Day 1:
We left Bangalore at 6.30 AM. I slept for some time in the car, while Papa drove. We stopped for breakfast at Mayura hotel near Bellur cross. Had idli and vada for breakfast. It was crowded so we finished quickly. Turned right after Sakleshpur, and reached the Kadamane Tea Estate at 12.15 PM. We were received by the owner - a pleasant lady named Radhika. Papa is still telling me that she was actually a ghost, but I don't believe him.
It's a very beautiful place with bright green tea gardens as far as you can see.
After having lunch, we played Jenga in our cottage. Me and Dadi (grandma) won :). After taking rest, we drove to a place called 5-acre view point, or "Aidu Ekre" in Kannada.
5-acre is a very beautiful place! As far as we could see, there were green rolling hills, below the clear blue sky. We spent more than an hour here taking pictures of the scenery. My picture below is with Dadi. There's another one above of the 5-acre valley.
Day 2:
We woke up early and had breakfast of upma, idli and toast. After that I played a bit with Ananya and little Tavishi who is one and a half years old. Afterwards we visited two temples in Sakleshpur - the Sakaleshwara Temple, and the Holey Malleshwara Temple. "Holey" in Kannada means stream. Sadly, both the temples were closed, and we could not do darshans. We returned to the cottage and had our lunch.
After that, we visited the tea factory. This is a very large factory with many floors where different tea manufacturing steps are performed:
- Tea leaves are dried and crushed.
- Crushed powder is heated, and then cooled.
- The powder is then shaken and separated into different varieties.
- Then it is packed!
No pictures were allowed to be taken in the factory :(.
We had dinner and then watched another movie - 'Into The Woods'. It's a mix of many fairy tales, and lots of songs. I did not understand it :D.
This was a really exciting day. Papa, mom and I started on a trek to Rottikal view point at 7.00 AM. The trek was 6 KM long up and down, and we saw so many great things on the way (including elephant poop :D). The trek to the view point was through a dense forest, with very narrow path, and after that very tall grass. Through the grass, we saw a really large eagle and we took a picture of it. It looks small in the picture, but it is one of the larges birds I have ever seen.
We had the packed lunch, and then lay down in the shade next to the stream and mom told stories.
For me this was the most fun part of the whole trip :).
Day 4:
This was our last day here, and we started with another trek at 6.30 AM! We climbed quite a bit through a forest path which had large trees fallen across it. Then we went through very tall grass - even taller than me! When we got close to the top, there were many thorny bushes which pricked my feet through my shoes. It was painful but still I kept going. The views from the top were fantastic. The way back was also difficult but in the end I was happy to know that we had covered 8 Kms.
We then packed our bags for Bangalore, and had a good breakfast. Also, did not find Radhika aunty anywhere. Maybe she was actually a ghost! :)