Monsoon in Sakleshpur

Amongst a lot of anxiety over the effect of “Nilam” … we decided to head to Sakleshpur anyway to savour a much needed break from the city’s clamor.

Sakleshpur is about 250 km from Bangalore. The route takes you on the highway by passing most of the towns until you get to Sakleshpur – a small town.

Nestled in western ghats with lush greenery... its like a painting with strokes of green all around. 
Our destinaion was Kadamane estates which is around 25 Km from Sakleshpur town. Roughly 45 mins drive...
We were greeted by rains as soon as we arrived and it pretty much stayed a constant companion all through.

Kadamane estate is owned by the Murugappa group, a leading industrialist group of South India. It is probably one of the few tea estates in Sakleshpur. The estate lays spread over about 10000 acres. If you ask the locals they say “lakka illa sir”…. Translated to “no account for the area”.

Tea is cultivated over approximately 3300 acres and lush green forest thrives in the rest of the area.

Our abode for the next couple of days is a beautiful two bedroom cottage swanked by tea plantation all around.

We are greeted by the staff with freshly made masala chai which was just lovely considering that the tea leaves are straight from the estate.

“Nilam” made her presence felt heavily all through our stay making it damp, wet and exciting.

We spent the evening soaking in the greenery, calmness and togetherness of the family.

Oh, about the travelers, the much needed break was made by the family of 6 of us…

My husband, me and our 8 month old daughter, my husband’s parents and brother.

We spent the evening over a few games of Rummy.

Dinner was a homely affair in the dining hall in the main bungalow. Kitchen is open and you can see for yourself the food being prepared and they don’t mind you walking into the kitchen. This was a huge advantage when travelling with a baby.

After a sumptuous and tasty dinner, we decided to call it a day rather night!

The next morning,after a lovely breakfast, the young blood headed out for a stroll in the tea estate.

The winding paths, the drizzle and the tea plantation creates such a romantic setting for creative minds.

The setting called for some photographs and we slowed down watching the grass hoppers hop, colors of insects,patterns formed by workers plucking tea.... till the torrential rain played spoil sport.

The rain deterred only the camera not us, we marched on hiking up a small hill....braving the wind and the rain and the fear of leaches for me… At this point the rain was just lashing onto our faces and the umbrellas rendered useless and I at one point was worried it might be transformed to a parachute.

Couple of leeches on the feet sealed the deal. We decided to head back.

A pit stop to get rid of the leeches and we headed back our cottage.

Post lunch, we decided to make the Scorpio to good use and went out on a drive in the estate.

After half hour little Advika decided to rebel and we headed back to the base camp.

We were told about the 5 acres viewpoint which is very close and can be driven to in the scorpio and we decided to do that in the evening…

What a view it was!! The wind hits your face and the view is so pristine. You can see a stream far down on the other side of the hill. The guide tells us that you can hike down the hill to the waterfall and stream.

A good half hour and back to the cottage. We look around for activities for the evening and are told that there are some board games to keep us busy. We resorted to a game of carrom and sealed the night with a round of Pictionary.

Weather was supposed to clear out the next day and we called out to "Nilam" to retreat and the morning did seem clear. The original plan for the day was a short trek to Rottikal around 3 Km, a picnic lunch at Doraigundi, which is a lake about 7km from the cottage . But sadly this was not to be as the drizzle was still on. So we continued our exploration of the estate along another route and started packing up.

We had a chance to take a peek at the old Billiards/snooker room in the bungalow. It takes you far back to the yester years. Everything is preserved in tact… the huge arm chairs next to the fire place.

The telephone, which is still working…..

The gramaphone and radio with speakers....

Before lunch we decide to visit the Kadamane Tea factory. We had a guide explaining to us the various steps from the green leaves to the tea powder packed…. There are 10 grades of tea generated here.

We bought some tea of the grade “BOP” which I later found from the internet to be Broken Orange Pekoe This consists of small tea leaves or pieces of large Leaves.It is considered a medium grading for the classification of tea leaves.

Doraigundi visit eluded us owing to the rains and we decide to head back to Bangalore.We packed our bags and bid good bye to Kadamane – Sinna Dorai’s bungalow, telling ourselves that we will be back for sure. Afterall we still have a picnic lunch to do at Doraigundi... :)

It is imperative to say that the hospitality of the staff really soothed the stay and we struck such a rapport with them in two days