Window of opportunities needs to be squeezed as much as possible. This Agumbe & River Tern Lodge trip was just that. We had plans to visit Kodai with friends but KA required mandatory Covid test from other states. Covid cases were rising, second wave was at the door and there was an itch to travel.
We took the chance, with full precautions, and it has all ended well.
Plan - Bangalore - Kolavara Heritage homestay (Agumbe) - Beach - Homestay - River tern Lodge - Bangalore
Why Agumbe?
Because we wanted to have that breakfast at SriSatyanaraya hotel, the one where we had it ~4 yrs ago.
Day 1
Bangalore to Kolavara road trip route was chosen to go via Hiriyur. It was a slightly longer but same time option which was not taken by many. Breakfast was at Hiriyur at Swamy hotel. They serve good food on banana leaves, decent taste. Place could be more cleaner but food was good.
We stopped at the Bhadra dam but there was no view point was not a good one. From there, we drove straight to Kolavara. Kolavara is an amazing homestay. Difficult to believe that it is an homestay, it is practically a resort. Had its own swimming pool and lot of nature around.
I made sure that I went into the pool everyday. Day 1 was spent just relaxing at the homestay. We played board games, went for evening walks and had good dinner.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AFNWG3APjh6e3Zhw8
Day 2
We woke up early to visit a beach near Udupi. One of the interesting ones online was this Kodi Bengare beach. There is a narrow piece of land with Beach/Sea on the left side and river backwater on its right. It is a 3 km drive with a beach at the end of it. We went to this one but it was very poorly maintained. People were shitting right in front of us, garbage being dumped in front of us
We skipped it and went to Malpe instead. It was much cleaner with better crowds. The ocean water relaxed and for a moment it felt like that nature is healing us. It was back to sea after a very long time for us. We took a dip for an hr or so and then drove back to SriSatyaNarayana hotel. Our breakfast was heavy and delightful. After this place, even our driver remarked that the choice of food places of ours was very good. We packed a whole bunch of foods from there.
Once back to homestay, it was again pool time and chilling out.
Day 3
Our car had a flat tyre and we started slightly delayed due to this. On the way to river tern lodge, we decided to stop at the Elephant camp and a nursery. Elephant camp was very sad, all elephants were chained. We decided to leave after 2 mins. At nursery, we shopped for Orchids, red chillis, and a guava plant :)
River Tern lodge is awesome. It is a must visit place. At 5.5 hrs from BLR, it should not be missed at all. As part of the package, you get two Safaris - Jeep and boat one. We skipped the Jeep one and decided to spent the day in our room/balcony just looking at the river water. We read some books as well. It is here I finished the Arkady Martine's second one - A desolation called peace in the Texicalaan series.
You have to walk 500mts to get to food. In the evening, we asked the valet if they can send the snacks to our room. They said yes and it was even better. Dinner time we walked to the common dining hall . Food was buffer with lot many options with okay-ish taste
Day 4
We had opted for the morning Boat Safari. When we left our room, it was twilight. Morning boat safari was awesome. River Tern lodge is named after a bird called River tern who come in that area during this time. We had sights of hundreds of birds and it was very relaxing. During the boat safari, we also saw a baby tiger from a distance. There were deers nearby and there was a lot of excitement in our boat that the tiger will attack those deers. At some point deers crossed next to the tiger but it did not lead to any action.
After the boat safari, we came back to our room. Relaxed at the balcony for some more time before heading home. We took the same Hiriyur route back. Stopped at some Rajasthani Dhaba but food was not that great.
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