After about 6 months of sitting at home, barely stepping outside, the traveller inside me wanted to break free. With almost everything else open, no more restrictions, and no end to this pandemic, I realized that there is no point in waiting. Travel can be done under some restrictions, mostly self imposed -
- Destination should be reachable by car. Flights are still too risky. This also meant that the in-between stops can be avoided if we carry over own food. However, we did stop for food.
- Place of stay should be following some guidelines for Covid restrictions. It should enforce wearing mask for all of its guest. Typically, recent reviews or the homestay/hotel's website will mention something to this effect.
- Destination should be in Karnataka - This is an artificial one as the rules of inter-state travel keep on changing. This one is just to be on the safe side.
- We should be prepared to wear mask and carry all precautionary items such as sanitizers, change mask daily or every other day, sprays etc.
With the above guidelines, we (Kanishka and myself) have done two multi-day trips and one day trip with family. This is an account for all of them
Kabini
Place of Stay - Red Earth
Sept 12-13, 2020. One night stay
Kabini remained one of the places which was still in the bucket list. We had touched the waters on our way to Wayanad during our honeymoon trip. Since then, it was in the wishlist. Red Earth's website had mentioned that they were following safety procedures. And so it was locked.
Day 1
We booked a room which had private Jacuzzi. Our trip to Red Earth had the customary stop at Kamat on Mysore road. One could see people, majority of them, without mask - both at the restaurant and on the way. Weather stayed very good for both days - no rain, no Sun, just pleasant weather - the one that is perfect to travel.
We tried to use Jacuzzi when we reached but the moment we got in, it started to drizzle and the moment we came out, in 5 mins, it stopped. Indra god wanted us to not try our luck. Red Earth had taken bunch of precautions but (1) it was running full - all 21 cottages full and (2) their food was actually a buffet. During meal times, it became difficult but in all other times, we were in sufficient distance with others.
We took the Coracle ride in evening. That was the best part of trip. I had assumed that given the resort was full, there would be a queue for coracle but it was not the case. People were just content in doing nothing :) After our ride, couple of more groups got interested. Water was calm, weather good - a perfect combination. I played Richter's On the nature of daylight in background and it was perfect!
Post this, we walked outside and spent the dusk hours just sitting in our balcony. Chilling out !
Day 2
Day 2 started with us going to Safari. We reached an hour early, me unable to read basic time information. After driving for an hr, we hopped on to Safari. Safaris were also running full. Safaris are the most boring thing ever - you sit inside a bus and hope to see a tiger. What a lame thing. The bus drivers just coordinate with one another to check if any group has spotted one so that they can take all groups there. Our group dis spot one, hiding under shade of trees. Barely visible. Folks in our bus got their massive DSLRs out and spent another 45 mins just trying to click something. I slept all this time.
Post Safari, we had breakfast and packed our bags for departure.
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Sakleshpur
Place of Stay - Hema Koota Homestay
24 Oct - 28 Oct: 3nights
I had taken a week long break from office. I was trying to find a place to go and just relax. Do nothing was the mantra. Preferably without network :) . I was scouting for locations near Western Ghats and remembered Western Ghats. Saw a video in which a car goes up on a green hill which has views of hills 360 degrees. Got sold and booked the best homestay that I could find. What followed was a treat!
Day 1
We had a delayed start from BLR, wanted to have proper sleep before driving. Our breakfast stop was at Halli Mane (opp. Swathi restaurant). Great variety of local cuisine. Fully crowded though :(. We reached Hema Kooty at about lunch time. Had awesome pulao and raita for lunch. After driving for ~6 hrs, I was tired and retired to sleep. In the evening, Eshanye, our host took to a local hillock for a sunset. While the Sunset was behind clouds, it became a great introduction to Sakleshpur.
Sakleshpur can be best described as the closest thing that I have seen to South New Zealand in India. It has mountains upon mountains, mostly covered with bright green grass which is natural. It is mostly non-commercialized yet. You can see amazing view points all around you. Mostly empty with roads, main roads at-least, in good condition. It is a trekker's place. Unfortunately, due to Kanishka's knee injury, we toned down our walking, yet our nature enjoyment was awesome!
Day 2
We started our day by visiting to Mookanamane waterfalls. The paved road becomes dirt road about a km before the parking lot down there. Kanishka warned me that we would not be able to come up but I had confidence on my i10 car. We could not see the actual waterfall as it required a lot of walking but we did see the river that was going to fall. Our main adventure happened on the way up when the car refused to climb a normal slope. The soil was loose with the rain and somewhere it was not letting us climb. We could see black tyre marks and a burning smell. After 5 mins of trying, we gave up. I walked up and asked for a tow truck. Thankfully, the tow truck came after 10 mins and we were rescued. Good start for the day!
Our next stop was Kaghinare pond/fort. After travelling on a dirt road again, the way looked risky and we abandoned the idea given the morning experience. We ended up at the Kaghinare view point which was a delight. Alone, total peace, great scenery and good weather. We spent 45 mins just soaking it all in.
After great breakfast, homemade Malanad cuisine, (Hema Kooty homestay was awesome!), and sleeping in the morning, we played board games, read books. Post lunch, we had hired a jeep to take us on top of Hosahalli Betta. The ride to the top is similar to a ride deemed highly adveturous in an amusement park. With virtually no road, big holes on the dirt road, it is a miracle and skill of our driver that we made it on top. At the top, it was beautiful, amazingly beautiful. 360 degree view of hills all around, a sun about to set and awesome weather.
There were about 60 people on top when we reached there. Sunset at this point is very famous. Sunset did not disappoint.
Night was spent in playing board games! 
Day 3
Our plan was to see Sunrise at Patla betta on day 3. We were anyways on a high after the sunset of Day 2. It felt that it can not be matched but we were so wrong. We left the homestay at 5:40 am and reached the top at 6:25 am, again using the Bolero Pickup. This time, the dirt road was not that bad. The view from top at that time was all covered in mist. It was dawn but Sun was not visible yet. We thought this is going to be yet another time where everything would be covered in mist. But Sun rose after few mins and it was a sunrise to remember. 
Once the Sun rose, it cleared away the mist. We saw the entire range around us - all green. Being early in the morning, there was no one else there. We spent close to two hrs at this place. Going from one end to another, you look at any direction and it is just a photo to be captured.
After Patla Betta, I decided to travel while standing at the trunk of Jeep. A preview of the dirt road is shared here -
After Patla betta, we visited the Bisle Ghat view point. While it was beautiful, it could not match the Patla betta sunrise. We saw and quickly came back. We briefly stopped at Ride point. The beauty of Ridge point is that any rain towards its left goes to Arabian Sea and rain on its right goes to Bay of Bengal. Amazing, isn't it?
After sightseeing, we decided to spend the remainder of day at the homestay. Our homestay was very homely and we thoroughly enjoyed the food and the hospitality. In the evening, we did a brief walk to paddy fields nearby and sat around bonfire at the night.
Day 4
Day 4 had an interesting start. Kanishka woke me up at 330 am saying that few stars were visible. Past two nights, it was either cloudy or raining at night. We decided to drive to a dark spot to improve our night vision visibility. We drove about 5 kms away, parked our car and waited our eyes to adjust to the dark. After about 10 mins or so, unfortunately, clouds came back and made the starts invisible. We drove back :)
Other good part of the trip was that there was no phone connectivity at Hema Kooty. No Airtel/Vodafone, only Jio/BSNL. No TV in rooms either. This allowed us to truly unwind and focus on books.
I finished the very awesome book Bride of the forest by Madahavi Mahadevan. Slept a lot and just relaxed. Also drank pomegranate wine :)
