After the last 1 day road trip to Hoganekal that happened in the month of July it was time to plan for a weekend getaway with the group again. This trip as any other of our group road trips had been planned very well in advance. In the initial stages, the trip was planned as weekend stay in a home stay called as Pachibale Homestay in Coorg., but in order to ensure we have as much time as possible during this outing, it was decided that we would start from Bangalore quite early, possibly by 3 pm to avoid the Friday rush on Mysore road, get to Gonikoppal. As the home stay is quite remote and in a region where mobile coverage is intermittent, rather than driving directly to home stay while it would get quite late in night and risking any issues, we had planned instead to book a hotel in Gonikoppal for overnight stay and early morning next day to head to the home stay. This way we would get maximum time at home stay to spend however we wished. Jayant had booked a hotel in Gonikoppal which is a relatively big town in Coorg area and quite close to Pachibale.
From here, Gonikoppal was less than an hours drive, and as the roads are quite good not much trouble to get to . Now on the way from Hunsur to Gonikoppal, we came across one place where the road had been barricaded to slow down vehicles. As we slowed down, a short guy standing besides one of the police barricade was waving us to stop our car. The guy was dressed in full sleeved shirt of a size a bit too large for him. Apprehensive about what it was about, we lowered the car window to let him speak. Interestingly he said he was there to collect toll. He mentioned that there had been several vehicles that had got "upset" on road ahead, and police had asked him to collect toll on their behalf and we had to pay him Rs 10. As ridiculous as the story sounded, we tried humoring him by asking if he had a permission letter from the police, to which he reduced the toll and said we could pay him Rs 5. He seemed a bit drunk and knowing very well where our money would go, we just decided to drive past him. But for originality, you definitely have to give him credit for trying.
Hotel Pranam International is where we had booked overnight stay. By the time we reached this place, it was already past 11 pm. Apart from the name, nothing else seemed to be international about the hotel. The rooms were descent enough and saying that itself is pushing it, and not anywhere close to being of international standards. So not sure why exactly the hotel is named as International. We had booked 6 rooms for 13 people and the total for the overnight stay came upto 5250 Rs. As it was only for overnight stay not much to complain about, but the hotel definitely needs to improve.
As the home stay is quite remote and not something we can easily drive to, we had agreed to first drive to the home stay owners actual house and then he would drive us on his jeep to his home stay. From Gonikoppal, it takes around 28kms to reach his house. The roads till his house are good, but the road we need to take from there to the actual home stay is pretty bad, and almost gives off=roading experience. So unless you have a SUV you can park your vehicle at the hosts parking area and then enjoy the off=roading experience on a jeep the host will drive.
The drive from the owners house to home stay, covers several small estates and forest areas. Infact just as we are about to reach the homestay, we even come across a small stream that the vehicle needs to drive through.
The next blog will be about the stay in Pachibale.
We had decided to take our own vehicles for this trip rather than booking a tempo. We were altogether 13 of us, and had finalized on 3 of our vehicles for this trip. On the day, 2 of the cars managed to get a head start and beat the crazy Friday traffic and managed to hit Nice road by 4 pm, while we unfortunately got stuck in a traffic jam in Hosur road and only managed to hit Nice road by around 5 pm.
For us to catch up with the rest of the group, the guys ahead decided to stop at Kadambam restaurant near Channapatna town for snacks. The food here is good, but there are several better choices on Mysore road. One specialty of this restaurant is its Iyenger food, specifically Kancheepuram Idly.
From Bangalore Gonikoppal is around 220 kms and takes about 4 and half hours of drive on regular day. The route we choose to get there was via mysore road and a diversion towards Rangantitu to avoid entering the city.
