During our last trip to Bengaluru to meet children in Dec 2023, they planned a weekend trip to Chikmagalur. Karnataka state is a treasure cove to all these amazing places we can quickly plan trips to – few that comes to my mind are Mysore, Wayanad, Sakleshpur, Lepakshi, or the nearest Nandi Hills. Last time we went towards Nandi hills and then had a pet friendly stay at Vama Retreat including a quick tour at the Grover winery near by, along with wine tasting and grape stomping. That was a wonderful trip.. Reminds me of the fall I had during the wine stomping session .. plukk I fell into the grapes and my son laughing out loud at me… There are many falls of mine they have witnessed and now it is a casual event !!! 😀

This time, four of us boarded our taxi early morning with Purnima’s dog, after ensuring that our stay at Chikmagalur was pet friendly. It is nearly 250 km from Bengaluru and by 9.30 am we were in City which is famous as Indira Gandhi’s fought her election from this place in 1978. Our stay was in a coffee estate, 130 acres of it and to us the road towards it felt like never ending… It was a kaccha road, huge trees lining it, no sun rays coming in… felt so cool amongst the lush coffee plantation. The green vegetation lining this road was a treat for our eyes… coffee bushes with ripe red fruits all around was a sight to behold…have a look at the greenery…

The home stay has huge 5 -6 rooms, two to three double beds and a verandah for each room. We were unlucky as there was Power outage that day. The stay was a small setup, and had no backup for electricity outage. The roof of the rooms had this small translucent tiles thru which we had sufficient light till evening. We felt fine to relax in the place with no noise pollution, clean air, and rustic ambience. For the next day we had planned trek to Mullayangiri peak, and visit Bellur Halebidu, so this rest day was most welcome.

Next day during our morning walk we found the coffee estate workers plucking coffee… they were from Assam, the whole family had shifted for this work. Small kids played while the adults were busy filling the bags with ripe red coffee pods.

After a leisurely breakfast, we packed our bags, and said our byes to the estate owner. I felt she looked like a Maharani, the way she talked, carried herself… She had suggested earlier to start by 10 am for Mullayanagiri trek as the place is foggy in the mornings and will be good once the sun rises.

Once we reached Mullayanagiri hill and saw the long queue of cars and the crowd of people, all four of us said in unison – no way ! That was simply too chaotic.. so much of noise from all sides. A trek is when you are in the lap of nature, enjoying the walk, so we get to absorb the beauty of the place. With the crowd surging up it was not possible to have that kind of time. On the opposite side, we saw a hill which was quiet and very inviting. Purnima, her dog Moon, husband, son and me .. we all walked up and reached the hill top easily and relaxed. I was holding Moon by her leash, sitting on a rock, Moon somehow slipped out of my hands and ran like a rocket shooting towards a group of cows grazing .. and barked at them.. Oh God! The cows charged at her back and they all started running helter skelter. All of us started after Moon.. also wanted to save ourselves – one push from a cow and we would be rumbling down the hill 50 -60 feet down. Purnima was screaming, I had to tell her Moon will be fine.. lets just get out of the way of the running cows…. Moon was literally enjoying running and enjoying challenging the cows. I had a water bottle in my hand which I used to “shoo” the cows off us…Somehow the cows ran off .. the whole episode must have taken 3-4 minutes but we were shaken !!! God …that was a mishap waiting to happen. The dog was preciously safe, and we hurriedly came down looking back for the cows if they will charge at us again. Walking back we laughed out loud at the dare Moon was giving the cows.. she acted like a smart little packet there and had fun-of-her-life running frantically in between the legs of the cows, saving herself at the nick of the moment many times… How we got hold of her is a mystery now… 😀