Home Away from Home

Home away from Home
Eight of us here in the office decided to go out of Bangalore for weekend outing. We decided that we shall go to Horsley Hills which is around 130 KMS away from Bangalore. It’s located near the Border of Karnataka and Andhra. As usual we did not do any booking in advance and we goofed up a little bit but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as suddenly we decided to travel to Coffee Estate which is around 30 KMS from Sakleshpur (around 220 KMS from Bangalore). I started making calls to the book the home stays and we were fortunate enough to get the rooms at such short notice.

After getting the confirmation regarding the stay, we started by 3:15 PM on a lousy Friday afternoon and by the time we reached Nelamangala it was around 4:45 or 5 PM and we were thinking what way to start the weekend gateway. Traffic was really bad and to reach Nelamangala from ITPL it took almost 2 hours! By then we had lost some patience and we were cursing why we decided to go that far and was it really worth an effort to drive all that way.

We stopped in Nelamangala for 15 mins or so pick up few things (cans of water, beer, some snacks to eat on the way) and after picking up these essential stuffs, we started to drive towards Hassan which is one of biggest towns in that part of the Karnataka.

What a drive it turned to be coz it started raining and I was driving car as all my other colleagues started having booze in the car and I was not drinking as I had very bad throat and cold and I did not want to aggravate it. Again coming back to the drive, it was actually difficult to drive at times because of the rain and traffic coming from the other side but it was superb to drive in that rain and it was getting darker and darker as the clock ticked by. It was quite a challenge to drive in these conditions but I somehow managed it.

As we travelled we had quite few interesting conversations and colleague of mine had ipod which he had connected to the music system in the car and he had beautiful collections of songs including gazals, old Hindi song which he kept on playing and it was nostalgic. At some point of time all of us started feeling hungry and we stopped in Kamat which comes before Hasan. Here we were joined by other colleagues who had started little late from office.

When we started from Kamat it was around 8:15 or 8:30 and it was still raining cats and dogs. Visibility was poor and we had to drive very carefully as the traffic was quite heavy on this road. By around 9:45 or so in the night we reached outskirts of Sakleshpur and rain was not giving up on us. It was still raining. We took out our maps and searched for route which will lead to Coffee Valley Estate. After confirming with our hosts about the exact location of the Estate, we resumed our journey. What a journey it turned out to be at night 11. Thick Coffee Plantations on both sides, no lights what so ever, roads not in good condition, not a soul in sight, Cell Phone signals barely available but it was awesome feeling. Kind of déjà vu.

Finally we reached our destination. Our host was waiting patiently for us in the gate. We went and parked our car and he showed us to log huts kind of rooms. Rooms were well furnished and the best part was it did not have TV. What a way to kick start a weekend outing.

After we settled down, we started our booze session. Again our gracious host served us hot food which we devoured without blinking an eye lid. Hot food in the mid night! We never expected this. God blessed us that night. We were Home away from HOME. After a good food and a very very good drinking session which was filled with fun and frolic, we called it a night. What an evening it turned out to be!

In my next blog pertaining to this, I’ll write some good experiences we had in the beautiful estate. Till then, happy reading.