The guys from the hotel that we were staying overnight had mentioned to us that the restaurants in Gonikoppal would mostly be closed by the time we got there late night, so had advised us to have dinner on the way. So we had to plan to stop again for Dinner at someplace on the way. We stopped close to a junction just before entering Hunsur city. There was a Cafe County and Namma hali maane right besides each other here. Opposite to these two restaurants is another restaurant called Nakshatra, which seemed relatively new. As our group had both veg and non vegetarians, we decided to try out this restaurant. This restaurant, as its relatively new is currently not marked in google maps, i have instead embedded the map to reach Cafe County.The food here turned out to be average and nothing worth writing about, but the pricing of food items is quite descent and the overall bill for a group of 13 people came just about 1000 Rs which coming from Bangalore is really cheap.
From here, Gonikoppal was less than an hours drive, and as the roads are quite good not much trouble to get to . Now on the way from Hunsur to Gonikoppal, we came across one place where the road had been barricaded to slow down vehicles. As we slowed down, a short guy standing besides one of the police barricade was waving us to stop our car. The guy was dressed in full sleeved shirt of a size a bit too large for him. Apprehensive about what it was about, we lowered the car window to let him speak. Interestingly he said he was there to collect toll. He mentioned that there had been several vehicles that had got "upset" on road ahead, and police had asked him to collect toll on their behalf and we had to pay him Rs 10. As ridiculous as the story sounded, we tried humoring him by asking if he had a permission letter from the police, to which he reduced the toll and said we could pay him Rs 5. He seemed a bit drunk and knowing very well where our money would go, we just decided to drive past him. But for originality, you definitely have to give him credit for trying.
Hotel Pranam International is where we had booked overnight stay. By the time we reached this place, it was already past 11 pm. Apart from the name, nothing else seemed to be international about the hotel. The rooms were descent enough and saying that itself is pushing it, and not anywhere close to being of international standards. So not sure why exactly the hotel is named as International. We had booked 6 rooms for 13 people and the total for the overnight stay came upto 5250 Rs. As it was only for overnight stay not much to complain about, but the hotel definitely needs to improve.
We began quite early (by 7 am) from the hotel the next day. We were told that for breakfast most of the bigger restaurants would only open post 8-8:30 am so we choose one of the smaller restaurants at Ponnampet junction. We tried most of the local cuisines they had to offer in this small restaurant and it turned out to be quite delicious. For a mere 550 Rs we managed to have a good descent breakfast for a group of 13 people.
As the home stay is quite remote and not something we can easily drive to, we had agreed to first drive to the home stay owners actual house and then he would drive us on his jeep to his home stay. From Gonikoppal, it takes around 28kms to reach his house. The roads till his house are good, but the road we need to take from there to the actual home stay is pretty bad, and almost gives off=roading experience. So unless you have a SUV you can park your vehicle at the hosts parking area and then enjoy the off=roading experience on a jeep the host will drive.
I have embedded the map to reach the house of the Pachibale homestay owner. Although it would also be helpful if you can call him up before you leave from Gonikoppal so he can have someone waiting at the main road just so that its easier for you to reach his place. If you are having problem with the map i have attached, for landmark, you can ask for Beeruga school to localities. Once you reach this school you would also see a small bus stand and a temple besides it. At this point you would need to take a right turn from the main road to a smaller inroad to reach his home.
Mr. Chimma our host, is a very pleasant and friendly guy. His house is situated at a beautiful place overlooking several fields and provides a scenic panoramic view of those fields.
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| View from Mr. Chimma's House |
As we had already called him before leaving from the hotel, he was ready with his jeep at his home by the time we reached there, so all we had to do was park our vehicles and load our luggage onto his jeep. The jeep had an attached trailer, meant to carry the luggage, but to make it more interesting and fun the luggage was loaded onto the jeep, and our group choose to stand\sit in the trailer.
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| Our group with Mr. Chimma at his home, getting ready to drive to his Homestay |
We did take Abhisheks XUV along with the Mr. Chimma's jeep. From our hosts house, the home stay is approximately around 7-8 km and takes almost 20-30 minutes to get to.
The next blog will be about the stay in Pachibale.
