Madikeri and the Rainforest Retreat

From Goa we hopped on the Konkan express until we got to Mangalore. We arrived around midnight, found a hotel, and got up at 5am to catch a bus to Madikeri – the central hub of the Kodagu region, our next stop. We had been warned that the route from Mangalore to Madikeri was bumpy, but wow, were we ever in for a treat.

The road was littered with potholes you could drown in. Teg and I were airborne for most of the trip as the driver would accelerate over bumps and ruts in the road, sometimes resulting in one of us ending up on the others lap. At each “stop” – a term I use sparingly as the bus usually just slowed down enough for people to hop on and off – the bus got more and more packed. By the time we arrived at our destination there were people standing in the aisles and children on their parents’ laps; with no A/C it was nice that it was only a three hour trip.

Anyways, we spent a relatively uneventful day/night in Madikeri, which was just enough time for us to book a couple nights at a plantation south of town.

The Rainforest Retreat is a plantation owned by a botanist and a microbiologist. They run an NGO that promotes environmental awareness, organic farming, and sustainable living; all supported by the proceeds from guest stays and plantation tours. They cooked all our meals, and basically gave us free reign to explore their plantation and the area surrounding their property. Everything served was made exclusively from what they’d grown, including the coffee and tea, which were aplenty. Each of the cabins ran on solar power and they processed their own biogas to run the stoves which cooked our food. It was truly a model of sustainable living.

On the second day, we trekked to the “sacred grove” of the area. People in the Kodagu region, centuries ago, mandated select areas of land as sacred to remain untouched 364 days of the year. Each of these regions were dedicated to a certain deity, and were only allowed to be accessed by the villagers one day of the year. To break that was said to bring bad luck and drought upon the villages in the area. Now, it’s obviously not as restricted, but still quite isolated.

It was about a 10 kilometre trek from our cabin, over hills, through rice paddies, and across cow pastures to reach this grove. In the heart of the “sacred grove” lies a temple dedicated to Shiva, the principle deity of this area.

Until now we didn’t have the highest opinion of India with regards to respecting their natural environment. The Mumbai beaches were unintentional landfills, and even Goa had it’s fair share of litter, so finding this place was very refreshing.

The Rainforest Retreat was a great experience overall. The other guests were very social and there was lots of time to sit around and chat. The workers and proprietors of the plantation were very eager to share their knowledge of the area, and sit around for a few (many) drinks.

Teg- The bus ride to Madikeri was insane! There were times when i felt like if i let go I’d be sailing out the open back door! Luckily, the incredible views along the way drone out the bumpiness! Mike tried to read during this time and he got through 1 page hahaha!

Once finally in Madikeri, after almost 4 hours to go less than 100km (crazy), it was soo nice to be in a peaceful town where we could walk freely without being haggled from sellers of all kinds and rick-shaw drivers. We wandered till we found this amazing cheap hotel on the top of one of the highest hills in town; the view was worth way more than the 10 bucks we spent.

The view from our room…

The next day we caught a rick-shaw out to the rain forest retreat (another bumpy ride) where we would then spend a couple days lying around on hammocks reading in between awesome treks around the plantation and a few different hill tops. Everyone there was extremely friendly, and it was amazing to hear such good english spoken by a couple from Delhi and another from Barcelona. The food was great and it was cool to learn a few tips here and there on how to eat properly in India. Eating a fish full of bones is quite an art I hope to one day master!lol

  

(rainforestours.com)

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