Like I mentioned before we had a team from Chennai who had come for the August 8th weekend. They were Hari, Vinod, Kesavan, Chandra, Mahesh, Robin and Yogi. These folks were having a slow period at work and were making the most of it by traveling on the weekends to different places. This week it was Coorg and Bethel homestay.

They landed in Mysore on the morning of August 8th, a Friday. They were received by Arun. Arun took them through the Nagarhole forest. This was the week when there was tropical depression over the Indian peninsula, it was raining everywhere…but particularly heavily in Coorg. This is quite normal, a no rain day during the rainy season in Coorg means at least 1 inch of rainfall, a depression means havoc. By the time they reached Bethel, our folks got a good taste of what rain in Coorg means. On the way to the homestay, they decided to visit the Iruppu falls and then reach Bethel in time for Lunch.

Meanwhile in Bethel we were having problems, the other team folks of Ravi sir and his friends wanted to stay over for one more day, but we were full for the weekend between the two Hari’s and could not accommodate them, with great reluctance we managed to send them of, it was not a pleasant experience for us, but we needed to do it because all the cottages had been booked in advance and we have to give priority to them!

Our folks landed in time for Lunch and had after that we decided that we will go for a the trek at 3 PM. While some of the folks had done trekking before, for many this was the first time, but inspite of the rain, they all joined in for the trek. Generally trekking in Coorg happens in winter and the dryer months of the year..the big reason for this is Leeches…there are lot of them in the forests of Coorg, these are generally harmless but to many their sight can be pretty unsettling, fortunately for us our trek path has few leeches, but all the folks who joined the trek got leech bites, but they were pretty sporty about it.

The next day they all went for Rafting with Arun, some of the folks were hydrophobes.. but they managed to muster their courage and generally had a great time. They went to Wayanad in the evening, they were not happy with the Wayanad trip. We generally time the Wayanad trip so that they pass through the forest at Dusk, this is the best time for animal sightings, how ever we kind of mistimed it, the Thirunelli temple was closed by the time they reached there.. and so they could not go down to the waterfall or sit and relax there and by the time they reached the forest it was a little too dark..they did manage to see a big herd of Bison though..

They left the next day to Mysore after breakfast as they wanted to spend some time there before they headed back to Chennai..

Unfortunately this time, our service was not as perfect as we would have liked it. At Bethel we focus on basics, clean..no.. Very clean washrooms, clean linen and surroundings and good food. We take particular care to ensure that these things are taken care of, however when Hari and folks came in they had issues with the washrooms, this surprised us because we had never seen these before.. it took us a while to realize what was happening.. the heavy rains in Coorg had saturated the underground water table we now had a Spring coming up from under two of our tents!!! The spring was affecting the draining of the water from the wash rooms, we had to ask the the folks to use the washrooms in other cottages..which were unused. It was a really an embarrassing experience for us ..and this also means some major plumbing work for us to ensure that this does not repeat again..

They gave us a reviews at HolidayIQ, check it out here

Here they are, from Left to Right – Bala, Robin (Both in the back), Hari, Vinod, Mahesh, Yogi and Chandra

Hari and folks