Club Mahindra, Coorg- The Trip

When I boarded the plane I was seriously wondering how the trip would turn out to be. This is because I hardly knew anyone in the group and my usual holidays are never spent in a resort. To complicate the matters further, I am the kind of person as Dev described me at the end of the trip, “You are rather reserved and I couldn’t figure you out.” I mean I really am reserved and difficult to figure out.

The first worry after arrival at Bangalore was how to figure out where would Arun be as he was our contact person. But then cell phones come in handy in such situations, however we may curse them otherwise. He called me and asked me to get out of the airport. Then he asked if I was the one with the black luggage and there we were shaking hands. That was the end of all my worries on this trip.

Later, Anil remarked about Arun, “While listening to you on the phone it felt as if we were talking to an elderly person. One could never guess you would be so young.” I agree wholeheartedly.

After a while Kiruba joined us, he is supposed to be the mastermind behind this trip. Then Dev came, we were on the same flight but we had not met. Next to join us were Dhruva and Srinidhi. Last to come were people from Bombay. And the Bombay flight brought Apurva Pandit (remember him? He beat me at the oktatabyebye original travel contest) and he is closely associated with that super site pagalguy.com. Then I met Anil. I must say I have been a fan of his blog and I did not know he too would be on this trip.

On the way we picked up Anita and Amogha. And the group was complete. Or wait, am I forgetting anyone? How can I forget Sudhir, he is from Chennai and is quite capable of making his presence felt! This makes the gang complete.

So, we boarded the Ganesha and headed to Coorg. The journey in itself was eventful and a lot of talking took place. Soon Dev with his pizza gyan was holding the center stage and I think he retained that position for the entire duration of the trip. The lunch at Kamath’s was wonderful and I dozed off in the van after it but not before agreeing to a game of TT once we reached. I managed to survive without Avomine (anti-nausea medicine) on this stretch.

The next day was devoted to a trip to Talacauvery and later in the evening to the city of Madikeri. Talacuvery is the birth place of the river Cauvery and I think it was Apurva who remarked, “It is difficult to believe that Tamil Nadu and Karnataka fight so much over this!”

Talacuvery temple complex is lovely and the walk to the Brahamgiri Hill all the more enjoyable. Sadly the mere twisting roads give me motion sickness and for this journey, mid way I took an Avomine and then only survived the journey. Same was true for the second day trip to Dubare Elephant Camp.

The evening was devoted to walking around the coffee plantation on the Club Mahindra premises with Joy as our guide. I knew a little bit about Arabica and Robusta coffee beans but Joy really knew about them. On return we tried some of the adventure stuff on the premises. I had a mildly sprained foot (that is still giving me some trouble) so I tried ‘the river crossing’ where I was using my hands primarily and I definitely enjoyed it.