Tags
bangalore to sakleshpur drive, Highway tales, highway travels, kadamane, sakleshpur, shettyhalli church, sinna dorai, travel tales
I (actually we, since pretty much all of us at home are the same, but since I am writing the blog I will stick to I) am sucker for places which are away from the main hustle bustle, the main tourist attractions. You will rarely see me vacationing in Ooty and even if I do we usually find places like Bellikal around ooty and not the main city. So last when we were looking for a spot to take a long weekend, we almost zeroed in on Valparai and on a little more research found this gorgeous looking bungalow called Sinna Dorai and then when we called them they were full and suggested us to look at their other bungalow in Kadamane and when we saw what we looked, we quiet liked it. So Sinna Dorai, Kadamane happened to us by chance and what a gorgeous looking chance. Would you complain if you were to reach a destination which is based in the middle of these tea estates?
and you have to drive through these roads to reach the place, most definitely a good chance, what do u say people?
Now that I have your attention with these gorgeous pictures, I am wondering if I should let the photos do the talking in this post and make it a picture post or should I put some words here and there too. While I decide on that, let me show you the gorgeous porch chilling area of the place you drive into. The one view you get the minute you enter the gate of the sinna dorai
Kadamane falls under Sakleshpur district (read about Mugilu in Sakleshpur here, the post also has driving directions to Sakleshpur) , Once you reach the Sakleshpur town, you need to drive till Munzerabad Club – circa 1894 and past it till about 2.7 km ahead, At this point, the highway has a fork to the right with signs for the Sinna Dorai Bungalow. From here on follow the signs from and the gorgeous roads with twists and turns to reach the bungalow. We had clocked at 268km from kormangala to Sinna Dorai when we reached
Sinna Dorai is a beautiful old world plantation bungalow, clean filled with a little antiques here and there with very warm and courteous staff. The bungalow has three parts the lower cottage which is a suite kind of cottage, the partners wing and the twin cottage which have two rooms and the rooms in the house. We took the rooms in the house as we needed about 4 rooms together, when we reached we realised that the three rooms are in a row with the whole corridor and veranadah to ourselves which became our evening chat and drink adda.
The first day we reached there, we did nothing much apart from chilling and the kids running around the open free place. Ojas and his friends went mad running around
It was continuously drizzling and raining when we went there (which was in August if you are wondering) and it was such a pleasure taking long, walks on the winding roads of the tea estate, look the gorgeous woman plucking tender tea leaves and trying to have a conversation with them
The next day we did a visit to the Kadamane tea factory, the factory was closed that for operations but the guys gave us a quick handsdown on what happens when it’s operational and god we all got scared shit on the amount of pesticides and all we are having in our tea on a regular basis, sigh the dangerous lives we live.
The other place we visited many times while we were there was the view point, which was about 15-20 kms drive from where we were staying and the views there were breathtaking. Though it’s not a long drive but the difference in the height and view of the two places was considerable, you go to the view of a lovely valley and in summer the folks also arrange a picnic lunch there which we couldn’t because sitting there was just out of the question as due to rains the place was infested with leeches, after one of the trek we did we found around 10 of them in the child’s shoe but the brave child that he is, he didn’t flinch.
The other reason the view point excited us was the drive. We drove one of the 4X4 fortuner we had all the way up to the hill and what a delightful drive it was, we took turns and had to go up so all of us enthu cutlets could experience it. See that up on the hill. What pleasure man this beast is
The next day some of us decided to go on a trek, a nice and proper trek and yes I was among those. Frankly I was very apprehensive before I started, Am I fit enough? Would I be able to do it? Should I just skip and let the others atleast enjoy but I decided against it, I decided I will give it a shot and I am glad I did because I surprised myself, I did finish the trek. I lasted and it was such a pleasure doing it. All of us in raincoats, climbing up a hill when it was pouring, atleast for a part of the trek the rain was pretty intense and the rest of the trek it was drizzling on and off but it did never stop on the whole trek. It was one of the most enjoyable treks in the recent past for me. Another person that surprised us on the trek was O, he completed the whole half a day trek by himself. Not once did he say, I am tried. Not once did he say that enough. He was so enjoying it and infact he was always ahead of us with the guide leading us all.
But a trek isn’t complete without a story to tell is it? So here is ours, while we were coming back suddenly our guide suddenly halted in his path, looked here and then there. Ran up the hill, came down and in this all we were standing there wondering WTH was going on and then after about 10 minutes, one of us dared to ask him and looking scared he told us he smells wild elephant herd around but can’t see them. He asked them can’t you smell elephants and all of us reluctantly went “yes we can smell something different but not sure they are elephants” 😉 Man it was so funny but jokes apart I understand how dangerous a herd of wild elephants can be and were glad that we reached back to the rooms safely bitten by a couple of leeches yes but nothing major that happened
The tent we had pitched outside our room for the kids to have fun in, Hitchy this is a decathalon tent 😉
The other thing I loved about the place was the food, I swear I drank glasses full of rasam at every meal. Finger licking, home style yummy food. I also loved their dining area with surprises full from a previous area, gratuity box, water filter, boiler etc
One more reason to fall in love with Sinna Dorai was the fact that there was no cell phone signal there, yes I did miss out on some birthday wishes but boy because of that we all really relaxed. All we did for three days was absorb nature and enjoy. Look out from the balcony to the view of tea gardens and a trees and flowers, take walks and chat. A most relaxing vacation in a long long time
I most certainly recommend this to anyone who wants to take a short break around bangalore. Leaving you with a view of the place from our verandah
Oh I almost forgot mentioning about the lovely submerged shettyhalli church that some of us stopped by one the way back. The church is about 25 kms drive from the main bangalore-mangalore highway and during various seasons you get a totally different view of the church, when we went only the top was visible but what a lovely sight.
