I view the Western Ghats from Honey Valley Estate in the Kodagu Hills

Honey Valley Estate
Kodagu Hills, Karnataka
India

I view the Western Ghats from Honey Valley Estate in the Kodagu Hills

From the ridge above Honey Valley Estate near Kakkade I could see all up and down the Western Ghats. I could also look eastward into the interior, where the hills stopped and the farmland started rolling again. Where I couldn't see was west into Kerala, to the coastal plains and the Arabian Sea. In that direction, close enough that I could touch it after a half-hour's walk, was a bank of low clouds kissing the western-most ridge of the Ghats and covering Kerala.

It has been generally rainy during my stay here. The rain does not usually last this late in the year - November. Each day at this guesthouse the clouds have broken up a little around 10am, but by 1pm the rain has started again, sometimes hard, often stopping completely. Of course, it is nothing like the monsoon season, for which this area is famous: in July they got five meters of rain ( 5000 millimeters, 198 inches, 16.5 feet). They are not sure why the rain has lasted so late this year, but as I saw in the Himalayas, the weather has been unusual in other places this year. Jack, the Canadian-Swiss-now-Indian man at the guesthouse, points out that Europe has had crazy weather this year.

Looking over the landscape before me from the ridge, I am reminded of Pennsylvania, or maybe Virginia and the Shenandoah Mountains. The hills are ridges, much less level than those in Pennsylvania and more reminiscent of the Blue Ridge in Virginia. The valleys are level and rolling and covered with open fields; the ridges are covered in trees. Everything is very green, unsurprisingly.

I can now see for myself the lay of the land that before I interpreted from flat maps and GoogleEarth terrain. To the south, and close enough to walk, is Mount Tadiyendamol (or Tadiannamol). It is 1745 meters (5776 feet), so standing on the ridge my altitude is something less than that. To the east the Deccan plateau has some altitude: Bangalore is at 920 meters (3045 feet), and the towns near here are higher - Madikeri to the northeast is at 1525 meters (5047 feet). This may explain why it's so much cloudier to the west where the land drops quickly to the coastal plains of Kerala.

To the south somewhere is Nagarhole National Park. This park has tigers, leopards, elephants, guar, muntjac (barking deer), wild dogs, bonnet macaques, and common langur [from Lonely Planet]. I have decided not to go there, partly because it is so wet, and partly because it sounds like the state makes wildlife tours of the park complex and limited in time.

I am now doing the bisection across the Western Ghats that I pondered earlier when surveying South India. I've crossed from the Deccan Plateau of Bangalore, Mysore, and Hampi into the higher Western Ghats here at Madikeri, the Tibetan settlements of Namdroling and Sera, and Honey Valley Estate near Kakkabe. Today I will take a bus to Virajpet, then down into Kerala to the coastal town of Kannur (Cannanore).

Suresh and Susheela Chengappa started their estate 24 years ago to get away from the grind of city life. They are originally from the Coorg (or Koorg or Kodagu) region. They started with beekeeping. After an epidemic damaged asian bees in 1994 they started a guesthouse. They have also grown tropical flours and coffee on their estate. The place has very simple accommodations such as the one I am staying in to the very large and comfortable, all covered by red brick tile roofs. The compound is set in the hills of the Western Ghats just before the border and descent into Kerala.

There are some other unique traits about this place. The organic Indian food here is delicious; the electricity is generated by on-site hydro power; the water is heated by traditional means of burning wood in bin built into the building, which heats a copper vessel from which water is drawn inside.

Altogether it is a very relaxing place, fit for staying at the estate and reading or talking to other guests, or going for walks up to the ridge or through the woods and listening for wildlife.

I view the Western Ghats from Honey Valley Estate in the Kodagu Hills