Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A whiff of coffee

Plantation Trails is all about “wake up and smell the coffee” kind of estate experience in planters’ bungalows

Drink in the view The rooms are colour co-ordinated

Of course, you would want to live the life of a coffee planter in Coorg. Looking over the manicured lawns, the poinsettia and bougainvillea, watching the rain fall amidst the mango and coconut groves, taking the summer dust off the coffee plants, cur ling up later in a large four-poster teak bed on a monsoon afternoon in the hills.

Living it up in style. That is what Tata Plantation Trails is all about. Offering not just coffee from Coorg, Tata Coffee has added heritage bungalows to the equation. Tucked away in their own coffee estates in Polibetta (south Coorg), these former homes of estate managers have been spruced up by the wives of estate managers. It’s a world in itself where dining tables are huge six-seaters, and lunch an elaborate affair.

The hangover of the Raj is everywhere starting with the quaint names of the estates and bungalows – ‘Woshully’ Estate is, I realise after reading the Kannada script on a board, an Anglicised version of ‘Hosahalli.’ I also see on our itinerary a “tea with the ladies team”!

The Tanneerhulla estate has one of the oldest bungalows in the offering. Over 100 years old, this two-storey heritage building is an old colonial outpost with red oxide flooring on the ground level with large wooden stairs leading to the first level with wood-panelled floors. King-size would be an understatement while talking of the heritage rooms and bathrooms on this floor. Each of these rooms has been done up in complete colour coordination. Large sit outs and corridors are peppered with teak furniture, gigantic rosewood tables, portly standing mirrors, fireplaces in every room, elaborate dried flower arrangements and potted plants. The dining hall opens out to a sunny view of the garden through French windows.

Outside in the garden the trees are laden with papaya, chikoo and mango. I enjoy the simple pleasure of picking up the newly fallen mangoes as the clouds gather overhead menacingly.

Subash Patel, general manager of Plantation Trails, tells us how Tata Coffee has similar plans to open up holiday homes on their coffee estates in Hassan and Chickmagalur too.

“We would like to give guests the whole coffee experience. In tourism today everyone just keeps talking in clichés about ‘unwind’ and ‘de-stress’,” he says, before leading us on a tour of the other estates. Regaling us with stories about Coorgis, their customs, and describing the state in which the heritage bungalows were, how the restoration was brought about, Subash Patel can also recommend interesting books for you to read to get a feel of the history of the region.

On the winding road from one estate to another we hear the clackety-clack of hailstones on the car’s roof and see the large chunks of ice rain down all around.

Woshully bungalow, I would say, has the best possible view to offer of the rolling plantations and hills beyond. It is a truly exhilarating experience to watch the pouring heaving rain and gurgling instant muddy rivers amidst the plantation of coffee, silver oaks, with winding pepper greens, sitting on its pillared verandah. Another lovely estate home at Yemmigoondi has been leased out to TCS.

Lunch is a wholesome spread of vegetables, salad, and very homey food topped off with a cool dessert – tender coconut water jelly!

The cooks and staff at Plantation Trails are extremely helpful and forthcoming, whether it’s whisking up something in the kitchen or offering their help and tips. The estate mangers’ wives have got together ever since they refurbished and did the interiors of the bungalows and are now active in deciding the menu, the maintenance of the bungalows and also meet up with guests.

Over tea, Anisha Ganapathi and Gayatri Somaya also give us a glimpse into the lives of planters, apart from taking us through the restoration process of the bungalows.

One of the drivers warns us not to walk down a tempting trail in the plantation at night, because it’s also a favourite route with the elephants. The next morning when we take a jeep tour of the plantation we see traces of a pachyderm visit, apparently in search for sweet jackfruit.

A quick morning ride also ensures a lucky view of a patch of white coffee blossoms (that look and smell surprisingly like jasmine). “You are lucky…this patch of the plantation has been watered much later than the rest, so the flowers are now in bloom,” offers Plantation Trails manager Richie Ponnanna, who then takes us on a whirlwind tour of a pepper-drying yard. The group has also tied up with the Coorg Adventure Club for nature walks and bird-watching tours.

Plans are also on to open their Glenlorna tea estate (yes a tea estate in coffee country!) with white water rafting on the property.

And of course for golf-lovers, there is the Tata Coffee Golf Course where you can tee off your vacation.

Their bed and breakfast fares range (depending on the type of room) from Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 4,500 per room for two people (plus taxes) with each meal per person costs another Rs. 250.

For details call manager Richie Ponnanna on 99458-53271 or 08274-251482. E-mail: plantationtrails@tata coffee.com.

BHUMIKA K.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail