MALNAD SURPRISES

One of the most beautiful region I have encountered ever. Everyone loves cool weather, lush greenary , tall trees , beautiful houses, rivers , lakes and waterfalls. It has all these elements. But some things are distinct "Malnad" . And I fall in love with these.  Hardly 300 kms from Banglore and even closer from Manglore. This is atop of the western ghats. Indeed a dream forest.

We ( Raginee & me ) left Banglore in the night aroun 11.00 a.m. * Even if you go by common bus of KSRTC it is any time better than other state's local transport. ( no offence! ) But I found there service pretty decent and clean. Approximately 4.30 we were climbing up. Weather was very nice.
Only thing was that the sleep was halted whenever a new stop came. We saw quiet alleys of Chikmanglur. It was very neat and arranged kind of city. Maybe a part of city we saw . But that was superb.
After leaving it we started climbing up (  means the bus) and trees on both sides increased. So do the accompanying fog.  The road was small and both sides were covered by high trees. A pleasant surprise indeed in the peak month of Indian summer. Nowhere we were feeling scorching heat. But greeted by the cool breeze.

 Misty Mountain ways through coffee  & Tea plantations. 

Water droplets  through bus window. 

                     Beautiful Coffee Plantations en route. 

                                                                      Tea Plantation

                         Sringeri Mutt from Tung River 


More than two hours we were traveling through forested region of the Sahyadri and still Sringeri was ahead. and when we came there it was not like any other crowded religious place. But a small village surrounding the beautiful ancient temple. 

The bridge over the river Tung was nice one to cross over the other side.

The stone used to this temple is like Hampi boulder. Just a guess! Altogether an interesting temple and needs to look carefully to appreciate it's beauty. This temple complex has other temples as well. They are new compare to this one.

While going for the Te Estate  we saw this foggy view  close to the bus depo. And for a moment I thought we will not be able to see the sun for the rest of the day. Fortunately it got cleared around 10 a.m.  We reached till Balhonnur. And changed our plan and came back 15 kms to see the Tea Estate.

 Malnad region