Bheemeswari

We have been hearing about Bheemeswari fishing camp on the bank of Cauveri for some time. Mostly it was about the staying there in a tent overnight. We were slightly skeptic about staying in a tent.

We tried to get a booking a year back when my friend Prashant was in Banaglore but didn't manage to get a cottage.

This was a long weekend and I have been longing to hit the road with my SX4. we checked out http://www.junglelodges.com/V2/Bheemeshwari.htm and found that they also have a day visit option. This looked like a good option , because we can checkout the cottages ourselves and go for night stay later.

We set out on the journey on a Friday morning. We took the NICE Road and reached Kanakapura. Then from Kanakpura -- Sathnur Junction -- Muttati -- Bheemeshwari (120 Kms)

The roads are good throughout and the drive was nice. The last few miles were really beautiful.. we took winding ghat road along Cauvery river.

We reached Bheemmeswari around 9:30, took the ticket. The package include day Lunch, Tea/Coffee, Coracle Ride and Guided Trekking

We set out on the treck with a guide at 10 AM. The aim was to reach on top of a hillock.

we walked around 2 Km to reach on the top where there was a watch tower. we were tired by now and took water and refreshments that we carried. We climbed on top of the watch tower and enjoyed the breeze for a while..

The view of Cuavery river from the zenith was amazing.

We started our journey back, this time we took a different route along the river. we sat on the polished rounded stones on the bank of the river for a while.

Reached back on the base and took a cup of tea and went around to check out the place. Th place was well maintained and had lot of trees.

We took rest in the swing for a while and walked toward the restaurant which was at the far end of the resort.

There are 2 types of stay. Test and Cotttage. The tent rest on a elevated base which has steel frame and covered toilet. This frame is covered with a plastic tent.. not as bad as we imagined. (Check out the tent in the background)

The Log Hut was good with Wooden walls and had enough privacy.

My wife enjoyed the Jhoolas that can be found everywhere in the resort.

After the lunch we took a nap and got ready for the Coracle ride. We had taken Coracle ride several times before and was wondering why we wear the safety jackets ...

We wore the Orange Safety jackets and started Coracle ride..

Eeverything was fine for a while, slowly the river started becoming violent . The coracle started rocking and heart beat almost stopped..

The coracle

Alleppy Backwaters

Spending a vacation in Alleppy backwaters has been a very long

dream of ours. Well, to be exact since our honey moon. The

Honeymoon plan was to stay at Munnar and then spend a few days

at Alleppy, which was washed out because of flood in Alleppy!

We had been longing to visit Kerala backwaters since then. This holiday season, at last we set out our journey to Alleppy.

We reached Alleppy on 2nd Oct by train. We had booked a suite in Palm grove lake resort in Alleppy in advance. The resort was around 4 km from Alleppy town on the banks of Pun

namada lake. The resort is situated amidst the natural greeneries and the view of the lake from our cottage was amazing.

The resort had a few Hammocks where we were relaxing during the day..

Next to the resort, we found a place were House boat was being built. We went there and saw how the House boat(Kettu vallam )

was being manufactured.

Next day around 11 AM we started to our House boat boarding point, which is a place called Kainakkary. The place was around 15 Km from Alleppy. Most of the boats start from Alleppy town itself, unfortunately our boat was starting from this remote place. Kainakkary is a village in Kuttanad, better known as the “ Rice Bowl of Kerala ” is famous for its paddy fields. On the way we could see large collection of paddy fields stretching out to eternity .. Now we were feeling happy about boardng the boat from this tiny green village.