Where the east meets the west

Where the east meets the west....... That's where we travelled to during our Diwali vacation. It was the point where the Western and the Eastern Ghats connected each other, the B R Hills shortened for the Biligiranga Hills in the Chamrajanagar district of Karnataka. It is a wonderfully green belt, densely forested and mountainous land. The resort we visited this time, was situated around this green belt, very close to the BRT Tiger Reserve, home to 36 tigers. No, spotting the big cat was not something we were looking at this time, for around this time of the year when it rains quite heavily here, one hardly gets to sight wildlife. We were told by the naturalist at the resort that every single water body being full to its brim, the animals do not need to come out of the deep jungles. Well, I wondered how deep the jungles were there! We ourselves were in the middle of such heavily forested lands. All along our way we passed by lush green paddy fields that looked like a plush green carpet spread on the ground; it made me feel as if my feet would sink into its softness. On the background were hills and mountains. Can you imagine the beauty? We tried clicking as many photographs as we could but we're not completely satisfied with the effect. Everything looked so picture perfect, straight out of a painting on a canvas. Later, as we entered the tiger reserve, we were in for some real good visual treats. The long winding road up the hills with towering mountains looming up from nowhere looked so impressive. Every bend had these, posing as the great walls with thick forests, forests with almost every shade of green I can think of! I never knew that green had so many shades. The image of a box of 32 oil pastels and paints in tubes conjured up in front of me but even they fell short of the shades that green nature's paint box had. Brooks gurgled away merrily. We were deeply engrossed in the beauty of the surroundings. The shrill whistle of the crickets broke our trance for a while.

mysterious mountains...

 And then came the pretty little resort set amidst tall Silver Oak trees. One look at it and we felt we were transported to Heidi's land. The pretty cottages were duplex, with the cutest of lofts I've ever seen. The loft in our cottage had two beds and a triangular window, pretty much like the one in Heidi's grandfather's house on the Alps. As we climbed up, we remembered how every night Heidi would go off to sleep watching the moon and the stars and listening to the howling of the winds from her window on the loft! Doesn't this sound magical? It surely does! And that's exactly how my boy slept that night....:-)... The 36 Km drive through untamed forests, watching some wildlife,birds, the flitting of the king sized butterflies and listening to the chirping of the birds in their different languages was a treat to our senses. While the shrill whistles of the crickets could be intimidating at times and is always quite jarring to the ears, the tweets of the birds was like music to us. How melodiously they chirped and chattered! What a contrast to the noise of the traffic in the cities! We spent our time lazying on the hammocks, reading books over cups of tea and coffee, watching the most exotically coloured wagtails and kingfishers and listening to the birds and wind as it rustled through the branches of the trees. 

Here I would like to say a few things about our resort. The name Gorukana is from the local language of the tribals living in the region,called Solliga. The proceeds from the resort goes to a trust that helps these locals in their livelihood and education. This is run by an NGO and this fact made us feel good that our money would be put to good use and for a cause. We even met a few of the tribals who were employed there. With a place as beautiful as that and running for a noble cause, who would not feel happy and contented?

beautiful....lush greenery all around..... 

amidst nature........

Our cottage, Karadi or the bear in the local language

There it stands overlooking the tall Silver Oaks...

A species of the spider family,very common there....check out the female in the centre while the diminutive red coloured males surround her! It's a female's world here!

some of the shades of green

And look at this.....

Spot the Kingfisher.......

That's how the morning looked...

from the dining area....

the trek through the forest.....

The rooster,too, has a pretty home!

The little Solliga boy gives me a flower:-)....language posed no problem!

The friendly deer had strayed from the group and came right into the camp....

Hazy as we were scared to get out of the car and click them! A pair of wild boars who kept staring hard at us!

Hated to see them in chains........ This was at a forest camp about 18 kms from our resort.....

from the cottage....

The hammock was too inviting!

The tall Silver Oaks looked towering.

the loft

We made lots of precious memories, enjoyed our 'us' times together, bonded,laughed, chatted, filled our lungs with the fresh crisp mountain air and clicked a whole lot of photographs:-).....time to be engulfed in the mundane world until we go back to some place again....


Most of these photographs have been clicked by Mr. Choudhury except for a few that have been taken by me.