I recently took a trip to Coorg in the South of India with a bunch of friends. It falls in the Siddapur region. Its about a 6 hour drive from B’lore and surely is one hell of a plantation rich region. There are coffee, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, chilly, and bamboo clusters in majority.
One of the good decisions we took was to lodge at one of the best available destinations there – Orange County. It is a plantation cum resort spanning over 3 acres of land. Cottages are set up within the plantation and we needed buggies to transport ourselves using a resort map. There were a couple of tracks too – jogging, cycling, running, etc. which ran across the entire plantation.
We took a couple of trips to the plantation to explore the terrain and the different trees and shrubs along with wildlife. There was the much needed coffee lounge as well where they served the coffee which grew in the plantation in the offset of a small library which stocked short stories – mostly fiction. They served the much adored – Indian Peaberry too 
. Our days were packed with wholesome adventure as we cycled into the woods, saw coracle boating, met with some 5 species of ducks, 10 species of birds, and tasted raw pepper seeds (green in colour). We also saw a good variety of flora and fauna in their green house – from the most hideous looking to the most enticing set of flowers, all planted in systematic grids. An interesting plant that grew for bio-fuel reminded me of our school days at the beach. By cutting open the stem and blowing air into the gummy fluid, one could make air bubbles out of the tree! Another interesting one we discovered on our plantation trek was the ‘Water Maker Mati’. The female specie of this tree has a thick, corrugated, almost checkered bark. There is a bulge in the lower bark where there is a water reserve of about 18 litres! The tribals come and extract this water in the summers for drinking. It is the purest form of water available anywhere.
Outside the plantation, we visited the Naldroming monastery which I was told is the largest in India. I have a good number of pictures of the interior of the monastery. We also went to the popular Abbey Falls from where the streams eventually meet Cauvery. The most fun outing was the visit to the Elephant camp. There is a government run camp which houses around 15 elephants to ensure they survive in a natural habitat. There is a huge open forest lined with a large pond on one side. There are small tree houses in the open jungle which can be climbed to get a view of far-away elephants. There was also an option of bathing the elephants. Whereas our group decided not to enter the muck along the pond, we did enjoy the caretakers have a hard time convincing the elephants to secede from the greens. The youngest of the lot was a two year old elephant calf called Parshuram. Guess why he was called so? Well, he was the most ill-tempered of the lot, talk about the new generation being wild!
Within the plantation other than trekking and cycling there were separate shacks converted into indoor gaming centers. There was everything for the non-nature lover too – Chess, TT, Ludo, Carrom. It had all that a resort could offer – pools, gymnasium, jacuzzi, ayurvedic massage centres, exotic food (3 restaurants within the plantation) and excellent service. Please don’t mistake this for a promotional email for the resort but can’t help, it was good
