There’s a first time for everything!

A bike trip to Coffee Valley, Hosamane

Well, yes. After many unsuccessful attempts to go on a bike ride, I finally did it. Of course, I still can’t ride one, but I found the second best thing : riding pillion. And I must congratulate my back and the other more sensitive parts (ahem) for lasting it out the more than 500 kms we covered to Sakleshpur and back.

Coffee Valley turned out to be a nice chilled out place tucked in a coffee plantation in a small town called Hosamane. “Leave the blackberry behind, experience pure magical beauty of this coffee country and the famed hospitality of the Hosamane family” it promised. And it was a promise they took seriously we were to realize, when we staggered out after the weekend, a few kilos heavier! The hosts are lovely people and make sure you don’t leave till you feel like stuffed potatoes.

Sit back, relax and drink coffee!
Coffee Valley is a place you can choose to do pretty much nothing at all. Just enjoy the weather, the chirping of birds and snakes darting in and out occasionally in your path. Have large breakfasts, large lunches and large dinners (the very thought of all the food I consumed makes me feel guilty about the diet that I’m not on!). And sleep is another good pass time. And of course, drinking copious amounts of… you guessed it… coffee!

Ooh! Aah! Ouch!
And oh! I fell twice. Once, taking down a rather heavy-framed S with me (and his 80+ kgs falling on my tiny frame, ouch!) when trying to negotiate a slippery slope. An important lesson was learnt there (try staying at the front when climbing down! 🙂

But falling is an essential part of my routine. I even fall and trip on the road, when there’s absolutely nothing in my path.

On the way back from the trip, over dinner at Mayura hotel, I was laughing over something and grabbed A’s sleeve enthusiastically. The result: I swerved on the rather unstable plastic chair, which wobbled violently and then went down. Along with me I generously took along the 6-foot long A.

So there we were sprawled on the floor, with S watching us very amused (with no signs of even trying to help us up on our feet). We laughed buckets at our own embarrassment. Everyone else it seems wasn’t amused. They all looked at us with the curiosity reserved for little bugs and unimportant creatures and then went back to their more important task of filling their stomachs.

The power of a nylon rope
The other interesting development was that A’s bike failed somewhere after dinner. We stopped at a small town and found an even smaller mechanic shop. The mechanic smiled when he saw the Bullet. I’ve never handled anything that big, he told A and literally ran in the opposite direction! So we were back on the road with A going in fits and starts, the bike making strange burpy noises and emitting loud bursts, threatening to scare all the wildlife (thankfully we had left them far behind in Sakleshpur).

We did manage to cross the Neelamangala junction. Around 10 kms to Bangalore, A’s bike finally called it a day (or night). On the fateful evening, we realized that we should never again underestimate the power of a nylon rope.

The rope had served us well by helping us fix the backpack to the bike for the journey. It was the same rope that was used to tow A’s broken down bike with S’s still functioning bike! 2 Bullets coughing along at 20 kms per hour across North Bangalore in the middle of the night, tied together with a nylon rope. You can well imagine the sight. But stranger things have been known to happen I guess.

Like I said, there’s a first time for everything!

Getting There: Coffee Valley is around 25 kms from Sakleshpur. Take NH 48. After Sakleshpur (250 kilometres) you need to take a right on the road after 2 kms. After 18 kms, at Hanbal, you need to take another left. Go down the road for 5 kms and you get Coffee Valley on the right. Look out for the sign!

You can find more details on www.coffeevalley.net
Ph: 080-26565638
Mobile: +91-9242614856

The Hosamane Ride album