Welcome to Coffee Land
Doing daily monotonous works, we were annoyed with the circadian tasks of our lives. Then we decided to explore a place where we can find peace and get lost to the world. We started exploring the map and found a world in the middle of coffee plantations named “Chilkmaglur”. This place is located in the Chandra Dhrona Hill Ranges of the Western Ghats and at the foot of highest mountain ranges in Karnataka state. We started our journey from Bangalore venturing into the western ghats and after about 4 hours we were welcomed with a name as “Welcome to the Land of Coffee” which made us excited what’s the specialty in the location.
Day 1: Initially, we started moving towards a hill named “Mullayanagiri”, located at ~1930 m above sea level, which is also a fourth highest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris mountains. We started travelling across single lane roads which were neat, clean and well maintained and the special feature about the travel was we were wandering in the coffee plantations which was never expected. Finally, we reached the destination and believe me that the place has really made us lost. One side of the hill ranges were completely covered by a layer of dark clouds and at the same time other half of the place as if the hills were stopping the clouds. This has mesmerized us by gazing at those dual shades of nature. The weather was chilling, with cool breeze, and can listen and feel the music made by the winds that were blowing around us. One notable mark of the place was there were two paths to reach the top where you can use stairs for about 300 steps to reach to the edge of the peak or you can have a small trek in the land of red soil with small miniature mountains. Once you reach the edge, you find a small temple of Lord Shiva. As a part of further exploration around the peak, below the temple area, we saw caves which were formed and it is said that the way from caves leads to the inside of temple.
It was almost evening and time for us to go back to the city as there were no hotels or accommodation in or near the peak. During our return, we gazed at beautiful, stunning and striking sunset and our hearts felt relaxed by looking at such spectacular view. The sun was going down behind the peaks throwing its rays over the flora and fauna in the hills. We never had an intention to leave the place but unfortunately we left to our destination towards Chilkmaglur.
Day2: As the city has already welcomed us saying Land of Coffee, we wanted to feel the tang of that black colored drink to our taste buds. We drove our enthusiasm towards finding the way where can we get black drink named “coffee”. After an hour walking down the roads and lanes in the city, we found a small hangout place which is a 60 years old canteen named Town Canteen. It has served us food in a typical and traditional way which has reminded us golden olden days. Before we left to our next adventure, we had the smack and smell of so called coffee. Yummm….there comes the authentic taste. The essence and aroma of the coffee has filled our minds with some joy and felt…Oh...this is what it is called as...Then we started finding various local shops to get more crux on coffee and finally found a shop which is nearly 80 years old and have a large variety of coffee flavors. They explained in a well-defined manner how a coffee is processed and packed. We further got more interested to get to know more about coffee and why the place has been named as land of coffee.
As we are finally done with our earnest drink, we started back our journey to the site where a great saint first planted the coffee seed and was coined as “Baba Budangiri”. During our wandering, we came across a waterfall also called as Butterfly falls. The speciality to reach this falls is to travel off-road through muddy and red soiled roads for about 4 kilometers within the coffee plantation. Round the waterfalls were completely occupied by these plantations. While walking in the midst of these trees and bushes, the noise made by the waterfalls, cool breeze that was yelled by the bushes and trees made our hearts occupied with joy and happiness.
After fun time, we rolled back to the hills and finally reached Baba Budangiri hills. After complete picturing the location, we thought of taking some rest and sat at the edge of the peak. Now, that was the time where we completely lost. Our minds were blank, nothing to think nor speak about. We were beholding the aerial view of the scene and nothing has striked our minds to discuss about. That was the time where we thought no one was with us and were alone in the edge of the world.
Finally, we returned back to our home hearts filled with happiness and peace.
