhadra Project office which is about 3 km away. We taking permission meant another 1 hour delay here (time to go and come back with permission, and visiting this place again will take away 1 hour minimum). So we decided against it and started off to our next destination - Tirthahalli.

Bhadra Dam to Kolavara

Here, while driving from Bhadra dam to Tirthahally, I could have done a clever thing, which I thought about. But decided against it since it was risky, being with a family. There is a road which you could take to Koppa via. Narasimharajapura from Bhadra dam. You need not touch Shimoga to reach Tirthahalli in that case, and can cut down on travel time. This could have saved about 20 kms. But I did not take this route since I was not sure about the road conditions. If the road condition was bad, it would have been pretty difficult to drive with family. So I decided to take the more safer Shimoga route. Below is the route which I could have taken (in Blue) and the route which I took (in red).

The roads were good throughout. Took the Shimoga bye-pass and entered the road to Tirthahalli. The road surface is too good and drive was cool. The only drawback is that there are no good break points in between.  Folks inside were getting impatient since we did not break anywhere else for a tea or coffee. So after taking the right from Tirthahalli I stopped at a small shop where we all had tea, bajji and biscuts. This seemed to pacify them a bit.

Meanwhile I asked for directions to the homestay and they guided me properly. But I overlooked one point and hence lost my way taking a wrong right wandering off about 7 kms. Finally called them again and got the correct update. Finally reached there by around 1430 hours. All of us were tired and were hungry as well. We had lunch and went to the rooms allotted to us.

Kolavara Heritage

This heritage homestay is located off Tirthahalli - Koppa route, about 7 kms from the main highway. Kolavara is the name of their family, which is now the name of the village. So you might see sign boards in Kannada towards this place but nothing in English. There are no boards put by the family for the homestay on the way apart from the few boards which are there once you are really close to the homestay.

Once you reach there it is so silent, serene and calm. There are no houses nearby, and you are amidst a plantation. The house is maintained well, and tastefully done with antique furniture and curios. There is a huge central courtyard which houses a tulsi plant in the middle which adds to the serrenity. There are lounge spaces on 2 sides of this courtyard. One side is the main part of the house which the family uses, and the other side has the rooms where the guests are housed.

We arrived for lunch at Kolavara and was greeted by the owner of the homestay along with his son, who currently manages the plantation and homestay. They ensured that we felt at home right from the moment we stepped out. We were taken to the dining area which is big and is adjacent to the house. It is open, clean and has some entertainment options like tv, carrom and newspapers. The lunch was buffet style with fixed menu. Food was authentic, malnad cuisine, and healthy. We are vegetarians and hence cannot comment on their non-veg fare. But I think that should also be good.

After food we went to our rooms, got freshened up and rested for a while. We did not have any plans for an outing that day. So we wanted to go slow, enjoy the surroundings and roam around for a while. We had coffee by around 1730 and it was already getting dark in that area. We spoke to the owner to understand about this locality. It was so nice to be away from the city, with no phone calls, no tv, no access to internet, not much unwanted thoughts.

My wife and I played a game of table tennis, and carrom. Dinner was ready by around 2000 hours which was again buffet style. Food was of same, high quality, served generously. It was interesting to note that they had provided some innovative and interesting desserts using brown bread and white bread. Later on we came to know that it is the owner's wife who manages the show in kitchen with her helpers. She is also interested in flori-culture and gardening which was very evident with the landscaped surfaces, bonsai and orchids of different varieties displayed across the compound. We were even invited to do wine tasting - the wines prepared by the owner's wife again. They had some interesting wines - banana wine, arecanut wife, and the usual grape wine. It seems she had even prepared jack-fruit wine earlier, but that was not available now. Had dinner and roamed around the property for a while doing chit-chat and finally went to sleep at around 2200 hours.

Kochi - Bangalore: A different route

I had been to Kochi for a week during 1st week of Oct. Came back through a scenic route: Ernakulam-Thrissur-Shoranur-Ottapalam-Nilambur-Gudalur-Gundlupet-Chamranagar-Bangalore. The reason why I chose this route was I wanted to drop at a relative's place in Ottapalam. We broke the journey in Nilambur where we stayed in KTDC Nilambur overnight. Pretty decent hotel.

This route is around  490 km as per my odo, (but Google maps shows 509 km) whereas the normal route through Kovai-Salem is around 550 km. Wanted to try this one as this was the unexplored one in my list. Very scenic and good route, but might take the same time or more as the alternate route since the roads are not so wide (2 lane throughout) and has some rough patches here and there. The beauty of this route is that after about 25 km Nilambur, there is forest section, and then it is forest for the next 3 hours, which passes through Mudumalai and Bandipur wildlife sanctuaries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively.

There are very high possibilities of wildlife sightings, especially during dawn and dusk. We passed through this stretch around 6.30 am to 7.30 am which was apt for sightings. We saw deer and elephants - one lone tusker even charged on us. This guy seemed to be an Ottayan (lone tusker) , was on the roadside facing the opposite direction and hence could not spot us fast. It was just when we passed him he saw us and came charging a few meters. By then we had gone sufficiently ahead.

Wished I had a good camera and a brave navigator to capture this. Dad was finding it difficult to capture this with his mobile camera and he was scared too :)

In fact, if you search Google for routes between Kochi and Bangalore, three routes show up. One is through Kovai-Salem (around 540 km), second through NH 209 passing through Satyamangalam, Chamrajnagar, and Kollegal and third one is the route which I took this time.

I will be off to Kannur may be next week. Will post the updates after that on that route.

Love you.

Gopu