10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 5

5. Seven Beans

CCD, Barista, Java city, Gloria Jeans, Starbuck, Strong, Filter, Drip, Chicory, Meter - do these words trigger your olfactory senses?

Yes, the refreshing smell of Coffee indeed.

Just imagine, waking up early on a cold morning, walking down the misty trails of a coffee estate filled with bird calls, the morning dew still fresh on those ripe coffee beans and suddenly lit by the golden rays of the rising sun.

After the long walk, a hot cup of coffee, an unfinished book and a view of the dense fog flowing across the lush green hills is all that is needed to fall in love with the place.

You can take a coffee estate tour to know what is Arabica, Robusta and what percentage of it with Chicory makes a good coffee and also know about the spices grown there. You may also come across the world's most expensive coffee, Kopu Luwak or bump into its manufacturer the civet cat.

Filter coffee is also known as drip coffee which is prepared from the decoction obtained by slow dripping/filtering of freshly ground coffee beans. Meter coffee is named so because of the way the coffee is poured into the glass from almost a meter high to mix it well.

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 4

4. Morning Coffee with the Big Bang

Passing through the coffee estates, enjoying the lush green paddy fields, we entered the mysterious green estates in the company of a continuous drizzle and the scattered streaks of sunlight which lit the raindrops like precious glittering stones embedded on a beautiful green handicraft with splashes of bright red, orange, and yellow colors of the freshly blossomed flowers.


Walking down a few hundred meters all tired we were refreshed by the sight of cold water and the feeling of entering into it with the adventure that was to follow.

After some safety precautions and fun lessons we were ready to go, geared up with the life jacket (swimming not mandatory), head gear and the oar, we faced our first rapid Morning Coffee (level-2) which was not strong enough compared to the expectations prior to our lessons. Then came the Grasshopper (level-3), Ramba Samba (level-2), the Wicked Witch (level-3), finally the Big Bang(level-4) which made up an experience of Coorg much more exciting.

At the end of the flow on Barpole from morning coffee to big bang, we enjoyed the ride all throughout with the amazing Coorg climate, light drizzle, greenery and the rapids. 

Apart from sipping coffee and lazing around, go ahead and experience the flow through the estates..

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 3

3. The Winged Beauties

She passed by and he followed, she returned back and he followed, both sat close to each other, and he whistled naughtily to which she responded with a shrill cry as if to alarm the whole world. When these hill mynas were busy creating quite a ruckus high up the canopy a flock of rose ringed parakeets flew above my head and landed on a nearby chickoo tree. As I moved silently towards the chickoo tree the rose ringed green beauties flew away, when I was sitting below the tree disappointed at not getting a closer look, I heard someone knocking and looked around only to find a flame backed woodpecker making hole in a silver wood tree looking for a meal. Disturbed by a noisy family of jungle babblers the flame back went in search of a quite place and as I tried to follow it in vain I heard someone whistling beautifully. Totally carried away by the melodious tone and curious about who is passing his time whistling in a wooded unkempt area of the estate I walked towards the source of the whistle. Finding nobody around I turned to trace back my path he whistled again, I turned around and found a amazingly beautiful striking blue (sorry the color cannot be described in words) bird, the malabar whistling thrush was the culprit.

Bird watching tops my list of reasons for heading towards Coorg. It needs patience, eyes all around, ears wide open and many a times a lot of perseverance to sit at one place motionless for hours.

Its much more exciting and interesting than the commercial street type of birdwatching, believe me and try it out folks.

To be continued...

10 Things To Do In Coorg - Reason 2

 2. The Creatures of the Snake's Stream
 
As we crossed the check post at around 10.30 AM, we asked our driver to drive slowly inside the park and we started looking around for the creatures of the jungle. On reaching the Murkal Elephant Camp Gouri asked the driver to stop for sometime as she wanted to click a few images of the camp elephants. I think the frustration of not even finding a single chital on the way made her do so. After clicking a few images of the camp elephants we moved ahead when Chimpu sitting next to the driver turns around and asked, "Are there any tigers in this jungle?".
As soon as I replied saying "Yes, there are a few remaining but there is no chance of spotting one at this hour", Karthik sitting at the back, moved forward, pointed his finger outside and said "Hey tiger, hey a tiger!!!".
We asked our driver to stop and he took some time to react and stopped the vehicle a little further than expected. All of us started looking out of the window in search of the stripes when I confidently said, "It must be a spotted deer, it happens many a times when we keep thinking of a tiger, everything we see, looks like a tiger". My words of wisdom fell on deaf ear when Gouri said "Look the tiger is sitting right there".
We asked the driver to go back a few meters to which he replied "Beda saar, huli bandu parchuthe" ("No sir, the tiger will attack"). On listening to the driver's words especially after that intellectual remarks of mine some time back, the excited crowd inside the vehicle got so angry that they started screaming at the driver to go back. Amidst all this commotion, we see the innocent pair of twinkling eyes rise up slowly, stare at us and decides to disappear in the thick lantana cover.
It all happened so fast, that none of us could believe our eyes, a tiger cub was sitting by the roadside at 11 AM with hundreds of vehicles passing by. The jungle surprises you when you least expect it and in my case it also made a fool of me by doing the exact opposite of what ever I said.

Nagarahole which literally means "Snake's Stream" named so because of its winding flow through the jungle infusing life into its denizens the chital, sambar, munjtac, mongoose, wild boar, gaur, elephant, leopard, tiger and many other creatures creeping, crawling, running or flying along with it. The denizens will surely keep you excited about their sudden sighting at the most unpredictable curve.

Kabini backwaters in Nagarhole is the best place in the world to witness the largest congregation of Asiatic Elephants. This place is also known for its regular sightings of the spotted beauty, the leopard.

Remember, on entering the jungle - drive slow, maintain silence, do not litter, do not feed, no music, do not get off the vehicle and respect wildlife, the Creatures of the Snake's Stream will never disappoint you.

To be continued...