A journey to Coffee-Land of Karnataka "Chikmangalur"

By Mahaabirami

It was 2019 and I was working in an IT company in Bangalore. As they say, “birds of a feather flock together, I instantly connected with my colleagues who hailed from from Tamil Nadu, like me. We were a bunch who enjoyed exploring, so during weekends you can find us making plans and roaming around the city. Time passed like this and work load took over! That is when, we planned to travel someplace outside the city to just get a break from work and come back refreshed. Karnataka is blessed with some really great travel options. We first made a list of places to travel over a weekend for about 3 days. The Coffee land of “Chikmangalur” bagged most of the votes.

We got ourselves a six-seater Maruti car booked through zoom cars. We started early morning on a Saturday, enroute stopped for breakfast and reached Chikmangalur at around 10 am. We first visited the Kalhatti waterfalls. Seeing the amazing fresh water flowing down the hill was a treat to watch after our long journey. There were stone benches to sit to enjoy the view of the falls. Although the thought of entering the waterfalls was fun but we were debating if we should really get into this icy cold water (Chickmangalur is also a hill station so naturally the water was pretty cold). Finally we stepped in one after the other and came back shivering. Thankfully it was around noon and the sun dried us up well and went looking for restaurants to beat our hunger pangs.

The next stop was the Coffee Museum. After the visit we purchased some Arabica and Robusta coffee beans to take back home for these were very famous here. Next we visited Hirekolale Lake. It turned out to be a great spot to take pictures and we stayed back to watch the beautiful sunset.

The visits for the day was over and we wanted a place to stay for the night. We quickly browsed through, finalized a hotel and booked rooms directly on the hotel website. We called and reconfirmed the rooms so that we don’t have any problems during the check-in. We were tired and decided to order dinner through swiggy. We hit the beds soon after, as we planned to start early the next morning.

It was 4 in the morning and we started towards the Mulayanagiri peak, which is infact the highest peak in Karnataka. It was super cold at around 15-20 degrees. Surprisingly there was a lot of crowd here at this hour. Looked like many people travelled here on a Sunday morning to witness the amazing sunrise. We then visited the Z- Point at Kemmangundi. We spent ample time here and felt so close to nature. It was truly peaceful! You will need at least 2 hours to climb and spend some time here.

We munched on to some hot corn and some other snacks which seemed quite costly. We then visited the Baba Budanagiri peak. Where we also visited the Manikyadhara waterfalls. The height of the falls was about 30 feet. There is a belief that bathing in this falls could cure various ailments. You can find many herbal medicines in this area. We also visited Dada Hayath Dargah here.

Post lunch we visited Mahatma Gandhi Park, spent some time here and left for Bangalore. Enroute we planned to visit the Chennakeshava Temple at Belur. It was a beautiful temple architecture. Built around the 12th century its monuments were also stunning. We continued the journey and reached Bangalore at around 10 in the night.

Vacations like this is a “recharge mode” from our daily busy lives. Life is not meant to only work but also explore and experience the beauty of nature.

There comes some moments; when you realize,

your happiness matters much more than your earnings

Once in a while, go on a “Trip” with your “Troop”

About the Author

Hailing from an Island town with big dreams, Mahaabirami is an HR aspirant. A "Writaholic" by heart, she enjoyed writing microtales, poems and discovering new dishes through cooking. She is fond of seashores and wants to travel to European countries. She wishes to publish a book in future. To support this budding writer, you can follow and read her blogs @ abiiwrites on Instagaram.